The Dumbest D!#n Hair Advice You've Ever Heard (given or received)

[Son26]

Let so and so do your hair because they have "growing hands"

Don't wash your hair when you get braids.

Highlights causes your hair to grow.

 

[crazydaze911]

Let so and so do your hair because they have "growing hands"

Don't wash your hair when you get braids.
Highlights causes your hair to grow.

growing hands - haha - i've heard that one too!

 

[yuriko]

Its funny that most of these misconceptions revolve around hair washing. Its like kryptonite or something. BW are scared of water. In grad school, the white girls always joked about how fast we black girls scurried off at any sign of rain, lol, and I definitely did this a lot too

 

[taj]

The dumbestoke: hair advice that I've received is when my friend told me to change my relaxer with every:burning: application, curl my hair with a curling iron and apply gel. I'd never ask her for hair advice, because she doesn't have much and it's very unhealthy. However, she feels the need to give me suggestions. I'm in the process of sharing my knowledge of proper hair care with her. I've learned a lot from you ladies, thanks!

 

[jendazzler]

The worst hair advice was that it was okay to leave a perm on for an hour if you you deep conditioned it afterwards. This was when I had virgin hair and none of the relaxers I used was working. Yes, the relaxer did work, but what a way to go!

 

[elained313]

The usual, when I told my friend that I stopped greasing my hair she told me my hair would drop out because Black people NEED grease. Her hair has been collar bone length for as long as I've known her (about 5 years)... after BCing my hair to about 1.. 1 1/2 inches short in January... It's now approaching full SL 7months later =)

OMG I hear this ALL the time about greasing!! I have always hated grease on my hair!

 

[apemay1969]

We were told that if two people did your hair at the same time, you would die. My auntie whipped my butt for helping my cousin do her sister's hair. I remember getting my first set of braids at an African shop and a twinge went through my heart With all my education.

Wasn't hair advice, it was survival advice.

 

[SmilingElephant]

:heated: Fire. Back in the day,(& why i've always been a self braider)....
When braids were installed, I was told (by several folks :mob to burn the frizzies(excess) off the braids, this will make them look neat and "seal" the ends. I've also witnessed this being done.

:burning:My response has always been....WTF!
"My" hair is part of the frizzies and I damn well know that burning is not good for my hair!

I also avoid cutting the frizzies off my finsished braids. (it's "my" hair)

This is SO funny!!! But i know what ur talkin about. This is one of the many reasons i don't wear weave or installed braids.....the fire!!!

My mom says i wash my hair too much....but yet she brags to my relatives about how long it is...its all in the regimen!

 

[BrooklynBeauty]

let's see....
When you apply perm to your hair,ur supposed to apply to the whole head and leave it in until it starts to burn,then wash it out...if it doesn't burn,u didn't leave it in long enough and ur hair is not gonna be gloriously bone straight

 

[GV-NA-GI-TLV-GE-I]

What the dumbest advice about hair care you've ever heard, whether or not you received or gave it? I just thought about my time a Msms (boarding-type school) when I was competing with a friend brittany, to give advice about hair care for my friend Doya. *names changed to protect the innocent*

Now to give you some idea, brittany's hair was very unhealthy...all two inches of it with some very visible bald comb-over spots around the temple area and scales of dandruff due to infrequent washing on top of dermatitis . Doya who happens to be a fan of weave, had thinning, short hair but it was salvageable with some proper care. Now at the time, I was relaxed but transitioning (had recently discovered NP and BHM) with approx. bsl hair. I had good hair care methods before the boards and had grown my hair from above shoulder length from self-inflicted heat damage a year befor (inspite of knowing better because I was only 16 and wanted to be cute).

