Hair and race - no intention to cause offence

[alarafan]

OK, this site has REALLY opened my eyes in a number of ways - but one is black hair can get that long, with no weave!

I grew up in Zimbabwe and basically it was like this; If you are white or asian (i.e. indian, chinese) you can grow your hair however long you want - only stop when it starts tripping you up when walking

Then there was black hair - which meant you could have a weave or braids if you wanted it long. The only way for it to be long was to lock it - I understood that african hair just breaks naturally because of the curl pattern and can not sustain length.

The only 'middle ground' was for people of 'mixed race'. You would either be 'lucky' and get the white/asian genes for long hair or not. If there was something 'silky' about someone's hair - you could trace it back to a non-black relative somehow (oh, her grandma was half chinese...)

Now I was showing a friend this site, and all the lovely profile pics and she was like - yeah that's all well and good, but these are AMERICANS. Due to 100s of years of mixing since slave times none of them are PURE african. I understand that in the US if you are not caucasian then you are pretty much 'coloured'. In my growing up, it was kind of the other way round. Anyway, so she was like your hair can NEVER get like that, because you are PURE AFRICAN with no other hair genes mixed in. Southern africa - not somali with all the arabic hair and not African-American with a melting pot of backgrounds. (like the Cosby family on TV, lol, they are all considered 'African American' but in Zimbabwe that Denise, the other fair-skinned one and the fair skinned 'mom' would be considered 'mixed'.

I am sorry - I do not mean to be ignorant or cause offence - but is this correct. That because of where I am from and the tight curl pattern that comes with it, my hair journey is limited?

 

[msa]

I am sorry - I do not mean to be ignorant or cause offence - but is this correct. That because of where I am from and the tight curl pattern that comes with it, my hair journey is limited?

Nope, it's completely incorrect.

Your ethnicity and your hair texture do not limit your journey. Not knowing the right hair care practices, techniques, and products for your hair type and characteristics is what will limit you.

 

[Almaz]

No this is not offensive at all because in South Africa that is the way it WAS and that is what people believed. And let me tell you we have women of color from ALL over here. Have you seen the Nigerian and South African girls on here that are NOT mixed with long hair that some people said it would never grow? Again it is a myth.

 

[Platinum]

Absolutely not. Your journey isn't limited because of your texture. There are several sisters on the site that have the same texture as yours, some are natural. Check out members zzirving, Victory is Mine, Mwedzi, and many others.

Google Stephanie Suthers. She's natural with thigh-length hair. Also, go to youtube and check out Sera 252.

 

[Ladyhenri]

qtslim and Sonce are both Nigerians and they both have Longer than BSL hair.

I understand you though... I only just fully let go of that mind set.


I am 100% Nigerian too, but i dont wanna use myself because due to a set back, i'm back to just before APL.

But you can do it definately.

 

[loulou82]

Welcome to the board. This board is a mixture of nationalities and ethnicities. There are PLENTY of ladies hailing from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa with hair BSL and longer. Proper hair care practices will get you very far.

I say drop off any defeatist attitude and doubt you have because with the information from the board you will see dramatic improvement in the health of your hair. The length will come too. Your friend is misinformed but don't allow her to dictate what is possible for you to achieve.

Please check out Sera's albums. Her hair type is similar to your own.

http://members.fotki.com/Sera252/about/

I wish you much success with your hair!

 

[Gigi-07]

I'm 100% Nigerian and I grew my hair BSL. Don't worry about what your friend said, you can do it too!

 

[hair_rehab]

Nope, it's completely incorrect.

Your ethnicity and your hair texture do not limit your journey. Not knowing the right hair care practices, techniques, and products for your hair type and characteristics is what will limit you.

ITA and also not taking care of your body as a whole. Eating a proper diet, taking vitamins and getting enough exercise and rest will help you to have healthier hair and it will grow! Oh and most importantly, love your hair regardless of its texture and length!

