I am 24 and for the majority of my life, I have had extremely short, dry, broken hair that I used to think was normal. Most black women I knew had this kind of hair and the only thing I knew then about taking care of my hair was to put grease on it and comb/brush it. I look back now and remember the times I would touch my hair and it would actually CRUNCH...just from touching it. No wonder I could never grow it longer than ear length!
One day I just happened to find out about a woman named Cathy Howse, who had written a wonderful book called Ultra Black Hair Growth. I suggest you pick up a copy!! It completely opened my eyes because the whole book is so common sense, I was like...why didnt that occur to me to do that to my hair?!?! Cathy's book taught me how to fix my dry broken hair and taught me about products to use, just like I am trying to do for you with this blog. Cathy has beautiful hair, which you can see on the main page of her website.
Since reading Cathy's book, I have also found a handful of black hair care message forums online that are FULL of black women talking about products, techniques and posting their hair growth success. I suggest doing a google search and joining a couple of these communities. You will learn a lot.
My hair grows very slowly, which is something I have accepted about myself, so my growth for the past 3 years is a little less than someone who has a normal hair growth rate would have, but I have gone from having broken ear length hair to now being about 1-2 inches from ARM PIT LENGTH. I want to eventually grow my hair to about waist length.
A lot of people, of all races, believe black women cant grow long hair, but it isnt true. My goal with this blog is to start featuring some of the hundreds of women I have met on the black hair care forums who have grown their hair to mid back and waist length. These are regular black women, with the same naturally dry, kinky hair as you, the only difference is they have learned all of the things their hair needs to be healthy, so they can now grow it to any length they choose, just like women of any other race can! I hope to be another example, and I feel that I am well on my way.
Here are some pictures I was able to find of my progress along the way. I dont have any recent pictures of my hair, because I am currently stretching my relaxer, which means my hair is experiencing shrinkage and a lot of curling, so you wouldnt be able to see the full length. I will post a new picture when I get another relaxer next month.
**The first 2 pictures were taken in 2005, right when I first began learning to take care of my hair. It was ear length and VERY damaged and dry. The pictures are from a cell phone and arent good quality, but you can tell the hair is in bad shape.
**The next picture is 2 years later in September 2007, and my hair is shoulder length.
**The last picture was taken earlier this year and my hair is a few inches past shoulder length.
If I can go from having dry, ear length, crunchy, damaged hair to having hair almost to my arm pits, so can you!!! You just have to put the effort into giving your hair the right care.
I wish I could show you how long my hair is now, but like I said, that will have to wait until about this time next month when I get my next relaxer. Right now my hair is all curled up because I have a lot of new growth.
4 comments:
It's always wonderful to read about someone loving their black hair. My hair is arm pit length after two babies, and growing my relaxer out. Before the babies I my hair was just below my breast. So long hair on black girls is definitely possible. I lost a lot of hair transitioning from my relaxer, just because I didn't have the knowledge that I have now. Pregnancy can also take a toll on your hair, more so after the babies are born, and you start shedding the hair you grew while pregnant. You should really think about growing out your relaxer. Check out a site called http://www.nappturality.com/ If you decide to keep your relaxer, check out a site called http://healthytextures.typepad.com/ The woman on healthy textures has long, beautiful hair, and she is black. Happy hair growing!
Your hair has really grown and looks very healthy! I grew out a perm relaxer. It was the best thing I ever did. I have a Silk Press now. To maintain my hair between salon visits, I find sleeping in The "Little" Silk Hair Cap.com has improved my hair tremendously. Silk is a protien similiar to our hair, making hair even healthier. Jazzie
This is a really nice and interesting on hair care. I think your hair looks really good. I think you have taken an effective journey.
Lovely thoughts on hair care and yur challenge to prove is amazing.
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