So white girl's hair doesn't just grow???

[MsLizziA]

Let me just say. I LOVE LHC!....its so funny that the only difference between this board and LHC is that they have more extreme lengths...like Hip and below, their hair length goals are like...."i hope to get to KNEE LENGTH by the end of next year!!" or somethin like that....and also we have the natural/relaxed thing here....over there its not really alot of that.

But they are hardcore about hair toys....i hope to get to Hip Length so i can do some of those ridiculous buns they be puttin together over there!!...but they too do PS'ing and avoid heat and things like that.

A lady on here posted about that forum in this thread and that was my very first time hearing about that board

 

[drappedup]

Only thing I relate to in this thread, is the asian commenting on short hair thing. I have a very close asian friend who had mbl hair and recently got maybe 1 or 2 inches cut off. She was complaining the other day that her hair looked sooooooooo short. I couldn't help but look at her, like really?

Then again she's also a size 2 and complains she's getting fat. I'm an inch shorter than her, 12lbs heavier, and I'm thinking, again, REALLY?!

If I'm not complaining, how can you? STFU!

I think I hate that sort of thing in general. Complaining about something that obviously is not true.

Also, I have admittedly noticed that many white women have stringy and thin hair. Which works for some, doesn't work for others. Just like anyone else. No big deal either way.

So you've never seen LongHairCommunity then?

ETA: Plus when you think about it, when you go to the store there are a couple of shelves for 'ethnic' hair then the WHOOOOOLE rest of the aisle contains products made for their hair. Protein treatments, antibreakage serums, deep conditioners, reconstructors etc etc. Someone's using them, no?

Yes exactly.

 

[Kash]

Only thing I relate to in this thread, is the asian commenting on short hair thing. I have a very close asian friend who had mbl hair and recently got maybe 1 or 2 inches cut off. She was complaining the other day that her hair looked sooooooooo short. I couldn't help but look at her, like really?

Then again she's also a size 2 and complains she's getting fat. I'm an inch shorter than her, 12lbs heavier, and I'm thinking, again, REALLY?!

If I'm not complaining, how can you? STFU!

I think I hate that sort of thing in general. Complaining about something that obviously is not true.

Also, I have admittedly noticed that many white women have stringy and thin hair. Which works for some, doesn't work for others. Just like anyone else. No big deal either way.



Yes exactly.

maybe not true for you...but in her world (her reality) it is true to her.

 

[Mz.MoMo5235]

i have this white chick i'm pretty close to. she's about bsl/mbl'ish

she had commented on how fast my hair grows and how hers doesnt. we started talking about hair and then she told me that her last hair cut (i'm talking cut, trim, anything with scissors!) was like when she was 10 or something. now i know her hair has to have grown since she was 10 (cause if it didnt grow she'd be bald lol) so that it must be retention, but damn!!!!

 

[FlowerHair]

I know for a fact that many white people with thin hair has problems with growth.

I dwell among them 99,9% of the time.

 

[PeaceFlow]

One of my friends (Armenian/white) is having this problem, she never had longer than SL and really wants long hair. It's fine hair, really beautiful/soft but must suffer because she flat irons it. I'm trying to get her on a no heat challenge on the sly

 

[Mad Scientist]

I rarely see women of any race with hair past apl, so I never thought anybody had some type of special growing hair.

Same here. The only people I know who have hair MBL and beyond are a few of my Indian friends who grow their hair long and then cut it back to SL and do the whole thing over again in a year, but that's just them. I also know a few black with longer hair too. Most white women I see have APL or shorter. I don't know if it's because they cut it or what because a lot of people do have that idea that white people grow hair easier for some reason.

 

[CherryCherryBoomBoom]

I rarely see women of any race with hair past apl, so I never thought anybody had some type of special growing hair.

Really? I've seen a lot of white and Asian girls with very long hair from since I was young, whilst I've always been shoulder length myself (and not out of choice, I really wanted long hair myself). Of course not all of them have long hair, some do have shorter but I just assume that they have it cut at that length just because they want to . Though, it does seem like when they get older, more of them have shorter haircuts, and I just thought it was a fashion or something. But yeah, I actually did think myself they have special growing hair compared to black women, dunno if that makes me naive but it's what I've observed.

