Joy to the World

my TLHC journal is back!!

I'll be gradually importing the last of my entries (it really looks like it was just the month of January, so not as much as I thought it was) and finally, I'll just be growing forward.

I've finally decided that I'm a 4b/cNapp, texture wise. One fabulous thing about being a cNapp? Nothing (and I do mean NOTHING) I can do to my hair will make me anything other than, a cNapp. So - no matter how many caramel, or coconut & lime, or henna treatments I do - well, you can't reduce a curl pattern that doesn't exist, and you can't create one (from treatments) either, so I can finally (and joyfully, as that was one monkey that was rally pissing me off) release the feelings of 'nappy guilt' when I smooth my hair back from my hairline and see only waves. It's how my hair is. Taint nothing I can do to make it wavier, taint nothing I would do to make it straighter.
So, that's another bit of joy.

I also realized, that I'm a well rounded hair forumnista. I hang out with the white girls (who have the chemistry/ingredient game DOWN). I hang out with the hardcore nappies (who have fabulous styles and sisterhood). I hang out with the less hardcore nappies (I think they're the only 'nappy' board that DOESN'T have rules about what you cannot talk about on the board). I hang out with the relaxed heads (my favorite board next to TLHC, yet the one that drives. me. CRAZY!!!! the most as well).
The only places I don't hang out at is WeaveCentral and with the uberhardcore nappies (got tired of all the politics), - and I still will occasionally swing through - just to see if anything has changed. Lately though, I've been hearing plenty of reports on the other boards, and if anything - things have gotten worse.

Now.

I understand the history of our race in this country. I understand that there are many, many deep-seated issues that we have with our hair. I grok that.

What I don't get, though, is - why do we continue to feed into it? Why do we keep buying, perpetuating, and working within the narrow guidelines of the bullshit, when we KNOW it's bullshit?
And maybe that's the thing. Maybe, just maybe, that really is the thing. People believe these things - they really think it's truth, and not bullshit.

I don't know. It seems so simple to me though.

Fact: Hair Grows.

Unless you have a serious medical problem, your hair will grow. For the love of the gods, hair grows when you're DEAD. Seriously, growing hair is NOT the problem.

Fact: Straight Hair and Curly Hair have different requirements of care.

Doesn't mean one 'type' of care is more difficult. In fact, caring for your hair (whether it be straight or curly) the way that it needs to be cared for is usually the EASIEST option you have.
If you have naturally straight hair, trying to make it look like your curly headed friends hair is going to be hard. And your hair will reflect the fact that it's not being treated the way it NEEDS to be treated.
I mean, really - how many jacked up curly perms have you seen? Hell, I can't remember seeing a curly perm that actually looked GOOD. Most of the ones I've seen that looked good on friends, I came to find out was ACTUALLY their NATURAL texture.
The same goes for naturally curly hair. Trying to make it look straight is GOING to be difficult. And your hair will reflect the fact that it's not being handled the way it needs to be handled.

Fact: Your maximum length is a combination of things you cannot influence, and things that you can.

On the cannot influence list
1) The maximum growth rate of your hair
To be clear, I believe that everyone has an MAXIMUM growth rate - a upper limit to the speed that your follicles can produce a strand of hair. I also believe that VERY few people are actually at that rate. Poor diet, poor health (both total body and scalp), poor circulation, etc., all reduce your growth rate down from that 'perfect' maximum. I believe you can 'nudge' your hair closer to that maximum via supplements, improved health & diet, and some growth aids, but - you aren't really changing that genetically pre-set rate.

On the can influence list
2) Everything else

I considered including that you can't really influence the anagen (growth) phase of your follicles, but there are actually several 'reputed' items that will, in fact, turn 'off' the timer that tells your follicles to stop producing hair. *thinks* Dammit, there was one (Rosemary? No, it was something else) - some other herb - possibly an ayurvedic - that actually had a study done on it that potentially indicated it could do exactly that.

Doesn't that seem simple? I don't know. Maybe I'm the crazy one. Come back to me in 2017, and we'll see just how loopy I am.

*sigh*

So. I firmly believe that the 'reason' that black people have 'historically' not been able to grow hair is quite simply because we aren't taking care of our hair the way it needs to be taken care of. Period.

We can't take care of our hair the same way 'they' take care of their hair. Our hair has different needs. That doesn't make our hair more difficult, it just makes it different! I suppose a Doberman is more 'difficult' than a Greyhound when it comes to biting your hand off, but I can well bloody guarantee you that each breed has it's own issues, and it's own 'sticking points.

Our issue - at the root of it all - is that we've lost the needed skills and talents to properly take care of our hair. We've lost the knowledge of how to take care of our hair, and in this 'Gimme it now and gimme it fast' society that we live in, the long, slow, gradual process of unlearning the foolishness and relearning the reality is not something that most people really want to go through.
They would much rather bitch, whinge, and rant on how 'difficult' our hair is - it's easier, it's more satisfying, and on some level, it releases them from any sort of personal responsibility for the condition of their hair.

And maybe that's what pisses me off the most. That's a personal 'hot point' for me - people who, for whatever 'reason' (usually excuse) abdicate the right & responsibility for their own actions, lives, and behaviours. I just - I just don't have the patience for that ish. Srsly.