What if you don't "have indian in your family" . . . .

[motherx2esq]

This is just my .02. I get so sick of girls/women nowadays always claiming to have Indian in their family or blood or whatever they want to call it. The only time they seem to find that appealing is when someone makes a comment about their hair. I very well do happen to have Indian in my blood, Cherokee at that. My father is full blooded Indian and my mother is well, black. But, as a child, I never ran around openly telling people "hey, I have Indian in my family". I never did it as I grew older either. It was unnecessary and pointless. While I do respect and appreciate my heritage, a lot of people take the whole "Indian bloodline" thing for granted and some people take it as a joke. Having so called "Indian in your family" is not about long and pretty hair. There is so much more than that. I get so sick of women claiming to have Indian in their blood when they know nothing about the heritage. Our natives suffered and went through a lot in their day, and I think it's downright disrespectful for women to make a mockery of our heritage just because they think it sounds good to say that they have "Indian" in their family because of hair. I have been in a number of debates about this very issue where I will point out the fact that before you go claiming to have a background of Indian descent, do some research and read up on the history of the Indian nation, and then tell me if you respect the heritage enough to claim to be a part of it. Sorry for the rant, this is a sensitive issue for me and I get frustrated by ignorance sometimes.

With all that being said, you don't need to have Indian bloodlines in your family to have what people refer to as "good hair". Nor do you need those bloodlines to grow long hair. Your hair flourishes and grows as a result of good, quality TLC. If you take care of your hair and nurture it, it will grow. Plain and simple. You get out what you put in. And your efforts will show. There are plenty of straight African American women (with no mixture of other races) that have beautiful, natural heads of long, healthy hair. And yours can get that way too, IF you take care of it and nurture it. It's like a child, the more you nurture it and take care of it, the better and stronger that child becomes. Love your hair, and it will love you back.

Tell it! I just found out about 5 years ago that my grandfather was half Indian. I thought he was just white! But I never really cared because he was just grandpa.

 

[medina78]

Hello all!...newbie here. I usually never post or reply, but this thread has really got my attention...I'm a black Nigerian and have been brading my nautral hair for about 5 yrs now. To be honest, I've never really taken care of it. When I found this site and read about how you ladies took care of your hair, i was so ashmed, and i realized how much work I had ahead of me. Luckily for me, I think my diet is the only thing that saved my hair. Anyways I dont think it matters what blood runs through your veins; as long as you are human, your hair will grow--varying a bit from person to person..I have had to chop off everything twice and it still grew back--longer and fuller. I don't know the exact lenght definition of my hair so I'm going to post a picture--your comments are appreciated. The picture is of my starting point. I'm going to incorporate some of your techniques and see how my hair turns out.





p.s my hair is like 4 xyz and how do you post a pic? erplexed

 

[MissJ]

It all depends on how you take care of your hair.

 

[harrison]

I have what was termed "Can'tcha Don'tcha Knot" Hair!

I use to be told that my hair was so thick and unmanageable you had to literally FIGHT it. No one wanted to work in my hair, NO ONE. I would go to salons and the look I would get was Oh my God, please don't let her ask for me.

The older Beauticians would always say, Lawd Have Mercy look at this chile's head. Then they would start screaming about how much water it would hold, so they had to blow dry it for long periods of time. It would hold heat, so I was always hearing, OUCH! and see them blowing at their fingers, because it holds heat for a period of time.

Now mind you this was when I had a relaxer in my head. My hair could be short or at least shoulder length and this is what I would have to brace myself for every time I went to the salon.

I may have some of everything in my family, so I don't know about the predisposition, because I have no clue as to what the generation past my grand parents were made of.

This I know, that because of the education we are getting about haircare and then teaching others thiese same tried and true methods of healthy haircare we are seeing and will continue to see more and more women of color no matter the hue with long healthy hair, or just healthy hair because not everyone wants long hair.

I have made it my business to teach anyone who wants to listen, including family members and friends what it takes to maintain healthy hair on a woman of color.

I truly believe that we are blowing that myth to bits one by one. Some will never change their mindset about this, they taught us that myth, now we have to change the minds of the young ones or even the ones are age and older that this is a myth.

I have some of the kinkiest, nappiest, thickest hair on the planet and I am PROUD and accepting of it now. Thanks to boards like this and others wanting to share their information on black hair care the task of educating ourselves and others is possible.

We may not convince everyone, but we will make a difference in quite a few lives not only with our information but as walking billboards for healthy haircare.

Mscocoface is stepping off the soapbox now. NEXT!

ITA... amen amen amen mscocoface!!

