Sheabutterboy
Active Member
I wanted to get people's thoughts. This post is not to shame or bash anyone. When I started growing my hair I did everything under the sun but length retention practices to manage my hair. Water only washing, refused to protective style, etc. I was trying to grow kinky hair like I had straight hair. I didn't grow up with any incline about African hair care culture.
2 and a half years into my journey, my hair hadn't grown past my chin, I went to a stylist to ask for advice and he said everything was fine. Anyway, I finally discovered videos on length retention practices, a year and a half later I am at armpit length.
Now I find that most people go online to youtube etc to find out about how to care for their hair because that culture and history have been lost/is being rediscovered. However, I have found that a lot of videos currently overemphasize DIY this for massive hair growth, DIY that for crazy hair growth, while the YouTuber uses the same photo in every video to lure people to click. Then you check their channel one year later and they are onto something else or there's no follow up. Product brands seem to do the same thing, growth shampoo, growth deep conditioner.
Diy this and DIY that is not bad at all, I am a DIY person, however, I am aware that it's more about how I handle my hair than what product I use that leads to retaining growth
There is space for personal responsibility, people want a quick fix, they don't like their hair, they are resistant to African/descended hair culture, however, sometimes they just do not know. I noticed that a lot of Facebook groups, the posts consists of what product can I use to grow my hair, my hair is breaking what do I use and then people comment use coconut oil, use this, as opposed to a holistic length retention approach, that checks the routine of the person.
How can we shift the focus of the conversation to length retention and put the dramatic treatments to the background? How can we help others skip the years of running around, jumping from one bandwagon to the next. (Again bandwagons are not bad if you know how to care for your hair and want to spice things up)
Perhaps product companies can change their language from growth to length retention, YouTubers can stop with the fake ass pictures, and perhaps in the DIY videos tell people that this won't grow your hair it will help with length retention, and to leave a sticky note to length retention videos.
2 and a half years into my journey, my hair hadn't grown past my chin, I went to a stylist to ask for advice and he said everything was fine. Anyway, I finally discovered videos on length retention practices, a year and a half later I am at armpit length.
Now I find that most people go online to youtube etc to find out about how to care for their hair because that culture and history have been lost/is being rediscovered. However, I have found that a lot of videos currently overemphasize DIY this for massive hair growth, DIY that for crazy hair growth, while the YouTuber uses the same photo in every video to lure people to click. Then you check their channel one year later and they are onto something else or there's no follow up. Product brands seem to do the same thing, growth shampoo, growth deep conditioner.
Diy this and DIY that is not bad at all, I am a DIY person, however, I am aware that it's more about how I handle my hair than what product I use that leads to retaining growth
There is space for personal responsibility, people want a quick fix, they don't like their hair, they are resistant to African/descended hair culture, however, sometimes they just do not know. I noticed that a lot of Facebook groups, the posts consists of what product can I use to grow my hair, my hair is breaking what do I use and then people comment use coconut oil, use this, as opposed to a holistic length retention approach, that checks the routine of the person.
How can we shift the focus of the conversation to length retention and put the dramatic treatments to the background? How can we help others skip the years of running around, jumping from one bandwagon to the next. (Again bandwagons are not bad if you know how to care for your hair and want to spice things up)
Perhaps product companies can change their language from growth to length retention, YouTubers can stop with the fake ass pictures, and perhaps in the DIY videos tell people that this won't grow your hair it will help with length retention, and to leave a sticky note to length retention videos.
