Hhigh History
My son’s friends at school would often talk to him about how much they loved his hair and ask him who took care of it. He’d tell them “oh my mom does my hair”. One day, he came home and asked me if I’d be willing to do his friend Corry’s hair when I was available. I was a bit reluctant because I was going through a really difficult time, but I agreed to do it.
Corry had never had his hair done professionally before. He’d been growing his hair for about a year but wasn’t noticing it gaining any length. His hair was thick and had never been blow-dried.
He arrived with it washed and conditioned, and he had serious shrinkage. I moisturized, detangled, and blow-dried Corry’s hair, and then gave him two-strand twists. When Corry looked in the mirror he couldn’t believe his eyes – nor could he wipe the smile off of his face. It made the hours of my afternoon spent on his hair oh so worth it.
His mom called me later to tell me how pleased he was and what the fresh hairdo had done for his confidence, and how she can’t get him out of the mirror! And it reminded me of what it felt like to be a kid bursting with excitement and satisfaction over a pretty new hairdo. So I decided to offer hair braiding as a service to kids in my town.
Parents of children of all ages began coming to my house to have their children’s hair braided. And after my son’s other friends saw Corry’s hair, they wanted their hair done too! So just about every weekend I was braiding a few heads of hair while giving braiding and haircare tutorials to the parents. I learned about many of the difficulties that parents were facing for a number of reasons.
Many Caucasian parents of mixed-race children were unfamiliar with the texture and didn’t know how to detangle or manage it. Single fathers who weren’t accustomed to being the primary caretaker for their daughters didn’t know what to do with their hair – how to detangle, wash or style it. Non-black adoptive parents of black children wanted to make sure they were giving their children’s hair the love and care that it needed, but didn’t have the guidance or resources.
So while I was thinking I was just going to give busy parents a break from having to style their kid’s hair for a week, many of them were actually more interested in learning how best to care for it themselves. They were asking questions, taking notes, and began requesting that I create a formal training program. And thus, Hhigh Society was born.
