I’m scared for Black women….

I was walking around downtown this past weekend and a few things caught my eye. Specifically, I saw a number of Black women with hair problems that seemed to stem from just a lack of knowledge of how to take care of their hair properly. I saw women with thinning hair, bad weaves, braids that were causing receding hair lines, overly processed/dyed hair….the list goes on. I was getting on the train and a woman stopped to ask me if I had a relaxer or if I had that “good” hair. Internally I’m thinking, “good hair”….really? Are we still in that day and age people? I hesitated to tell her I had a relaxer only because I didn’t want to get into the whole discussion of which one to use, etc. (The truth of the matter is it is less about which you use and more about how you properly maintain it. ) Then she proceeded to ask me if my hair was real? While I took the statement as a compliment and appreciated her appreciation of my easy ‘do (mind you it was in a messy ponytail on top of my head) it made me sad because her own hair was thinning badly on top and she had braids that were pulling out her edges right before my eyes.  I’m scared for Black women. Its not that we are the only race with hair problems, but we tend to have a lot…mainly due to inaccurate information given to us about how to take care of our hair.  Here are a few tips I’ve learned over the years that has helped the ladies in my family keep the hair on our heads….

1. Wash and deep condition your hair at least once per week. Shampoos and conditioners come and go so I won’t say any one is better than the next, but I will say that I use Motions CPR a lot as well as Nioxin. Recently I have fallen in love with Ellen Lavar’s Leave in Conditioner.

2.  When doing a deep conditioner, it is not enough to slab it on your hair in the shower and wash off 5 minutes later. Not. At. All. You need to slather it on your hair (coating every strand), put on a plastic cap, and sit underneath a hood dryer for at least 20-30 minutes.

3. With the invention of the Chi, FHI, and all these other new fangled flat irons and curling irons, Black women are damaging their hair even more at an alarming rate.  I’m old school like my mommy. I highly advocate a roller set, sitting under a good dryer, and then wrapping my hair at night for a less curly look. It gives great body and prevents you from putting too much heat on your hair! Heat on hair is bad. You can use all the heat protectant you want but heat on hair is still BAD and will cause breakage, dryness, and severe damage.

4. Along those same lines, I personally wash my hair at least 3-4 times a week and will allow my hair to air dry in the summer. Yes some days it is cute, most days I look crazy, but your hair needs a rest. I like to put a bit of grapeseed oil and conditioner on it to protect it from the sun and allow it to condition without putting any strain or pressure on it.

5. Ponytails. Now….all my friends (and my hairdresser) will tell you I am BAD about this. I love a good ponytail! Who doesn’t love the regalness of the updo!?! But ponytails are extremely damaging to the hair, particularly, the edges of the hairline and the part of the hair the rubber band is located. To minimize damage, I suggest putting a deep conditioner on the parts of your hair that will be most stressed. However, the BEST way to keep hair on your head is to minimize the use of ponytails altogether. A hard one I know….sigh….I know. =(

5. Another enemy of the Black woman is the brush. My hairdressers used to tell me a long time ago that the hairbrush had to be invented by men because only a man would use something to groom your hair that ripped it out by its root. Brushing your hair causes severe damage to your hair by ripping it out at its root, causing the hair follicle to become brittle and weak, and/or causing pieces of the hair strand to break off (causing short hair syndrome). I have not used a brush in years (i’d venture to say at least 7 years) and have noticed a significant difference in how my hair behaves. My hair is genetically thin, but it is stronger and thicker since x-ing out the brush factor. Instead, I use small tooth combs (I like Ace, it doesn’t pull at my hair) and a toothbrush. Yes I said a toothbrush. A soft bristle one works great at smoothing your hair down without damaging the hair follicle.  Now before you all start going crazy thinking my mouth smells like Pantene….I’ll state the obvious….this is a SEPERATE toothbrush from the one I use on my teeth. Thanks. Lol.

6. I actually was going to stop at 5, but I couldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t address this HUGE issue killing Black women’s hair……HAIR GEL! One trichtologist, Lisa Akbari, told me, “When you use gel, you are systematically telling your hair where you DON’T want it to grow. ” Hair gel clogs the pores in your scalp causing hair to not grow there and overtime, this leads to thinning hair. Hair gel also dries out the hair on your head causing brittle, dry hair and eventually…..breakage! Personally, I stay away from gel altogether, but if you MUST use gel…it needs to be washed out of your hair by day 3. Otherwise, expect severe problems. As an alternative I use Ms. Jessie’s Curling Pudding (Buttercream) to smooth my hair down when putting it in a ponytail or smoothing out my edges. I place a little Buttercream on my toothbrush and then work it into my hair.

7. Moisturize the hair. Most labels are incorrectly labeled as “moisturizers” but contain mineral oil and petroleum. Those are NOT moisturizers, those are lubricants. My favorite author, Cathy Howse states, “[Mineral oil and petroleum] sit on the hair like liquid saran wrap. The biggest problem is that they dont penetrate and go were the oil is really needed which is the innermost part of the hair. Conduct this test yourself. Take a graham cracker and put it in a glass of mineral oil and leave it for about an hour. A graham cracker, no matter how long it sits in the mineral oil will not absorb it. A graham cracker is a lot more porous than your hair yet it never absorbs the mineral oil. These oils just sit on your hair, not penetrating the hair where the oil actually needs to be, thus the reason they are not the best oils for our hair.” Instead, look for things that have carrot oil, olive oil, and grapeseed oil. These natural oils are great for our hair.

These are just a few hair tips that have helped me in the past. I hope they can help someone else. As Black women, we LOVE our hair but have not been properly educated in how to treat our beautiful hair! My goal is to put this information out there so that if we know better, we can do better, and prevent the short hair syndrome that is plaguing our community. Peace and blessings….

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