Top Ten Trends in 2019

     What's a blog about hair if it doesn't give the huggy low down on what was hot and was not in hair care in 2019? A bore right? Well, best believe this top 10 list will be interesting. So grab your pen or stylus and start tapping. Drum roll please. These trends in hair had everybody talking, clicking, swiping, sharing and returning in 2019.

Mr. Ivan William's Beard Game

     Coming in at number 10, Beards. Beards was the rave on men and women! That's correct both men and women were sporting their beards in 2019. I was surprised to see women not shame their facial hairs, and I was proud at the same time. I don't have facial hairs. But I do know hair on the faces of women has been taboo for quite some time. This year a few bold women, joined the men in the beard revolution to the tune of 40K per month to boom the beard business in 2019. In 2020, beards and the beard business will continue to grow. I predict colors, shapes and scents will influence their sells. Hair color wax/pomades come in at 9. Professionally, it gets a thumbs down from me. It got mixed reviews on social media by a few influencers. However, the public painted a different picture and loved it. I predict in 2020 hair color wax and pomade will fade to black and to the back of the shelves. Only time will tell. The Flexi Detangling Brush is number 8. It was another mega hit in 2019. For me it was mega miss. I do not like it for textures that are more dense, curlier and with more recoil...a la Afro hair. Again, many textured hair people loved it. I didn't see many Afro's flexin' with it, but it got many nice reviews. The man weave is number 7. The man weave came out like Diana Ross' 1980 hit, "I'm Coming Out." I predict in 2020 the man weave will prevail. It will remain an ordinary service in both barbershops and salons for no man to be to "stay in" and be ashamed of. The man weave got just as many views and likes as Brazilian, Indian and Remy hair weaves. From wig units, to pronto quick weaves, to speedy $50.00 sew in's, the man weave is here to stay and gets a thumbs up from me. Protective hairstyles are number 6. It only gets a thumbs down from me because of its name. The concept of using the word "protective" with any kind of a hair style is a oxymoron. Hair styles are not protective in nature. Neither are protective nail designs or protective sprays for the paint on your car. Sounds good in theory, but not in practice. For all who wore acrylics for its super nail protecting powers, sooner or later complained of compromised nail art. They also complained of dry, brittle damaged nails. As for the latter, we know the protective wax sprays sold to us at the car washes were bogus. I am certain in the long run, the same will be the fate of protective hairstyles.

    

That's me in the corner
wearing Knotless Braids by Missie.

Carrying on, we are down to the last 5 trends and trending hair topics of 2019. Coming in at number 5, the knotless braids. Who would have ever thunk it; moving the beginning of braided hair extension down a notch from the starting point would be so cool? Knotless braids look more natural. They allow room to create different styles with your braid extensions without compromising your scalp, hair and style. This trend in 2019 made its way on to my head and on to this list. Follow my colleague, MissieDesigns on Instagram for the hook up! Number 4 is Sarah Marantz. Who is she? She is probably one of the only White business women in the world to start a business without at least going onto to Google to do a little research before starting hers. To make a short blog even shorter. She is the White woman who was the talk of every radio and news station. She got hammered by Black Twitter. She gets the gas face from this blog for claiming to have invented the head wrap. In addition, clearly she'd never seen an image of Harriet Tubman. #lol The last three was hard. I struggled which one should be number one. So, I gave number 3 to the Crown Act. The name itself says it all. Kudos, big ups, super shout out, ring the alarm and all that jazz to this group of distinguished, courageous and passionate individuals. They took the time to write, speak and introduce into legislation a law making it illegal to discriminate against natural hair hairstyles. You got it dude. There are serious repercussions to any company or person found guilty of hair discrimination or hair shaming in any form against anyone with textured hair. Number two goes to the inventors of RevAir. Oh-em-gee! Talking about necessity being the mother of invention, RevAir is it. Anyone with textured hair who hated the ills of a blow dryer knows what I am talking about. We needed relief with a capital NEED from the blow dryer. Everything the blow dryer is, RevAir isn't. RevAir does not require any skills or attachments. RevAir does not burn your ears, scalp or hands. RevAir does not take all day. RevAir is for all hair textures and types. RevAir is excellent for locs and braided extensions. RevAir requires no oil. The process of RevAir is ambidextrous. Unlike the blow dryer that blows hot air to dry your hair, RevAir reverses the air. Their reverse hair dryer uses vacuuming technology to pull 2 - 18 inches of  hair in every texture dry. RevAir makes hair super smooth and shiny. RevAir does all this without tangling hair. All his can typically be done and achieved within 15 minutes! So by Felecia with that blow dryer. They deserve to be number 2 on this list. Visit their website and YouTube channel for more information. It was a favorite in 2019 of users, influencers, hairstylists and this blogger. I predict this device will practically suck the popularity out of the blow dryer.

