Thursday, July 8, 2010

Sophisticate's Black Hair Styles and Hair Care Guide: A Step In The Right Direction...Or NOT!

I was at the store looking at some books for the children when I came across a magazine rack. I decided to browse through a copy of Sophisticate's Black Hair Styles and Hair Care Guide. I was pleasantly surprised to find several natural hair styles for women.







Just a few pictures. There were plenty more natural styles.



I quickly became disappointed once I reached the kids section.

"Kids' Coif Corner - Get The Looks: Trying to find some fresh, simple style ideas for your little princess? Try these creative and pretty looks on for size!"

They then show 3 styles, all of which required heat.



"Pretty Ponytail: Perfect for a school picture or a day at the park, this high ponytail is easy to create. Start by shampooing, then pat hair dry with a towel. Continue by blow-drying with a round brush to straighten hair. Your last step before styling is to flat iron the entire coif so you acheive the best sleek silhouette."




At this point I was shaking my head. I thought for sure the other issue of their magazine would have some natural styles for children. Wrong!

Under "Pretty Kiddies" they show two little girls with straightened hair. The younger girl had some curls added in though.



"Girly Ponytails: If she's outgrown the clasic ponytail style, opt to pull strands away from face and secure into a simple style like the ponytail twists shown here. "For easy maintenance, I like to leave the hair straight and just accent it with barrettes and little hairpieces." Howard notes. "We didn't want her to look too old."

A Closer Look: Since Howard waits until early teen years to relax a child's hair, the style pro opted for a press-n-curl on the Natural mane. "I went through with a pressing comb, then flat-ironed it straight down," she explains. "I parted the hair in a zig-zag then twisted it back three times, securing it with barrettes." Notch-cut layers into ends for extra movement."



"Sweet Silhouette: What little girl doesn't want to look like a princess? Recreate a fairytale mane on your little angel that's both pretty and wearable. "Because kids don't always want to wear their hair curly, we can flat-iron the hair very lightly to give them an everyday 5-year-old girl look," reveals Howard.

Switching Angles: Alternate between twisting lengths around the barrel of a medium flat iron and pressing out into an ultra-sleek texture, Howard recommends. "It's nice to create some straight and some curly pieces in the hair," she says. A dab of essential oils can be used throughout to help protect strands without weighing them down."



Now do you see why I have a problem? They had all these wonderful styles and instructions for natural women but when it came to our children all of the styles required heat. Lots of heat. Did you catch the part where she using a pressing comb and flat iron on one of the girls? I'm not anti-straight or anti-heat but I feel like they should have included some natural hair styles for the little ones, or maybe have an article on how to properly comb your childs hair. I feel like that is more needed than some more straight styles. How often do our children see little girls with straight hair on TV? At school? etc. It's no wonder so many of our children want straight hair!

I am going to email Sophisticate's Black Hair Styles and Hair Care Guide and I hope you will too. You can check out their website here, their Facebook here.

Email their staff: info@associatedpub.com

Hopefully by all of us expressing our concerns they will change a few things or include more natural styles for children. If they do, I will be the first to pick up the copy! Feel free to use any of these pictures of the magazine on your blog/website to help spread the word. Click to make them bigger and save.

I would also love to hear your thoughts.

31 comments :

  1. They have always had a Naturals section in their magazine!!!!

    I understand some mothers like you or myself might know how to acheive some of those styles without heat there may be some mothers who do not know and would follow the directions given which owuld apply a lot of heat that may not even be needed. Please let us know if they respond

    ReplyDelete
  2. WOW! Its sad that there weren't any natural styles in the mags for the children. Did they have boys in the mag too? I also didn't understand why some of the girls needed to have makeup on. I will have to write to them. Thanks for bringing some attention to this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have so many thing going through my head right now...so I'm not going to say everything at once. Did I read that right? Did they really say add synthetic hair to a child's head of hair. Wow!!!!. I know alot of people may say I don't understand because I have boys but this is ridiculous. I too have looked into those books for new styles for my boys but they barely have any...the boys have hair cuts or dreds, some have relaxed/blodried or pressed hair or way too many parts and designs that you can see pulling at the scalp because they are too tight...so I don't even bother because all that parting and tight braiding is a cause for disaster. How sad because those styles look way too mature for those little girls and they have the nerve to have them on make up....ok I will stop thesmall ranting for now.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love that they have a natural section for ladies...one for young girls would be a great addition!

