by Cipriana of UrbanBushBabes.com
I love afros, I love huge humongous can’t walk thru the door disturbing the dinner table next to you can hardly hold up your own head afros but unfortunately for me rockin an afro on the daily is committing suicide for my strands but years ago you couldn’t tell me NOTHING!!! The afro was my daily and I mean everyday style and wow did my strands act accordingly and not for the better. The featured picture above is of me (about 5 years ago right before my third and last relaxer in which most of my hair broke off immediately after the first application) with good friends (from left to right), singer/rapper TK Wonder (my sister and bestie), Photographer Quazi King, me and Fashion Designer/Make- up artist Candice Veerasammy. The afro you see in the pic was pretty much my staple for a couple of years and because of this my hair began to deteriorate. Now everyone’s hair is different obviously and I would never choose to knock someone else’s preference in the way they choose to style their hair but because of the extremely curly, kinky 4b-c texture of my strands coupled with density that defies the word thick and fine strands that you would need a microscope to see individually (well maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration but you get my drift), let me breakdown and explain why the afro for me to rock on a daily basis is death for my strands.
DA: During the Afro
A complete breakdown of my past daily afro routine and the results that followed.
- High Manipulation: My hands were constantly in my hair trying to mold the perfect fro therefore I would constantly pull and tug on my strands to give my fro shape and since shrinkage is a huge factor when it comes to my strands the tugging action was on a constant basis to achieve more length.
- No Protective Styling: Protective styling for me in the years of DA (during the afro) was pretty much non-existent which created havoc on my strands. I noticed my hair became a lot drier and prone to breakage. My hair may be fragile but it is not weak and there was no reason for my strands to be snapping off because of constant split ends and excessive dryness.
- Over use of products: The act of placing oils constantly onto my strands was my way of producing less of a desert like feeling amongst my strands which in return only resulted in more dryness because of the smothering of product overload.
- Wet detangling: The curlier the hair the more susceptible your hair is to breakage. This by no way translates that your hair is unhealthy but just means more fragile because at every curling point along your strand is a point of potential breakage and coupled with water which makes your strands even weaker because now your hair is absorbing water which has added weight to your strands which causes them to stretch. All this stretching along all your points of potential breakage with added manipulation of pulling during detangling can cause high risk of breakage but like anything in life there are those with kinky textures who prefer wet detangling but lawd knows I am not one of them. It really just depends on the individual.
- Excessive Tangled Strands: Because of the fine state of my strands wearing my hair out daily is not ideal. I had no protective styles to wrangle my hair in and contain tangles into sections which left me with a huge mass of tangles to deal with versus wearing my in some form of a protective style such as twists or braids that makes detangling especially dry detangling much more manageable.
- Deterioration of Length: With the daily manipulation, no protective styling, wet detangling and just rockin of the afro daily the length of my hair in the featured picture (even though I loved the length featured) was about the most my hair was able to retain
The state of my hair changed tremendously for the better when I began to exercise the complete opposite of all of the previous mentioned which in turn created less manipulation more length, thickness and health.
I am hoping in sharing my hair journey , the discoveries and mistakes I have made along the way that this will just enable others on the path of an easier and less frustrating journey. Trial and error along our hair journey only creates a destiny of finding a regimen that works for you but hey sometime cliff notes along the way ain’t too bad either.
What have you discovered along your journey that helped you retain more length or increased health of your hair?
I agree with the majority of this post. I enjoy learning from others as well as through trial and error. I have really thick 4a hair and wearing a wash ‘n go afro caused my hair to be a hot tangled mess. Twist outs and braid outs have been the best thing that has happened to my hair. I also enjoy wearing protective styles now and my hair has changed for the better. Now, I don’t believe dry detangling is good for my hair AT ALL. I honestly don’t know how a person with 3c or 4a kinks and curls could do this without ripping their hair out. I think it is all about being gentle when you manipulate your hair in a wet state. I also found that finger combing my hair does nothing for me. I get the best results by using a wide-tooth comb and gently running a denman through after my curls have been completely detangled. My hair has to be completely drenched in order to make the process go smoothly.
Pingback: Life’s Essential Skill: Personal Encouragement « Maximising Potential
I understand how twists (used alone, not pinned up like yours are in the picture Cipriana) are elongating but I don’t really think they are protective styles given that your ends are exposed just as much as they would be witha wash and go. I also have short hair still (it’s just reached my earlobe curly on my nape stretched out) so bunning isn’t really an option yet. Do you have any protective style suggestions for people with shorter hair
Some people might be acting oversensitive here. Cipriana has tailbone or hip-length hair now and many of us would love to have natural hair that is at least mid-back length or the length of Cipriana’s hair. The reality is that some of us do not. While the numbers are growing, long hair is still not the norm in our community. It’s just not. I still see mostly short or medium length hair on the heads of Black women and girls around me in the city, the suburbs, my kids school, etc.
Cipriana wrote of her own hair experiences, experiences that worked for her in an effort to HELP US the natural hair community FOR FREE. I read the article twice and I don’t recall reading anything demeaning or offensive. She came across as informative, humble, and helpful.
Some of y’all are going to make people stop uploading vlogs, blogs, and articles altogether if you keep getting caught up with semantics or picking apart someone else’s words instead of looking at the bigger picture. Then the rest of us won’t get the tips we want/need.
For many naturals with 4a/4b hair (or even 3c hair, it is difficult to retain length if we are handling our hair roughly or if we keep the hair loose without the ends being effectively moisturized. My own personal experience (not someone else’s) is when I wear my hair loose it grows to a certain length (8 or 9 inches) and then breaks off. Yes, it’s fun to wear my hair loose and big, but it’s not fun FOR ME to be natural for years, yearn for longer, well-moisturized hair and be faced with a dry, brittle mess of tangles time and time again.
I personally do not care for the way I look in twists. I’ve had them done several times, by different people and I just don’t like them on me. BUT, I will say that when I was transitioning, cornrow styles with a phony pony puff on the back really kept my hair very soft and moisturized. And I am not opposed to that as a protective style, especially during this time of year. But now that my hair is fully natural, I can’t get any stylist who will agree to braid my hair without the use of heat (i.e blowdrying). I do not believe in using heat on my hair. So I feel like I have no choice but to wear my hair in “out” styles most of the time. Occasionally, I do buns though. Does anyone else have this problem? My hair is very kinky and thick as the author of the article described.