Let's Discuss Kenya Moore's Hemline

MileHighDiva

A+ Hair Care Queen
If you look at the comments under this IG post, people are going crazy telling Kenya to cut/trim her ends.
I know that she has layers, that's probably why her ends appear to be see through. The see through part of her hemline looks pretty even to me.

What do you guys think?

This reinforces what @Chicoro said previously in a post sometime last year. That perfectly manicured ends have a really high currency in the Black community.

Let's discuss!
 

Theresamonet

Well-Known Member
Her ends are fine, and her hair looks great. Kenya’s hair has been long her whole life, so I’m pretty sure she knows what she’s doing when it comes to caring for her hair.

I think people are so used to seeing perfect hemlines on weaves and wigs that they think that real hair is supposed to look perfect from root to tip too. That’s not usually the case unless you trim very often, and if you do, your hair isn’t going to be very long.
 

Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
Her ends are fine, and her hair looks great. Kenya’s hair has been long her whole life, so I’m pretty sure she knows what she’s doing when it comes to caring for her hair.

I think people are so used to seeing perfect hemlines on weaves and wigs that they think that real hair is supposed to look perfect from root to tip too. That’s not usually the case unless you trim very often, and if you do, your hair isn’t going to be very long.

Exactly!
 

PlanetCybertron

Well-Known Member
I may sound a bit harsh or blunt in my post, so forgive me in advance please my fellow ladies, but this is one of those topics that really grind my gears.

Most people don’t understand the nature of hair in general. And I’m talking any texture.

If left completely alone, minimal brushing, minimal washing, hair will still naturally taper even with the most natural or eco/body friendly practices and products. Because well...it’s hair.

When I say taper I mean either natural taper or regular wear and tear taper. Either way I consider it taper.

I don’t think it’s just the black community but the hair care industry in general still have this notion that a completely blunt cut hemline equates to the end all be all of hair “health”. I put quotes around the word health, because I view it differently when it comes to hair. Hair isn’t “healthy” in terms of how health is applied towards our bodies. Hair is not metabolically active, except for the follicles and glands that push it out. Once it’s out, it is dead and has hardened.

Going off on a bit of tangent:

In my eyes, hair “health” means hair maintenance. Say you have a very nice, rare piece of fabric. Say it’s some type of silk or linen. That linen is not metabolically active. It does not carry out typical bodily activities. Meaning the goal is to keep that piece of linen maintained. It may fray, or lose a few fibers/pieces, have certain parts of it that may be a bit dull, and may not be as soft as it once was, but say you’ve had that piece of linen for well over 50+ years. But it’s still well intact, and you are diligent in caring for it. It may not be as perfect as when it was first made, but it’s still pretty and well maintained.

Same thing with hair. Our goal is to keep as much of your hair intact as possible. That’s what I view as “healthy”, ergo , well maintained hair.

So going back to the subject, it is solely a societal thing. The other hair site I frequent, there are women with hair to the floor who have natural taper, or fairytale ends as I like to call them. So this notion of a blunt even hemline does not guarantee length.

And I think the hair communities equating a blunt hemline to longer length retention can hold a lot of women back from actually seeing their growth translate to length retention.

My entire head of hair is naturally layered. While I do have breakage that I am currently fixing, even before that I still had a natural layer to my hair. Either from tapering naturally, or as mentioned earlier, typical wear and tear.

As for Mrs. Moore, her hair still looks well kept/maintained. Personally to me, it looks like she has more taper than I do, but that doesn’t undermine her hair care practices, and it doesn’t mean her hair is any less “healthy” or well maintained.

I’m not saying blunt ends are bad, but they are solely for aesthetics, and do not mean “healthier” or “faster growing” hair whatsoever.
 
Last edited:

NaturalEnigma

Well-Known Member
I may sound a bit harsh or blunt in my post, so forgive me in advance please my fellow ladies, but this is one of those topics that really grind my gears.

Most people don’t understand the nature of hair in general. And I’m talking any texture.

If left completely alone, minimal brushing, minimal washing, hair will still naturally taper even with the most natural or eco/body friendly practices and products. Because well...it’s hair.

When I say taper I mean either natural taper or regular wear and tear taper. Either way I consider it taper.

I don’t think it’s just the black community but the hair care industry in general still have this notion that a completely blunt cut hemline equates to the end all be all of hair “health”. I put quotes around the word health, because I view it differently when it comes to hair. Hair isn’t “healthy” in terms of how health is applied towards our bodies. Hair is not metabolically active, except for the follicles and glands that push it out. Once it’s out, it is dead and has hardened.

