“I just felt like everybody has ‘good hair’ as long as it grows,” said Healthy Hair Solutions and Texture Talk Founder Tendai “The Hair Whisperer” Morris.
Just the thought of hearing someone saying “natural hair isn’t for everybody” made her cringe. So much so that she set out to prove the statement wrong – first through styling, then through product development and finally information sessions she called Texture Talks.
This weekend she will expand her Texture Talk series to a full-fledged expo on Saturday, December 10 hosted by College Ritter College Preparatory High School.
“I’ve learned that women of color all over the world are facing the same challenges when it comes to their hair,” Morris said. “Literally all over – from Zimbabwe to London to the U.S. – in every city and state and country, women are all going through the same thing as far as being in the dark when it comes to our hair. It’s like they have discovered a part of themselves that they never knew existed – a reintroduction to who they are.”
Her goal is to take women of color from frustration to freedom and empowerment when it comes to their hair.
“A lot of these women have never seen the texture of their own hair so they don’t know what it can do,” Morris said.
On Saturday she’ll have more than 20 vendors to choose from. She and Curly Dew creator Erica Gales will offer discussions and product demonstrations. There will also be plenty of entertainment over the course of the afternoon – including the crowning of the inaugural Miss Healthy Hair Solutions 2016.
“My goal is to give them the tools they need to go the long haul of this natural hair journey,” Morris said. “It’s about them embracing a huge part of who they are – and it makes me so happy.”
Morris comes from a long line of stylists and barbers – and while she has more than twenty five years of experience in the industry, she says she “ran from hair for so long” before finally embracing her familial professional legacy.
“I love to have a challenge, so I said, ‘If I’m going to do hair, I’m going to do it the way it was done before relaxers were invented,’” Morris said. “People would say, ‘Well, what are you going to do to my hair if you’re not going to relax it?’ I’d say, ‘Let me just show you.’”
From there it got to be exciting, but Morris admitted that at first she had doubts that she could tackle every texture that came through her chair. Many of her clients didn’t know it, but she kept a bucket of relaxer hidden in a cabinet just in case.
“I was like, ‘Okay, if somebody comes in here with a texture that I cannot handle, I will put this relaxer in their hair.’ It was like an emergency landing. I went a whole year and never pulled it out – and I never looked back.”
She experimented. She armed herself with knowledge and information. She realized just how easy it was to manage textured hair without the potentially hazardous crutch of chemicals – as long as individuals are armed with the proper information about what products and processes work best.
“As people with curly hair, we have been following the wrong regimen,” Morris said.
She found herself having these conversations over and over with clients and saw the need to offer what she learned on a grander scale, as opposed to telling her clients and hoping they would pass the information on to others.
Morris embarked on the Texture Talks while developing her first product, Whisper Whip hydrating lotion. She now has four full lines of products designed for varying types of natural hair. Her products are currently being sold in the U.S., Africa and the U.K.
“Each one of the lines speaks to a specific texture and can be combined to manage all types of natural hair,” Morris said.
A portion of the proceeds from Saturday’s Texture Talk Expo will be donated to Our Daughters Inc., a not-for-profit organization that works to develop young girls into powerful women. She said the organization falls in line with what she hopes to achieve this weekend and through her work.
“I hope they leave inspired and feel led to inspire others,” Morris said. “I just want them to learn to love being everything that they are born to be – naturally.”
Healthy Hair Solutions presents Texture Talk Expo on Saturday, December 10 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. at Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School, 701 N. Spring. For more information, e-mail texturetalkexpo@gmail.com. For more information on the Healthy Hair Solutions product line, visit www.healthyhair.solutions .
