Studies Show Natural Hair is Increasingly Popular Among Black Women
Unless you've been living under a rock, it's hard to miss the growing phenomena that is the natural hair movement. In college, more and more girls opted to stay away from the "creamy crack" and revert to their hair's natural texture. Although I was never against the movement, the trend never caught on with me. I was always worried about what my natural hair would look like. ( I havent seen it in at least two decades lol).
However, when my friends ask me about the best way to promote healthy hair growth... my answers always lean toward the use of less chemicals. If they can help it, I caution that they stay away from relaxers all together and wear extensions to grow out their hair. In my opinion* your hair is healthiest when it is not being threatened with harmful chemicals.
If you follow on twitter, stars like Angela Simmons and Toya Wright have tweeted pics of their super long hair proclaiming the joys of being natural. I must admit, they've inspired me to stretch the amount of time in between my relaxers. I'm not so ready to go cold turkey, but I've begun the weaning process.
According to recent article in the HuffingtonPost:
Mintel, a consumer spending and market research firm, [found that] the number of black women who say they do not use products to chemically relax or straighten their hair jumped to 36% in 2011, up from 26% in 2010.
....There definitely needs to be a major shift in product development and care.The report also found that sales of relaxer kits have dropped by 17% between 2006 and 2011
Even if you aren't ready to go completely natural, I think there is a lot to be learned from the natural hair movement!
Ashley Calloway
I tried the natural hair thing for the first time when I was in college. Although I'm back on the "creamy crack" now, I definitely plan on growing my hair out again when I get a bit older.
admin
I'm trying the "growing out" phase. Lets see how long we'll last!