african hair Archives -

Crazy black hair growth myths

I have heard some crazy things uttered from people, including hair stylists, with respect to Afro-textured hair. Black hair growth myths are so pervasive and some so outlandish, leaving me dumbfounded that I simply refuse to believe that stylists were not taught otherwise at beauty school. Here are some of the craziest black hair growth myths I’ve heard:

1. Natural hair doesn’t get split ends

This was told to me in a salon many years ago when I revealed I had cut my hair due to split ends. I don’t know on which planet people live on, but, on Earth, everyone no matter the race will get split ends. As hair exits the scalp it is dead. As the hair gets longer, the hair fibre will begin to disintegrate due to both the natural weathering processes as well as from the general handling of the hair. The ends of the hair will start to lose the cuticle exposing the inner cortex therefore cause the hair to split more easily. This property does not differ if you are Asian, European or African.

2. Natural hair will not take hair rinses.

I was flabbergasted when the sales person told me this. Yes relaxed and permanently dyed hair are more porous, and technically the hair rinse should stay on better, but as someone who has used a hair rinse in the past, I was a bit put off by this statement. Again, hair is a fibre, just like cotton, wool, and mohair. There are plenty of persons who I’ve told to switch to hair rinses due to the issues experienced with their scalps when they use permanent dyes. Yes the rinse goes faster especially on the grey hair, but it does deposit on natural hair.

3. That style can’t be done on natural hair.

Nothing irks me more than these words. In this age of the internet where millions of videos exist detailing style after style on natural hair, it is painful to have this said to you. If I had the ability to make my hair look like I stepped out of a salon I would stop going to stylists all together. Hair is a fibre. It has physical and chemical properties that can be manipulated. Natural hair can be manipulated into any shape that you want to put it in.

4. You must be mixed with X race in you for your hair to be so long!

Luckily I don’t personally get this said to me anymore. I guess my hair is too kinky for anyone to say this. However, this statement always diminishes the efforts taken to actually grow natural hair. Not until my hair care practices improved did I manage to get my hair to significantly longer lengths. When I explain to persons that deep conditioning will make that much of a difference to length retention, they refuse to believe. I swear on my mother’s grave, my hair has never been this long in my life.

5. The 3 or 4 different textures on the scalp is due to mixed heritage

This is so far from the truth. This has to do with the property of curly textured hair. Persons of all races complain of this issue. It doesn’t matter what race you are, most persons with curly hair have at least 2 textures. The reason for this is unknown.

Black Hair Growth Myths

Five Common Black Hair Growth Myths- Do you know of any more?

Black hair growth myths are so deeply entrenched that persons often find it impossible to believe that there is more to kinky/curly/coily hair than what they have been told their entire lives. I didn’t want to discuss this as yet in my blog series as I am still compiling articles on hair in general. However, recently, I was told something so unbelievably stupid about natural Afro-textured hair that I figured that I needed to publish this sooner. Today’s blog will be about myths about African hair. I will deal with the totally absurd things I’ve heard about African hair another time.

Myth #1: Black Hair Doesn’t Grow

This myth is pervasive because the length that a lot of black women covet has been seemingly out of reach for them. This has been mistakenly attributed to an inability for the hair itself to grow, never mind that persons have to relax or colour their NEW GROWTH every six weeks. The problem with black hair growth lies in the ease with which the hair breaks. LENGTH RETENTION is hard due to poor grooming practices i.e. daily flatiron or curl, abusive combing of the hair, and not conditioning the hair enough. Once those problems have been addressed, persons will be surprised as to how much hair will remain on their head and how much longer it will get.

Myth #2: Natural hair is tough and unmanageable

And why not? After all, a lot of persons have memories of their hair actually breaking combs! Telling someone in Jamaica that ,”Your hair favour coir*,” conjures up images of an unruly dry mass that is beyond salvation. This is so far from the truth. Experimental data have conclusively shown that African hair is the most fragile compared to other racial hair types. Each bend in the hair is a potential point for breakage. It is the innate dryness of the hair that causes significant friction making it difficult to comb. Studies also showed that wet combing the hair and using a leave-in-conditioner will make it much easier to comb and therefore manage.

