As a kid who grew up with permed hair. My mother nor any hair stylist knew anything about taking care of permed/relaxed hair. I have a mix of medium, fine, and coarse hair. Every stylist said my hair was strange cause the perm would never take to my whole head the same. They try to leave it in as long as possible to make it straight straight, because that's all they care about.
1.) Perm it, to straighten the new growth
2.) Trim/major cut (sigh there goes my growth)
3.) Fry it (irons and hot combs)
4.)Lastly...style it....but by then all the hair I came in with is already gone.
That's all I knew about permed hair. My hair grew when permed only when I started doing it myself. However it still wouldn't get past a certain length because I didn't know anything about protein or heat usage, trimming...etc.
When at went natural I started researching hair, but it wasn't untill I found this site that I found out relaxed hair can grow and be just as healthy with the proper care.
I however went natural for my daughter so I won't perm again, but I teach her all hair is beautiful, but I want her to be confident in what's coming out of her own scalp just the way it is. I didn't have that opportunity growing up. My family would crack on you about anything; skin, hair, features...and it wore on my self esteem especially me being the only dark child.
I recently did straighten my hair though and surprisingly I get more comments when my hair is in its natural state. It may be because there aren't many long haired naturals walking around, I only see twa's or wigs.