How many AA women you know are MBL or WL

[RegaLady]

A handful.

Most are people in my family and inlaws.

I know a couple MBL WL women who are locked up.

 

[SunRai Naturals]

Zero that are waist length. MBL length I can count on one hand. For hair like mine 4b/c--ZERO for either length outside of the internet except for myself (I'm inching past MBL and approaching waist).

ETA: I'm not including those that I know with locs in the above statement only those with loose hair.

 

[ElevatedEnergy]

I know many...my hair stylist, 2 of my sisters, handful of friends etc. Shoooot, I've been there myself so I know it's possible.

Some are relaxed, some are natural. All have amazing hair.

Edited to add: Growing up, my sisters and I were taught how to take care of our hair really well and my grandmother was super old school and hated for us to cut it. None of us had relaxers...back then it was just considered a press and curl. I was almost stoned when I cut my hair and relaxed it as an adult. lol

 

[lovemyhair247]

My younger cousin is MBL relaxed and one of my close friends is APL curly and WL straight-she's natural. I know way more black women who are in between APL and BSL though.

 

[hnntrr]

My mother is just past APL and my sister is MBL, both have been natural for 3 and 2 years respectively. They are on 24/7 wig regimens. We are all black women.

 

[PinkSunshine77]

I don't know one AA woman IRL with hair longer than SL.

 

[Rnjones]

Let's see. I know 3. My mom, coworker, and this other chick. I think that's it.

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF

 

[Lia3257]

Not many at all. Of the AA friends I have, my hair is the longest.

 

[Saludable84]

The only one I know is mixed so does she really count? Otherwise, just black, I'm the longest person I actually know.

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF

 

[Prettymetty]

Not a single one

 

[cravoecanela]

Hmm.. there's a girl in one of my classes that has 3b hair that i'm pretty sure is waist length if stretched. My grandmother and mother used to have waist length hair when they were younger but lost it when they came to america and put a jherri curl/perm in it.

 

[AgeinATL]

Two of my sisters (one is WL stretched, one is MBL stretched, both natural), me (WL, transitioning), an old co-worker of mine had HL hair (relaxed), a friend of mind has WL Locs. That's about it.

 

[NowIAmNappy]

Me, my sister, my bestie from high school, a friend at my church.. all of us are natural

 

[Beamodel]

Three women at my job including myself. We are all relaxed.

 

[Rnjones]

Three women at my job including myself. We are all relaxed.

Are they on an active hair journey like us soldiers? Do yall talk hair?

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using LHCF

 

[Beamodel]

Are they on an active hair journey like us soldiers? Do yall talk hair? Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using LHCF

No, just me. I will say this though. Both of them kept their hair in a pony tail hanging. They have real thick beautiful long relaxed hair.

 

[EnExitStageLeft]

I have a coworker with healthy BSL hair (Recently relaxed...her hair is to die for).

Most of the women on my fathers side of the family have long hair. I have a cousin whom is color treated and her hair is still MBL and gorgeous (She's natural).

I'm MBL, so thats three. Not including me, only 2.

TBH, I don't think alot of women care about length. My mom has grown her hair to APL thrice in a year in a half and still cuts it back to SL or CBL. She loves short hair.

I think the health is what a lot of them want.

 

[sylver2]

the ones i know all have type 3 hair.

I answered this 4 years ago and my answer is still the same. all the mbl or longer ladies i see have some 3 type in their hair.
i never see pure type 4 (no 3 anything) mbl or longer we are rare

 

[sherrimberri]

I answered this a few years ago too and my answer has changed to 3. Myself included and all of us are type 4 natural.

 

[ManeStreet]

I'm waist length. I'm black not mixed. There's a co-worker of mine who's mbl. I knew 2 women at my church who were waist length/tailbone length. All of them are black.

 

[DoDo]

One. She has a looser texture and flat irons every two weeks.

My best friend could have easily grown her loose hair to waist length because she had really healthy hair practices.

But she has INCREDIBLY thick hair so it was just way too much of a chore for her to do in its loose state. So, she switched to locs and is now bsl.

My former supervisor has locs and they are whip length.

My former co-worker is relaxed and bsl.

 

[rawsilk]

It varies by age -- very rarely see anyone over 30 with long healthy hair.

I do see younger (teens and 20s) girls at MBL who have presumably been covering with weaves and take their hair out every once and a while. Their hair looks fairly healthy but sometimes dry and in need of a trim to BSL - nothing awe inspiring. (I wish that young AA girls knew just how easy it is to grow their hair at that stage in life. If they did, they would double down on the hair care and leave the weaves and direct heat alone.)

