Electric Shock Therapy

by Kimberly Johnson
(Richmond, Virginia, USA)

I wore my hair in pigtails until I got my first relaxer at age 8 (I'm now 46), by 9 my hair was pressed every week, never seeing hair grow past my chin. My mother has a different hair texture, and never really knew or taught us how to care for our hair.

My mother fell prey to every hair fad that came along, often dragging me and my older sister along for ride; by age 10 my older sister was wearing wigs!

When I was 11, we moved to a new city. My mother found a hairdresser who guaranteed she could get my hair to grow by stimulating it with...of all things...ELECTRICITY!!!

I can't believe now my mother ever agreed to such a dangerous procedure !

Every two weeks I would go and sit in what I called the 'electric chair', and undergo these 'scalp-stimulating' treatments.

While the small engine hummed loudly, I would hold in one hand the stem of a glass rod and would grasp with the other, the bulb on the other end. I could see as the clear bulb filled with a pulsing blue stream of light. I was told not to move, or take my hand away, or else I would 'break the connection'. The hairdresser would then massage my scalp and continue to ask me, 'Does it feel like small pins are being stuck in your head?'...I would murmur through tears...yes. 'Good! she would reply, it's working.' I could feel the electricity pulse through my body, but was too young to understand what was happening to me. My hands would sweat from fear and I would be so afraid to let go of that bulb! My hair felt like it was on fire, for 10 minutes every two weeks, my body was being given a shock treatment!!!

I do not know to this day what the voltage of that contraption was, or even what damage it may have done to my body or my organs. I can say that my hair did not grow, it got worse. At sixteen, I took control of my hair care, and although I am just now transitioning back to natural...I will never forget how much that experience scarred me. I haven't let many people work on my hair, I have made a rare venture to the salon. Usually with disappointing results. Thanks to great sites such as yours and others, I'm teaching myself, my sister (and my own daughter) about having healthier hair.