    ReplyDelete
  5. thats a shame.. im glad you e mailed them! i hope they wake up an change a few things in the kids dept if not they wont be able to do those pretty styles when they get older they gonna have to work those short tryin to grow they hair back or get back natural styles!

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nikki u should start ur own magzine for kids hair and styles you blow these magazines out the water girl...

    ReplyDelete
  8. I couldn't get past the make-up. Sorry I'm old-fashioned - girls that young do not need make-up and certainly not that much of it. Seems the mentality extends beyond the hair issues as well.

    Shaking my head....

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is sad. You should have a couple pages in there. I completely agree with kameelah get your own magazine girl.

    ReplyDelete
  10. And yeah I will send them an e-mail with a link to your page.

    ReplyDelete
  11. So sad. I am disturbed that there is a market for this stuff when it is so harmful.

    ReplyDelete
  12. You should cheack out my blog, www.nubiantresses.blogspost.com. I have a few posts that address the issue of black women and girls "needing" to straighten their hair for maintenance and style. So ridiculous!

    ReplyDelete
  13. oh my gosh!!!! GA~! I actually had to stop reading the quotes I was getting so mad. :( I will totally email them. That's absurd. and after so many gorgeous styles on the women! AHHH!

    I second the Magazine written by Nikki!! You and I have slightly different styles (as well as different types of hair) ... maybe we should go in on the idea together! :D

    GEESH!

    ReplyDelete
  14. i am unfortunately not very shocked or surprised

    ReplyDelete
  15. These are the kind of images I saw as a child all the time. It's sad that times haven't changed that much...gotta love blogs like yours for inspiration to do the little one's hair =]

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oh, where to begin.

    The makeup is more than a bit much and I truly have a problem with that over-the-shoulder wet-lipped look. Where is that child's mother?

    And I agree, it would have been nice if they had included a feature on the proper way to care for a curly girl's hair.

    ReplyDelete
  17. It's horrible. They're sending the message that you need to straighten a child's hair to make the feel special or like a princess. We don't need another "black" magazine that starts moms and girls off with the idea that they need a ton of (damaging) heat to have the cute hair styles. Blow dry and on top of it flat ironing?? Wow...

    ReplyDelete
  18. You are soo right when you talk about this issue. I know a lot of people that want to justify putting heat to childrens hair and I think that is a no no. Children need to know they are beautiful not I am beautiful if my hair is straight. I know I heard my husband sister say with pride "when I straighten her hair it looks like a pack of yaki hair". I was disgusted.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Wow!! I can't say that I am completely surprised by this. They should have some of the styles that you have for your daughter's hair in the book for inspiration. I am sure that it will give women more options for their daughters hair. I plan to write and ask what's up with using all this heat on these kids head. You have to wander what type of mind frame these girls have when they are being shown the only way to be pretty is by having straight hair. That's not the truth!! They need to know that they are not their hair!!!

    I cut all mine off today just to show my daughter that cutting your hair doesn't change you as a person. We should not be defined by how our hair looks it's a part of us and not what makes us!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I was a bit more than upset about those styles. Why give a child the impression the only way to look cute is to have straight hair? Me no likey.

    Nikki I bet after they see your blog they will have you freelancing articles and styles for them!

    ReplyDelete
  21. This is ridiculous but I am not surprised! I look forward to hearing about their response. That is IF they respond!