One of the few times that I saw a woman over 30 with WL hair, I stopped her and got stylist info. She said that she was natural and flat ironed (hard w/ a lot of heat) every two weeks faithfully and that doing so over several years had greatly improved the health and length of her hair. I went to her stylist once and loved the sleekness and swing but concluded (after smelling my hair) that it was way too much heat for me.

I had an aunt (not on "mixed" side of fam) who had WHIP hair well into her 60s. She was relaxed and roller set faithfully (taught me how), never used ANY direct heat at all and was extremely conscientious (okay, obsessive) about hair care. She once made her husband drive her all over town in a blizzard looking for a particular conditioner.

I saw a 30+ woman at Whole Foods one time who had natural WHIP hair in two air-dried looking braids. It looked thick and she was a darker skinned woman but something told me she was mixed. She was also a raw-foodist. (Come on, you KNOW I asked. LOL)

I remember running into an ex boyfriend's older sister (she might have been in her 50s and I hadn't seen her since she was around 40) and her hair was WL. Whereas her 3(b)-(c) ish looking hair had always been a wild, straggly mess that never went beyond CBL, it was now sleek and healthy and beautiful all the way to the ends. I saw her in the salon and noticed that it was curly wavy when wet (so no apparent relaxer - maybe tex-lax?) and after she had it set on huge black rollers, it was completely straight. Maybe she just got hip to roller setting. I also noticed that she seemed to have become a little compulsive/picky -- telling the stylist not to use a certain product, etc.

Bottom line -- it is rare. Even when you see groups of Ethiopian women who typically have gorgeous thick shinny hair, it is rarely MBL or WL. The only people I see regularly with hair past MBL who have hair that remotely resembles AA are Dominicans and I know for a fact that a lot of the things that the stylists do to AA hair (e.g., extreme high heat blow out on relaxed hair!), they don't do to their own. On the other hand, to be fair, Dominican products, detangling techniques and re-introduction of roller sets are probably responsible for a lot of increased length by AA women.

One thing that WL women seem to have in common (other than a lot of roller setting), IMO, is that they are quietly passionate about their hair -- they don't go around preaching and reprimanding, but if you watch and observe the way that they care for their own hair -- it is obvious that it commands a lot of their time, energy and focus.

 

[reeko43]

Every woman on the train today who appeared under the age of 30 had WL hair.

 

[Brwnbeauti]

Every student that I've had whose mother is a beautician has had WL hair. About ten. Currently I have a cousin, one student, and an associate who have WL hair. All these ladies are relaxed and AA.

 

[LovelyRo]

I probably already answered here but, I know about 2/3 people that are either MBL or WL... IRL! My step mother used to be BSL but she's been APL the last few years!

 

[CenteredGirl]

I know of no one.

 

[MileHighDiva]

It varies by age -- very rarely see anyone over 30 with long healthy hair.

Bottom line -- it is rare. Even when you see groups of Ethiopian women who typically have gorgeous thick shinny hair, it is rarely MBL or WL. The only people I see regularly with hair past MBL who have hair that remotely resembles AA are Dominicans and I know for a fact that a lot of the things that the stylists do to AA hair (e.g., extreme high heat blow out on relaxed hair!), they don't do to their own. On the other hand, to be fair, Dominican products, detangling techniques and re-introduction of roller sets are probably responsible for a lot of increased length by AA women.

One thing that WL women seem to have in common (other than a lot of roller setting), IMO, is that they are quietly passionate about their hair -- they don't go around preaching and reprimanding, but if you watch and observe the way that they care for their own hair -- it is obvious that it commands a lot of their time, energy and focus.

rawsilk What are Dominican detangling techniques?

 

[rawsilk]

Meaning, detangling the very ends first and moving UP slowly and methodically towards the root, as opposed to raking from the root in one swoop, catching a bunch of hair in the comb and throwing it away. I can remember when the latter was par for the course in AA beauty salons. It wasn't until people started going to the Dominican Salons in droves that AA stylists started being gentler with hair as standard practice. (Not saying that there weren't exceptions.)

@rawsilk What are Dominican detangling techniques?

 

[biancaelyse]

Mainly family. All 3 of us in my house. All nieces except one that cut her hair recently and too many cousins to name.

 

[rawsilk]

Exactly. But I can remember a time, before asymmetrical and other short cuts became the lure of salons, that AA women over 30 had A LOT more hair. Might not have been common place to see women with MBL or WL but their hair didn't look puny and while some wore wigs - ala Diana - most of the women I saw growing up had AT LEAST SL or APL. I wonder if it was because they were doing their own hair -- something in water? stress? I dunno.

Every woman on the train today who appeared under the age of 30 had WL hair.