Doya was styling her hair and asked my advice on what she should do. I told her it would be best if she put if she rolled it and not used so much heat. Brittany interrupts and says that if she followed my advice that her hair would be all over the place because it was so short and that she should do the following:

-wash hair (no conditioner because that was for white people)
-add grease immediately after to "condition"
-add gel, slick hair down straight, and blowdry
-after drying, curl with a curling iron to set style, add spritz, repeat every 3-4 weeks....without washing in between

I sat in absolute disbelief even before hair boards I knew that would take someone's hair clean off their head. I said Doya, "are you really gone listen to her" . She said, "well, her hair short too and you got indian hair so what you do is not going to work for me anyway (to put this in it's cultural context brittany & I are AA and doyin is nigerian....and I do NOT have Indain hair). So I proceeded to shut up, since my advice was falling on deaf ears, but it astonished me that someone could give such advice, as if you wanted their hair to come out

I don't think there was a problem with it until she said to wash every 3-4 weeks. Much more often! Oil on hair after washing can get by without conditioner and gel would add protein and slick it down like a setting lotion, blow it dry...did she mean in a cap or section by section? Whenever it dried, since it had been cleansed and conditioned with protective products like oil and gel, she could have curled it. But if that hair is so short, why not just wash, oil and gel and lay it flat for a few months?

I know what you mean, tho. I had a Nigerian friend, dear, dear lady I love to death. She wanted to put my hair in string in a Nigerian style so I let her. Kinda like bantu knot partings but sticking out straight. White guys loved it . But I had just washed my hair. Lawdie lawdie, she used this African wooden comb and my hair was coming out like crazy. I should have said something but I didn't want to insult her. The style was kewl but I never EVER saw that much hair coming outta my head before. Lawdie!

 

[GV-NA-GI-TLV-GE-I]

Get it from those places where they give men cookies for donating their...um...lil swimmers. I'm sure they have that "great hair conditioner" by the gallons.

Sure, it actually makes the hair reCOIL from the mere disgust of proximity And I meant that pun !

 

[GV-NA-GI-TLV-GE-I]

From a dear friend that was Cyprian with stick straight hair, very fine texture. "You don't need conditioner, only shampoo because it's a ploy by the company to make you buy it." My other friend, curly Black-hair too, we told her that we have diff. hair and yes, we need conditioner. She swore we were confused. She never had to experience Bush-whack hair.

 

[GV-NA-GI-TLV-GE-I]

Nichi, am Nigerian too, and funny I really believed that American weather made your hair grow long because thats was I was told when I moved here. I had almost BSL when I moved here and withing a year I was SL, and then was ear length. funny stuff

I always thought American weather had the opposite effect. I lived in the Caribbean and my hair grew 3 inches a month without vitamins and all that junk. Just naturally. It's about 1/2 that now.

 

[GV-NA-GI-TLV-GE-I]

This is SO funny!!! But i know what ur talkin about. This is one of the many reasons i don't wear weave or installed braids.....the fire!!!

My mom says i wash my hair too much....but yet she brags to my relatives about how long it is...its all in the regimen!

LOL. Sounds more like farming techniques, thrash and burn!

 

[yuriko]

We were told in Nigeria, that in the promised land of America, that the good water, the air, the better stylist, (a bunch of stuff, who knows really). In short, the good stuff in America would help our hair grow.
But I have to agree that when i lived in the caribbean, I think the heat and humidity kept my hair moisturized, because my hair grew to APL when i was down there, and I as I mentioned in my previous post i was about BSL when i lived in Nigeria, well i have been back in the states for a year and back to SL now. I really have to take better care of my hair

 

[GV-NA-GI-TLV-GE-I]

We were told in Nigeria, that in the promised land of America, that the good water, the air, the better stylist, (a bunch of stuff, who knows really). In short, the good stuff in America would help our hair grow.
But I have to agree that when i lived in the caribbean, I think the heat and humidity kept my hair moisturized, because my hair grew to APL when i was down there, and I as I mentioned in my previous post i was about BSL when i lived in Nigeria, well i have been back in the states for a year and back to SL now. I really have to take better care of my hair

Good l-rd, there's nothing worse for hair than dry American air, esp. in winter and hard water. I used to see so many African girls from various countries with lovely locks. After a few months, dry, broken off, discolored, pathetic. Their skin also broke out like crazy. I love my country but dayum! Some folks wonder why BW over here have crusty dry skin or struggle to keep it away. They find out after a few months

 

[Ivonnovi]

Bump! I needed a chukle this morning

 

[Pandora1975]

These are funny

When I was around 10 and my mom was out of town, I got sent to stay with my aunt since Dad worked overnights. Mom let me do my own hair, and this was before I was relaxed. I had started air drying and I had a beautiful curl pattern and I usually did a ponytail (yes, I was 10).

