Kerry Robinson was just trying to settle down her 1-year-old daughter Jayde and so she handed her a hairbrush and hit record on her phone. The “salon talk” that followed between mother and toddler became an instant internet hit.
“Hey girl, and then I told him, ‘Is you crazy?’” says Robinson in the video posted on Facebook. Little Jayde, waving the hairbrush through her mommy’s hair, then mimics, “Is you crazy?” playing to the camera and back to Robinson’s hair as she brushes. The toddler affirms and chimes in at all the right moments as she does mom's hair.
At another moment, when Robinson pauses like a true salonista, Jayde asks, “And then what happened?” with sass and curiosity.
The adorable conversation that continues to unfold, all while Jayde hovers over her mama, is a familiar ritual for many black women. Often therapeutic and certainly entertaining, salon talk is an exchange of trust and animated narratives between hairstylist and patron.
The video, now with almost 15 million views on Facebook, has become a sensation. And in the age of social media where the internet is saturated with cute baby videos, “salon talk” is now officially part of this cannon.
"I was like, 'Here, Jayde, just brush mommy’s hair.' I love Snapchat and my daughter loves to talk on Snapchat, so I just started recording, and this is what happened," the Robinson told Cosmopolitan.
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“Her dad had never done baby talk with her…She’s really verbal so she retains everything we say and repeats it back to us,” said Robinson.
Jayde, the expert conversationalist, can be seen engaging in cute talks with Robinson and her father on Instagram. In one clip, after Robinson had finished Jayde’s hair, the 1-year-old looks at the mirror and says, “I gorgeous,” as she smiles, giggles, and turns to hug her mother.
