Mental Health and Hair: The Waist Length Identity

No, it's not a hairpiece!  It's a big knot that I had to cut out.

Many people identify with waist length hair.  They may have Latina, European, Indian, etc. descent.  Extra long wavy hair is what their whole family usually identifies with.  So what happens when the hair goes from waist length to barely shoulder length?

This is where I keep a tissue box handy!!!!

Case#1:  When the one goose egg of a knot continues to grow larger and larger without fully detangling in time.  So yes, we had to cut a mound of waist length hair off because we could not  even untangle it with apple cider vinegar.

This hair got so matted and tangled that even the hair clipper would not cut through it.

Case #2:  Medication, relaxer, and sew-in weaves damages and breaks the hair over the years.  Going from waist length to shoulder length hair causes a mental/emotional breakdown requiring the client to consider braids and/or wigs which still may cause additional challenges to growing the hair back to waist-length.

I had both of this cases come to me within a two week period.  I never realized how attached to hair that women of all races and ages can be.  Literally, mental health and hair are definitely connected.  This should be a specialized field that should be taught in cultural diversity classes.  Some Black women should get an extra stipend to keep their hair "European-ized."

The demands of hair can be absolutely minimal when people learn how to work with what God gave them, but it takes patience.