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If you are on a healthy hair journey (HHJ), relaxed or afro-textured, I’m sure you would have picked up new lingos, changed your lifestyle, thoughts and perceptions about Black hair. While it’s important that we get educated about Black hair care so that we can erase the generational flaws that has been passed down to us, what’s more important is our responses, attitudes and reactions to the information we read and come across on various hair websites.
As a Black hair blogger, I try to be active in the virtual Black hair (relaxed and afro-textured) community. I would even read comments left by other readers and also leave my opinion when necessary. From these comments, I find that we as a people still have a LONG way to go when it comes to understanding Black hair. The reason is because I often read comments and questions that makes me question the intelligence level and self-esteem of the individual. Although I recognize the struggles which many face with their hair, I find that some of these problems shouldn’t be a problem at all. So below, I have listed 5 problems which I just don’t understand.
Proposed solutions in the Natural Hair Community (NHC)
– taking pills to speed up the process
– changing one’s diet and physical activity level
– standing upside down at night for 5minutes
– nightly scalp massage
– applying tons of products on the hair and scalp
My thoughts: While some of these solutions are great, they are completely unnecessary! You hair will grow regardless of what you do to your body inside or outside. With proper care, you should be able to see results in the overall health of your hair within weeks.
Problem 2: Dissatisfaction with one’s own hair texture and the comparison to others
Proposed Solutions:
– Trying all sorts of curling cream in the market so as to achieve girl B’s curl
– Putting your hair through all sorts of abuse all so that you can achieve a wash n go and other styles your hair doesn’t like to be put in
My thoughts: If you weren’t born with girl B’s genes, you WILL NOT achieve the same “out” style she achieves with certain products and techniques, although you might be able to achieve similar styles. Rather than wasting your time, effort and money trying a WnG, you can instead opt for “predictable” styles which will turn out well. I often achieve a “frizz out” instead of a twist out on most days, but I don’t take this failure on my hair styling skills or a particular product since I already know my hair is very unique and will only do what it wants to do.
Problem 3: Obsession with laid edges
Proposed solutions
– relaxing the edges so that a cornrow or weave will look neater
– using a hard gel to lay it down
My thoughts: I find this is a very popular problem with Americans as I don’t come across this issue too often on non-American websites. My edges don’t coil up much and so I don’t have much to say. But one thing you need to realize is that your hair is no longer relaxed, it is now COILY and it wants to remain that way. Instead of forcing your hair to do what it doesn’t want to do, I say stop obsessing over how they look 5 min after styling and rock your hair loud and proud!
Problem 4. Anti-Frizz
Proposed solutions
– use of anti frizz products or eliminating certain products totally
My thoughts: Again, I find this issue is mostly talked about by Americans. As I’ve mentioned above, your hair is no longer straight, it is now COILY and will be more prone to frizz. It’s easy to battle with frizz when your hair is straight, but a bit more challenging when it’s curly/coily. Coily hair will not always be smooth like straight hair and is more susceptible to environmental changes. So instead of fighting frizz which is out of your control, EMBRACE IT. And if you have OCD and can’t do this, then keep your hair in braids, a great anti-frizz hairstyle.
Proposed solutions
– Buy every product on the market and keep applying them daily.
My Thoughts: products DO NOT grow hair, they only enhance the look and feel of your hair and could even make it stronger and less prone to breakage. I’m happy to announce that i’ve passed the product junkiness (PJ) stage and i’m currently working on downsizing to just a few products which my hair likes. While it’s ok to try out a highly rated product, it shouldn’t be for the sole purpose of achieving long hair.