Stephanie Hollifield is a mother of five who was desperate to learn how to take care of one of her daughter’s hair. Even though she tried every product she was told will help comb and style Haley’s hair, nothing really helped, so the mother decided to write a Facebook post asking for help from black mothers who were more experienced in styling African-American hair which is pretty unique in appearance and structure.
When she posted the plea, she had no clue she will receive so many comments and messages offering a bunch of different and cool advice and techniques.
These days, when the issue of racism is widely spread across our country and people tend to accuse each other of hatred, Stephanie could be easily judged for her post, but instead she was praised for what she did.
The family adopted lovely Haley when she was just an 8-month-old baby, but now that she is 2, her mom understood how difficult it was to cope with her daughter’s hair which can be quite tangly.
“Dear Black Friends of Social Media, This clueless white momma is humbly coming to you to ask your help with Haley’s hair. I have asked my friends. I have asked strangers in Publix with kids with cute hair, and I’m still not getting it. We wash once a week. We do the water, leave in conditioner, oil, and hot towel every morning. We’ve tried more products, no products, less products. We are gentle as can be, but she still requires at least 6 minutes of cuddles after the trauma of her daily hair combing. I feel like it looks great for about an hour or two and then it is tangly and clumpy again. This picture is 3 hours into the day.”
Stephanie did her best, and yet, Haley’s hair didn’t look nice. She would wash, comb, and style the hair and only a couple of hours later it would look disheveled. This mom really didn’t know what she was doing wrong.
Among all those moms who offered suggestions, tips, and tricks, there was one special person who decided to take a step further and suggested that they meet so that she could show Stephanie how to style Haley’s hair in person.
“This lady, Monica Hunter, who I had never met in person before today, offered to come to my house and walk me through exactly how to style my daughter’s hair. She gave us her time, advice, headbands, combs and hair product. She asked for nothing in return and wouldn’t accept my money. By the time she left I had a little more confidence in fixing my daughter’s hair, and most importantly I felt supported by my new friend.”
Monica is a mother of three daughters with same hair as little Haley. When she showed up at Stephanie’s place she even brought a huge basket of hair supplies and recommended that the mom put some oil in Haley’s hair, part it, create some cute little ponytails, and then finish the style off with a pretty headband. And as you may assume, the final result was amazing.
The two mothers clicked in an instant and agreed to meet again so that their daughters could hang out and become friends.
As for Stephanie, she first found it strange that her post vent viral and was amazed how much attention it gathered but then she figured out that it was like that “because this is so uncommon. So inspirational. In our country, where everything seems so divisive, this quiet act of kindness spoke loudly to people from all walks of life.” She then added that people get easily offended these days that we stop trying to understand each other.
We hope the friendship between Stephanie, Monica, and their daughters will last forever.