 

[Platinum]

Here's a link to the thread posted about Sera252:

http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=373245&highlight=sera

 

[redecouvert]

the ladies gave you great advice! I do understand where you come from
I've been in Zimbabwe several times...
I was supposed to there this summer..but oh well..this december.
anywho, my lil' sis is natural and went to the hairsalon
got bad feedback from the hairstylists because of those preconcepts...
you can grow long hair

 

[Pandora1975]

I gotta say, my family tree includes Irish, English, French, Native American, German, Scottish (and those are just the ones we know about) as well as African. My hair, however, is ALL African. Genes are funny things.

Learn to know your hair and you can grow it.

 

[Almaz]

No boo boo is that you hair cause I saw and Irish girl the other day with hair EXACTLY looking like yours. Must be those Irish genes popping through also.

Cause hers was Fire Red and 4ish. She asked me what about my hair I told her what I do and she was like Almaz you know when I was in school people called me nappy headed negro girl. I was like AWWW its okay and I told her about the Forum.

She thanked me. She wore relaxers for years

I gotta say, my family tree includes Irish, English, French, Native American, German, Scottish (and those are just the ones we know about) as well as African. My hair, however, is ALL African. Genes are funny things.

Learn to know your hair and you can grow it.

 

[MonPetite]

It is an ABSOLUTE myth.

 

[Tee]

Totally a myth. Stick around and watch what your hair can do with some knowledge and TLC.

 

[newflowers]

Look at it this way: you have to work a little harder to grow longer hair than someone of a non-african ethnicity; however, they're going to get wrinkles and look old looooooonnnnnnng before you do. - work with what you've got. learn about YOUR hair - i think hair care (at least my own) is when you have to go deeply transcendentalist - forget established, accepted "truths" and learn what is true for yourself, learn what is true for your hair. In a few years, you'll have hair down your back!

 

[Pandora1975]

No boo boo is that you hair cause I saw and Irish girl the other day with hair EXACTLY looking like yours. Must be those Irish genes popping through also.

Cause hers was Fire Red and 4ish. She asked me what about my hair I told her what I do and she was like Almaz you know when I was in school people called me nappy headed negro girl. I was like AWWW its okay and I told her about the Forum.

She thanked me. She wore relaxers for years

Woulda been nice if I had gotten the red!

 

[jerseygurl]

Your friend is absolutely incorrect, don't let her bring you down and PLEASE stop dwelling on your setback. All you need ia a little education and being on this forum already gives you an advantage.

I'm 100% Nigerian and until last month my hair was just touching my bra and I've never been that length before. I had to trim to get rid of split ends caused by Dom blowouts. Your hair will grow to its potential,all you have to do is to learn what works for YOUR hair.

Don't worry about a thing, hair grows (((hugs)))!!!

 

[*Muffin*]

I'm African-American, and any melting pot of whatever I may have going on in my genealogy ain't helping me, because I'm having a heck of a time trying simply to get to BSL . It just takes patience and making sure you RETAIN all the length that you grow.

 

[LushLox]

My friend is Ghanian and she has beautiful BSL hair.

 

[Urban]

I think the girl who owns Hairlicious is full ghanian, http://www.youtube.com/user/HairliciousInc .

Here in Aussie I know 2 Zimbabwean girls who have BSL hair. I also another Ghanian girl with the same, In think hers is WL. They all simply made the conscious decision to treat their hair differently. So it's definately possible for Africans to grow their hair. I think the main reasons that long hair is not as common in Africa is because of hair practices. If you have access to a journal database, there is a Dermatologist based in SA called Nonhlahla Khumalo who's published quite a few papers on the topic. I did a literature review of a lot of her work for one of my classes. Makes for good reading.

I also wanted to say that everyone's hair grows, unless you have some kind of scalp disorder. Regardless of where you come from. It's how much of that growth that you keep on your head that makes a difference. If someone's hair is growing from the scalp, but they're breaking the ends off well....

