We all know the black girl’s struggle when it comes to hair. Women go as far as spending R5000 on buying hair just so they can get the feel of long, soft, straight hair. Hair relaxer corporates do not make it any easier, the young black, flawless women with perfectly straight and relaxed hair make us yearn for that particular look.
The reality is however, we have coarse hair. The reason your hair cannot seem to flourish is that you have been made to believe that using hair reducing chemicals on hair make it grow.
Ever wondered why dreadlocks grow so fast?
Well, it is simple. The locks restrict you from frequently combing, overheating and relaxing your hair which causes severe damage to it over time. Coiled hair only grows when it is left to grow NATURALLY. This then means, we need to give our straighteners, curlers, and hair dryers a break.
For those who may have tried to relentlessly grow their hair, this may be a little too simple to be true but the only thing making it difficult to understand is how advertisements have made us believe that our hair is a problem! The appearance of our
natural afros have become unattractive according to Eurocentric beauty standards (only God knows who set those).
If anything we should embrace what we have been blessed with. But in embracing our natural hair, there is a lot of learning and unlearning that needs to be done. Here is a list of DO’s and DON’T’s:
DO’s:
✔ Use conditioner. There are quite a few hair conditioners that have been developed for coarse hair for i.e. L’Oreal Paris Elvive range and Cantu range, their products do not only make your hair manageable and soft but their products
also, nourish our hair.
✔ Instead of having your hair relaxed every now and then, opt for treatment instead of or just a good wash. You would be amazed by some of the natural oils you have stored in your kitchen. Washing your hair may leave it dry, causing breakage, so when washing
it try adding a few drops of olive oil in the portion of shampoo you intend to use. This will leave your hair soft, making it easy to comb when dry.
✔ Most black women grew up using hair food on their hair and scalp, try adding a few drops of castor oil to the very same hair food you have trusted over the years. Mix the two well to ease the undesired smell of the oil and apply it on your scalp when dry.
✔ Another trusted oil is coconut oil, it has a pleasant scent and repairs both hair and skin when damaged, apply this to your scalp when dry.
✔ As bizarre as it may seem, rice water does make your hair grow much faster! But be aware that it may have an unpleasant smell if the leftover rice water is not discarded after use. I would advise that immediately after extracting the water from the boiling rice, let it cool off then place it in the fridge until you wish to apply it on your hair. I have tried this method for three weeks and it has worked miracles. My hair grew an inch longer within a month and it looks healthier and stronger!
DONTs:
- At a younger age, we believed plaiting our hair makes it longer, which is absolutely true but this can only happen if your hair is not pulled back too hard. This is the main cause of our receding hairlines. Having your hair pulled too tight may cause breakage and defeats the purpose of making it grow.
- And again, avoid overheating your hair and relaxing it all the time. Ladies our inheritability is to nurture if we could just nurture and embrace our African hair would grow to its maximum length. Let’s stop trying to force our hair to turn into something it is not.
Embrace Your Fro!
