Healthy Hair Beauty Supply

I have found in my lifetime that when dealing with my hair as a woman of color, there are many misconceptions to “growing” long hair. This month’s blog series will go over the four major mistakes when trying to grow healthy long hair in weekly installments. One of the things we as African Americans have heard said or we say to ourselves often is that, “Our hair doesn’t grow!” The actual fact is our hair grows just as fast as any other race. In addition to that our hair is the thinnest in texture compare to all other races. That one of the reasons why do not see a change in our length because our hair breaks off at a faster rate than it grows. Our hair texture is so tightly coiled, that with every bend and twist of the hair strand becomes a weak point in the hair shaft making it prone to damage.

Mistake #1 THINKING THAT WE NEED TO APPLY GREASE TO OUR HAIR

Ø Grease was an invention made by people outside of our race as an answer to our dry hair. As a result of this invention, we pack on the grease and in turn it makes our not only limp but embarrassing to touch! In fact in some way, grease can deter us in our quest for healthy long hair. Now that there is more sophisticated researched dedicated to answer this lingering questions, we no longer need to “grease” our scalps!

Ø In addition to that, “grease” does not moisturize hair; it just seals in the moisture that was already there and if you don’t have moisture in the hair before applying oil to you scalp, it would be safe to say that the grease did not solve the problem. Adding further to that, most people do no know that “grease” can prevents the skin cells that normally should shed from the scalp from naturally shedding which causes an added problem to the already problematic situation.

Ø In a sense grease smothers the scalp stopping it from exfoliating the dead skin. This overtime presents a problem for hair growth. The scalp needs oxygen to grow hair along with a good circulation of blood flow, so if you are constantly clogging your scalp with hair grease, you in turn hinder the growth of your hair in the long run. Knowing now that oil does not moisturize but seals in moisture, it is good to realize that our scalp makes it own oil due to the sebaceous gland. It is the sebaceous gland that secretes oil from you scalp, flows down the hair shaft sealing in the moisture of your hair. That is why people with naturally straight hair do not have dry hair because the are more able to seal in the moisture imparted through their hair via the sebaceous gland. Their main problem that they have to deal with is keeping the hair from becoming too oily thus becoming limp and hard to curl and stay curly.

Ø The problem that we as African American women face is that because our hair is so tightly coiled that this oil can not evenly distribute itself down the hair shaft evenly causing the ends of you hair, which is that portion of you hair that has been through the most damage, to become very dry and even more so prone to damage. This is why our hair can become very limp if you have relaxed hair and have not washed it for a week or so. Because you hair is now straight, it will be prone to have an oily look even when you have not washed you hair well over a week and in some cases like me within the first few days.

In conclusion hair grease is not such a great thing, in fact it can actually hinder hair growth by clogging the pores in your scalp. Learning the history that grease was an invention made by people outside of our race as an answer to our dry hair helps us realize why we all need to take a more proactive approach to our hair care. Any scalp problems that you are dealing with need to be specifically treated other than being coated with “grease”. We all need to realize that our scalp is the same as the skin on the rest of your body. With that analogy being said, you wouldn’t put grease on your body, then why put it on your scalp?

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This is a very important subject to talk about because we often treat our scalp as we do our hair. In turn this can result in lack luster results in terms of hair growth. Just because a hair products work well on one thing, ex. Hair, does not hold true for the scalp. Most people one do not know that your scalp makes its oil and two how much oil your scalp produces via the sebaceous gland is due to hormonal activity. What most people fail to understand is that our hair and scalp are made of the same things. So you should treat your hair and scalp with the same attention as you treat the rest of the skin on your body! Today we will be discovering how to target your hair needs specifically for optimal success. First off we will discuss the scalp, its functions, and what products that are needed to target problems with the scalp. Secondly we will then discuss how to target the hair and deal with the main issues related to healthy hair and how to maintain that healthy hair.

When dealing with the scalp there are categories that the scalp is broken into is, normal, oily, dry, and damaged. This is a general way of categorizing the scalp as it applies to the general public but of course there are more specific variations to this. With normal scalp there is a distinct balance to it as it relates to the oil content that the scalp produces. With a normal scalp the scalp is neither produces nor excess of oil and it is not dry as well. People with this type of scalp generally have straight or wavy hair. The reason that those textures tend to usually have a “normal” scalp is because the oil that the scalp produces via the sebaceous gland has a chance to more evenly flow from the scalp to the ends of the hair unlike tightly coiled hair which helps to trap the oil at the base of the scalp. Even though generally people with a “normal” scalp generally have the straight or wavy hair that does not necessarily have to always be the case. And generally that person with the “normal” hair over processes the hair and/or over washes the scalp runs a high if inevitable risk of becoming dry due to the damage that was inflicted on it. It is suggested that people with a “normal” and hair should use a shampoo and conditioner that with a minimal amount of leave-in conditioning.

The next type of hair would be the oily scalp. Typically the type of texture that would go along with this hair would be the natural African American type of hair which would be tightly coiled hair. The reason as to why our type of hair generally would have the oily type of hair is because the oil that our scalp produces tends to be trapped at the root because our hair texture does not allows for easy distribution down the entire hair shaft thus caused us to have an oil scalp and in adversely having dry hair. This is why most conglomerates have produced a product called hair grease, which was to find a way to impart oil to our hair which would help to seal in moisture to our hair shaft in turn protecting our hair from being dry. Though it solved the problem of locking in moisture for our hair, it created another problem which is the fact that it suffocates our scalp by cogging up the pores in our scalp and also trapping the dead skin that needs to be exfoliated from our scalp and leaving there hindering hair grow. Hair in general needs, oxygen, circulation, proper nutrition to grow and the oil definitely does not help to aid the scalp in producing hair growth. People with Oily hair and scalp hair tend to be straight haired people with an oily scalp which is due to the fact that the hair can easily flow down the hair shaft making it limp and lifeless as far as styling is concerned. People with an oily scalp and in turn oily hair should avoid shampoos that have conditioning agents in it seeing as though that will just add to the problem of oily hair. What can be used as a separate conditioner and shampoo with emphasize on a condition that has the ability to soften and relax the hair. In addition to that you also want to make sure that you keep the conditioner as far away from the scalp and focus mainly on the sections of the hair that are the driest. Also when shampooing the hair you definitely should make sure that you focus on shampooing the scalp more so than the hair itself.

The next type of scalp would be the type that is very dry, which in turn produces dry hair. People prone to this problem can also be people with straight or fine hair. This is definitely the type of hair that you do not want to over wash for obvious reasons. With this type of hair you should not wash your hair more than twice a week and you should also stay away for two in ones (shampoos with built-in conditioners). In addition to that you still want to make sure that you do no load the hair with greasy by products such as mineral oil, petroleum, coco butter, etc. For this type of hair, hair polish is very helpful. Some of the ingredient of hair polish such as silicones by products seal in the moist at the cuticle and give a radiant sheen. Also messaging your scalp with a moisturizer such as Hydratherma hair growth lotion would definitely do the trick with the problem of having a dry scalp and can also be applied to dry hair for moisture as well. All in all, when dealing with dry hair, using the same techniques as discussed earlier with the “normal” hair should be used for maximum results.

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