Well...the last time there was awareness about the fro', thick nappy, full on major gigantic fro's was in the 70's! yes! those pictures of your mum's and dad's you've seen with sky-high fro's.
You see, when they tell you 'during my time' just allow it, because they were cool, they were cool before you knew the meaning of cool.
It seems...seems? actually it is evident, glaring you in the face that the new generation has caught the natural hair wave, the only difference is it won't die like it did in the 70's after being such a big hit, it's back and it's back to stay forever.
Relaxers haven't always been there, straight hair has hasn't always been there, as a matter of fact donning straight hair wasn't a choice, it came about as a necessity. 98% of our parents had thick and long hair back in the days but there was something that wouldn't let that hair be great.
What is that? you ask...well, it's none other than 'Head Lice' popularly known as 'Igwu' in Igbo land.
Head lice used to jump from head to head ( not exactly jump but lol crawl) laying eggs and causing havoc on the scalp and hair shaft, It would leave the scalp uncomfortably itchy. Initially hot combs used to kill them, but that in itself wasn't enough.
It was usually caught in public places such as schools and the likes where kids used to play and interact, there were incidents of being lice free in the morning only to come back in the afternoon and your hand is stuck in your hair scratching away. To be sure it was head lice, parents or the adults around would get a sheet of white paper, or a white towel and place it on the table top or the floor as the case may be and then the child would begin to rub/comb their hair from back to front continuously, that motion usually upset the lice and then you'd see it begin to fall off the scalp where it's been hiding.
The only remedy then was shaving the hair! lool 'Bia! bia kporo nwa ga barber osiso' (come take this child to the barber's) once any child heard this they knew what was up! baldy time! so the girls/boys with long/full hair had to say bye bye to their beautiful locs and embrace their skin cut (gorimakpa) because no hair could be left on the scalp. And then the scalp would be coated with kerosene to kill off the eggs before they had the chance of hatching.
Obviously kerosene wasn't the best option but hey! A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
With the invention of relaxers, it was a two in one thing, straightening purposes and ridding the scalp of lice. People were more interested in the head lice extinction part of the relaxer so they didn't give it a thought and jumped on that bandwagon!
Adults weren't free from this mind you!! I mean! you see a pretty lady or handsome young man with lice casually crawling down their hair down to their neck....Hello??? loool it was not cool! for the young men they could afford to shave off their hair and start over but what happens to the sisi's and shakara ladies that had already grown out their hair?, you wouldn't have expected them to walk around bald now would you? They opted for relaxers!
Head lice became extinct, and the beautiful fro's followed, soon it was seen as being unkept if you had a fro', it was no longer a thing of pride, it was no longer a fashion statement and it went into oblivion, for a long long time! before resurrecting with full force in the last 5 years. I remember then, when I would scratch my scalp violently my mum would ask 'bia! owu igwu?' (Is it lice?) lool it was always so funny! I never had lice anyway, at least most of us from this generation that lived in the city never did. To end this, ask your parents what's up? ;) they probably had head lice multiple times lol you never know, ask them to tell you the story behind getting relaxers, and it might just be similar to mine.
Hope you enjoyed this one guys! I have some stuff coming up for you so watch this space, Take care and God bless x
You see, when they tell you 'during my time' just allow it, because they were cool, they were cool before you knew the meaning of cool.
It seems...seems? actually it is evident, glaring you in the face that the new generation has caught the natural hair wave, the only difference is it won't die like it did in the 70's after being such a big hit, it's back and it's back to stay forever.
Relaxers haven't always been there, straight hair has hasn't always been there, as a matter of fact donning straight hair wasn't a choice, it came about as a necessity. 98% of our parents had thick and long hair back in the days but there was something that wouldn't let that hair be great.
What is that? you ask...well, it's none other than 'Head Lice' popularly known as 'Igwu' in Igbo land.
Head lice used to jump from head to head ( not exactly jump but lol crawl) laying eggs and causing havoc on the scalp and hair shaft, It would leave the scalp uncomfortably itchy. Initially hot combs used to kill them, but that in itself wasn't enough.
It was usually caught in public places such as schools and the likes where kids used to play and interact, there were incidents of being lice free in the morning only to come back in the afternoon and your hand is stuck in your hair scratching away. To be sure it was head lice, parents or the adults around would get a sheet of white paper, or a white towel and place it on the table top or the floor as the case may be and then the child would begin to rub/comb their hair from back to front continuously, that motion usually upset the lice and then you'd see it begin to fall off the scalp where it's been hiding.
The only remedy then was shaving the hair! lool 'Bia! bia kporo nwa ga barber osiso' (come take this child to the barber's) once any child heard this they knew what was up! baldy time! so the girls/boys with long/full hair had to say bye bye to their beautiful locs and embrace their skin cut (gorimakpa) because no hair could be left on the scalp. And then the scalp would be coated with kerosene to kill off the eggs before they had the chance of hatching.
Obviously kerosene wasn't the best option but hey! A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
With the invention of relaxers, it was a two in one thing, straightening purposes and ridding the scalp of lice. People were more interested in the head lice extinction part of the relaxer so they didn't give it a thought and jumped on that bandwagon!
Adults weren't free from this mind you!! I mean! you see a pretty lady or handsome young man with lice casually crawling down their hair down to their neck....Hello??? loool it was not cool! for the young men they could afford to shave off their hair and start over but what happens to the sisi's and shakara ladies that had already grown out their hair?, you wouldn't have expected them to walk around bald now would you? They opted for relaxers!
Head lice became extinct, and the beautiful fro's followed, soon it was seen as being unkept if you had a fro', it was no longer a thing of pride, it was no longer a fashion statement and it went into oblivion, for a long long time! before resurrecting with full force in the last 5 years. I remember then, when I would scratch my scalp violently my mum would ask 'bia! owu igwu?' (Is it lice?) lool it was always so funny! I never had lice anyway, at least most of us from this generation that lived in the city never did. To end this, ask your parents what's up? ;) they probably had head lice multiple times lol you never know, ask them to tell you the story behind getting relaxers, and it might just be similar to mine.
Hope you enjoyed this one guys! I have some stuff coming up for you so watch this space, Take care and God bless x
I have always wondered what the story was...nice one!!!...love your blog bdw..stumbled upon you on instagram and here I am..lol.i thought I had enough blogs to visit already but no...I just bookmarked one more.
ReplyDelete