Is it "natural" for black hair to shine?

[JewelleNY]

I guess I am referring to the more kinkier textures of black hair. I notice we tend to think hair looks unbcombed, uncared for, dirty, neglected, if natural hair does not have that shine

But I wonder where did that ideal come from since most 3c, 4 hair types do not shine naturally. I look at pics of Aficans with naturals from decades ago, and even from our 60's black power decade and don't see a lot of shine.

I noticed with Seal and Heidi Klum's children that people think that the youngest boy's, who sports a shiny large fro, hair looks healthy and cute and the oldest, Henry, who sports a kinkier fro, looks a mess and his hair "looks" uncombed (I always wonder how people assume his hair is uncombed )

When I see naturals these days the hair is sooooo moisturized and manipulated that it no longer looks like the true natural hair that is growing out of the scalp. I feel only 3a's and 2's are considered "nice looking" naturals.

Any thoughts?

I will try to post some pics as examples.

 

[glamazon386]

I don't think it naturally shines. Either people are putting products in their hair (dying your hair black can also make it look shiny) to make it shine or sometimes it's just the camera flash. My hair isn't shiny. Never has been. But if it is pulled back wet and dries like that, it can give the illusion that it is shiny. And that doesn't even happen every time. It does have a sheen to it when straight but only when I apply some type of spray on product with cones in it. Otherwise it looks dull and wispy.

 

[JewelleNY]

I don't think it naturally shines. Either people are putting products in their hair (dying your hair black can also make it look shiny) to make it shine or sometimes it's just the camera flash. My hair isn't shiny. Never has been. But if it is pulled back wet and dries like that, it can give the illusion that it is shiny. And that doesn't even happen every time. It does have a sheen to it when straight but only when I apply some type of spray on product with cones in it. Otherwise it looks dull and wispy.

Wow, your hair has really grown Glamazon

ITA! I remember when I used to wear my hair (relaxed) bone straight, it was shiny and everyone always had compliments, yet is was thin and not very healthy. Now, it is never bone straight (I don't have the energy) yet it is so long and healthy but I do not have much shine at all

When I was transitioning, I had to use so many products to give a a nice shine but I was fooling myself because my natural hair did not have a natural shine once dry. I think I was doing almost a much work getting that "natural" look as I did when I relaxed erplexed

 

[LilBrownied]

This is a good question. I was wondering this to myself to other day. Unfortunately, I realize people DO expect a lot of shine out of hair, even when it's unnatural. I don't think most types of hair shine naturally, it usually takes product. That's why there's hair gloss and sprays,etc.

It might look even more noticable on 4ab types of hair (the "bad" type of natural). I can't justify exactly why it's a different case-- may be because it's already a demonized hair type and no-shine just contributes to the hate. There are so many myths and prejudices we need to overcome in regards to natural hair, but I think a preference for shine is here to stay.

That's my 2 cents.

 

[FlowerHair]

No, most of our hair doesn't shine naturally, but it can have a beautiful sheen to it. The lighter the color of the hair, the less shine as well.

 

[Violets-are-blue]

Uhms, I guess it depends on how your hair is done. I mean, isn't shine just a reflection of light? When my hair is straighthened it shines easier than if I wore it out. When I braid my hair in big braids, the little braid rows each have a little shine( or is that sheen? idk) to it. But I wouldn't expect it to shine if I wore it in a fro or something. It wouldn't really reflect light well.

*edit* Maybe the little braid row shines is just because my bathroom light is bright now that I think about it. I have a regular and vanity light in the bathroom. I wouldn't be surprised if it looked dull out in sunlight or something.

 

[yuriko]

It has nothing to do with race. Curly hair doesn't naturally shine

Straight hair reflects light better, thats why it shines

 

[JewelleNY]

Uhms, I guess it depends on how your hair is done. I mean, isn't shine just a reflection of light? When my hair is straighthened it shines easier than if I wore it out. When I braid my hair in big braids, the little braid rows each have a little shine( or is that sheen? idk) to it. But I wouldn't expect it to shine if I wore it in a fro or something. It wouldn't really reflect light well.

*edit* Maybe the little braid row shines is just because my bathroom light is bright now that I think about it. I have a regular and vanity light in the bathroom. I wouldn't be surprised if it looked dull out in sunlight or something.

ITA with what you are saying I just hear so many equate shine with health and no shine with poor conditioned hair.

 

[JewelleNY]

It has nothing to do with race. Curly hair doesn't naturally shine

Straight hair reflects light better, thats why it shines

I think it does in a sense when people are talking about hair looking unhealthy if it does not shine.

 

[Napp]

some people have silky hair which tends to have a high reflection of light(shine) whereas others might have a cottony texture which gives a dull reflection of light (sheen) others might have neither. its a genetic trait of you hair just like curl pattern and youcan enhance it or hinder it.so yes some natural hair does shine.