 

[suburbanbushbabe]

I am sorry - I do not mean to be ignorant or cause offence - but is this correct. That because of where I am from and the tight curl pattern that comes with it, my hair journey is limited?"]I am sorry - I do not mean to be ignorant or cause offence - but is this correct. That because of where I am from and the tight curl pattern that comes with it, my hair journey is limited?

This is an "urban myth" and really needs to be on snopes.com

By this reasoning it's only because they are mixed with non-African blood does anyone on this board achieve long hair. Not.

 

[msa]

I think the girl who owns Hairlicious is full ghanian, http://www.youtube.com/user/HairliciousInc .

Here in Aussie I know 2 Zimbabwean girls who have BSL hair. I also another Ghanian girl with the same, In think hers is WL. They all simply made the conscious decision to treat their hair differently. So it's definately possible for Africans to grow their hair. I think the main reasons that long hair is not as common in Africa is because of hair practices. If you have access to a journal database, there is a Dermatologist based in SA called Nonhlahla Khumalo who's published quite a few papers on the topic. I did a literature review of a lot of her work for one of my classes. Makes for good reading.

I also wanted to say that everyone's hair grows, unless you have some kind of scalp disorder. Regardless of where you come from. It's how much of that growth that you keep on your head that makes a difference. If someone's hair is growing from the scalp, but they're breaking the ends off well....

I love her work. I think I learned about her from www.blackgirllonghair.blogspot.com...she did an interview with her. Oh Alarafan, that's a good place to go to see lots of pics. The pics from African style week show lots of full Africans with long hair.

 

[MonPetite]

I gotta say, my family tree includes Irish, English, French, Native American, German, Scottish (and those are just the ones we know about) as well as African. My hair, however, is ALL African. Genes are funny things.

Learn to know your hair and you can grow it.

I've got Scottish, Irish, Comanche, Apache and possibly German and/or polish floating around and I feel the same as the bolded (with pictures to prove it, yes).

No boo boo is that you hair cause I saw and Irish girl the other day with hair EXACTLY looking like yours. Must be those Irish genes popping through also.

Cause hers was Fire Red and 4ish. She asked me what about my hair I told her what I do and she was like Almaz you know when I was in school people called me nappy headed negro girl. I was like AWWW its okay and I told her about the Forum.

She thanked me. She wore relaxers for years

Well, then! There you go!I stand corrected. Thank you, Almaz.

Woulda been nice if I had gotten the red!

LOL. I must say I do rather like being schwarzkopf these days.


ITA with you both. It's all about the hair care practices and long (or BIG) hair can be your.

 

[LightEyedMami]

Nothing can stop you, but YOU. If you find the right routine and products for your hair, you will see tons of progress just ignore the others, our people tend to be VERY ill informed when it comes to our hair.

 

[Almaz]

I surely co-sign

You know I was just thinking MOST of the women are well informed about a lot of things. When I read the news about Beat Downs in Oakland and people acting nuts if they were to take to time to become well informed like the ladies on this list. Man we could take over the world so to speak.

I mean did y'all see the Becky Threads. Its so saddening to see this myth still around

Nothing can stop you, but YOU. If you find the right routine and products for your hair, you will see tons of progress just ignore the others, our people tend to be VERY ill informed when it comes to our hair.

 

[Ronnieaj]

I mean did y'all see the Becky Threads. Its so saddening to see this myth still around

I hadn't seen them, but I looked them up, and WOW! Such folly, spoken with such a level of both disdain for those who believe otherwise and an air of superiority in her correctness. I hit APL when relaxed without thinking about it (in retrospect, I was practicing healthy hair practices without knowing it), and now that I'm natural, at CBL after one full year of being natural. It would be sad if she weren't so irritating about it.

 

[LongiLox]

OK, this site has REALLY opened my eyes in a number of ways - but one is black hair can get that long, with no weave!

I grew up in Zimbabwe and basically it was like this; If you are white or asian (i.e. indian, chinese) you can grow your hair however long you want - only stop when it starts tripping you up when walking

Then there was black hair - which meant you could have a weave or braids if you wanted it long. The only way for it to be long was to lock it - I understood that african hair just breaks naturally because of the curl pattern and can not sustain length.