Though, thinking about it, it could just be that black women's hair is much more prone to damage, since it is slightly drier and more fragile than white/Asian women's. Though we know that it's still possible for them to damage their hair as well, it just doesn't happy so quickly. There's also the fact that many black women are addicted to relaxers, which can weaken hair, and then other women don't tend to use them. Just my two cents on that.

 

[FutureMD]

the biggest issue for women of any race having long hair or not having long hair are the things that they do on a daily basis that cause them to lose hair. so if you are stuck at one length, something about your regimen is making you "lose" all evidence of your hair growth. Your hair should shed, but anyone who uses a lot of colors, bleach, heat, etc. will see their hair "stuck" at a certain length. I was the only black girl in my class growing up, and I had a lot of white classmates, esp. the ones with the really thin hair, who were never below shoulder length. when they got older and tried to grow it out, the result was that as the hair got longer, it just broke off so much and was so thin that they had to cut it back to shoulder length. i also saw a lot of them ruin their hair with bleach, so people who had nice thick hair would be left with thinning (and utlimately shorter) hair.
everyone's hair grows (as evidenced by the need to reapply hair color and relaxers). but some people do things to make their hair "chip" off on a daily basis. check the hair in your comb. in an ideal situation, you should see the bulb on the end of the hair. if you don't, then that hair has snapped off, which is bad, instead of shedding. Asian girls who don't bleach or color their hair see length add up quickly b/c they don't lose any of it. their hair is so straight and has a lot of slip. seriously, for some of them any bands of clips could just be pulled out like nothing.

It's so straight that they don't have to fight to detangle it in the shower, or to comb or brush through it when it is done. it doesn't grow faster. it just breaks off way, way less, but as someone here mentioned, as they've gotten into perms and colors (and heir hair is so dark that lifting the color to add red or blond is very hard and damaging) that is changing.

A lot of people who never had long hair will be able to get a lot of length with dreds because they've taken away their hair's ability to break off on a daily basis.
So yeah, the big lesson is really that if you chemically process your hair, you have to replace the moisture and be more careful with it. ditto if you don't have straight hair. Easy to tangle and snap off if your hair is kinky or curly. manipulate it less, and you'll keep your progress.
I went to a black salon that had somehow put the word out to the Jewish girls who had kinky hair that their hair responded well to our products and some of them relaxed and finally were able to manage better. The big issue for them is that the products that they use and the hairdressers they go to cannot manage that volume and curl pattern, and they do crazy things like shave the underside of their heads to take away the volume.

 

[FutureMD]

Oh, and a lot of women of many races LOVE long hair. so they'll be really upset by what they perceive to be excessive cutting and resort to ponytails to let it "grow out." An Asian classmate who had very long hair was contemplating a bob, but also said that she'd always been upset whenever she'd cut her hair short, so in the end, although she took off several inches, her hair was still way down her back and she was still a bit unsure afterwards. It's all relative after all. I don't know...this board proves that black women who properly maintain their hair can have whatever length they want, and I love that our hair holds styles so well.

They don't all jones for long hair clearly, as I had another Asian classmate and an Indian classmate who had very long hair that they cut and donated to locks of love, and who are loving their bobs and keeping them b/c they can style it more easily. I think both do look more "professional" and "grown-up" now. (we were in grad school)
and yeah, a lot of white and Asian celebrities use extensions and clip ins for both length and thickness (Jessica Simpson has her own line), esp. the ones who bleach and color a lot, which is kind of everyone. Ally Wentworth was on the Oprah episode with Chris Rock talking about Good Hair, and she pointed out that hair bleach was like relaxer for white women, that she didn't know her own hair color, and that her hair was so thin from years of processing that she always wore extensions and showed herself getting her color touchup AND without the clip ins.
dont' you think that you kind of long for what you feel you never had, and sometimes once you get it, you are like over it? i don't know...i grew my hair out long and then it was like, okay, now what, so i'm just not so unnerved by scissors and haircuts as long as my hair is healthy. and really, for a lot of white women, their hair isn't straight, and it doesn't hold curls, so they use haircuts to get some kind of shape and style to their hair. i realized how odd i thought it looked for someone's hair to just lay so flat on her head and i thought, oh, how sad that your hair does that.

