Ms. Brenda E. Sliker is the author of Black Women Rejoice, a booklet she wrote detailing her hair growth formula. In it she gives the reasons why many black women have hair growth difficulties and what can be done to promote healthy hair growth. It is also available as an e-book. Ms. Sliker is also the founder of Successful Attitudes, an inspirational website which gives information and encouragement to teens and their parents to help them become focused and reach for their goals. I interviewed Ms. Simmons back in 2002 for my Afro Mama site and re-posting here on Personal Growth for Black People.

What is the main focus of of your website, blackwomenrejoice.com?
Brenda Sliker: A) Nothing that comes in a jar or bottle will grow hair, if it did, based on how much money black women spend on hair care products, we would all have very VERY long hair by now. Followed closely by: B) From the book of “Laws for black people” A black woman may never remove hair from her face, in the presence of another black person, by shaking or swinging it out of the way. She must always drop what she is doing and use her hands! That is if she wishes to avoid embarrassment!

OK really! I teach women with hair of African descent how to unlock the secrets to real and continuous hair growth. I teach concepts and reasons not brand names and product lines to promote healthy, touchable, grow-able, hair.

What made you want to start this company? Did you have help from friends and family when starting your business?
I am pretty much a self-starter. If I sit quiet longer than 10 minutes I am destined to start another project. I started the company Successful Attitude in 1994 when I had put together a book mostly for teenagers about what else? Goal achievement.

Well, the ideas grew and internet was just starting (for us common folk) which gave me a forum for my information. As far BlackWomenRejoice.com, all black women spend a lifetime trying to figure out why our hair won’t grow. I just took my discoveries one step further and wrote them down. Since I was already a presence on the internet it only made sense that I start up this web page. By the way, the title Black Women Rejoice came from the moment I realized that I had done all of the steps correctly, in proper order, and my hair was growing. I knew that I would tell the world about this

Did researching and learning about black hair give you an appreciation of our hair?
Since I am black and the research was on me and my successes were so obvious, I was ecstatic. All hair is different, but hair care and growth information is common sense. Therefore it works on everyone.

I have dreadlocks and espouse natural hairstyles. From reading your website I get the impression that you want to give black women who do desire to straighten their hair a better option. Is that correct?
Both natural and permed hair have burdens to bare. I talk about both to rid each of habitual bad hair care philosophies handed down since the beginning of time. Remember the real reason we have all these problems is that we live in a world that points at our hair as a judgment tool as to our personality and intelligence. That is for ALL people. We with hair that would just as soon “stand straight up” have an extra concern to our daily hair rituals. Don’t you think we over do it for the sake of style? I don’t teach hair style although I do offer advice, I teach hair care for anyone interested in hair growth.

Have you had a lot of positive feedback? How about negative feedback?
Not a week goes by that I don’t get a “God Bless You” “I am so glad I found your site” and “you go girl”. I get negative e-mails from one category of women. Those that not only didn’t read my report but also didn’t read my web site. I guess I put so much information out there to convince them another product of promise will not grow hair, that it is overwhelming. They would rather e-mail me than read all that, where I try to satisfy all questions in one spot. Women don’t trust another person saying “listen to me I grow hair.” I know that, I understand that, I am with that. So I try to let them know that I won’t rip them off. Their credit card is in a secure location, and if they stop fighting me (I can be a little pushy) they may actually see growth where it wouldn’t happen before.

You are also a successful airline pilot. How are you able to integrate managing your websites with your professional life?
I have put in a request to the “official time committee” to extend each day by at least 6 hours. I haven’t heard back from them. I thought I explained how urgent it was. I am having a tough time keeping up. Most of my time is spent answering questions. I am trying to become more organized about responding i.e.. same answer to same question. But it just doesn’t work. Each e-mail is long, several questions, and just different enough that I give it my undivided attention. Often until well after midnight.

Oh yeah, I understand the time crunch! Did you have a mentor to help you become a pilot?
My mentor was my dad. He told me that I could do anything in life I wanted to do. If you tell that to a kid over and over, that broken record should have a tune to go with it. My mom was the outgoing one, and she loved travel and anything different; motorcycle mama school bus driver and all. It was just a natural progression to set out to first figure out what you want to do. And then figure out how to grow up and get out of the house fast enough (now that you know EVERYTHING) to achieve it. I did not know any pilots but I met many people along the way. I started on this adventure back in the 70′s so to my surprise there were actually people who didn’t think this was a promising vocation for me. But since I didn’t know any better, and I could do anything in life I wanted to do, it just proved to be an interesting set of minor obstacles to over come. Major obstacles were totally my doing. No one could really interfere with my goals but I could sure hurt myself with doubt or laziness.

Do you see more black women becoming pilots in the future?
They are already doing it. I would like to put in a plug for the “Organization of Black Airline Pilots.” They not only achieve incredible success for airline wanna-bee’s (like me) but they also reach back and grab the young ones, school age and present aviation as just another options in a world of options. More and more black women and girls are finding out about this hidden world of opportunity.

As a black female entrepreneur, writer, and pilot, you are an awesome role model for children and teens. How important is it that our children have such role models?
Even though TV has more than My Three Sons, Petticoat Junction, Leave It To Beaver, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Jefferson’s, and Sanford and Sons, we now have our hands full removing bad influences and accentuating good influences. They don’t understand the struggle of the 60′s, what they want to know (now that they know everything) is how can they grow up fast enough and get out of the house so they can do their own thing. Preaching to them never worked but leading by example always did.

Let’s talk about your other website, www.SuccessfulAttitude.com for teenagers. Why do you feel it’s important to help teens with their attitude?
Self worth, self respect, and dealing with people with bad attitudes is what I try to focus on. I told one young person that I teach kids how to read minds. That seemed to get his attention. If you don’t feel good about yourself, how can you tell others that disrespect you to take a flying leap? If you are weak in self, you are more easily influenced. It is difficult to reach your goal if you can’t think for yourself.

Do you feel things are better or worse for teens now than when you were a teenager?
Much much harder now than then. Maybe racism was big in the old days and it will always be around in some form, guns instead of fists, drugs instead of cigarettes, internet predators, metal detectors in schools, teachers that don’t have to support to teach effectively, adult content on TV, computer games that desensitize killing and death, so much I didn’t have to deal with when I was growing up. The interests of a self starter like myself could get lost in all of that.

Have you received a lot of positive feedback from teenagers and their parents?
The site pretty much runs itself, so I don’t get a lot of e-mail, but I get letters from adults all over the world who downloaded my book for themselves. It is always positive.

What advice can you give to our readers? Can SuccessfulAttitude.com help black mothers deal with teenagers?
I think it is a good start. It is not enough and I could be out of touch with the world of young people today, but I have total recall of my teenage years. This is a huge help. I wish it could address gangs and teen pregnancy and home life with more detail. There are numerous reasons why I don’t. By the way when time travel is available, I won’t sign up for the 70′s.

I wish you all the success in the world with your business, and continued success as a pilot. Thank you so much for doing the interview!
To find out more:
BlackWomenRejoice.com. Ms. Sliker is also the founder of SuccessfulAttitude.com

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This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Seed & Flame!

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