The only 'middle ground' was for people of 'mixed race'. You would either be 'lucky' and get the white/asian genes for long hair or not. If there was something 'silky' about someone's hair - you could trace it back to a non-black relative somehow (oh, her grandma was half chinese...)

Now I was showing a friend this site, and all the lovely profile pics and she was like - yeah that's all well and good, but these are AMERICANS. Due to 100s of years of mixing since slave times none of them are PURE african. I understand that in the US if you are not caucasian then you are pretty much 'coloured'. In my growing up, it was kind of the other way round. Anyway, so she was like your hair can NEVER get like that, because you are PURE AFRICAN with no other hair genes mixed in. Southern africa - not somali with all the arabic hair and not African-American with a melting pot of backgrounds. (like the Cosby family on TV, lol, they are all considered 'African American' but in Zimbabwe that Denise, the other fair-skinned one and the fair skinned 'mom' would be considered 'mixed'.

I am sorry - I do not mean to be ignorant or cause offence - but is this correct. That because of where I am from and the tight curl pattern that comes with it, my hair journey is limited?

This is so not true!!! Check out this thread about 100% black people with long hair: http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=194907&highlight=100+black

There are also several African people here with long hair. I myself never had hair longer than SL all my life until I found this board. 1 yr and 7 months later, I'm approaching BSL. Do not be fooled by the ignorance.

 

[ladylibra]

OK, this site has REALLY opened my eyes in a number of ways - but one is black hair can get that long, with no weave!

I grew up in Zimbabwe and basically it was like this; If you are white or asian (i.e. indian, chinese) you can grow your hair however long you want - only stop when it starts tripping you up when walking

Then there was black hair - which meant you could have a weave or braids if you wanted it long. The only way for it to be long was to lock it - I understood that african hair just breaks naturally because of the curl pattern and can not sustain length.

The only 'middle ground' was for people of 'mixed race'. You would either be 'lucky' and get the white/asian genes for long hair or not. If there was something 'silky' about someone's hair - you could trace it back to a non-black relative somehow (oh, her grandma was half chinese...)

Now I was showing a friend this site, and all the lovely profile pics and she was like - yeah that's all well and good, but these are AMERICANS. Due to 100s of years of mixing since slave times none of them are PURE african. I understand that in the US if you are not caucasian then you are pretty much 'coloured'. In my growing up, it was kind of the other way round. Anyway, so she was like your hair can NEVER get like that, because you are PURE AFRICAN with no other hair genes mixed in. Southern africa - not somali with all the arabic hair and not African-American with a melting pot of backgrounds. (like the Cosby family on TV, lol, they are all considered 'African American' but in Zimbabwe that Denise, the other fair-skinned one and the fair skinned 'mom' would be considered 'mixed'.

I am sorry - I do not mean to be ignorant or cause offence - but is this correct. That because of where I am from and the tight curl pattern that comes with it, my hair journey is limited?

i understand. they are common misconceptions, because we see a lot of longer-haired Caucasians and not so many longer-haired Blacks. and we assume that everyone else can grow yards of hair with no problem... which isn't true, by the way... yet are convinced that we must be "mixed" with something in order to grow long hair.

you will notice that there are African members on this site too. mixture don't mean nothin, i know plenty of people who are more "other" than Black but still have stereotypical "African" hair. you just have to learn to care for it differently, and find out what works best for it.

 

[ichephren]

I am 100% Nigerian with absolutely no mixing and grew my hair to a few inches past BSL relaxed. I am now 8mths post relaxer and my hair continues to get longer and longer... My hair was really short and broken when I was young from bad hair practices. I would relax my whole head each time I did a touchup. The only conditioner that touched my head was the one that came with the box of relaxer...I could go on! Once you get the basics of good hair practices down, the hair accumulates growth. Rabs is also Nigerian I believe. RusticBeauty on youtube is Nigerian too I think and both have very long hair!

 

[LongiLox]

Rabs77? I think she's ghanian. Is she not?