    ReplyDelete
  22. I'm not surprised at the fake hair and heat styling. It's been ingrained into African Americans for so long that we "need" to straighten our hair to make it "acceptable"...Also, there is the belief that our hair "doesn't grow", so why not add fake hair and weave?? When will it end?? No wonder kids want that "straight hair." I agree with several of the above posters...you should start a magazine!! I would definitely buy it :)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Ah. Back when I was wearing a relaxer, I was a faithful buyer of this magazine. I have tons of these magazines boxes up right now in storage and I am always tempted to look through them when in the store, even though I am now natural and wearing a low cut. I know that little natural's section of the mag all too well. Its a little section right in the middle of the mag. And then there is that dreaded children's couple of pages. THIS magazine is where I first saw adds for that Luster's Texturizer crap. The advice the add that much heat to transform a child from who they really are is beyond ridiculous... what's even more ridiculous is the fact that stylists aren't even taught how to care for natural hair, so I guess its to be expected that they'd opt for applying the same measures on children that they apply on consenting adults. However, in this day and age, we have become more educated about haircare, about natural haircare, so its there is NO reason for "professionals" to be guiding parents to fry their children's hair, and its immoral that they would advertise this as the only acceptable form of beauty for little brown/natural girls.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I can't even rant about the lack of natural hairstlyes in that mag because the makeup and the "runway model seductive over the shoulder look" were too mature for little girls! Done deal: never supporting that mag with my d'oh.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I find it shocking, the number of people who tell me I 'need' to put a relaxer or texturizer in nine year old Rosie's hair. First one was a stylist to whom I brought her for a trim - Miss Rosie, at age 5, got a hold of some scissors and I know y'all know the rest of that story. :)

    She was five.years.old, and this woman was telling me to put chemicals on my baby's head. Needless to say, I never went back to that stylist.

    My firstborn, who is Sicilian-Italian-Irish-Russian-French-North African with a head of straight silky hair, is now 23 and I can assure you that no one has ever told me to put chemicals in her hair. So why is that the default setting for children of color?

    Unbelievable.

    ReplyDelete
  26. this is terrible - what hope do kids rocking their natural hair have of feeling confident if they have no one else around that looks like them

    ReplyDelete
  27. I actually did go and look at the magazine after I read this and I am so disappointed in them! I actually just emailed them and here is what I said....

    Hello,

    My name is Carolyn and as a mother of a multicultural little girl (Nigerian,her father, Italian and Portuguese, myself) I have chosen for her to be natural, she will remain natural as long as she lives under my roof. I feel that while there was so much good information about adult natural styles you guys dropped the ball when it came to the children, I understand that not every child will WANT to wear their hair curly all the time and I am not against heat or straightening unless a relaxer is used. But there could have been more information given, someone I know suggested even how to comb the hair correctly but please provide something towards natural styles for children too. There is enough straight hair in this world for them to look at and "admire", when in all actuality their hair is so beautiful the way it is! If anyone's hair is take care of correctly it will look great which is why it would be great for you guys to help promote and inform people. It takes us to change their views and curls are beautiful in every shade, size and texture!

    Thank you for your time
    Carolyn.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I'm not very surprised though smh...The styles are not very cute by the way. Not too long ago I actually looked to this mag (and others) for natural styling ideas for my daughter and couldn't find ANY then that's why i'm thankful for your site; Already I have seen an improvement in my lady bug's hair

    ReplyDelete
  29. I found natural hairstyles ideas difficult to find also, I would like my daughters to appreciate the natural beauty this includes their hair... I have a 13 year old and she asks me on a regular basis to add straight human hair to her head and it is so difficult to explain that she doesn't have to press her hair or add to it....

    ReplyDelete
  30. I stumbled upon your web page and I must say that I am so glad!!!The information is helpful and I thought I was good at braiding and doing cute hairstyles for little girls, but you are very very good!! I love all of the helpful tips and information.

    ReplyDelete
  31. wow i really found this to be interesting. thanks for sharing

    Cheers,
    hairstylesfree.com

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! Please do not use our blog to advertise or promote anything without our permission. Also, remember this is a children's blog so lets keep it friendly! Thank you.