Shedding Hair

Request or nah!

Working behind the chair as a cosmetologist can be similar to working as a DJ behind the turntables. Like DJ's cosmetologists get many requests. And like DJ's we like to fulfill what people are asking. In addition, like DJ's we also get a lil tired of getting requests for the same thing. 

Of all the things I tire of getting requests for, it would be the request to alleviate shedding hair. Shedding and hair breakage is like a classic song that you will have to put up with pretty much for the rest of your life. Currently, I am heavily involved doing research on follicle care. The research is so very interesting and full of splendor! The research is, of course, helping me in my day to day operations as a hair stylist. Recently, The Physiological Reviews Journal reports that “the most important theme in studying the cycling hair follicle is that the follicle is a regenerating system.”

With the scientific fact that the follicle is an organ that has a natural cycle to regenerate itself; like that Fifty Cent song "In Da Club," you are gonna see hair shed and break over and over again just like that song. It is a natural process of the regenerative life cycle of the every hair fiber on your hair. However, when it comes to hair shedding and breaking; one should not see excessive amounts of hair in the comb, in the sink, tub, floor or shower. 

Hair breakage

In order to get a grasp on hair shedding, hair breaking I will expound upon other culprits such as hair thinning and balding/hair loss fall under hair shedding and breakages.

Hair shedding is part of that "regenerating system" I learned about during my research. Your hair lives inside of an organ called a follicle (the tiny whole your hair fibers grow from). Your hair is formed, nourished and grows from a tiny bulb called a papilla. Before your hair becomes the strands you see growing from your scalp it goes through 3 phases. The first phase is the anagen phase which is the actual growing phase. It lasts up to 6-7 years. So that other request of what can I use to make my hair grow? Stop asking. And by all means, please stop buying products that make hair grow. It grows for free. The second phase is the Catagen phase. It is the resting phase that lasts about 2-3 weeks. During this phase, the hair is literally resting and the body is not making any hair. And the last phase is Telogen. This phase lasts 3 months. This is where the hair actually sheds. You will be able to differentiate between a strand of hair that has shed and a strand of hair that has broken. Hair strands that have shed will have little tiny white bulb attached to the strands of hair. On an average, you will see a lil over one hundred strands per day. That would look like about a teaspoon size amount depending on your length. 

Hair shedding

Most people do not understand that all hair fibers do not shed at the same time. Each strand of hair grows from its own follicle (organ). Therefore, they do not all grow and shed at the same rate. It is fair to conclude that at the end of a 7 year, or so cycle, you will have a new head of hair. So, do not panic at the constant shedding; for it is a reflection of new hair that will be growing in. You can woo sah now!

Using too much of anything compromises hair.

Next up is "breaking and snapping hair." The difference between shedding hair and breakage is the bulb. Remember, shedding hair will have the lil tiny white bulb attached. Breakage will not. Breakage is normal as well. Especially if you manipulate your hair frequently. Examples of hair manipulation are combing, braiding, heat styling, sew in's, chemical services, friction from wearing scarves, hats, brushing and the likes. Doing these things aggressively or using the wrong comb/brush are the number two culprit to hair breaking and snapping. In addition, leaving conditioners and super softening agents on your hair too long will cause hair to snap and break. Coconut oil, conditioners, synthetic oils, pomades, silicones mineral oils and petroleum are examples of super softening agents that folk apply when manipulating their hair. Unfortunately, they are typically the culprits to excessive snapping and breakage. Another cause to unwanted hair breakage and shedding are sulfates and sulfate free ingredients that act like sulfates on the hair. Sulfates and sulfate free ingredients are chemicals that most manufacturers use to clean hair. While they are cheap, universal and common in almost every kind of shampoo your money can spend, the side affects are often hair breakage and shedding. They actually speed up the telogen phase of the hair growth process. So buyer beware. Don't be duped by all this fancy sulfate free, natural and unfortunately certain organic ingredients that act like sulfates on your hair. 

