How many AA women you know are MBL or WL

[BostonMaria]

I just started looking at the Chris Rock interview with Oprah and it got me wondering, how many AA women I know with MBL or WL hair. I could only come up with 2 women and that's a shame. I'm not counting the ones I know from this board. Now I can see why, Indian hair is so coveted by women of color.

To answer the original question, I think most of my AA friends and co-workers have shoulder length hair. I see other women with very long hair, but you said AA in your question and the women of color that come to mind are either from the Caribbean or Cape Verdean.

I think that with the internet and of course this forum, the number of AA women with long locks will become the norm.

 

[lalaland88]

Other then myself, not too much....my sister and my cousin who I wonder how it stays on her head with all the scary abuse she does to her hair! Also, other female family members.

 

[jamaraa]

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[almond eyes]

I think the issue is of hair that Barney used to sing in his nursury rhymes "hangs low". Most afro-hair texture does not hang low unless it is straightened or relaxed. So there are quite a few black women that are MBL and WL but they have shruken natural hair so no one can really tell. Also, as pointed out very few women have MBL and WL hair maintaining that type of hair regardless of race requires a lot of work and in many parts of Africa with the hot heat having MBL or WL hair would be too much.

Best,
Almond Eyes

 

[beana]

To answer the original question, I think most of my AA friends and co-workers have shoulder length hair. I see other women with very long hair, but you said AA in your question and the women of color that come to mind are either from the Caribbean or Cape Verdean.

I think that with the internet and of course this forum, the number of AA women with long locks will become the norm.

thanks for posting your experience as a Domincan woman! In general, do you notice that the type 4's chemically straighten more or are they using heat in DR?

 

[Celestial]

Huh? You must not visit this forum too often.

10's or few 100's where? The whole US??

The forums are small and doesn't represent the millions of AA in the U.S. Yes, I really meant only in the 10s or 100s in the U.S can actually make it to waist length. Okay I will up it to a few thousand.

 

[jamaraa]

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[jamaraa]

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[mscocoface]

I know more AA women with those lengths now than I have ever before!!!!

Hopeing to know a hundreds more in the coming years!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Jewell]

I don't know ANY personally besides my paternal grandmother and aunt. On my mother's side of the family I might have the longest hair...haven't seen my cousin in some years, but she may be included depending on whether she cut her hair or not. The only ones I "know" other than 2-3 family members are on this site or other hair sites or Youtube videos. As for how many I see in public in any given year, that's less than 5. We're talking less than 5 African-American women with MBL or longer hair whether it is loc'd, braided, or not. That's really sad, and I wish more of us had longer lengths as beautiful women of color.

Its bad that the main women of color that have the longest hair are Hispanic/Latino, Native American or West and East Indian. Why do we have to be excluded?! It makes me mad! We need to learn how to take better care of our hair and stop overdoing it with the relaxers. I believe the misuse of relaxers are the reason why we have the shortest hair (most do not choose to have their hair stuck at one length) out of all the women of color in the world.

 

[jamaraa]

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[Celestial]

Why do you think this? That number is far too small, IMHO online or off. Plenty of AA people w/ dreads have this length, so can't the general population?

I believe it because of genetics and the evidence all around me. I don't see black women with MBL or WL hair. If I do they are usually biracial or black women who hair would be considered "good." Dreads isn't the actual length of one's hair.

 

[jamaraa]

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[Celestial]

So why are you here then assuming you are not biracial or have "good hair"? LOL

BTW, you'd be surprised at how much hair is left when you remove dreads. There's far more real length there than you may think.

I'm here to enjoy the challenge. I don't care about dreads. I never witness anyway with MBL or WL after removing their dreads. I never met anyone or know anyone who removed their dreads.

 

[gissellr78]

This is a scary forum...but yes maria I agree no one in my family even blinks at my hair if is long or not...dominican women have good hair care practices ( hello when a family member comes from DR they bring conditioner as gifts..who does that? We do lol)

I didn't get my hair relaxed until I was 15...we are relaxing at an earlier age when the hair is course (not all)...but a lottttt of kids don't need a relaxer.

AA women relaxed and natural have the healthiest hair now that I have seen in 25 years of being here...the 90's were a hot mess lol with care all women can grow their hair.

 

[jamaraa]

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[Celestial]

So why are you here then assuming you are not biracial or have "good hair"? LOL Based on your remarks in the other thread, I think you just know many chicks w/ jacked up overprocessed hair. It ain't genetics luv, that's (bad) perm. Genetics does indeed play a part in hair length, but if you blast it w/ chemicals and don't know how to take care of it, why should you hair grow to it's optimum length?

BTW, you'd be surprised at how much hair is left when you remove dreads. There's far more real length there than you may think.