 

[SparkleDoll]

I'm relaxed and I don't use any product on my hair when I blow dry except a pea size amount of leave in conditioner and my hair is very shine and bouncy. I know my hair is super healthy when it shines a lot on it's own. People even comment on how shiny and bounce my hair is and I tell them I use no products except shampoo, conditioner, and a small amount of leave in. If I use all kinds of serums my hair looks dull and weighed down.

But now that I think about it, I use Vitale extra body relaxer and my staple shampoo is VO5 extra body with shine enhancing nutrients shampoo. So maybe that's why my hair has a natural shine with no products on it.

Even though my hair is 3c with some 4a I still had a lot of shine when I was natural, but I was using the same VO5 shampoo, so that probably gave me the shine.

Back to the original question, I do think it is natural for some black hair to shine, like some one else said if it is silky it will have more shine than cottony textured hair.

 

[Nonie]

Natural kinky or curly hair doesn't shine (especially w/o products) because curly hair doesn't reflect light the way straight hair might. Indeed, if you press kinky hair, it will reflect light more and appear shinier than it does when it isn't pressed.

Natural hair (unstraightened) w/o products:

Natural hair (unstraightened) with moisturizer (S Curl) applied also doesn't shine much especially in the areas where it's allowed to curl down:

In the stretched part of natural hair (unstraightened) it may reflect some light a little and thus appear to shine ever so slightly, but not so much in the afro part:

Natural hair pressed w/o products has a bit of a shine since it reflects light better by virtue of being straight:

Natural hair straightened and with products applied shines even more:

ETA: The hair you see here is 4B.

 

[Solitude]

If shine has to do with race/ curliness, why do I see people with type 1 & 2 hair of different races and/ or relaxed 3 & 4 type hair looking dull and lifeless everyday?

I think shine can come from either 1) products, 2) natural oils in the hair, 3) general health of the hair. My hair has always been shiny, even when I was younger & was natural or wore plaits. I see pics and my hair was blinging, just like it does now relaxed. That's just my opinion.

Edited to add * maybe one reason why "our" hair tends to be less shiny is b/c it doesn't naturally get oily as much as other hair types. IDK

 

[anon123]

ITA with what you are saying I just hear so many equate shine with health and no shine with poor conditioned hair.

I'm glad someone else was thinking it! My hair will have no sheen or shine one minute and if I add a product, it will add sheen or shine. Is my hair healthier then than it was 5 minutes before? No, of course not. Does my hair return to unhealthiness after I wash? No, of course not. I think this is a false way of thinking.

And I think you are right to question why we think shine or sheen is indicative of hair health. I've wondered myself. Maybe it's because when we add certain products, our hair is more supple and so breaks less and people equate this to health. Maybe it's because the straighter the hair, all other things being equal, the more it will shine and we still have some preference for the look of that hair. I don't know, maybe it's a combo of these, maybe something else. But I have wondered.

 

[Violets-are-blue]

Idk. I think people just like shiny things..
Like "Oooo Shiny"

*edit* sorry for the random post shiny post. Anyway, to clarify, I don't really think it's the straight hair thing that makes people equate shiny as better. I do see girls with straight hair that's really sandy and doesn't really shine. sheens a little. I think, people just might like things that shine just for the heck of it...But I don't think it is necessarily an immediate indication of hair health tho, because shine depends on a lot of factors.

 

[Ramya]

My natural hair color doesn't shine at all relaxed or natural. When I use a rinse or dye my hair darker the bling is unbelievable. I also have a lot of shine when my hair gets oily. I don't use any shine products.

 

[jada1111]

I guess I am referring to the more kinkier textures of black hair. I notice we tend to think hair looks unbcombed, uncared for, dirty, neglected, if natural hair does not have that shine

But I wonder where did that ideal come from since most 3c, 4 hair types do not shine naturally. I look at pics of Aficans with naturals from decades ago, and even from our 60's black power decade and don't see a lot of shine.

I noticed with Seal and Heidi Klum's children that people think that the youngest boy's, who sports a shiny large fro, hair looks healthy and cute and the oldest, Henry, who sports a kinkier fro, looks a mess and his hair "looks" uncombed (I always wonder how people assume his hair is uncombed )

When I see naturals these days the hair is sooooo moisturized and manipulated that it no longer looks like the true natural hair that is growing out of the scalp. I feel only 3a's and 2's are considered "nice looking" naturals.

Any thoughts?

I will try to post some pics as examples.

Great post. The only time my hair "shines" is when I put gel in it (which is why I used it).

I do believe it can "sheen" which is different. Sheen means it looks healthy and moisturized. That's very important to ME. I don't use gel much anymore, because I prefer to use a good moisturizing conditioner (no proteins) as a leave-in.

I'm also in the 4-range.

As far as Seal/Heidi's kids' hair, they both look the same to me - DRY.

