UFD Partners to Educate Teens on Hair Care Strategies

Every time we step out into the world and interact with the environment around us, we extend our personal reach. We come in contact with people — verbally, nonverbally, directly or indirectly — and have some impact on their day and lives moving forward, based purely on how we treat them in those few seconds or minutes. From smiles and greetings to small gestures of courtesy, our impressions on them have the potential to last much further beyond what we typically imagine.

When you look at things from that perspective, it makes the importance of virtues like charity, kindness, and humility increase tenfold. If we can impact each other’s lives simply through unintended proximity, imagine what can happen when we focus our energy and thoughts toward giving to others.

This past weekend in Harlem, NY Uncle Funky’s Daughter partnered with HairOnPurpose — a New York City based non-profit organization dedicated to helping young girls make healthy and purposeful decisions regarding their hair— to host its inaugural HairOnPurpose Conference.

“This conference not only gives our attendees the opportunity to learn about their hair, but also the opportunity to delve deep into the conversation about the connection between how embracing ourselves fully can directly reflect their self -esteem! … Our goal is simple: to ignite a passion so deep with self love, self confidence, and worth amongst all of our attendees!” stated Shaquana Ford of HairOnPurpose.

HairOnPurpose is a one-day, interactive conference created to engage, educate, and empower girls between the ages of 10 – 17 about their natural hair — how to care for it, how to embrace it, and how it represents their culture and the places they come from.

“With a mission so powerful, there is no way we would miss this important effort. I remember being a young girl and styling my hair every morning before school. They couldn’t make enough gel for me to put in my hair!” Renee Morris, CEO of Uncle Funky’s Daughter remembered fondly. “That’s why I wanted to be a part of this. It is so important that we help young girls understand not only what to put in their hair, but how much product they should apply, how to apply it and how often they need to apply it to have healthy hair.”

Uncle Funky’s Daughter was on hand to speak with the over 200 tweens and teens about strategies and tips for maintaining moisture. Armed with products and mannequins, these young ladies were hands on with our Good Funky Stuff, learning through demonstration and discussion. Groups of 5 to 7 young ladies rotated through the styling suite to learn about topics from moisture, to creating a two-strand twist, to healthy bedtime routines. Uncle Funky’s Daughter provided each participant with a take-home tip sheet containing 5 Easy Steps to Help Maintain Hair Moisture.

“This was so much fun! The girls were really excited to learn and had so many questions. It was such an honor to be a part of HairOnPurpose!” shared Marlenny Ovalles.

Our mission is to educate and inspire our curlfriends at every turn. We greatly value the ability and willingness to give back to our communities. Thanksgiving rolls around once a year, and being thankful for the things we have comes to the forefront of our minds. We give and are given to every day – we all can do better about recognizing and appreciating those gifts, and being more invested in the gifts we put out for the world.