Going off on a bit of tangent:

In my eyes, hair “health” means hair maintenance. Say you have a very nice, rare piece of fabric. Say it’s some type of silk or linen. That linen is not metabolically active. It does not carry out typical bodily activities. Meaning the goal is to keep that piece of linen maintained. It may fray, or lose a few fibers/pieces, have certain parts of it that may be a bit dull, and may not be as soft as it once was, but say you’ve had that piece of linen for well over 50+ years. But it’s still well intact, and you are diligent in caring for it. It may not be as perfect as when it was first made, but it’s still pretty and well maintained.

Same thing with hair. Our goal is to keep as much of your hair intact as possible. That’s what I view as “healthy”, ergo , well maintained hair.

So going back to the subject, it is solely a societal thing. The other hair site I frequent, there are women with hair to the floor who have natural taper, or fairytale ends as I like to call them. So this notion of a blunt even hemline does not guarantee length.

And I think the hair communities equating a blunt hemline to longer length retention can hold a lot of women back from actually seeing their growth translate to length retention.

Me entire head of hair is naturally layered. While I do have breakage that I am currently fixing, even before that I still had a natural layer to my hair. Either from tapering naturally, or as mentioned earlier, typical wear and tear.

As for Mrs. Moore, her hair still looks well kept/maintained. Personally to me, it looks like she has more taper than I do, but that doesn’t undermine her hair care practices, and it doesn’t mean her hair is any less “healthy” or well maintained.

Thank you for posting this. I just realized last week that I’ve been over trimming for years and cutting off much of my progress. I remember when I first went natural I trimmed about once or twice a year and my hair flourished now trimming 2 sometimes even 3 inches every 4 months has stalled my hair progress. I used to use the tapered ends as the starting line on where I need to cut, not anymore. I just cut an inch whether it includes the whole tapered section or not now. I’m tired of being at the same length for years.
 

PlanetCybertron

Well-Known Member
Thank you for posting this. I just realized last week that I’ve been over trimming for years and cutting off much of my progress. I remember when I first went natural I trimmed about once or twice a year and my hair flourished now trimming 2 sometimes even 3 inches every 4 months has stalled my hair progress. I used to use the tapered ends as the starting line on where I need to cut, not anymore. I just cut an inch whether it includes the whole tapered section or not now. I’m tired of being at the same length for years.

I’m glad I posted something that helped.

I will add too, that when I decide to start trimming I will be doing exactly what you currently do. In no way will I be trying to trim towards where the bulk of my hair is.

Which is also something I notice that hundreds of stylists or salons do. They trim towards the bulk of the hair.

The bulk of my hair is around MBL, and I can only imagine if I asked to have my hemline evened up what would happen. My longest hairs, are 13-14 inches longer than where bulk of my hair rests.

Just thinking about someone chopping over a foot worth of growth and claiming my “ends needed a trim”, ugh. Gives me the shivers. Lol
 
Last edited:

Britt

Well-Known Member
I love her hair, she has such a beautiful head of heat trained hair. High density and thick hair.
I personally prefer blunt ends, I love watching videos of stylists trimming ends, with all her length and thickness I'd cut the see through ends off. Even so she's still left with a head of thick and long hair.
 

B_Phlyy

Pineapple Eating Unicorn
Her hair looks nice. I wouldn't purchase any of her products though. Not because I think they're not good , but I think her constantly being in weaves does more than her products.

I also don't believe in "trimming" for blunt ends. Unless you plan on wearing your hair completely straight and down all the time, having blunt ends doesn't matter.
 

Dayjoy

Old School Member
Her ends are fine, and her hair looks great. Kenya’s hair has been long her whole life, so I’m pretty sure she knows what she’s doing when it comes to caring for her hair.

I think people are so used to seeing perfect hemlines on weaves and wigs that they think that real hair is supposed to look perfect from root to tip too. That’s not usually the case unless you trim very often, and if you do, your hair isn’t going to be very long.
This is SO TRUE. Reality is being blurred, and not just with hair, but with bodies, eyelashes, lives, everything. Sorry for the weird tangent. Her hair looks great.
 

Theresamonet

Well-Known Member
Her hair looks nice. I wouldn't purchase any of her products though. Not because I think they're not good , but I think her constantly being in weaves does more than her products.

I also don't believe in "trimming" for blunt ends. Unless you plan on wearing your hair completely straight and down all the time, having blunt ends doesn't matter.

Is she constantly in weaves? I don’t think so. I think Kenya wears her own hair quite often.
 

waff

Well-Known Member
I personally think a trim would do her hair's health wonders. I think thin hemline leads to breakage and a thinner heamline with/out layers. If it were my hair, I would def chop off a good 3 inches of the thin part. That's just me though. It does not have to be perfectly blunt at all.
I noticed with my own hair, when I negelect trimming and keeping my hemline in a decent shape, breakage gets worst, and detangling becomes a nightmare.
 
