YMMV definitely- I’m white with fine but naturally wavy hair and I don’t wash it every day- if I did, it would break off in chunks. I wash my hair every 3-4 days, any more than that and I’ve got a frizzy, breaking mess on my hands.
No. Dreadlocks are matted hair sectioned off. Period. There is no artificial nothing. People who straighten their hair to dread it are not dreading it. They are probably twisting it. Again-- dreadlocks are clumps of matted hair. Sometimes people wax the 'locks to keep them from collecting lint and getting overly lumpy and very dry looking.
Let me repeat. Dreads are sectioned, matted hair.
In what way are dreadlocks “natural”? I mean, you wouldn’t refer to pigtails as “natural” for a little white girl.
ETA: I see this has already been addressed :smack:. Ignorance fought.
**Cesario **is a poster who’s an admitted pedophile (see the huge pit thread).
MeanOldLady, what do you do with your hair? Do you use any products in it at all, besides shampoo? I’m seriously curious here.
The end result, once finished, looked like the “straight hair in locks” picture you posted below. I swear they were spending more time and gels on that than I spent the one time in my life I’ve gotten a perm.
Mind you, the daughter of that woman was the kid who wouldn’t believe that I didn’t straighten my hair, it’s wavy if less than shoulder-length and straight if longer than that. I don’t know whether they had the worst hair ever or she just didn’t know how to care for her own hair.
**MeanOldLady’s **hair instantly styles itself according to her mood. Body hair, too.
AND ANOTHER THING!!!
Since I’m lecturing on such things— you can have neat looking dreads. This involves going to a hairdresser or a friend (or yourself if you can see the back of your head and are a contortionist) once a week or two and ‘training’ the hair to mat in an orderly fashion. You still have to put something in your hair to keep it from drying out.
One more thing: Dreads are permanent. The only way to undread your locks is to cut them off. Twists are reversable.
And and and. . . one very large problem with dreaded hair is stink. Dreads take FOREVER to dry and you can get a gross mildewy smell if your dreads are thick and you wash them and try to let them air dry. Hell, this happens to me if I wash my hair and pull it back in a ponytail. The hair under the rubberband or scrungy never dries.
It doesn’t look like Zahara would have that problem. Her hair looks very soft and not extremely bushy.
So what you’re saying is that until modern hair care products showed up a century or two ago, every black person on the planet had really bad hair?
Afros and dreads are considered “natural” because they are styles that work with the natural texture of the average black person’s hair, as opposed to trying to make it look like white people’s hair.
Of course, white people often tend to look at it as though all black people have basically the same hair. This isn’t true. Their hair can run the gamut of thickness, etc, just like ours does. Almost all African hair does have a tendency to have a tiny corkscrew shape (what you’ve heard referred to as “nappy”). It’s not the most sturdy shape for a hairstrand, so African hair can break more easily. However, the degree to which these qualities are represented can vary greatly from person to person.
My instructor (a black hairstylist who’s been in the business for years) was actually just telling us the other day that too many white stylists treat all black hair as the same. You can run into a lot of trouble that way.
So right, torie!
It’s funny how, on my maternal Hispanic side, my hair is a nappy horror but on my paternal black side, my hair is so good.
I never cut my hair and yet it doesn’t grow past my shoulders. My Puerto Rican relatives tsk, tsk at how short my hair always is and my black relatives exclaim “Look at the length!”
My son’s hair never, ever grows long. His afro gets bushier and denser. My daughter, who cut off her dreads a little less than a year ago, is working on her Angela Davis bouncy 'fro. All three of us related, all three of us with ‘black’ hair, all three of us with completely different textures and growth habits.
After time traveling and teleportation abilities, this is the super power I want!
My hair system is pretty mellow. I go to the salon, he relaxes it, washes and conditions it, then flat irons it. Between salon appointments, it’s just shampoo, conditioner and the flat iron. Once my roots start getting fuzzy, back to the salon for a touch up. When I’m not straightening it, it’s just shampoo and conditioner. I’m not getting any style points with my do; I almost always wear my hair down or in a ponytail, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with it. It’s not dry or damaged, and does not require strict maintenance or less it goes to high hell.
I just meant that maybe Angelina is doing all that to the kid’s hair but it just isn’t as noticeable because her hair is just really dry and requires more moisture. Or maybe that’s just how it looks. I used my own hair as an example to show that one kind of treatment can be good for some hair but bad for others–it’s long and wavy and looks good with lots of washing, but others even with similar hair to mine can come out with frizzy hair with that kind of treatment. Likewise, if I wash mine every few days, I look like I’ve got gel in it.
I sympathize with Jolie. When my daughter was four, she cut her own hair, badly, and when I talked to her about what she wanted her hair to be like, she wanted it cut short, allover. I gave her a buzz cut and she loved it. She thought it was awesome and did not regret it one moment. But oh the horrible thing i did according to some. People reacted as if I had performed gender reassignment surgery on her at home. It actually ended up being great for her in the long run because that is when she stopped having bald patches.
It is amazing at the number of people who are willing to invest energy disapproving of a four year old’s hair.
Well, if it’s matted, it just needs combing. If the child’s hair is dry, that doesn’t mean it’s not being cared for, but clearly the person taking care of it needs to come up with something new, because the current regimen isn’t helping. I don’t think there’s anyone whose hair is beyond help. Maybe I’m wrong, though.
Interesting, MOL. You’re lucky to have such low maintenance hair.
Being the translucent Mick that I am, I don’t claim to know anything about black peoples’ hair, but that can’t be the result of just leaving your hair untouched, can it? I mean, the guy had to do something to get it to grow out like that, right?
If not, I’m insanely jealous.
I’m super grateful for my hair–all I do is cut it a few times a year, and then it’s wash 'n go.
I find that having to flat iron my hair at all to get it straight is a hassle, which is why I didn’t straighten it for so long. I suppose having a relaxer makes things easier, but I find going to the salon to be a hassle too. If I had to engage in regular moisturizing techniques, I’d have shaved my head long ago. I’m kind of lazy.
A century or two ago, even 75 years ago, black people weren’t using shampoos filled with sulfates and waxes and the like, weren’t using elastic bands to restrain their hair, and weren’t living in a hole-in-the-ozone environment. And natural moisturizers have been in use for a very long time, beyond that.
Hair the texture of Zahara’s mats up far more readily for lack of moisture. And is much more easily damaged being combed (if it’s not wet from washing) if it’s not properly moisturized. These issues work together.
Oh hell no. I could get that little sweetheart’s hair looking great in about twenty minutes, if that, short as it is. And that would include washing it. Daily maintenance after that, on non-wash days? The same as it’s currently getting at the start of the day, plus maybe 30 seconds, and the time at night to take out the #)!@& elastics which do incredible damage during sleep.
First, relative to the article, strikes me as sensationalistic tripe. Bloody hell, the lass seems healthy, good skin tone (to the extent one can judge things from a photo - ahem not with great confidence), fine looking hair generally. I see no problem, other than for mind-others-business types.
And?
I can see a point regarding generally that no one 75 years ago was shampooing (versus simply rinsing) their hair with anything like modern frequency, but sulfates, waxes?
What does that have to do with anything? What on earth does elastic have to do with this?
Equally, what the bloody fuck does that with hair (never mind, insofar as ozone holes have never significantly touched areas of major human population)?
Given the prior comments, I rather suspect you’re just asserting a personal mythology, and I rather think Alessan has a damned point.
Eh. None of us know fuck all about the wee lass’s hair from some bloody photos.
I do believe there is a word for your sort, phrase really. Judgemental busybody being it.