Hair thinning is the natural process for all humans as we age. What happens is the follicle (the tiny hole that the hair is growing from) actually shrinks and gets smaller; thus producing hair that is thin, fine, limp, weak and very susceptible to breaking. While aging is a given for all, there is nothing we can do to stop it. However, we can slow it down. The best way to slow down thinning hair is to reduce the heavy products used to care for and style your hair. Use fewer styling products. On an average, you only need a maximum of 3 styling products to produce a beautiful long lasting hair style. If you swear that you need more, then you are most definitely using the wrong shampoos. But that is another blog. Thinning hair can also be hereditary. Therefore, be mindful of what you use and pay attention to your comb and brush when styling your hair to make sure that you are not physically snatching your hair out. Infrequent shampooing will certainly promote thinning hair because you are not getting the blood supply to feed the hair bulb the nourishment that is needed for your hair to grow. So if your are shampooing your every 8 days and beyond; eventually your hair will thin out, grow in weak, snap or break off and you will not see your desired length or density. Heavy products clog the follicle and leave no room for the hair to grow from. Do not apply conditioners or other heavy or thick styling agents to your scalp. Never. Doing so will promote thinning. These products are not formulated to apply directly to your scalp. Doing so typically results in scalp irritation which can promote hair thinning and breakage as well. Dring plenty of water, eat a sound diet, boo-boo and get some rest to promote hair that grows and will be strong as well. Using products that are rich in wheat proteins, keratin, essential oils and herbs are sure to be a winner in seeing noticeable long lasting results for those with issues of breaking, balding, hair loss and thinning hair. 

Infrequent shampooing is sure to promote thinning.

Lastly, is balding and hair loss. Both conditions have a few culprits. For many scalp disorders fueled by compromised immune systems can result in things like varying forms of alopecia, which results in hair loss. Alopecia happens when the communication between cells and hormones become very confused by a compromised immune system that actually sends the wrong message to attack the hair's ability to actually grow. For some this can happen in certain areas on the scalp, for others it is all over the scalp and for some it is every hair on their entire body (eyebrows, eyelashes, armpits and so on). This condition of hair loss is best supervised by a doctor or licensed holistic practitioner. Another culprit to baldness and hair loss is the Demodex mite. I know, "ewe!" Yes, sirree bob. The Demodex mite is a very tiny microorganism that actually eats away at the hair inside the follicle and the hormone DHT (dehydrolyzed testosterone) helps feed the mite as well. While there are many salon quality products claiming to get rid of this bug, research says it is virtually impossible considering it is in your blood system. Therefore, medication, essential oils, and herbs are the only sources that can effectively enter your blood stream and kill off those mites. Wearing hats, scarves and doo-rags help promote the loss of hair through the friction of wearing them. When this mite eats away at hair, your hair is actually growing in thinner; thus making it very weak and fragile. Hats, scarves, and doo rags rub away at the hair and hair loss happens that much faster. 

As you can see hearing the same old request to get answers to why hair sheds can be extensive, The request can get a little boring like getting those same song requests. And much like hearing the same old song, seeing hair in the sink, on the floor, on your clothes and so on is the norm. It is the excessive amount that should concern you. To recap, the likely culprits to excessive shedding are infrequent shampooing, washing hair too much, dehydration, scalp disorders, bacteria and using heavy products. If you listen to your hair and scalp like you listen to your music, you will respond to the request to care for it properly and differently. I guarantee that if you do so, it will be like music to your ears. And we all know what that sounds and feels like!

Black Hair Care

"Have you forgotten that once we were brought here, we were robbed of our name, robbed of our language. We lost our religion, our culture, our god...and many of us, by the way we act, we even lost our minds" is the quote so eloquently spoken by the late Khalid Muhammad on Public Enemy's track "Night of the Living Basehead"  from their album, "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back."

In this blog Ndogo, I too ask, "Have we lost our minds?"

