The ManicaPost
Ann Ruthnberg Column Name
Hello there everyone, hope you are good. This week, I see the universe is smiling at us periodically, by sending us light drizzles here and there in the midst of scorching hot days. I am grateful for any little change I see.
Can your hair grow? Why is your hair not growing? These are the questions I get month after month, year after year. And my answer will always be …..Yes your hair grows?
As long as you are alive and have veins, and your blood is running through your system, your hair and nails must be growing.
Your body works on a system that has everything it needs, to evolve, renew, replenish and restore itself. So as long as it has the fuel it needs to do that, it will continue performing what it was made to do.
Problem with most of us, is that, we ask the negative questions, instead of the positive questions. So the question should be ….why are you not seeing your hair growth? The truth is that your hair is growing whether you can see it or not.
It just does not grow the same as others do since everyone is different. Also different hair types grow slower than other hair types, which I will explain later.
So If you need evidence that black (ethnic) hair grows, ask someone who has relaxed their hair even once. Or ask someone who has had their hair in a protective hairstyle for a couple of weeks. After a few weeks there will be re-growth. So this tells me that something wrong must be happening after that growth.
What is happening? Well you are failing to retain your length. Yes as quickly as your hair is growing; its breaking off just as much if not more. Again I will expand in a second. But let me explain my first point which is the different hair types grow either slower or faster than the other. When we look at hair, we look at race e.g., White peoples hair grows faster than Black peoples hair.
There is a truth to this, but it is not a true statement. Because there are white people who have hair down to their back, but there are others who cannot grow their hair further than their shoulders. Ler’s explain this in depth then.
Heredity — Yes your family hair growth may affect the final length of your hair, but is not the measure of your hair growth. Just because your mother never had hair longer than her neck, does not mean your hair cannot grow longer than your shoulders. You have their genes but not their limitations.
Curls, Koils vs Straight hair — now regardless of your race, those with straighter roots will have hair that grows longer and faster than those that have a tighter curl or koil.
This is simply because the path the root has to take to grow out and up is easier when the root is straight than when the root is curly. Think about it for a minute. That’s why relaxed hair (straighter roots), grows quickly without fail. But you can help your hair roots stay stretched without putting chemicals.
I went to Kenya and found many of the black woman with hair down their back, kept the hair twisted or plaited. That way the hair is kept straighter than normal, which allows the root to grow out straighter.
Yes I was amazed when I got that revelation, even the ladies themselves had not idea this is what was happening. They also used quite a few herbs and spices on their hair daily and weekly to help it grow, which brings me to my next point.
Moisture — dry hair and scalp is a sin to hair. Certain races have skin that makes it’s own moisture and oils, such as (White) Caucasian Asian and Indian people. But African (ethnic) scalps are dry and therefore need a lot of external help.
So people with ethnic hair or curlier need to moisturise their hair a lot more often than other types of hair, this is not an option, it is necessary. 500 to 100 hair strands break off your head naturally, each day whether you know it or not at different levels. Unnecessary hair breakage happens because hair is dry.
So imagine this….your hair grows 1cm each month under your protective style. You have not put oil in the hair or washed it, so it is dry. When you remove the plaits or protective style, the hair starts to break at the ends 1cm when you are combing or brushing it. So all the growth of that month gets broken off at the dry ends. Get it?
Liquid — how you wash your hair is an important thing. A lot of hair get’s broken off during wash, because of tangling. Due to space, I am unable to put in detail how best to wash koiled or curly hair. So make sure you get next week’s copy where I will enlighten you this issue.
Nutritional Diet — It used to baffle me how people who do not eat all the foods other people eat, have amazing hair growth, just as much as those who eat every known vitamin enriched food and tablet. I then realised not all foods grow hair and nails. There are specific vitamins that feed the hair and nails directly such as Vitamin E, A, K and D. Iron is also great, Calcium etc. So it also helps to recognise which foods / vegetables / fruits, have the hair growth vitamin and eat more of those.
That’s it for this week people, but make sure you get next weeks paper for the rest of this topic. Until next week God Bless.
Fashion Diva on 0719 933 845 during working hours (only).
