Natural Hair Mistakes

Marcus Garvey once challenged black people to get the kinks out of our minds and not out of our hair. Never has this statement been more true than with the natural hair movement. Don't get me wrong. The modern natural hair movement is an amazing cross-cultural coalition of women with kinks and curls giving emotional support and hair advice to one another.

It is great in many respects! But, the movement often fails to challenge the very paradigm that encouraged women to chemically process their hair and thereby prevented them from remaining natural, in the first place. In my view, the following five natural hair mistakes are the biggest mistakes that most naturals don't even realize that they are making.

*  Complaining About "Shrinkage"
Magical afro-textured hair has a helix or ziggly formation that allows it to defy gravity by growing toward the sun. By definition, a helix or ziggly formation is not straight and therefore appears shorter than if those same hair strands were straight. It's the amazing reality of our hair! But instead of accepting and embracing this, many naturalistas are complaining about it. I have seen comments on facebook pages such as "I hate shrinkage" and "shrinkage is evil."

What the cuss? Where did this word even come from? Do straight haired people complain about their hair being "stretched"? Not that I know of! Your hair is amazing no matter how long or high it appears due to the weather or your styling methods.

*Complaining That Your Hair is "Hard" To Manage

Yes, kinky hair is hard to manage if you want it to look straight or look like loose curls. I agree 100%. But it is not hard to manage when you are engaging in styles that were created by people with kinky hair for kinky hair such as twists, braids, thread wrap or locs. If your hair is hard to comb then only comb it when wet with water and conditioner. Trust me, it will be easier. Also, put it in styles that won't require you to comb it for long periods (braids, coils, etc.) or forever (locs). I will never forget the first time that I got rat tail coils. The male loctician was fawning over my hair because he said it was the "perfect" hair for locing. I thought to myself 'I'm glad my hair is good for something". It's actually good for many things. When people with looser curl patterns complain about braids and twists unraveling consistently, I can't relate. All hair textures have advantages - embrace the advantages of your texture.