What has taken place in hair care when people are in constant pursuit of hair styles and hair care practices that are not their own? What has taken place in hair care when something called a "natural" hair care movement is not moving? After all, if it grows from your scalp it is natural. Why are people going for this? Why are reports reflecting that Black women contribute every dollar to the billion dollar hair care industry that we only profit millions from? Why when their schools of cosmetology only include Black or White mannequins with straight hair to make curly? Why are people trying to tame the Afro? Why are people not wanting to care for the Afro? Why are people demanding acceptance of textured hair that has no choice but to be accepted? Why are people wanting a hairstyle that they can sleep on, wake up and do nothing to it? Why is it a Black, cultural or ethnic thing? Why is textured hair segregated from hair? Why do we have "ethnic" hair care aisles and hair care stores to shop from and they have "hair" care aisles hair care stores to shop from?

Answering these questions and talking about textured hair is far more taboo and dangerous than discussing AIDS, ISIS, cancer, trigonometry or debt and taxes. Why? Slavery. 

The beginning of bad hair care.

Yes, slavery. The effects of slavery are real in present day America. And no place is the effects of slavery more pronounced than in hair. The varying textures of hair in America is an overt admission everybody's connection to one another by way of physical and mental abuse at the hands of White slave owners. Nobody wants to go there. But, "there" is where we are! Somebody is going to have to admit that White men raped black women here in America. Somebody is going to have to admit that White men have always liked, loved and lusted after women of color before and during slavery. Somebody is going to have to admit that the varying hair textures are speaking. Textured hair says, Alkebulan; it says, "Africa!" Depending on your age or viewership, who can recall in 1977 when ABC-TV first aired "Roots?" Who can recall when Kunta Kinte was brought here in chains? Who can forget that savage vicious beating given to him from Massa to say his name was not longer Kunta Kinte, but Toby. We all watched as he was robbed of his name. He was robbed of his language. He lost his religion, his culture, His God...and he even lost his mind?" You know what else sticks out from that savage beating as he hung from the chains? His hair!  

As a cosmetologist, I witness first hand the impact of a "Kunta Kinte" beating via the loss of minds on thousands of predominantly African American and biracial miseducated and uneducated females as it relates to their hair. Many are not aware that their hair care practices and hair style desires. They have no clue as to why? They do not know why they wish to be tangle free. They do not know why they pray to the de-frizzing the Afro god to not make their hair so puffy. They beg to straighten the curls. They cry to curl the straight. Yell to lighten the black and fuss to darken the blonde. 

It all is a direct result of slavery. The slave owners were relentless in their pursuit to take away from us everything they could. This is not a perspective. This is a fact. And when a sect of Blacks displayed no desire to have anything to do with the imagery and care of hair like Whites, the Whites did not like that either. Black people would allow their textured hair to do what it would do naturally when it was not combed; lock. The Whites were so appalled, they called that hairstyle "dreadful." Hence, the phrase "dreadlocks." Umph, the nerve of them.

The impact of slavery is real. It can not get any more live and direct than KRS-One on stage at a hip-hop concert. No, my dears; the struggle is not real. There is no struggle when it comes to hair care for anyone of any race with any kind of texture on their hair. There is no struggle when many with textured hair search the internet for hours in search of a quick-fix to cleaning their textured hair or an easier method to styling their textured hair. There is no struggle when mothers want their daughters to automatically know how to care for their hair without allowing their daughter to share mirror and hygiene time with them in the bathroom/bedroom to show them how to do it. There is no real struggle when little boys know the intricate details of their mother's weave application. These little boys know where their mother's buy the hair from and at what cost. There certainly is no struggle when those with textured hair no longer want to even clean it. Instead, they want to replace soap with conditioners, oils or just plain old water. 

The movement?

Something is terribly wrong when a person convinces others of a movement in hair care called, "natural." Hair naturally grows from the scalp. Everybody knows that. Yet they are paying and watching to be told again. Something is terribly wrong when people profess to be doctors of trichology when it is clearly a certification for anyone who wants to pay for one. Something is wrong when consumers turn to YouTube for help with their hair as they sit in the waiting room of a hair salon to pay a hair stylist to do their hair. What is worse? When the hair stylist knows it. Something is wrong when the hairstylist gets angry with the customer for going to another salon. Something is wrong when the hairstylist demands full control of the customer's hair based on a school of thought called, "I have my license and you don't." No, my dear, this is not a movement or revolution. This is-Is. This is propaganda. This is learned helplessness. Not wanting to care for your hair is either a dislike of self, your hair or what it takes to care for and style your hair. Rather it is propaganda or learned helplessness; a dislike of self, hair or a dislike of what it takes to care for or style it; it all stems from slavery. 

