Thinking out loud: Common Natural Hair Myths

I personally decided to cut my relaxed hair and transition to natural hair. I was never lucky with relaxers, there was always a new brand in the market that a hair stylist would recommend to me but my hair always got burnt and still looked due for a retouch. I have full short hair and this is a miracle for someone who was called ''GORIMAKPA" by my aunties, I think it means ''someone with a hairless scalp''.

Transitioning was stressful at first because I did not have any knowledge on how to manage my new growth. With time, I did my research and discovered It was an easy task. After transitioning for 3 months, I did my big chop.

6 months after the big chop. Length check. You can see me sweating, all thanks to detangling after loosing a protective hair style.

I was in a fast food restaurant the other day, relaxing, chewing my meat pie as I was writing a new entry into my personal journal, I noticed a group of young folks starring at me, the stare was so obvious and rude, then I heard one of the girls say "they only wash their hair once in a year", it dawned on me that they were talking about my hair, the others laughed and someone said "that's impossible" but she continued saying ''people with natural hair washed their hair once in a year''. I had to correct them. When I am not rocking a protective hair style, I wash my hair every two weeks. 

I have a lot of people ask me questions about my natural hair and noticed there are plenty myths about our black natural hair, which are just false or exaggerated. I want to share some and debunk them.

1. “Natural Hair is Very Strong”

This is a misconception. It may look or even feel rough and tough, but it isn’t. Natural hair is actually fragile and has to be handled with much care. Why? Because the strands curl and bend so much that each curl is a possible breaking point because the bend in the strand weakens the shaft. In fact, many people assume people with natural hair have thick and strong hair strands when in fact they can have fine and wiry strands which can break easily.

2. “Natural Hair Can’t Be Combed.”

Naturally curly/kinky hair is not meant to be combed and styled like straight hair. Curly/kinky hair requires a whole new mind set in styling and you can’t work with kinky hair the way you do with relaxed hair. I can not and will not attempt to get a comb through my hair dry — only while it’s soaking wet with conditioner.

4. Natural hair products are expensive

There are low, mid and high priced natural hair brands in the markets. They all do the same job, It all depends on your hair type and how regular you take care of your hair. Just like relaxed hair, natural hair also has certain needs that certain brands cater to. Don't look down on the pocket friendly products because you can also get perfect results with them.

3. “Trimming Makes Natural Hair Grow.”

Even though trimming will improve the overall health of your hair by getting rid of split ends, it has nothing to do with the hair that grows out of your scalp. By trimming your hair, you are able to hold on to strands that don’t split, so you are able to see length because it’s not breaking and splitting. I had a friend who would hold on to her split, see-through ends in an attempt to grow her hair long. But she had to get a major haircut once a year to get rid of the splits, so each year she had to cut her hair shorter and shorter to make it healthy again. It was a never ending cycle that could have been prevented.

4. “You Shouldn’t Wash Natural Hair Too Often”

I grew up hearing that you can’t wash too often because our hair is very fragile. Maybe with relaxed hair, but washing is wonderful for natural hair. However, strong shampoos can be drying. If you do use shampoo be sparing with cleaners that contain sodium laurel sulphate. If SLS is too harsh for your strands, try a “conditioner wash”, using conditioner to cleanse your hair instead of shampoo.

5. “Water Will Dry Out Natural Hair”

Water is the best moisturizer for natural hair, so don’t be afraid to apply it! The key to maintaining a moisture balance is RETAINING the water that you do apply to your hair via sealing. Here is an article listing the two steps to effective moisturization.

Our hair is beautiful, whether relaxed or natural, the key to having healthy relaxed or natural hair is taking care of it, just the way we pay attention to our skin and body in general, our hair also needs that tender love and care. 

XOXO