 

[harrison]

Hello all!...newbie here. I usually never post or reply, but this thread has really got my attention...I'm a black Nigerian and have been brading my nautral hair for about 5 yrs now. To be honest, I've never really taken care of it. When I found this site and read about how you ladies took care of your hair, i was so ashmed, and i realized how much work I had ahead of me. Luckily for me, I think my diet is the only thing that saved my hair. Anyways I dont think it matters what blood runs through your veins; as long as you are human, your hair will grow--varying a bit from person to person..I have had to chop off everything twice and it still grew back--longer and fuller. I don't know the exact lenght definition of my hair so I'm going to post a picture--your comments are appreciated. The picture is of my starting point. I'm going to incorporate some of your techniques and see how my hair turns out.





p.s my hair is like 4 xyz and how do you post a pic? erplexed

go to the user cp link in the upper left area of the screen. I believe there's a way to post through there once you have the photos on your pc or a disk. But I also think you might be able to set up a FOTKI and post many more pics there. You won't be able to post as many in your profile.

hope that helps- HTH

 

[Crissi]

hmm well i don't really like that comment either. People have always commented on my hair, how its just nice thick and jet black, but it didn't really grow past my shoulders, and guess what? My grandad IS half indian. Well hey that did not make any difference in my hair, it still grows 0.5 inches amonth and still kinks and coils like no bodies business! No matter what hair is just hair!

 

[DozenRoses99]

I haven't read through all of the posts in this thread, but I wanted to share with you some 4a/4b ladies who have mid-back hair or longer. There are plently of threads on this site which have links with ladies with mid-back and waistlength 4a/4b hair. (Not sure their heritage but I would guess that hair type does not match Indian hair types.) It is definitely possible to achieve long hair no matter your heritage or hair type.

sera252
redhotlala

 

[Barbara]

This is just my .02. I get so sick of girls/women nowadays always claiming to have Indian in their family or blood or whatever they want to call it. The only time they seem to find that appealing is when someone makes a comment about their hair. I very well do happen to have Indian in my blood, Cherokee at that. My father is full blooded Indian and my mother is well, black. But, as a child, I never ran around openly telling people "hey, I have Indian in my family". I never did it as I grew older either. It was unnecessary and pointless. While I do respect and appreciate my heritage, a lot of people take the whole "Indian bloodline" thing for granted and some people take it as a joke. Having so called "Indian in your family" is not about long and pretty hair. There is so much more than that. I get so sick of women claiming to have Indian in their blood when they know nothing about the heritage. Our natives suffered and went through a lot in their day, and I think it's downright disrespectful for women to make a mockery of our heritage just because they think it sounds good to say that they have "Indian" in their family because of hair. I have been in a number of debates about this very issue where I will point out the fact that before you go claiming to have a background of Indian descent, do some research and read up on the history of the Indian nation, and then tell me if you respect the heritage enough to claim to be a part of it. Sorry for the rant, this is a sensitive issue for me and I get frustrated by ignorance sometimes.

With all that being said, you don't need to have Indian bloodlines in your family to have what people refer to as "good hair". Nor do you need those bloodlines to grow long hair. Your hair flourishes and grows as a result of good, quality TLC. If you take care of your hair and nurture it, it will grow. Plain and simple. You get out what you put in. And your efforts will show. There are plenty of straight African American women (with no mixture of other races) that have beautiful, natural heads of long, healthy hair. And yours can get that way too, IF you take care of it and nurture it. It's like a child, the more you nurture it and take care of it, the better and stronger that child becomes. Love your hair, and it will love you back.

I'm commenting on your last paragraph. You are so right. You must have read my mind. You took the words right out of my mouth.

 

[the_UnPrettiest_pretty]

Something else I want to mention is that I've had a number of people confuse Indians (Middle Eastern) with Indians (Native American). They are 2 different ethnicities and should not be mistaken for the same thing. Yes, Middle Eastern women do have some very beautiful hair, but when I was talking about "Indians" in my post earlier, I was referring to Native Americans. Just wanted to throw that out there.

 

[My Friend]

Glib Gurl

I would love to know how long your hair is now?

Sorry if the title of this thread offends some. I'm just trying to get to the point - a lot of people seem to think that it's impossible for black women to grow their hair to BSL or longer unless you are racially mixed, "have indian in your family" or whatever. (If you go back far enough, we are ALL racially mixed anyways, so that's neither here nor there.) But I'm wondering about ladies who have BSL type 4 hair . . . were you able to grow your hair long without necessarily having a genetic predisposition to do so? I guess the better question is, do your parents or grandparents also have long hair? My family members seem to have shorter hair, so I am wondering if my hair quest is all in vain . . . .

Again, I hope this does not offend or turn into a race thread. I'm not able to express myself very well because I'm running out the door for work and don't have time to heavily edit.

Thanks for your answers and understanding.

 

[yorkpatties]

Tell it! I just found out about 5 years ago that my grandfather was half Indian. I thought he was just white! But I never really cared because he was just grandpa.

LOL This is like my experience. I grew up thinking my paternal
Grandmother was white, it wasn't until I was like 10 that I found out she was full blooded Cherokee.
Well, grandma can't save my hair, I am 4B and have never been past APL years ago. So some of us "with Indian in our family" haven't been able to achieve great lengths either. The struggle don't care about tribal ancestry.