To enslave a person, the slave master must physically and mentally hold and lock away a person as they rob that person of their identity and the connections to their identity. Upon being brought to the Americas in the 1600's, Africans were immediately robbed of both. The first thing slave owners did was physically maim and shave the heads of both women and men for one reason and one reason only; so they could not identify each other. 

Who's you daddy now?

White people had no such order in their culture. You see, our (Africans) hairstyles spoke. Of what, you ask? Our braided, wrapped, shaved, and locked hair spoke directly to our location in Africa and our position within a tribe. White people had no such order, pride and association within their culture. So what did they do to copy the Africans? Wigs. A la Louis the what's his name and ye old founding father, first president of the United States and lover of Black women, George Washington.  

To truly address textured hair, we are gonna have to address more than phenotypes, evolution theories and anatomy. It will require a level of awakening that only a rare few will want to see and explore in the 5th dimension.

We started this thing called "beauty."

Prior to slavery, only the deranged and grieved were excused for not combing their hair. Africans prided themselves in the varying cleaning, beautifying and grooming practices. The ancient practices of milk baths, hot oils, cocoa, shea and coconut butter, wig making, use of sea salts, earth salts, crystals, essential oils, plant and herb extracts and the use of clay from the earth to purify skin were all practices that were discovered and utilized by the Africans from all over before slavery was even a thought in the oppressors imagination. These cleaning, beautifying and grooming practices were passed down from generation to generation. Upon arriving in the America's, Africans were not allowed to wash, bath and clothe themselves. They were not allowed to do so until they were mentally and physically broken from their emotional, spiritual, cultural and physical ties to their culture.

By the time the slave owners and White America decided to allow us to do and show our hair; the effects of not being able to comb it and simply care for it had compromised the self-esteem and self-worth of millions of Black women and textured hair women for generations to come. Today, we are descendants of those enslaved. Some of us are descendants of those who were able to remember and pass down practices of hair care and hair styling; while some of us were not.

Today, there are many Africans and African Americans who live the tradition of kempt hair. I was brought up in a home who practiced the custom of knowing who was from whose family according to the style of their hair as our foremothers did prior to slavery. When I was a kid, I could walk into a home or store and often here someone say, "You must be Dean's daughter, your hair is always combed, neat and pretty!" or "You must be Ms. Louise grandbaby, cuz yo hair sure is pretty." I was brought up in a home where we were not allowed to answer the door if our hair was not combed. There were no terms of endearment for hair. Terms such as, "good hair, nice texture or baby hair" were not used. Instead, I was brought up, "Hair is good if you treat it good by way of cleaning it, combing it, braiding it or simply having it styled." 

What a euphemistic way to apologize for slavery.

Racism continues to be the scene stealer of slavery. We cover up and deny the generational and societal effects of slavery by blaming everything on racism. Naw bruh, no one is falling for the okey doke. The effects of slavery in America is real. You don't think so? Do not look at the color of a person's skin.  Do not look at their gender or religion. Do not look up their zip code. Forget about how much money they make. Just look at their hair; your hair. Rather you want to remember, forget the past, let it go or all get along; we are related in America by slavery. Forcing imagery and dominating what we see and hear can not smother what people are yearning to know about themselves and their hair. The truth. And something has to be done about it. Something has to be done about caring for textured hair regardless the race. And I am the person to tell it and offer real life solutions. Seeing as the racial lines are so blurred; the term race will probably be obliterated soon. But the blending of all humans reflects the love and lust of one another in more ways than the mere appreciation and inclusion of cultural diversity.

So, you can call this " is or it' whatever you want. Just don't call it, Black hair care.