The Hair Initiative

We had a great time sharing our resource! We are looking forward to sharing more about our new project to serve more of Oklahoma’s foster youth!

The Hair Initiative strives to address the inequity in access to hair hygiene for youth and their caregivers. Its comprehensive, diversity-conscious approach includes educational workshops, dignified hair products and tools, stylist referrals, and specialized programming to meet the unique and differing needs of the community. https://www.thehairinitiative.org/

Thank you for having us at your Family Resource Festival!

We had a blast giving out hair tools and chatting with parents and kiddos. Our favorite part was watching the kids’ faces light up when they saw coloring pages with kiddos that have hair like them and when they got to pick out their own bonnet/hair accessories!

Today we started our first of many monthly visits to see our friends at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital!

The second Tuesday of each month we will bring in our hair professional, dignified and inclusive hair items, and some fun programming for the children and their caregivers!

We are so proud to have a partnership with OCJB and to have been included in their Back to School Backpack Bash!

The needs of their facility opened our eyes to realizing hair hygiene issues beyond the foster and adoption sectors and encouraged us to broaden our mission to where it is today.

Thank you, OCJB, for all you do for the youth you work with!

💈DON’T FORGET💈

Our workshop is TONIGHT with our special guest and newest partner, Lice Clinics of America!

Please email us for a link.

See you tonight at 8!

We are so happy to announce our newest partnership with Lice Clinics of America!

Since our start in 2018, we have made it our mission to meet the needs of the caregivers serving so many of Oklahoma's foster children. One of these recurring needs involves discussion, education, and treatment of lice. If you've taken our workshop before you know ALL hair types are susceptible!

Lice Clinics of America has expertise in treating all types of hair, even textured hair, with various options to meet the patient’s needs: head checks, preventative treatments, their medical dehydration treatment with their FDA-cleared Airalle device which is over 99% effective, as well as DIY kits that are effective against super lice (pesticide resistant lice). Any referrals made to Lice Clinics America through The Hair Initiative will receive our special pricing and may be eligible for payment assistance.

A lice expert will be at our ZOOM workshop Tuesday, June 7 at 8 pm to provide education and answer your questions.

Thank you, Lice Clinics of America for helping ensure every child has the dignity of a good hair day!

Lice Clinics of America - MidSouth
Lice Clinics of America - MidSouth

This week we set up another Hair Shop!

We had the honor of providing styling products and tools to our friends at Hope 4 The Future. Having these tools available will allow biological parents to bond with their child and do their hair during the visit.

Are you interested in sponsoring The Hair Shop for a special location in your area? Contact us today to learn more.

Did you know our workshops take place the first Tuesday of every month?

The April session is taking place via ZOOM.

To grab your spot and receive your link for this fun, interactive, and educational evening, email us at [email protected].

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

THE HAIR SHOP

The Hair Shop provides a dignified shopping experience for caregivers to ensure their kiddos have products just for them at no cost!

We provided inclusive hair products, tools, fun hair accessories and hair maintenance items to our friends at Palomar: Oklahoma City's Family Justice Center for their clothing closet.

Every child deserves the dignity of a good hair day and now their caregivers get to hand pick items to meet their child’s individual needs and personality!

This was such a fun project to work on and we can’t wait to provide it to more of our partners!

Check out this great article on why we got started and how our mission to make hair hygiene access more equitable is just beginning.

Thank you, JaNae Williams for covering our story!

Special thank you to Naz Photography for providing some of the photos!

Crowning achievement: How an Oklahoma nonprofit is changing the state of youth haircare When a little girl's photo revealed a major gap in resources Butler and Horn would step in to fill it by creating The Hair Initiative.

We recognize that getting a new placement can be overwhelming with a lot of uncertainty. We want to make sure our caregivers are prepared with the education and tools they need to care for any child’s hair.

Feedback like this makes us confident that we’re on the right track.

What’s special about this chair? It is now part of the Oklahoma County Juvenile Detention Center!

Thanks to a generous donation, we were able to donate two styling chairs to the facility. We also brought in two hair professionals to tend to the hair hygiene of the kids in the facility.

The exciting part about this is that while the boys have always had access to weekly hair services, the girls did not. We are proud to bring this weekly service to all of the children in the facility.

“I saw the statement "We believe every child deserves the dignity of a good hair day" on your website; that is exactly what you have done for our residents! By offering hair care products and stylists, you have empowered our youth to practice self-care and feel more confident in their skin. When your stylists came in to style the females' hair, they not only provided a service the girls had not had access to here, but they listened to their stories, offered advice, and encouraged them.” – Erin McConnell, Assistant Facility Director

This is one great example of how we are addressing the inequity in access to hair hygiene.