Myth #3: Natural hair is thick, plentiful and STRONG

Do not be fooled by the illusion of 3-D volume created by curls. Persons are often surprised by the reduction in volume they see when they straighten their hair. The density of hair on anyone’s scalp is genetically determined. Blacks in general have the least amount of hair on their heads compared to other races. Only natural red heads have the lowest density compared to persons of African descent. Even the hair strands are not as thick as people think they are. Asians have the thickest strands, African hair is in the middle, while whites have finer hair.

It is the difficulty in combing natural hair that causes persons to assume the hair is strong. Heck, people think that the hair is so strong that it can stop the path of missiles! People, therefore, then do all sorts of crazy things like going platinum blonde in one sitting and then wonder why their hair breaks right down to their scalp simply because they thought their hair could take it? Studies have shown that African hair breaks at a lower applied force than European and Asian hair. It is not as hardy as it appears. Treat your hair delicately and it will thank you for it.

Myth #4: Wearing braids/weaves grows your hair

This is not entirely false. Wearing additional hair does decrease the amount of daily handling of the hair thus allowing the hair to retain length. However, too tight braiding that causes soreness to the scalp will result in hair pulled out directly from the root, and if the hair strand was weak and dry before braiding/weaving, the hair will dry out even more and break once the additional hair is installed. This is especially true if the type of hair used is ultra absorptive sucking all the oils and moisture away from your own strands of hair. So even though persons have experienced significant hair growth after having installed braids or weave, they still had to cut a lot of it off due to the poor condition the hair was found to be in. It is imperative that the hair is in excellent condition BEFORE installing the added hair. Ensure that you deep condition before installing, and continue to moisturise the hair under the wig, weave or braid extensions, otherwise the rest period would have been a wasted effort.

Myth #5 : Hair oils/pomades and “growth creams” will make your hair grow

For whatever reason, this myth cannot be banished to never neverland. There is always someone in the beauty supply store exclaiming how X product for their scalp grew their hair. Now there are some things that have been clinically proven to grow hair e.g. Minoxidil, however, not everything that is on the market has been definitively shown to grow hair. In any case, your hair will grow once you are properly nourished and are not experiencing some internal problem , such as Thyroid disease or Systemic Lupus, or some scalp disease such as Alopecia areata, Lichen Planopilaris or Traction Alopecia. Once you adopt a better hair care regimen, the length will be seen eventually.

*coir-fibre from the husk of the coconut mistakenly pronounced “kaya” in Jamaica.

About

Dr. Llorenia Muir-Green is a practising dermatologist in Jamaica. She has an avid interest in hair and scalp disorders. She is a member of the Medical Association of Jamaica, Dermatology Association of Jamaica and is an Associate Member of the Caribbean Dermatology Association. She was a recipient of the 2013 Fellowship in Hair and Scalp Disorders at the University of British Columbia.

Hair Texture- What contributes to it?

Hair texture has often been described by many scientific authors in terms of three racial types: African, Caucasian, and Asian. However, it has been noted that there is significant intra-racial variation, with scientists now suggesting that hair be described by its degree of curliness with a broad definition of straight, wavy and curly. In general, the degree of curliness correlates with the distribution of hair keratins and cell type within the hair fiber, as well as with the number of mesocortical cells. The curlier the hair, the fewer mesocortical cells are present. See this past post on the distribution of cells affecting the hair texture:

http://askthehairdoc.com/the-hair-shaft/

Embarking on this mission, scientists collected hairs from almost 1500 subjects located in eighteen countries worldwide. Persons were not to have a perm, straightener, or relaxer in their hair. Hairs were taken from the vertex, nape, and temples. Four parameters were used to type the hairs, namely Curl Diameter, Curl index (ratio of stretched length of hair to length at rest), highest number of waves and the highest number of constrictions. Based on their findings, they devised a hair typing system as depicted in the figure below. The experiment was repeated on a larger scale thus validating the results.

Hair Texture Typing Photo Scale

hairtexture

Source: de la Mettrie R, Saint-Leger D, Loussouarn G et al. Shape variability and classification of human hair: A worldwide approach. Human Biology 2007; 79: 265-81.

Other genetic studies have been done showing why certain populations have specific hair types. East Asians were found to have the mutation in the gene for the ectodysplasin A receptor (EDAR) and the FGFR2 gene polymorphisms. These two genes are associated with the thickness of hair. The positive selection in this group resulted in hair being thicker than all other races. In Europeans, variations of the gene coding for the Trichohyalin protein were found to be responsible for the development of straight, wavy or curly hair, with Northern Europeans having the highest variation.

The Hair Doc