With better understanding of the characteristics of black hair, my hair and I are now in a happy place.

In my first year at university, I had the privilege in living in a very multi-cultural house with five other ladies.
There was Bridget, the English red head, Sandy who was Chinese with pin straight black hair, Sandeep who was Indian and had wavy dark brown hair, Zara who was of mixed heritage (Chinese and English) and had straight dark brown and very shiny hair, Colleen who was Jamaican and myself from Nigeria, we both had relaxed hair.  We all got along really well and used to joke that we were the United Colours of Benetton.

Colleen and I became best of friends over the years (she is the one who actually encouraged me to start a hair journey).  One of the things we bonded over was complaining about our hair. We would lament about why our hair was so difficult to manage, why did it break so easily, how could our other house mates blow dry and flat iron their hair every day and still have a great head of hair, how come they could chop all their hair off and within a few months it would have grown back, how come they didn’t seem to have any hair issues, what was it about black hair?????

In this blog post I will address some of  the differences between Afro, Asian and Caucasian hair and why those differences requires us to care for our hair in a “special” way if we want it to thrive.  Please note that the information below provides a general average or overview about the differences between the various hair types and I will be referring majority of the time to afro hair in its natural state.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AFRO, ASIAN & CAUCASIAN HAIR 

FEWER HAIR FOLLICLES – LESS DENSITY

Hair grows out from our hair follicles (tiny holes) which are located within our scalp.  The number of hair follicles a person has determines the overall fullness (density) of that person’s hair.  As an example a person with 100 thousand hair follicles should have more hair (more density) than someone with 70 thousand hair follicles.  The amount of hair follicles each person is born with is genetically predetermined.
Research has shown that Caucasians and Asians on average have more hair follicles (higher density) than we do.  So although our natural (chemically unprocessed) hair may look fuller than straight hair we actually have fewer hair strands.
 

INDIVIDUAL STRAND THICKNESS

The shape and size of each hair stand is determined by the shape of the follicle it grows out from.  Our hair follicles moulds our hair strands as they leave the follicle and are pushed out of our scalp.
The cross section of Asian and Caucasian hair follicles shows that is has a circular shape whilst the cross section of Afro hair follicle shows that it has an oval shape.
The effect of our oval shaped hair follicle is that our hair strands tend to be smaller in diameter than Asian and Caucasian hair.
Hair strands that are fine/ thin tend to have higher tendency to tangle and will break easier as a result of tangling.

SHAPE OF OUR HAIR STRANDS

The above diagram is for illustration only. I drew it myself using a cool app on my tablet.

Due to the oval shape of our hair follicles, the hair produced is slightly flatter in shape than Asian and Caucasian hair.   The unique shape of our hair strands means that we have more flat surface area to incur damage when we blow dry, flat iron, handle our hair or comb it aggressively.
The flattened shaped of our hair makes it easier for it to sustain damage.

UNEVEN THICKNESS OF EACH STRAND

Asian or Caucasian hair strands tends to have an even thickness from root to tip.  A strand of black hair however tends to have uneven thickness from root to tip. This is because our hair is curly/kinky and the point at which the bend or curl occurs in our hair strand is usually flatter or thinner than the rest of the hair strand.  Each curve/bend is an area that weaker than the rest of the hair strand because of the thinness of that spot.
We therefore have several fragile/weak spots along each strand of our hair.

As a summary of the points above, our hair is not as full, the strands are thinner which means it has a higher tendency to tangle and break as a result of tangling, it sustains damage easier because of its flattened shape, we have points of weakness across each hair strand and our hair is drier than theirs making it more susceptible to breakage.
I hope setting out all this not make you think our hair is bad or poorly designed.  I decided to write this blog post to emphasise why we simply cannot treat our hair the same way as Asians and Caucasians do.   It is easier for them to retain length simply because their hair does not break and sustain damage as easily as ours.

Our hair is different and how we care for it should reflect these differences.    This is why we as black women probably have to invest a little more time and effort in caring for our hair.  Deep conditioning, protective styling and all the little extra things we do to our hair is a must, especially when it has been relaxed or coloured.
I don’t know about you but I grew up thinking our hair was a lot tougher and could tolerate a lot more abuse that Asian/Caucasian hair.   But now I know that the opposite is actually the truth; our hair is a lot more fragile.  What are some of the misconceptions you had about black hair before your hair journey?

