Hair care for black women is a very confusing topic to say the least. And when I say “least” I do mean least. I have to emphasize the word because if you were to do a search on black hair care, your mind would be boggled on how much conflicting information there is on black hair care. It’s no surprise that most black women don’t have long hair. Nestled in the confusion are the three main reasons why most black women don’t have long hair.
But first, let me just put this out there. It’s absolutely true that most black women do not have long hair. Most black women have hair that stops somewhere between the top of their neck and the bottom of their shoulders. That’s simply not long hair. Long hair goes down a person’s back. But here are the reasons why most black women fall short when it comes to having long hair.
There is a great amount of confusion about mineral oil.
Many black hair care websites will tell you to stay away from mineral oil because it’s not moisturizing at all. These websites will tell you that all mineral oil does is clog up your scalp’s pores and attract lint to your hair. However, at the same time, many other black hair care web sites will tell you that it’s OK to use mineral oil on your hair. They’ll recommend that you grease your scalp with mineral oil-based products and all kinds of things like that. The unsuspecting web user will probably follow whatever advice she stumbles upon and go years without long hair as a result.
People don’t know whether to trim or not to trim.
Some websites tell those interested in hair care that they don’t need to trim their ends in order for their hair to grow. Other websites say you must trim your ends or split ends will travel all the way up the hair shaft causing major breakage. So what does a web user do? Who knows which web site is right?
Hairdressers are trained to style hair, not to grow hair.
Most hairdressers definitely know better than to burn you with the curling iron or cause your hair to fall out. But you won’t find many hairdressers telling you how to grow long shiny hair. One reason may be because they don’t want you to start doing your hair on your own. But another reason may be that they just don’t know too much about growing long black hair themselves.
Case in point: There’s a hairdresser I’ve heard of around my area who has a reputation for knowing how to get black people’s hair to grow. But she has a waiting list. I’m really hoping she can get me into her schedule. I’ve been to several other hairdressers around here and none of them have a reputation for growing hair, and consequently, they always have room on their schedule for more clients.
But here’s what you can do to make an attempt to finally grow long black hair. Realize that the confusion is out there. Just because you read something on a web site doesn’t mean it’s right. Do thorough research about mineral oil and trims. A black hair care website isn’t exactly science. So maybe look into detailed experiments and research that have been done on the subject.
And look at someone with long black hair, and ask where she gets it done. But here’s the kicker. Ask her if she has always had long hair. If she says something like, “No, my hair was breaking all the time, but then I changed hairdressers and-” That means you’ve got a winner because her dresser knows not only about long hair but healthy long hair.
