Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences
All hair should be washed more frequently than once every two weeks. Hair needs moisture, and the belief that black hair is a different entity requiring less cleansing is part cultural conditioning and part myth. We are raised to ‘keep our hairdo,’ – hairdos that are often directly opposite our hair’s natural state. Relaxers are extremely harsh and really shouldn’t be used on anyone’s head, but we use them, and our use causes us to have to be more vigilant about wetting our hair (lest it return to its natural state) and determining when to wash it. Because of these drawbacks to relaxed hair, we African-American women have learned to deal with not-so-fresh hair, itchy scalps and even breakage and other hair and scalp conditions. It’s not black hair that can’t be washed frequently or that’s so fragile, it’s relaxed hair that is all these things. When you go against nature, you have to pay some type of price.
All hair needs moisture, and the purest moisture is water; it rejuvenates natural hair regardless of the textures and can be a powerful maintenance tool for those who still want to relax their hair. I have learned to do the scalp swipe test rather then relying on whether my hair strands look or feel too oily (something hard to guess, considering the coiled nature of African hair). I part my hair, take my finger and rub my scalp. If there is any odor other than that which can be attributed to hair product (which should smell like the original hair product out of the bottle), then it’s time to wash my scalp. This seems to be a better choice than relying on the number of days between washings. My hair has always grown well and healthfully, and I have a very coiled, kinky hair texture. When I had a relaxer in my hair, this usually translated into a shampoo every three days or so. With non-relaxed hair, sometimes I shampooed every other day. But keep in mind on my unrelaxed hair I am not using heat and nothing but natural oils.