Debunking natural hair myths!

As an African woman, I take a lot of pride in my natural hair. It is  a unique part of ourselves that we need to embrace. I especially like it because of the various forms it comes in; the different coils, lengths, and volumes. It is literally a whole experience.

However, as much as I enjoy having natural hair, taking care of it may be a challenge and because of this, many of us find ourselves turning to the internet and social media for hair advice. By now, I hope we all know that we should not believe everything on the internet but don’t worry, I was once also a victim of the hair care trends online. After a little grounding and research on how to take care of my hair, I managed to debunk some ‘hair care tips’ that happened to be myths after all. Here is are some of the myths:

• Protective styling makes your hair grow.

It really doesn’t. Putting your hair in twists, braids, cornrows and many others does not make your hair grow. It protects your already grown hair from some harsh factors, like weather and even you. Yes, you. When your hair is not in a protective style, you tend to style it a lot, putting it in a different hairstyle everyday and that will lead to your ends breaking. What protective styling does is keeping your ends tucked away to prevent breakage thus promoting growth by keeping length. However, you must be careful with protective styling, make sure your style is not too tight on your scalp or the hair strand will literally break off from the root.

• Any form of heat will destroy your hair and its curls.

Heat on hair has always been a heated debate for as long as I can remember (pun intended). So this is my take; heat will only destroy your hair if it is overused, and if it is used wrongly. Obviously if you use heat on your hair every other week it is going to damage your curls. Obviously, if you use high temperatures, it will fry your curls off. There are some natural rules when it comes to using heat on hair. Heat makes hair really silky and easy to style  but you should take care of your hair while doing it. A small piece of advice is using heat protectant before using heat, and using it in moderate temperatures. Another thing is to give your hair frequent breaks from heat styling.

• Oil is a moisturizer.

This! This is where some of us lose it when it comes to natural hair care. There are many things that we are told, heard and seen from the internet, and even from other people, that I feel like no one knows what is what. Personally, I was once confused about the function of oil in natural hair but once I chose the function that made most sense to me, I went with it and it works, at least for me. Oil is a sealant, and by sealant, I mean it is supposed to seal moisture which your hair should already be having from other products like leave-in conditioners. It’s a science where we know oil floats on water. The oil you apply on your hair lies on top of the moisture in your hair hence retaining the moisture.

• It’s impossible to grow natural hair long.

Ironically, I want to give a huge thanks to the internet and social media because before that, I used to genuinely believe that my hair type could never grow long. The thing with natural hair is that it is very curly and some have very tight coils, so some growth may happen but it may not be as visible as expected. However, natural hair can grow really long, as far as you would want it to be with the right care and treatment. 

• Growth is all about length.

I personally debunked this myth by myself. It was when one of my friends tried to grow her natural hair and she followed all the rules trying to get her hair long, and with no doubt, her hair grew long, way past her shoulders. Unfortunately, it lost its volume. Again, she had to start another hair growth journey, to try and get more volume. What I got from this is that growth can also be about the hair’s volume. If someone has voluminous hair, they should be noticed as much as those who have long hair because volume is also a form of growth that is clearly underrated.

With that said, the typical natural hair journey isn’t easy. Learning your hair isn’t easy as well. There are many rules to follow and it can become tiresome. Luckily, there is a lot of guidance today from many sources; books, videos, blogs and so much more. I believe that with the right knowledge and patience, we can grow healthy, long, voluminous curls. What are some other natural hair myths you’ve heard about that ended up being false?

-Tori