I can bet you dollars to doughnuts that most of the women you see are permed OR unstretched naturals. W/ the latter group, you have no idea of their hair length.

Many black women optimum length is ear length, shoulder length, chin length etc... There are black women who take care of their hair while relaxed and still don't make it to MBL or WL. I know a natural who has been natural for 13 years and her hair still doesn't reach shoulder length not even stretch. I will stick to my belief that the majority of black women will not be MBL or WL but shoulder length or BSL and probably more even shorter than shoulder length.

 

[jamaraa]

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[jamaraa]

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[Celestial]

OK, you know only people who have cut them...that tells you nothing. You seemed far too sure that locks don't represent much real living length, but how can you be sure of this if you've never seen them removed, only cut?

So you want to challenge yourself to see how long your hair will grow? OK, what do you do to maintain it? That, more than genetics, will decide how much length you'll retain.

I never seen them removed or cut. I just know that dreads don't represent the actual length of one's hair. What you retain isn't genetic. How frequent it grows is genetic.

 

[Celestial]

If you believe this, this is all you'll get. This is precisely why I don't go to hairdressers...if you have hair much longer than average, they'll make sure you won't. Lot of this is about how you think. There's such a thing as self-sabotage....much of what Black women do to their hair is precisely that because they don't think it'll grown. I'm grateful that I wasn't raised w/ those hangups.

What I think has no effect on how often my hair grows. How often my hair grows depends on my genes.

 

[CurlyMoo]

This is a scary forum...but yes maria I agree no one in my family even blinks at my hair if is long or not...dominican women have good hair care practices ( hello when a family member comes from DR they bring conditioner as gifts..who does that? We do lol)

I didn't get my hair relaxed until I was 15...we are relaxing at an earlier age when the hair is course (not all)...but a lottttt of kids don't need a relaxer.

AA women relaxed and natural have the healthiest hair now that I have seen in 25 years of being here...the 90's were a hot mess lol with care all women can grow their hair.

Looks like I need to get me a Dominican BFF. I gave my friend some leave in conditioner for her b-day and she looked at it like . Then she proceeded to bring out several jars of hair grease with mineral oil in it. And I'm like erplexed .

 

[jamaraa]

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[CurlyMoo]

Many black women optimum length is ear length, shoulder length, chin length etc... There are black women who take care of their hair while relaxed and still don't make it to MBL or WL. I know a natural who has been natural for 13 years and her hair still doesn't reach shoulder length not even stretch. I will stick to my belief that the majority of black women will not be MBL or WL but shoulder length or BSL and probably more even shorter than shoulder length.

There can be many different reasons why their hair has no length. Do they actually want long hair? What's their regimen? Are they members of the LHCF? When someone posts something like this I take it with a grain of salt because I'm not there to see exactly what they put in their hair and how they maintain it. I feel the same way when someone says, "I have a white girlfriend of a roommate who cuts her hair to shoulder and in 3 months it's a waist length again. They just grow hair faster than we do, is all."

 

[jamaraa]

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[jevetta]

Three in my family. Always had natural hair, no relaxers. They would use heat however. JEVE

 

[Crackers Phinn]

Many black women optimum length is ear length, shoulder length, chin length etc... There are black women who take care of their hair while relaxed and still don't make it to MBL or WL. I know a natural who has been natural for 13 years and her hair still doesn't reach shoulder length not even stretch. I will stick to my belief that the majority of black women will not be MBL or WL but shoulder length or BSL and probably more even shorter than shoulder length.

I really believed this too until I found this board.

I was chronically at neck length for a good twenty some years before LHCF and I am now a believer that there is something to the nurture vs nature arguement when it comes to type 4 hair.

 

[gissellr78]

Looks like I need to get me a Dominican BFF. I gave my friend some leave in conditioner for her b-day and she looked at it like . Then she proceeded to bring out several jars of hair grease with mineral oil in it. And I'm like erplexed .

Yes i get several jars a year...it all depends on the quality of the conditioner and bad ingredients...You friend is definately is definately not hair educated...cause anyone that has been to a dominican salon knows they are the anti grease...they make sure to wash your hair and leave zero oil so you can have that swang many women want.

 

[locabouthair]

Yes i get several jars a year...it all depends on the quality of the conditioner and bad ingredients...You friend is definately is definately not hair educated...cause anyone that has been to a dominican salon knows they are the anti grease...they make sure to wash your hair and leave zero oil so you can have that swang many women want.

really? when I went they loved putting that grease on my scalp, which I didn't like at all.

 

[gissellr78]

really? when I went they loved putting that grease on my scalp, which I didn't like at all.

I don't mean to be controversial but do you mean products with mineral oil in them? if so yes i agree.

and regarding the article posted before i agree totally but race and discrimination is not a problem only in DR is a huge problem in latin america overall which is very sad to me.