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I recently read a thought provoking article on the girlwiththatafro blog that I think is important to share with the Natural Haircare News community.

The article Chemically Relaxing Hair is a Form of Socially Acceptable Child Abuse dives into the decades old practice of adding dangerous chemicals to our children’s hair to straighten it; knowing that the risk of scalp burns, or hair loss is an inevitable part of the process.

We all know of babies whose mothers are adding chemicals to their child’s hair at the earliest sign of a kink or curl. We’ve witnessed our kids crying and all the while proclaiming that “it burns” as we continue to add chemicals to the scalp; pleading with our babies that it is “just a few more minutes”. The underlying premise is that we are knowingly hurting our children and therefore it is a form of abuse…

The author gives examples of how it is illegal to allow kids of a certain age to use a tanning bed because of the clear health risks, so why aren’t chemical relaxers held to a similar standard? Should children of a certain age even be allowed to get their hair relaxed because of the known health hazards?

One of the more interesting articles that I’ve read on the topic of relaxing children’s hair.

You can read the article here. What do you think?

Author: Dianne

“Changing attitudes about natural hair” is what we do at Natural Haircare News. Through informative articles, podcasts and videos, we go beyond just sharing the latest advice and tips on kinky, curly, wavy haircare – We shake things up and focus on the realities of wearing our hair natural.