My aunt took one look at me, washed, blow dried, and flat ironed my hair after loading it up with Vaseline. Moral of the story is that I instinctively was on the right path in the first place, and my aunt filled me with doubt to the point that I begged my mom for relaxers. I love my aunt, and will never tell her this, but she is the start of my hair disaster spree that lasted 20 years.

 

[Pandora1975]

It had been embedded in my head from my grandma and mother (the usual) Black people can't wash their hair too often because it will strip it. This was true to a degree, considering what I used to get my hair washed with in the day.

If I don't grease my hair my scalp will dry out and my hair will fall out. Also true to a degree- see shampoo statement above.

I thought these were true until I found this site and saw all the beautiful people of color with long hair doing the things that I was told not to do.

Co-washing everyday is the key thing that started my hair growing again!

Its funny how often people are so close to the truth, but miss the mark entirely.

 

[Ms. Syl]

Just this past Monday, I went to my usual stylist and I took my Wen products and asked her to wash my hair with this; I explained to her that my hair had to be soaking wet and that the product did not lather like regular shampoo. I smelled the shampoo as she added it to the wen lavender that she was washing my hair with. I told her that I didn't use shampoo except when getting a relaxer and she told me that I had been had buying 'fake shampoo'. I laughed at her and told her to get with the program and that she had better get used to this. She told me that the stuff I do at home to keep at home. We have a relationship where she says what she wants to say and I say what I want to say but in the end she knows that the customer is always right. She still does the best rollerset that I have ever had and my hair has flourished ; I go to her every 3 weeks and when I need a touch-up(she always tells me that I need one before I am ready).

 

[cutenss]

My BFF was told by her beautician (who is also her cousin) to relax her ENDS only, because they were frizzy. I told her O HELL NO! You better not or I will beat yo @$$! And my BFF is 100% natural from birth! CRAZY!!

 

[beans4reezy]

dirty hair grows

YUP!

I could go a month w/o washing my hair thinking, "It's cool though, my hair is growing..."

 

[bedazzled]

This wasnt advice but when I was younger I actually put just for kids hair lotion in this white girls hair my age because her hair was looking kind of dry. Her hair was soooo greasy and her mom was pissed. We were like 9/10 so I didnt know any better. *shrugs*

 

[Black Hoya Chick]

my friend when i told her i was gonna straighten my hair last christmas: "well you better start straightening it in like november every week or 2 so it will be trained to straighten easier by christmas. then it will look real fly" W.T.F.?!

 

[~Hair~Fetish~]

subscribing so I can have some good chuckles later...

 

[yaya24]

Old beautician: Leave that Henna alone- its not meant for our hair.. your hair will melt off..

 

[Lucky's Mom]

Never wash your braids. I've heard this from every single braider I've been to.

HAAA!!! and what's worse... Many White people think that folks do not wash braids or dreads. They ask all the time. Someone Told them.....

 

[Aviah]

Godmother to best friend on first time relaxing: "Then sit under the dryer" (with relaxer all over your head).
Me:ohwell:

 

[Almaz]

I have a lady at work years ago that tells me that I should not come to work with wet hair because it would Black people cannot wash their hair everyday. NOW mind you at the time my hair was all the way down to my knees. I was like OKAY LOOK at MYYY hair and LOOOK at yours. YOU have none and you wear a Jheri curl.

20 years later I STILL have long hair (Not that long anymore) and she STILL has a Jheri Curl which she washes only every 6 months. Then she said Oh Almaz you need to cut you hair. I am Like WHY She was like because everyone will think that you are from India and not black I am going to a wedding and I can use your hair as a weave anyway.

Jealous Why is it the people that always give bad advice don't have hair

 

[Truth]

My roommate use to tell me alllll the time..I washed my hair 2 much..(at the time i was relaxed and washing it every other day ) ..."your washing your hair 2 much, and your not using enough heat on it"... i'm like enough heat?? washing my hair 2 much?? At the time her hair was relaxed and only stayed at her shoulders.. it wouldn't move past that.... My hair was relaxed and APL ..Slowly but surely.. me "washing my hair 2 much" and barely using heat got me to BSL.. and she stayed at shoulder length...

Now that she's natural...She washes her hair everyday to every other day...And has the nerve to make the comment..."I see what you mean, washing it frequently does make it grow"... I just look at her..