“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” Albert Einstein. If your hair is experiencing chronic breakage, doing the same things you have been doing will not give you different results. That’s certain. The main reason I decided to go natural is, my hair was breaking because of the relaxer. If I had continued to relax my hair, I am sure it was going to keep on breaking. Now, I am not saying we should all go natural, that’s a personal choice. But, if you want healthier hair, you have to take charge and STOP THE CYCLE. You have to change the way you have been handling your hair if you want different results. Simple.
You may be using braids, weaves or wigs as protective styles but lately you noticed your hairline is thinning and breaking. That is traction alopecia my friend. It means you are having your hair pulled too much when styling. The first thing you need to do is stop the pulling and tugging of your hair to stop the breakage cycle. Castor Oil may help but it can only do so much. You need to change the methods you use to style your hair to stop the cycle.
I grew up believing I needed to pull my hair out of my scalp for it to grow. As small girls we used to have our hair plaited using wool and it used to be so tight and painful too. Sometimes my whole scalp would be covered in sores because of the tight hairdo. I remember my friend’s niece crying while having her hair done one day, and she was told “mucheno unorwadza, Shingirira.” In Shona which means it is painful to be well groomed, you need to persevere. I know quite a number of ladies who take painkillers before having their hair done. I am serious. Many of us started expecting hair grooming to be painful and little did we know that all that pulling was causing damage to our hair follicles. Excessive pulling when styling ethnic hair is the main cause of receding hairline also known as traction alopecia. If your hairline is finished or is thinning out, I am afraid you will have to change the methods you use to style your hair. Take responsibility and make the first step for your hair to recover. Stop the cycle. Stop pulling your hair. If your style is too painful, you cannot easily turn your head and your head is aching, it is too tight and may damage your follicles.
If your hair tends to break in winter, I hope you already have plans in place on how you are going to do it a little differently this winter. You do not have to make drastic changes sometimes. Just tweaking this and that and doing it differently here and there may save the day. Remember your hair may need more moisture during the winter months. You can try deep conditioning more and this may be just leaving your regular conditioner on your hair a little bit longer, like 15 minutes. I am sure that you can do. You can also wrap your hair in a scarf to protect your hair from the cold. Take charge and stop complaining that your hair breaks in winter without doing something about it. You are the only one who can stop the breakage cycle of your hair.
Traction Alopcia pic source www.beautifulkinks.blogspot.com/
If your hair breaks because of chemicals, is it not high time you tried something different? Your hair is breaking anyway; it cannot be any worse than it already is now? Stop the cycle and find out what you can do to reduce breakage. Are heat styling tools the reason why your hair is breaking? Why not invest time into learning other methods of stretching your hair? Alternatively, you can invest in high quality tools that will lessen the damage to your hair and some spray or serum to protect your hair before applying heat if you really need that salon perfect look every day.
Come on friends, the information is out there. It is no longer a secret to grow long healthy hair. The internet is full of blogs, vlogs and forums where ideas are shared freely on how to take care of African Kinky hair. You cannot say you did not know how. You know what I think, I think YOU DO CARE but, you are just too scared to change the methods that were passed on to us by our mothers, aunts, grandmothers and all. Most of the styling methods were okay, but things have changed now so have our diets and lifestyles. That is the reason why we need to watch what we eat these days and do some exercises for the benefit of our health. We also need to take care of our hair differently. We need to embrace the need to change our methods if what we have been doing does not seem to be working any better. We need to stop the cycle. African hair does grow.
