I ride the train to work every morning. This morning I took note of a young lady who at about a year or so ago had neck length hair. However, today her hair is just about BSL heading to MBL. Now, I live in Japan so of course this lady is not black but Japanese. So it got me thinking...what are the differences between our hair. I know (or atleast I think I know lol) that she doesn't spend her Friday nights pre-pooing so she can wash, deep condition, tea rinse, towel/ air dry and then protective style.
We already know that the shape of the follicles has a lot to do with the structure and appearance of our hair and that in turn affects the strength and hence length retention. Asians tend to have round follicles producing straight hair which is easily lubricated by sebum, while African descendants have flat follicles which result in kinky, curly/ coily hair. There are two major issues here
- sebum doesn't travel as freely, causing dryness and
- the kinks which form at the turn of each curl or coil represent a point of weakness, making black people's hair vulnerable to breakage.
But that's not what this post is about. We can't change nature and biology, but there are some things we can do.