 

[Kay.Dee]

thanks for posting this

I'm a 4b, and this is probably the main reason why I want to dye my hair jet black. It's frustrating when people assume that you don't do anything at all to your hair because of its natural charactersitcs.

 

[Southernbella.]

My type 4 hair has sheen, but it's not shiny.

The funny thing is, I've never really liked for my hair to be shiny, even when I was relaxed. Shiny hair always looked greasy to me.

 

[Southernbella.]

I do admit that my dd's reddish hair annoys me in that it never looks moisturized, even when it is. It ALWAYS looks dusty, dry, and brittle, but if you touch it, it's soft and fluffy. I joke about dyeing it black just so people won't think I neglect her hair.

 

[jada1111]

I do admit that my dd's reddish hair annoys me in that it never looks moisturized, even when it is. It ALWAYS looks dusty, dry, and brittle, but if you touch it, it's soft and fluffy. I joke about dyeing it black just so people won't think I neglect her hair.

See? To me I think light colored natural hair doesn't look too bad dry like darker hair.

Dark hair NEEDS to have some sort of sheen or it will look dusty.

 

[Ramya]

I do admit that my dd's reddish hair annoys me in that it never looks moisturized, even when it is. It ALWAYS looks dusty, dry, and brittle, but if you touch it, it's soft and fluffy. I joke about dyeing it black just so people won't think I neglect her hair.

That's what my mother did . I've been using rinses since I was 10 and permanent dye since I was 13.

 

[DragonPearl]

I guess I am referring to the more kinkier textures of black hair. I notice we tend to think hair looks unbcombed, uncared for, dirty, neglected, if natural hair does not have that shine

But I wonder where did that ideal come from since most 3c, 4 hair types do not shine naturally. I look at pics of Aficans with naturals from decades ago, and even from our 60's black power decade and don't see a lot of shine.

I noticed with Seal and Heidi Klum's children that people think that the youngest boy's, who sports a shiny large fro, hair looks healthy and cute and the oldest, Henry, who sports a kinkier fro, looks a mess and his hair "looks" uncombed (I always wonder how people assume his hair is uncombed )

When I see naturals these days the hair is sooooo moisturized and manipulated that it no longer looks like the true natural hair that is growing out of the scalp. I feel only 3a's and 2's are considered "nice looking" naturals.

Any thoughts?

I will try to post some pics as examples.

I agree with every single word.

Over and over, I see people equating the lack of shine of natural hair to something wrong or neglect or excessive dryness. My hair in its natural state does not shine. But after I goop it down with tons of moisturizers and oils, yet it will shine.

I don't obsess about having shiny hair, especially if it means a greasy pillowcase. Lately, I use just enough moisturizers to allow me to manipulate my hair into buns or the like.

 

[DragonPearl]

I do admit that my dd's reddish hair annoys me in that it never looks moisturized, even when it is. It ALWAYS looks dusty, dry, and brittle, but if you touch it, it's soft and fluffy. I joke about dyeing it black just so people won't think I neglect her hair.

I've had people touching my hair and being amazed that it was soft and fluffy.

 

[*Muffin*]

I read an article on a website that curly/kinky black hair doesn't really shine like pin-straight dark hair can, but it does have a natural sheen and luminence that comes from it when it's healthy .

 

[CoCoRican]

Hello to everyone, I'm putting my two cents in (its a little lenghty):

My natural hair forms in coils not Z's or S shaped but coils and waves, whose says natural hair doesnt shine? I'm the only one in my family with nauturally Jet Black hair and its extremly shiny, you can see it in the sun light or just in the shade, and the shine is more viewable when I put my hair in a ponytail. I just recently started to care for my very thick natural hair, before i found LHCF, I knew nothing of water as moisture and natural hair moisturizers such as aloe gel, shea butter etc, and never applied products in my hair especially not grease. So from experience I have shine to my hair never using products. I never understood people needing sheen for shine, I thought everyone had natural shine.

I cant seem to believe that natural 4b hair doesnt shine, mines does without any products.

 

[Forever in Bloom]

I must be rare, 'cause my hair (especially since I went natural) is amazingly shiny WITHOUT PRODUCT! I consider the two to be the same. Look 'em up. Sheeny (a real word) is a synonym for shiny - that is, if ya'll want to get technical and all

 

[Lucky's Mom]

My hair shines pretty nicely.....

 

[Vinyl]

Natural hair doesn't shine because the curliness of it doesn't reflect light well. It has nothing to do with health.

 

[MAMATO]

My DH's hair shine like nobody's business... His hair is naturally jet black, coarse and straigth like an asian, but it is very coarse so no doubt he's a 4 sthg Well whenever he asks me to help him to get rid of his grey hair, I have to make sure the lighting is adequate before I pluck the grey hair because the black ones are so shiny it is very confusing at some point... So I make sure to get the right ones otherwise the poor sweetie would end up ballheaded at an early age