8 Black Hair Myths!

For as long as I can remember  I was told many things about my hair which I believed to be hard core fact! However, after maturing and being allowed to think for myself I began to realise that a lot of what I was being told about my hair as a youngster DID NOT MAKE SENSE! Ladies.. let me introduce to you Black Hair Myths

Myth # 1 : Black hair don't grow -_-

It has been common belief amongst the black community as well as other races that our hair does not grow. Therefore, we need hair extensions to compensate this. This is False! All hair no matter what race grows at the same rate which is 1/2 an inch a month, so you stand to gain 6 inches a year. 

The reason why you feel your black hair is not growing is because your hair may be breaking at the same rate it is growing. So make no mistake your hair is growing, its just you never get to see your length because of the breakage. Our hair is more vulnerable to straighter textures so its paramount that you properly take care of your hair to see that growth!

Myth # 2 Hair Relaxer grows your hair.

Im going to be brief with this one because I know my readers are not silly. However there are some that believe that relaxer grows their hair. Simply, relaxer straightens your natural hair curls so it achieves its maximum length. But wouldn't you rather have shrinkage that chemically damages hair? Besides you can still achieve a straight style with natural hair to see its maximum length with the OCCASIONAL ( remember minimal heat is paramount for healthy hair ) blow dry or curling iron

Myth # 3 Products like Blue Magic are good for my hair..they have been my staple product since the 90's!

Products containing Petrolatum or Mineral oils are a NONO for natural hair. They are marketed for black hair as it adds shine and are very cheap. However, all these products do is coat the hair strand. They are unable to actually penetrate the hair strand to provide it with much needed moisture. Please remove these products from your regimen and instead use a moisturiser with water (aqua) as the first ingredient as these are truly moisturising. Try this for at least a month and let me know if you feel a difference! :)

Myth # 4 Greasing your scalp with the above products maintains a healthy scalp

Whilst we are on the subject of hair products, this has also been a common practise. There is actually no need to grease your scalp as our scalps produce natural oils. So greasing it with such products just clogs the scalp and can hinder hair health and growth. If your scalp is feeling dry or you want to do a good scalp massage.. use natural oils such as jojoba, extra virgin olive oil/ coconut oil.

Myth # 5 Oil can be used to moisturise your hair

The only things that moisturise your hair are water or water based moisturisers. Oils can be used as to 

to lock this moisture in. They cannot be used to moisturise your strands. If they are, it will only seal the strands and lead to dryness. 

Myth # 6 Watching your hair too often is bad

From a young girl even until recent months I have had this fear of water touching my hair! For some reason I thought the build up of products from my braids and weave was helping my hair to grow? How ludicrous! I remember when a white girl asked why don't I wash my hair everyday and I said because I don't need to..how wrong was I. We need to wash our how at lease once a week to remove all that build up. If our scalp is suffocated with product build up and dirt, how can we expect our hair to grow? Another reason for the fear of water was that dreaded shrinkage.. I couldn't bare to see my hair in its shrunken state. However, shrinkage is a factor of afro textured hair.. so we must learn to embrace it and love your Kurls anyways! After the shrinkage stage there are many heat free methods to stretch the hair back out

Myth # 7 Trimming my hair will help it to grow -_-

Right. Okay. Unless your ends are damaged or split, you do not need to trim or cut! Your hair grows from your scalp so what you do to the ends has no effect on your ends. Simply put. If you trim your undamaged unsplit ends logic says that your hair will get shorter not longer. 

Myth # 8 Your natural hair journey is all about length 

This is a mistake I made at the start of my journey. I was soley focused on gaining length when I should have focused on the health of my hair. Not to say that the desire for length is a bad thing..Heck I want length as much as the next lady!  But first you must focus on the health of your hair, with health comes growth. You will drive yourself crazy if you sit in front of the mirror constantly with your measuring tape out! Instead, enjoy your hair through its different stages of your growth. Even now I'm a lil apprehensive of gaining length because thats when the hard work begins! So love your Twas ( Teeny Weeny afros) and your mid fros while they last!