Mr. Kinteh (far left), Ladosha (center) and Fatou Saine Gaye (right) 

at the press release at the NAQAA Office for the installation 

of the Cosmetology Curriculum of Gambia.

     Finally, we are down to the number one trend in hair in 2019; education. That is right. The how to of hair care came in at number 8 on Google searches in beauty. It is also number 1 in this blog. Personally and professionally, I am certain that the amount of inquiry from people around the globe is real. In 2019, my trip the Gambia (the home of Kunta Kinteh) during the Year of Return proved Google's year end top searches in beauty to be true. Via my humanitarian and developmental aid initiative, Textures Intercultural Exchange 2019. I travled to the Gambia with five Delegates to donate my writing services to create the country's first cosmetology curriculum. This was done in partnership with Fatou Saine Gaye, founder of the Gaye Njorro Skills Academy. We collaborated with Mr. Kinteh of NAQAA (National Accreditation and Quality Assurance), cosmetology school owners and cosmetology students. Epic was the experience. Giving back on the continent of the Motherland where mankind was found made my initiative number one worthy.

     In 2018, a great woman and Lifestyle Coach who I admire named Siobahn Sudberry of the BeFree Project hosted an event at my salon to help women learn how to be unstuck in their lives. In the months that followed she sent me a link to a USA Today article about Swizz Beatz. The headline read, "Hip Hop Entrepreneur, Swizz Beatz: 'If you're not making history, you're wasting your time." In the article, he attributed determination, creativity and unwavering faith to his success. For too many reasons I can write about in this blog, the article and his quote resonated with me the moment I finished reading it. Though I never fancied myself one for making history, almost one year from the printed date of that article, I did. I actually made history.

    So with that my good readers, Happy New Year! Rather you want to make history or a hairstyle, don't waste your time in 2020. The double numbers are all about doubled blessings. Bless up, stay happy, healthy and loving in 2020. Remember, hair care and hair styles are about three things: the right products, the right tools and the right techniques. To listen to my continued determination, creativity and unwavering faith in the business, education and beauty about everything hair, follow my Podcast, What They Don't Tell You at the Hair Salon on all the Anchor podcasts platforms (i.e. Apple, Spotify, Stitcher...) and plug in.

     My 2019 epic experiences are dedicated to Siobahn Sudberry and Swizz Beats. "It is always the simple that produces the marvelous," Amelia Barr.

Protective Hairstyling

Protection?

Let me get this right, first there was a re-introduction to alternative hair styling when the most coveted outspoken Change Agent Extraordinaire, my shero sister Taliah Waajid stepped in on the hair care and hair styling scene back in the late 90's. She enlightened and collaborated with the masses in ways no one could imagine on natural, loc and twist hair styling to name a few. Shortly afterwards, Dr. JoAnne Cornwell, owner and inventor of Sisterlocks blew the California courts and state board of cosmetology out of the water when she won her unprecedented law suit for her patented "I will sue the french toast outta you if you use my technique without my permission" Sisterlocks. (I love this country!) Then the Africans entered the industry without a license and began making a lot of money to add hair and braid it because American hair stylists frowned upon and refused to do the ancient practice of cornrow braiding and adding hair. I even joined the Ohio State Board to stop them; only to find out the Ohio State Board never even taught cornrow braiding or adding hair extensions in the first place. SMH, go figure. 

Change Agent Extraordinaire

Then came the infamous now "all of a sudden" hairline snatching edge puller outer with that Naomi Campbell picture popping up everywhere, lace front wigs. Next up, the "creamy crack." And yet another comedian, Chris Rock, puts the smack down on hair styling. This time, it is the once popular salon chemical service for textured hair called, "the relaxer." Just as Eddie Murphy did the Jheri curl in "Coming to America," Chris Rock did it to weaves and the relaxer. That documentary exposed the masses to how just about every textured hair woman of color went running across the globe, clicking onto every website and going to every corner store in America and even putting it in the layaway to get the famed "bulk" of exotic "Good Hair" weave...roflmbao. To stay on course, what do you think followed next? The "transitioning of hair" games began. That is right my fellow hair care junkie readers, women around the world ditched their chemically overprocessed tresses for the "no price is to high" natural hair. I don't get it. It grows from the scalp for free; yet "natural" hair care product manufacturers are generating more money than chemical relaxers and hair weave makers could ever dream of.  Now, I type this blog on yet another hair craze. Another hair craze that is unfortunately, again, only targeted to women with textured hair with emphasis on women of color; protective hair styling. "Ayeeeeee," I say as I pull out my hair! Black people. My people. Why?

Funny thing, as I was doing some research on protective hair styles, I decided to look up the definition of "protective." The dictionary defines protective as "giving or capable of giving protection." 