As always I hope you’ve found this blog post a worthwhile read.  The next blog post will be a hair update which I hope you’ll come back soon for.

X

Lade
Learn | Change | Grow

#bringbackourgirls

From the title of this post you may have guessed it already………I am!!!!
I am now a trained and certified hair care consultant after successfully gaining a Diploma in Afro Hair Care.   I actually completed the course in September 2013 as part of a project I have been working on.
I am so happy to finally put it out there, share why I decided to get certified and what I gained from the course.

WHY I DECIDED TO GET CERTIFIED

My journey to becoming certified actually started before Hairducation went live.
Whilst still building the blog, I told ladies who approached me for advice that the blog would be going live soon and they could learn how to care for their hair on the site.
I always got two types of reactions.  Some ladies looked forward to reading the blog whilst others didn’t seem so keen.  These ladies often made comments such as “oh I have to read the blog” or “I just don’t see myself doing it”.

This second reaction got me thinking about ladies I had introduced to other hair care blogs in the past but still maintained their bad hair care habits and continued to have major issues with their hair.
I realised at that point that the “self help”, learn and do it yourself approach to hair journeys simply does not work for every woman.
I believe the following types of ladies don’t gain much from hair care blogs

1)      Ladies who don’t do their hair themselves
Hair care blogs are great for ladies who want to take charge of their hair and gradually do it all themselves.  However there many ladies who prefer to go to salons and may not be keen on doing their hair themselves.  So learning how to care for hair when they have no intention of doing it themselves may seem redundant.

2)      Ladies who want a healthy hair transformation but do not necessarily want to become hair care gurus
The fact is not every woman wants to learn the ins and outs of black hair just so she can take care of it.  These ladies want to improve their hair but may be overwhelmed by the information or simply not be willing to get that deep into hair care do’s and don’ts.  And there is no crime in that.

3)      Ladies who need an intervention 
These are the ladies whose hair never seems to thrive and is increasingly getting worse.  Such ladies are looking for miracle products and help from stylists.
That was me before my hair journey.  I was looking for help for my hair but couldn’t find it.  When I did find help on social media, I had to go through the process of figuring it all out for myself which took a few months  because I wanted to be sure of what I was getting myself into.  In those months, my hair loss continued.
What I needed at the time and couldn’t get was an intervention.  I needed someone to assess my hair, review my hair care habits, tell me what I was doing right and wrong, set me on the right part and support me through the process.

With all the above in mind, I decided that somewhere down the line I would want to offer a more hands  personalised consultation and support service for ladies who wanted it.
The first step of me offering this personalised service was for me to receive formal training and get certified.  I did not want to be a self appointed consultant and I wanted to make sure I was qualified for the task.

WHAT DID I LEARN ON THE DIPLOMA COURSE

After deliberating on what exactly I wanted to offer and the structure of the service, I had the task of finding a course that would give me appropriate training.  I eventually found a training institute in London, England that offered exactly what I needed, a diploma in hair care focusing specifically on black hair.

The course was very intensive; we spent the mornings learning theory on various aspects of black hair structure and care.  Around midday we would move to the salon within the institute where we would practice what we had learnt on mannequin heads.  In the afternoon we would work on live models/clients.  There was hardly a moment to take a break, it was full on…and I absolutely loved it.

The course included training on client consultations, hair and scalp analysis, patch testing, relaxing, trimming, working with extensions, health and safety and so much more.  I was impressed by the combination of science based theory classes and the practical salon sessions.  It was certainly worth flying 6000miles for.

WHAT NEXT??

I have recently completed the final aspects required for the service to go live which involved finding a salon which understood and were keen to incorporate my services.
I will do a detailed post soon to share how the Hairducation Consultation and Support service will work.
What I will say for now is that the service will benefit everyone whether it is ladies who simply want to kick start their hair journey and need a bit of initial coaching or ladies who want a full on salon implemented regimen.

I hope you will be back soon to learn more about the consultation service and for my next post about co-washing.

X

Lade

Learn | Change | Grow