Noushka Belizaire
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Kaleidoscopic Kurls is a for profit company which hosts community events at a minimal charge in order to enlighten the South Florida community about the effects of the consumption of chemical products on the human scalp such as hair relaxers and hair dyes. This company has definitely made strides in the community by helping a lot of women turn from chemical processes in order to better their overall health and the community as a whole. I myself am an employee at Kaleidoscopic Kurls and partner with many of the other local companies with the same goal in mind such as Mimi's Hair Salon, Shea Moisture, Alikay Naturals, and Thank God I'm Natural to name a few. The ultimate goal is to educate the community on good health and well being practices, facilitate programs which provide quality education to urban rural areas, educate women on the potential hazards of hair chemical processes, all while making sure that inequalities for all people are not to be tolerated and working to reverse the impacts on behaviors which continue to be perpetuated.
According to naturallycurly.com, By definition, a hair relaxer is a lotion or cream that makes the hair easier to straighten and manage. It reduces the curl by breaking down the hair strand and chemically altering the texture (Gonzalez, 2010). The definition could be a bit deceiving for it says a relaxer is a lotion, but this is no typical lotion because the main ingredient in a relaxer is sodium hydroxide. Sodium hydroxide has many adverse effects when it interacts with just about anything skin and the environment included. Starting with the body, according to epa.com, Sodium hydroxide is a very corrosive substance and is extremely irritant to skin contact, ingestion, eye contact and inhalation. It can cause severe burns and damage to any tissues of the body because there are two things that cause sodium hydroxide to damage the skin. Firstly, the reaction of sodium hydroxide with moisture generates heat and causes thermal burns. Secondly, the reaction of sodium hydroxide with organic molecules result in chemical burns (Joye, 2010).
Even more fascinating and devastating is the effect sodium hydroxide has on our environment, according to epa.gov, Sodium hydroxide exposed in the atmosphere could be very dangerous since it readily reacts with other chemicals since it is subject to wet deposition . It can readily react with water vapour in the air and produce aerosol or mist which are very corrosive. Concentrated aerosol compounds (silica, asbestos and etc) may result in a number of diseases such as silicosis and black lung when exposed to it since it can severely irritate upper respiratory tracts (Joye, 2010). “ I was completely blown away!” said Mireille. As I interviewed her I was actually blown away too. I had no idea a hair “lotion” could reek such havoc upon a consumers body and the environment.
The facilitation of events is nothing new, but Kaleidoscopic Kurls decided to purposely invent what they call Curls Calls. A Curl Call is an event thrown for women in the South Florida area in order to discuss the ramifications of chemicals being used for their beauty practices and how they affect personal health and the surrounding communities. At Curl Calls women get to deliberately put together organic products in order to care for their hair and the environment around them.
The inspiration for Curl Calls came from the Co-Founder of Kaleidoscopic Kurls, Mireille Ricot as she remembered the many days where she would chemically to relax her afro-textured hair. One day, when an illness fell upon her she was instructed by her doctor to hold off on applying such chemicals to her scalp which ultimately entered her bloodstream causing her to be ill. At first, she was almost offended that the doctor would even require her to stop chemically altering her hair. In fact, she had no idea what her hair even looked like without relaxer and had no desire to find out.
With the situation out of her hands she decided to get on the internet in order to find out what alternatives she had. Through her research she was able to see the ramifications of relaxer on her body as well as the environment and decided she would no longer use chemicals on her hair. Years later as her hair flourished solely with organic products she decided she would embark upon the South Florida community with all of the knowledge she acquired through hosting Curls Calls.
The overall impacts of Kaleidoscopic Kurls include:
Kaleidoscopic Kurls benefit in many ways including but not limited to:
When the CEO of Kaleidoscopic Kurls was told to stop relaxing her hair she was frightened for many reasons but mainly because she thought to herself that she would not be attractive in the eyes of society. Though she was almost forced to find an alternative method to look "presentable" (by her standards and what she thought were the world's standards) when her kinky, curly, coily hair began to sprout out like a beautiful plant she was able to appreciate an authentic beauty she had never known. As Mireille's business first came into fruition she had severe doubt that anybody in her surrounding area would have much interest in learning how to better care for themselves and the environment.
Today, she is happy that her doubts were untrue because she is able to encourage women to strengthen their self esteem by having no crutches for beauty especially ones that deteriorate individual health as well as the environment. The environment suffers by the outpouring of millions upon millions of gallons of chemicals poured out into our water on a yearly basis. The CEO as well as others who work for Kaleidoscopic Kurls have found the research and at Curl Calls attendees are able to get the facts about hazardous chemicals and the effects on the environment. Through continued dialogue attendees are able to make informed decisions about their choices. Vows are made and the importance of sustainability is stressed. Not only is there free flowing conversation but hands on activities are facilitated in order to show attendees that hair care does not have to cost our earth the way it has been for many years thus far.
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Mireille Ricot, Curl Calls Interview