Yet when you use the word "protective" with hair styling, many translate that into not doing anything to hair to protect it from grooming. When I first entered the profession of cosmetology there was a big to do on hair styling. I mean women were really into getting their hair coiffured. From curls, waves, up-do's, spikes, flips and the whole nine yards. Then the introduction of computers and the internet changed the way women viewed themselves. How? Well it gave them a glimpse into beauty and hair care from around the world and behind the scenes. The computer and the internet did things licensed hair stylists would not do. Communicate. 

The reality of what others were doing, not doing, saying and not saying world wide angered, disappointed and for many liberated them from hair styling. However, you know how the cliche' goes, "if it sounds too good to be true; it usually is." Best believe there are a plentiful of "it's" in hair care. The biggest "it" in hair care today is the misrepresentation of hair care. 

In no other profession do I see such a vast amount of "jumping on the wagon" like I see in hair care. In other professions, honesty is the best policy. For example, let us examine the medical field. While most doctors are not exercise physiologists; they do agree that the safest and most effective ways to lose weight is to either eat less, exercise more or do both. While there are doctors who prescribe pills and surgeons who perform surgeries to aid in the process for those who may be a tad bit more challenged than others; the representation of the truth in the battle of the bulge is honesty. There is a consensus among all interested and concerned that coupling balanced nutrition with routine fitness is best. 

In the profession of cosmetology that is not the case. There remains no consensus in the caring of hair. Even though trail blazers like Madame CJ Walker, Taliah Wajiid and Dr. JoAnne Cornwell has dedicated their lives to promoting hair care to those of any race with textured hair to do; many do not. Take the case of the latest crazy phenomenon sweeping the industry; "protective hair styling." Bewilderment is the first word that comes to mind. I mean they are hashtagging this stuff. Make no mistake, there are some hair styling techniques that obviously compromise hair. But we are not talking damaged hair, we are talking hair care. Hair care is "doing" something to your hair in a timely organized fashioned to ensure that it at least clean and groomed. Can that be a consensus that we all agree upon? Everything else in between, we're just gonna call it, extra. To care for hair is to protect hair. 

There are not to many of hair styles that require no or very little maintenance. The only two I can think of are braids and perms (Jheri curls and Ogilvie)! And in those two hair styles if you do not care for them in a timely fashion, permanent hair damage or hair loss is almost always the result. 

So what are folk to do? Make the time to take the time to care for your hair. While some people can do no more than brush their hair because they are hair care and style challenged.  Others can care for their hair and style their hair better than a licensed hair stylist. What ever the case, you have to find a happy medium.  A hair care regimen is equally as important as caring for your teeth and other body parts (if ya know what I mean). Do not be duped by these self taught, angry and unscrupulous hustling money seeking individuals who are not taking into consideration two very important factors. The first factor is, no two heads of hair are alike. The second important factor; they do not wake up with you in the morning. I do like the advantage of clicking a button to get a glimpse at "how to do" something to hair. However, the generic cookie cutter promotion of "black hair care" and "textured hair care" is crazy. You can watch any video you want. It is still not your hair. And your hair is different from who is in that video, on that picture and in your blood lines. You have to be involved with your hair.

How many times are you gonna fall for the lies?

Take it from a person who works behind the chair, writes books and blogs on  hair care, teaching hair care, travels the nation teaching women how to do it themselves (yep, I'm about that life) and one who does her own hair daily. I can tell you that if you opt to chose a "protective hair style" that keeps you from doing anything to your hair for more than two weeks; oh boy. Your hair will be compromised. The vicious cycle is on. Understand your hair is growing from an organ called a follicle every day all day. Yes every single strand of hair on your body has its own organ. While I will not type it again, feel free to re-read that sentence again. And can you think of any other organ or opening on your body that you would not tend to in some fashion for two weeks and it be "healthier" from not tending to it for over one week all in the spirit of "PROTECTION?" 

There is no bond like the one between
child and caregiver. None.

It is air apparent that these fads and trends are only targeted to Black people. Black people who hate their hair. Black people who do not want to wash their hair. Black people who do not make time to do their own chidlren's hair. Black people who are looking for something quick in hair care. These companies are making and marketing products to any and every Black consumer who fits that profile. In other races; their norms, practices and folkways is caring for their hair themselves. So they do not manufacture and market those kinds of products to them. They are not trying to escape the obvious...self love. Though every family, regardless of race have their own customs of hair care. In the history of hair care in Africa, hair care and styling was a ritual of bonding between daughter and mother, daughter and caregiver or the young and elder. It was a an esteemed privilege to be able "to do" someone's hair especially within the family. Also for the record, no where in the history of beautification in Africa is not doing your own hair documented as some sort of dignity. 

There is nothing "African" about not caring for hair your own hair. There is nothing "African" about not cleansing hair for weeks at a time.

For many reading this, that may come across as a bit harsh. It is. The human body. of any race or sex, in all its splendor: functions better, serves its purpose, smells awfully nice and looks damn good when we consistently and properly protect it by caring for it.

Amani.


Princess wave...