Black Hair MYTHbusters!

Long Hair Don't Care has only been up for a little over 3 months and already gets an increasing number of  hits and subscriptions per day.  What that tells me is that people all over the world are not only reading LHDC, but women are actually taking the tips and advice shared here and incorparating them into their daily hair care practices - AND I AM SOOOO PROUD OF THAT!!!  I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR READING AND SUBSCRIBING TO LONG HAIR DON'T CARE!!!  I said all that to say, even though I can GAURANTEE that if you use the 3C's as a foundation and commit to healthy haircare practices your hair WILL grow to its longest lengths, I find it VERY difficult to advise those closest to me about how to properly care for their hair (unless they are secretly reading LHDC and I don't know it)

The holidays are over and I hate to admit it but I fell witness to some very scary haircare practices by some of my friends and family...SO, I decided to bust up some common MYTHS about Black haircare specifically derived from things that I heard and/or saw over the holidays...

MYTH #1 - Oil is moisture.  PLEASE stop thinking that just because you put oil or grease in your hair every day that you are moisturizing it. True moisturizers will be WATER based.  And that brings me to

MYTH #2 - "WE" can't wet our hair every day.  I heard too many times over the holidays warning that wetting "our" hair everyday makes it break off...THAT IS NOT TRUE!  Water is the BEST moisturizer there is!  If you do choose to wet your hair daily, be sure to LOCK-IN that moisture with some oil...in other words, water alone ain't gonna get it.

MYTH #3 - Licensed cosmetologists/hairstylists know best!   ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!  My personal experience has been that my hair has grown the LONGEST and is the HEALTHIEST when I STOPPED doing what the stylist said and started researching on my own and stepping out of that "Black hair box."  That is not to say that there aren't any informed stylists out there, because there are, but I WILL say that the majority of them are CLUELESS as to what it takes to grow Black hair to its longest lengths and they don't want to hear you (or me) telling them how to do it either! LOL

MYTH #4 - You have to relax your hair every 4-6 weeks or your hair will break off.  *SIGH*  Can I challenge you to wait 8-12 weeks?  I personally relax every 6 months, but I know that won't work for everyone.  However, I DO know that the longer you wait between realxer touch-ups the less likely it will be that you will have overlapping (that is re-relaxing previously relaxed hair) which WILL result in less breakage and ultimately LONGER hair...

MYTH #5 - It's OK to relax the ends of your hair (and all the hair in between the new growth and the ends) during a touch-up.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! THIS IS NOT OK!  I almost DIED when I saw this done to someone over the holidays...The ONLY hair that needs to be "touched up" is your new growth PERIOD!  Will someone PLEASE tell me what is the point of taking the relaxer all the way through previously relaxed hair?  I can only think of ONE exception to this, but I am not going to talk about it here.  So, inquiring minds wanna know?!

MYTH #6 - Pink oil lotion is the BOMB!  The second ingredient is mineral oil.  Enough said. 

MYTH #7 - Braids make your hair grow.  Well, braids ARE an excellent choice of protective style and you CAN see a growth difference from wearing braids, BUT the braids are NOT what make your hair grow!  AND if you aren't taking care of your hair while it is braided all of that growth that you "got from the braids" will not be retained!

Finally MYTH #8 - My hair only grows to "X" length...I'll admit, before I took my hair growth journey into my own hands, I believed that, too, but this, like everthing else I've listed IS NOT TRUE!!!  Look, if you take the 3C's, add a little commitment and consistency to it, lay off the heat and ease up on the chemicals, I PROMISE that your hair WILL grow to lengths that you (and your momma an'nem) never thought imaginable!

OK.  I just really needed to put that out there.  Now, LET'S GROW!!!

Comments

[Ashaunte]

I am just wondering is it possible to retain length without trimming hair at all is it really that necessary??as long as one takes care of their hair even with a few split ends this shouldnt stop growth right???

LHDC: Hi, Ashaunte!!! YES you can retain your length without trimming. Please check out the long hair inspiration section on the blog and check out many of the women who have grown their hair to great lengths withOUT trims!

[Katster]

I've been a licensed beautician for thirty - one years. No one should ever overlap when relaxing their hair. A girl I know self relaxes and overlaps her relaxing treatments. Her scalp is sore and it won't be long before she won't have any hair. The relaxer is dissolving her hair. Her hair doesn't look good either, it looks fried. If the strength of relaxer a person is using isn't getting the hair as straight as desired, a stronger strength relaxer may be what they need. Or leave the relaxer on longer with a longer comb through period with a fine tooth comb.

[Lteefaw]

Child Essence, Jet and Ebony all need to publish this!!! You need to get the word out to the masses. If I have one more black person tell me that black hair shouldn't be washed more than 2-4 times per month I'm going to scream.

I try to tell them if they were to stop using products that contain SLS and mineral oil they won't have a problem with dry hair. Hair can only grown from a healthy scalp. If you can smell you hair then it's not clean. If after rubbing your scalp and your nail have a boat load of debris under it then your hair's not clean and you might want to wash it.

When I wear my hair in a fro blacks folks are amazed at how soft it. Yes boo boo you can have soft nappy hair if you know how to co-wash, moisturize and seal.

[Joey]

PINK LOTION IS DA BOMB!! LMAO....that's a good one.

[Cassandra]

I don't know why we felt like we needed to overlap relaxer, but it was done to me all the time. My senior year in college, I had some braids in for the spring cruise. Well I took them out when I got back, right before graduation. Self-relaxed, which included overlapping...well I didn't want to leave the relaxer on for too long, but when I rinsed it out, my hair was not as straight as I thought it should be.

I called my mom and she said, well I'll just re-do it for you when I get up there. And when she came for graduation she proceeded to re-relax my hair...so basically the portion of my hair that was already relaxed got re-relaxed TWICE. My hair was laid, but it's a wonder I had any hair left on my hair at all! And probably the reason my edges are so thin. We live and we learn. It is definitely not ok to overlap!!!

LHDC: Hi, Cassandra! That is a GREAT story! I've been a self-relaxer most of my life and have over-lapped most of my life...Not necessarily an over-processer, just an over-lapper (even though I've always beed a super stretcher)! Why did I do it? Well, I thought that is what you had to do even though the instructions in the relaxer WARN to only relax your new growth...

I'm with you. It's a wonder that I had any hair at all...between the relaxer overlapping, my heat addiction and my slight obsession with "neat" ends (i.e. frequent trims) I should have been bald for most of my life!

You live and you learn. And each one teach one!

[Lavendar]

Great blog post! Newbies take heed.

[BIA]

Wonderful Wonderful! I mentioned before that I started growing my hair three times before I got it right. What happened you ask? Well I would get my hair flowing and then I would start with all the myths above. Leading to damaged hair and having to start over. Thanks to communities like LHDC I learned how to take care of my hair and my hair baffles my Momma an'nem all the time! Funny thing is they ask me how I did it, I tell them, but they always revert back to the above misguided practices... sad.

We want what we aint got but not many of us are willing to work for it.

Great Post LHDC

BIA No Mo

LHDC: Thanks, BIA! Have a great weekend!!!!

[Ladytee]

Tell the truth and shame the devil. :)

LHDC: LOL that made me laugh! Have a great weekend, Tee!

[Tiffany@EbonyIntuition]

Great myth busters !!