Last edited:

ClassyJSP

Well-Known Member
This is SO TRUE. Reality is being blurred, and not just with hair, but with bodies, eyelashes, lives, everything. Sorry for the weird tangent. Her hair looks great.

This is so true, everything in reality isn't Instagram picture perfect. Real hair isn't going to have a picture perfect blunt cut at all times like the "trims" stylist are posting lately all over IG and facebook. I know my hair grows into a natural V shaped no matter how often I trim and untrained stylist like to cut it "even" at the bulk of it.

Back on topic tho Kenya's hair looks fine to me.
 

FoxxyLocs

Well-Known Member
I personally would trim. Probably 2-3 inches, and leave a little bit of see through ends there.

I don't have to have perfect ends, but if I have more than an inch of see through ends, I trim. I don't see the benefit in holding on to scraggly ends just to say you have long hair.

I currently trim my hair maybe twice a year and take off about an inch or less. I used to micro trim 3-4x a year (taking off about 1/8 of an inch each time), but I got lazy.

Last year I went the whole year without trimming and had to cut like 3 inches.

I don't want HL hair that's see through up to WL. I'd rather just have WL hair. But that's my personal preference. Whenever I see pics like this I mentally give them a trim, lol.
 
Last edited:

oneastrocurlie

Well-Known Member
If it were my hair I'd have it cut so the ends looked more even. That would be my own personal preference because I would want a certain look for my own hair. Not necessarily for "healthy hair" reasons.

Her hair is long so she obviously is doing something right.
 

waff

Well-Known Member
I personally would trim. Probably 2-3 inches, and leave a little bit of see through ends there.

I don't have to have perfect ends, but if I have more than an inch of see through ends, I trim. I don't see the benefit in holding on to scraggly ends just to say you have long hair.

I currently trim my hair maybe twice a year and take off about an inch or less. I used to micro trim 3-4x a year (taking off about 1/8 of an inch each time), but I got lazy.

Last year I went the whole year without trimming and had to cut like 3 inches.

I don't want HL hair that's see through up to WL. I'd rather just have WL hair. But that's my personal preference. Whenever I see pics like this I mentally give them a trim, lol.
me too, I would rather have WL hair of full ends vs Tail bone of scraggly see thru ends. I hate uneven wispy ends on my hair, and it just makes me itch to cut lol I don't think trimming often is necessary though unless heat/chemical processing is used often on the hair. I can get away with 6 months without trimming, and my hemline is not terrible by then. Once I went almost a year without trimming (out of laziness to go to the salon), and I ended up chopping off way more than I would have chopped six months ago anyway.
 

Dayjoy

Old School Member
I’m kinda embarrassed that I’m on a hair board, but didn’t know “hemline” was referring to the ends of her hair. I came in here wondering why y’all were discussing the length of her dress. I thought maybe it was another Jazzy Auntie thing.
:lachen:
I personally think a trim would do her hair's health wonders. I think thin hemline leads to breakage and a thinner heamline with/out layers. If it were my hair, I would def chop off a good 3 inches of the thin part. That's just me though. It does not have to be perfectly blunt at all.
I noticed with my own hair, when I negelect trimming and keeping my hemline in a decent shape, breakage gets worst, and detangling becomes a nightmare.
This makes sense. Naturally tapering hair makes sense to me too. Now I have no idea. Maybe it depends on each head of hair.
 

FoxxyLocs

Well-Known Member
This makes sense. Naturally tapering hair makes sense to me too. Now I have no idea. Maybe it depends on each head of hair.

Hair does taper naturally, but 3-4 inches of see through ends indicates damage, imo. I maintain my hemline in a U shape bc I think trying to keep a blunt hemline leads to overtimming. But not trimming at all isn't good either.

There will always be some degree of damage to your ends no matter how careful you are. Trimming very small amounts every few months helps preserve the part of your hair that is still healthy.

Someone above said they were trimming 2 inches every few months, that's way too much. But a quarter inch trim twice a year helps maintain healthy hair.
 

GGsKin

Well-Known Member
Hair strands on your head don't all grow at the same rate at the same time so if you are trying to get to longer lengths, it makes sense to me that you will have an uneven, possibly see-through hemline at some point. In that case, if those ends are not split/ damaged, and only look see-through because the rest of the hair hasn't caught up then I wouldn't cut them.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
If I ever upload a picture like this somebody please come check on me

 

PlanetCybertron

Well-Known Member
Hair strands on your head don't all grow at the same rate at the same time so if you are trying to get to longer lengths, it makes sense to me that you will have an uneven, possibly see-through hemline at some point. In that case, if those ends are not split/ damaged, and only look see-through because the rest of the hair hasn't caught up then I wouldn't cut them.

Like @Chicoro says:

Grow hair feets! Grow!
 
Top