Back in the day, your grandma would’ve had a fit if she saw more than one person in your hair at once. In Black American tradition, your head wasn’t just something to style — it was something to protect. Yet somehow, the traditions Black women have avoided for years have become a normal occurrence in African hair braiding salons, and we’ve rolled over and allowed it to happen in the name of style and convenience.
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For generations, our hair was known as a sacred extension of us that should be respected, carrying energy and spirituality. This is why so many of our mothers would say, “Don’t let people at school play in yo’ head,” or flat-out warning us: “Don’t let [whoever] touch your hair.” And if you came home with your hair different from how it was styled when you left the house? Oh yea — get the belt. You were on punishment for the weekend, especially if there was no good reason for someone to be touching your crown.
Hair holds energy. And touching someone else’s hair — or someone else touching yours — has always been a violation. Letting multiple people in your hair at once was believed to bring confusion, bad luck, or mixed spiritual energy. That belief came from deep spiritual and ancestral traditions: multiple hands = multiple energies = spiritual chaos.
Even dating back to slavery, hair wasn’t just about grooming — it was about preserving identity, connection, and in some cases, even transmitting secret messages and resistance plans. Can you imagine if those folks let just anybody play in their hair? Immediately no.
Black women on TikTok have opened up the conversation, and according to them, the discussion is long overdue. While some argue that customers just want “the cheapest price for the fastest service,” many others admit that Black folks have ignored our golden rule for far too long. “You not lying cz my momma use to inspect my hair when I got out of school to make sure nobody touched it,” one user wrote in the comments section.
“I was always told this and never understood why until now. Ain’t no telling what spells being casted!” a second exclaimed. “They only putting bad energy on you.. they dont like us,” another quipped. “That was taught as a no-no growing up… and that when you cleaned your hair brushes and combs you burned that hair! I can still smell it now just thinking about it!!” a fourth added.
And that’s no lie. There was a time we would burn the hair from our brushes on the kitchen stove just to prevent someone from finding the hair and using it for spiritual manipulation. But today? Multiple hands are braiding our hair and they’re sweeping it up and taking it away. Whew, we’ve lost our way in this regard.
It’s time we start questioning how far we’ve drifted from the spiritual roots of our own practices. The rituals, the rules, the reverence weren’t superstition — they were safeguards, passed down from people who knew how vulnerable our crowns really were. Our hair deserves more than speed and style. It deserves intention, protection, and care.
Straight From 
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