Tag: curly hair

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.

 

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

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.