I'm sorry if I seem ignorant, but could you please explain the significance of the combs you reblogged? the ones with the captions like "hold my ear" and "I told you not to move. Now, sit still before you burn yourself again." I tried doing the Google Images thing but it didn't work on my computer for some reason?
AH!
Not ignorant at all, you just probably would have never encountered them if you aren’t black or don’t have really thick natural hair.
They’re “hot combs” or “pressing combs”. And a big part of a lot of black girl’s growing up was getting their hair “pressed” or straightened on Sunday before church (or just every few days, depending on how you wore your hair).
And the “hold your ear” and so forth was because they were metal combs heated up on the stove and could BURN THE LIVING FUCK out of you if you didn’t hold your ears out of the way or hold still (it can also burn/set fire to your hair if it’s too hot, but that goes without saying). I got many many a burn that way growing up (hence the shuddering reaction I had when I saw one).
Anyway, if you wanna know more about it, here’s a quick article I found: "Five things you should know about hot combs"
