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CustosEcheveria t1_j69zdu3 wrote

Do...white hairdressers not use the exact same products?

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13-Penguins t1_j6bx0f4 wrote

No, products for textured hair are different.

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Jhawk163 t1_j6cru60 wrote

Ok but like, any race hairdresser can do the hair of any race customer.

I get that obviously there are parts of cities that have different ethnic makeups in different ratios, but surely a more accurate title would be "hairdressers working on Black or Hispanic hair" would be more accurate, due to the chemical used being unaffected by the person applying it, and moreso by the person it is being applied to.

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DapperKoala t1_j6cwpjm wrote

Not necessarily. I have curly hair, not the same texture that someone who is black or hispanic, and I find that a lot of salons don't even have the right products (or stylists for that matter) for my white people curly hair.

While knowledge of proper treatment for curly hair has gotten better over the last decade, a lot of salons cut and treat hair as if it were straight hair. I have had HUGE issues with salons in the past with no one there knowing how to even deal with curly hair correctly.

If I were black or hispanic I would 100% go to a salon that specialized in that texture hair over a place that didn't.

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Lady-Seashell-Bikini t1_j6dcktt wrote

That's not necessarily true. Many hair colleges don't really go over Black hair, so Black women are more likely to go to Black hair salons, where the hairdressers are well acquainted with their hair texture.

Many White and Asian hairdressers will not necessarily know how to style their hair texture without them already having straightened hair first.

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13-Penguins t1_j6d7ri6 wrote

In theory yeah, but in practice, most stylists work with clientele that has a similar hair texture, and thus same race. Even when I lived in a mostly white neighborhood, I still had to look for a black hair stylist, which meant traveling to a different town. Just think of it as, would you take advice for hair care from someone who has completely different hair than yours, will never use those products on themself, only worked on hair like yours a couple times in school, and hasn’t worked on hair curlier than beach waves since? If another black girl went to a white hairstlyist and vouched for them, then that’s a different story. It’s the same with makeup artists, tattoo artists, and dermatologists for me, you want to go to someone who you know has experience working on skin like yours.

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BackyardByTheP00L t1_j6iidr8 wrote

It's the formaldehyde that's in the straightener, and it's released as a gas while being applied to the hair. Formaldehyde is carcinogenic. Also in some of the keratin conditioners sold over the counter I've heard, but never fact checked.

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denada24 t1_j6eyuyp wrote

Not necessarily. Permanent solution/perms are the same chemicals as relaxers, dye, bleach, glue for extensions, tracks, weaves, hairspray, shampoo, heat protectors etc. There are different products for every type of these, but it’s two wings on the same duck.

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Ickydumdum t1_j6bpnlq wrote

No, white people are exempt from chemicals like the ones discussed.

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istandabove t1_j6ea2s4 wrote

I’m Hispanic a lot of Hispanics buy some shady products because “it’s cheaper”

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Lady-Seashell-Bikini t1_j6a4ceq wrote

I'm not sure about Latine hairdressers, but Black hairdressers are exposed to more dangerous chemicals and at a more frequent rate.

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userid8252 t1_j6a9f8r wrote

Why do they use different products?

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CustosEcheveria t1_j6aa54g wrote

Generally speaking black people's hair has different care needs so they use different products, but there should still be natural/gentler alternatives with less chemicals available.

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BallumBallum t1_j6ag3f5 wrote

It kind of doesn't work like this. Because science isn't some kind of magical thing that can just solve anything, but also because many people don't care that much about their own safety.

For exemple there is a whitening active banned in european cosmetics because it is known for being very bad, but because it works well there is a full black market of it

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somedave t1_j6co9sp wrote

"with less chemicals" is not a meaningful statement.

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Quetzalcoatle19 t1_j6ah33x wrote

The entire concept of black hair/dreads is that they’re natural and healthy.

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CustosEcheveria t1_j6ah7ge wrote

All hair is "natural" - we're talking about hair care products.

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MuddyAuras t1_j6b7sud wrote

Natural hair is a term used in the hair care world. It refers to hair that it not chemically treated, thus being in it's "natural state" if you ever accompany a women to a salon you might see it posted on the wall, salons typically charge more $ for natural hair.

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CustosEcheveria t1_j6a4g8e wrote

Sounds like they should use different products then

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JRadiantHeart t1_j6bfn8c wrote

Why do you think people used lye to straighten black hair? Because it worked.

They don't have healthy processes/chemicals which achieve the same result.

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Lady-Seashell-Bikini t1_j6a4l6t wrote

Oh wow! Why have they not thought about that before?!

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abnormally-cliche t1_j6b8ur2 wrote

Idk, why haven’t they? Clearly there are products on the market that don’t have this problem.

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Lady-Seashell-Bikini t1_j6b9ull wrote

The African hair market is different from the European hair market. The products you're thinking of are different and have nothing to do with treatments that would be applied to African hair. Relaxers, for example.

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