Beauty In Myth

It's said that beauty lies within the eye of the beholder and while that is often true, sometimes beauty lies somewhere within the boundaries of myth.

Cheryl Morrow, author of the bookBeauty in Myth," is part of the family that invented the cold wave curl. Ms. Morrow believes the cold wave curl was the only innovative boon in black hair care. Cheryl's father, Dr. Willie L. Morrow, invented the cold wave curl and commercialized the actual afro pick. In fact, the afro comb is documented in the Metropolitan Museum on 80th Street and 5th Avenue in New York City as part of the oldest archeological artifact found in human civilization. It is thousands of years old" noted Cheryl.

For those that may not remember the cold wave curl, it was permanent waving. European Americans had the liquid. However, it was not conducive to black people in the early 1960s. My father was a barber, who is also an inventor and scientist that developed the cold wave cream and eventually the blow dry nozzle. Our company has a very scientific history" commented the hair care specialist.

"Most African Americans don't realize that the hair care products that sit on the counter shelves today are just commercial brands. Most of these products have never been tested for black hair. In dermatology, at least, black skin is taken into consideration because they recognize when cutting black skin it tends to keloid. Yet, when it comes to testing black hair, other than Dr. Morrow's research and text books on black hair, there is no national recognition that acknowledges black people's hair is different. Therefore, there needs to be a scientific study and curriculum on the care of our hair" explained Ms. Morrow. For example, the state test for a cosmetology license, is only practical not scientific. That is why black women suffer from such horrible and chronic conditions because there is no scholarly connection or scientific solution for black hair care. My father and I always say that relaxers should come with a warning label. The eventual reality of relaxing is hair loss" claims the Cosmetic Trichologist who specializes in texture enhancement and hair coaching.

There is devastating hair loss with extensions in braiding because you have other cultures coming and applying things to American culture. In Black American culture we relax our hair which is chemical. However mixing chemicals with extensions and braids is disastrous. Often when a cosmetologist sees a client severely balding, what can they do because the scientific information is not there? As fads changed, we moved from processing, Jherri curling, braiding, and back to relaxing without giving the hair an opportunity to adjust. We are now seeing hair loss. I am only one person and but I am here in New York trying to educate African Americans from a scientific perspective about our hair. My father's company California Curl has been in business for many years. He offers educational text books on the differences between black skin and black hair from white skin and hair. Most products are not designed for African Americans because the scientific white world and the chemistry white world do not recognize, nor are interested in acknowledging that Black hair is fundamentally different from white hair. You simply cannot use the same products" remarked Morrow who wrote an article calledAfrican Beauty Consciousness: The Art of Cosmetology" which discusses metaphysics, and spirituality and its relationship to genetics and the molecular structure of curly hair.

"When the medical world and scientific world say that hair is dead, they are not talking about black hair" claim Cheryl. If Europeans want to believe their hair as dead than fine, but African descending people's hair is alive. Even when Black hair is cut from its root it will move, straighten, and curl back up. Just place it in water and observe. Also, black people are always attempting to get their hair to lie down. Black hair is not designed to hang down it's designed to go up. Look at black people's hair, it coils. For instance, if we were to shave our hair down really low we would see the swirl. When one is not aligning oneself with life and/or aligning oneself with natural universal bio rhythms, one becomes anti-nature. Our hair is wavy. It's a spiral and for transmission you have to have a wave. It acts as a conductor" said Morrow via this thought provoking concept. Think about transmitting. To be able to transmit macro-information to micro-information for the cogent brain to process information it has to be broken down. This means it's funneled into a macro and then it spirals down into a micro particle so the brain can receive the information. When you meditate, your brain waves become larger and that is known as gamma. When the waves are very small it's called beta mode and the information does not compute. African descendant people are very cosmic and cosmetic people because we communicate, participate and relate to geometric shapes in our environment. When you see a very strong coil pattern in an African descendent person's hair, you know that person has the ability to connect with nature and spirituality. It's very fascinating when you know that you have the ability and knowledge to connect to higher sources. We have lost that knowledge but nevertheless its still there."

Cheryl Morrow's company CMAS: Hair Care, Inc., is located in Harlem. She works with women who are balding as well as with individuals who seek solutions to problem hair. She also counsels clients on how best to maintain and care for black hair in order to return it to a healthy state. As always, Cheryl continues to dispel the myths which heretofore have existed concerning black hair. Interested parties can contact Ms. Morrow via b or make an appointment via 212-828-5353.

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