On May 26th, the renowned, award-winning Atlanta hairstylist, affectionately known as Razor Chic of Atlanta (or Razor Chic), posted a jaw-dropping yet heart-wrenching video across social media, which featured a bold, young woman in her early 20’s who shared her hair loss horror story. In the video, the young lady elaborated on how she lost her hair due to years of consistently wearing sew-ins, quick weaves, braids and wigs without ever giving her hair a break in-between installations. As a stylist who is all too familiar with the hair loss stories as experienced by more than half of the new client’s coming into her salon, a fed-up Razor Chic took to Facebook and Instagram to address this issue head on. Since then, the video has gone viral reaching more than 5 million viewers across social media.
“African American girls and women, in particular, have become addicted to hair extensions as a source of making them look good and feel good,” says Jasmine Collins aka Razor Chic of Atlanta.
“Many of the women we encounter at my salon claim that their beauty influencers are largely weave-wearing women commonly seen on reality-TV shows, in beauty magazines and websites, music videos as well as YouTube. As a result, nearly half of our clients are distressed women who travel from across the globe, suffering from traction alopecia after years of wearing improperly installed weaves and lace front wigs coupled with neglect for the hair underneath those extensions. The situation is so bad that I believe it has reached epidemic proportions!” Sadly, this is a true reality for black women at even younger ages as previous generations. In the various high schools I speak at, I’ve noticed more and more of the female students rocking these weave styles on a daily basis. Proper maintenance, upkeep, and rest time is vital to keeping natural hair healthy. Yet, many of these women are lacking this information and professional knowledge.
- Lack of proper at-home maintenance and at-home maintenance counsel provided by the hairstylist to his/her clients
- Tightly braided hair under weaves
- Leaving extensions in over the 8-week mark
- Consistently wearing extensions without the recommended break of 6-8
weeks in-between installations
- Improper cleansing of the hair and scalp while wearing weaves, extensions and braids
- Improper drying
- Hair density to weak to handle the extra weight
- Improper use of glue methods
- General health of the hair before extensions
View the viral video below:
