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The Creation of Black Tresses
The summer of 2003 was one of the most stressful times in my life. I had finished working a full time, seasonal job and began preparing myself for my first college semester. I was enrolled in one of Purdue University’s toughest programs, Pharmacy. I’d also decided to join their minority program which launched a couple weeks before school started. After mustering up enough courage I asked my advisor if I could break from classes to attend a job orientation. Exhausted due to lack of sleep and the program’s workload, I was glad to have a temporary escape from my classes to go to the Boiler Grill’s training. Relieved to get a brief break from the daily madness, I sat quietly amongst my future coworkers. I remember my eyelids being extremely heavy and others asking me why my eyes were so red. Struggling to stay a wake at the table full of women there was one girl who stood out from the rest. Excited about being away from home for the first time, she just kept talking and was full of energy. I began to grow irritated and noted to myself to avoid her. “Hi my name is Calais!,” she exclaimed as various introductions went around the table. Her excitement kept me awake throughout the rest of our training. Whenever Calais and I were scheduled to work together we were cordial to one another. After working with her a couple times she seemed like someone I could relate to, however, I was still skeptical about the possibility of a relationship existing outside of work. Normally I would not engage any further contact with my coworkers outside of work. A horrible hair incident would force me to step out of my comfort zone and seek help. |
I had experimented with my natural hair unsuccessfully the entire summer. On this particular day I decided to press my head by myself for the first time in an attempt to straighten my hair. I had previously purchased a non-regulated, electric comb from Target. I washed my hair as usual and blowed dried it out. Excitement started to build as I unwrapped the comb and plugged it in the wall. Nervously I grabbed the hot comb and began to stroke my hair. It did not take long for me to say, “OH NO!” Stopping suddenly, I noticed the strip of hair I was holding was no longer attached to my head. I became very angry. To make matters worse most of my energy was drained from blow drying. Frustrated from these events, I had to think of something fast because I had school the next day. Unfortunately, I did not have a wig or hat to camouflage my mistake. It would not have mattered anyway because my hair was all over the place at that point. Suddenly I remembered the happy girl I occasionally worked with at the Boiler Grill who said she knew how to braid hair. One of my acquaintances and I devised a plan to find this young woman. We began on the 8th floor reading every name tag on the door and worked our way down to the first floor. I was hoping any familiar name would jog my memory as my desperation grew. As we made it to the first floor I was nearly ready to give up. “This is it,” I said to myself with a sigh, “If I cannot find her here I do not know what I am going to do.” My face lit up when I saw a name that I thought looked vaguely familiar on a big, brown door. Gathering up the courage, I knocked on the door hoping it would be my coworker. Calais’s roommate, Marie, opened the door and responded with a brief, "Can I help you?" I replied, "Yes, I am looking for a Callousus." I confused Marie due to how badly I mispronounced Calais’ name. Luckily Calais responded anyway and said, “I’ve never heard anyone pronounce my name as bad as you.” She still tells me to this day that I still currently hold the title for the worse pronunciation. We laughed it off as she was kind enough to do my hair at no charge. She made my day and I have been trying to make it up to her ever since. Who would have thought that a hair tragedy would bring about a long friendship? Over time our shared frustrations created a passion between us to learn more about our hair. Not only did we want to educate ourselves, but one of our goals was to help others gain knowledge as well. We started to intensify our research and ask questions that go unanswered a lot of the time. We found a new mission which was to find the best solution to obtaining healthy hair. This is how blacktresses.com was created. |
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Unfortunately I could not remember her name or what floor she had said she lived on. The only thing my brain was able to muster up was that her name started with a C.