 

[Lola Laughs]

A lady on here posted about that forum in this thread and that was my very first time hearing about that board

Here another interesting forum (Indian women discussing hair care)
http://www.indusladies.com/hair-care-and-hair-styles/. They discuss some of the same topics that we do here and on LHC.

 

[MsLizziA]

Here another interesting forum (Indian women discussing hair care)
http://www.indusladies.com/hair-care-and-hair-styles/. They discuss some of the same topics that we do here and on LHC.

girl that's crazy! there is literally a forum for everything

 

[lolascurls]

I went to school surrounded by YT chicks (boarding school, y'all!) And I only knew one whose hair was REALLY long (HL), the rest were SL to BSL max. My Best friend's hair seemed stuck at SL for so long that she opted to get Halle Berry type crops (remember she's YT with bone straight brunnette hair), from age 17 onwards. My other BFF who had APL-BSL large curly hair (type 2) now has problems with her hair because she has ABUSED heat in the past year. Now she has strands not even NL and keeps trimming back to stringy APL.
By the by, the chick who had HL got a cut at 16 to SL and never quite grew it back past APL. Turns out her mother and bunning techniques had been the reason for the WL tresses.
It's the handling of the hair that's important.

 

[hasabe]

I actually had a white girl ask me if black people's hair grew beyond shoulder length (I had shoulder length at that point). I just looked at her like . She said she was "genuinley concerned" and this is a conversation she had with her sorority members and she has trouble growing her hair . I was shocked she had the audacity to ask me and that white girls really concern themselves with our hair . Honestly I never knew white girls had trouble growing their hair.

But I did have another girl tell me she wished she had my hair because she would only have to wash it once a week and she had the thinnest hair that she blowdried the hell out off . She has no idea. I feel like washing it once a week doesn't make it any more manageable.

 

[Vashti]

One of my best friends who is a caucasian Jewish girl has the same hair issues as I do. She is kinky curly hair like I do and has alot of trouble moisturizing it. I told her about cowashing and Elucence. she used and it worked for her. She also uses relaxers that are marketed towards african americans

I was making a beauty haul a couple of months ago and I met a woman in the black hair care section of the store who was white and Native American with a similar problem. She was telling me that she has issues with some stylists not wanting to do her hair because it was too dry, course and curly and she was looking for products that would work for her hair. Black hair care products if you can believe that. She was looking at some of the stuff I use and decided to buy the ORS Hair Lotion which is one of my staples. I told her it worked really well to moisturize my hair. I told her that maybe she should also try Dominican hair care products. She took the tip. Hope they helped. She had nice hair, very curly and thick, but evidently people make her feel ashamed or self conscious over it.

Anyway, don't mean to hijack the thread.

 

[SmilingElephant]

This thread makes me think about my hispanic friend. A few years back i was st her house and she was putting conditioner in her hair like a moisturizer....and i gave her this crazy look....this was pre-LHCF...and she was like...what you don't do this?

But her hair is tailbone length....its so funny to think about it bc now i'm doing what i use to think was crazy!! Lol

 

[SmilingElephant]

Here another interesting forum (Indian women discussing hair care)
http://www.indusladies.com/hair-care-and-hair-styles/. They discuss some of the same topics that we do here and on LHC.

Is it just me....or do you all notice that all these forums have the same type of layout/setup?

 

[teacherjess]

I used to assume all white girls just naturally had swinging, healthy, long shiny hair. But something funny happened when I started paying attention to my own hair health. I started noticing plenty of white girls have split ends, broken off patches, and dry, overprocessed heads. I have white friends that damage their hair by blow drying it on high each day, flat ironing it daily, using hairspray, and excessive brushing. Damage is damage.
Sad to say, but I think that they "expect" us to have short, damaged hair. They may not necessarily think of themselves as having damaged hair because theirs may be long, but the splits are ridiculous and their hair is void of shine & body, which = damage.
They have the same issues we do.

 

[Miss AJ]

I used to think white girls had effortless growth/retention too but I just threatened my white best friend today for bunning her hair with JUST gel lol. I'm even making up a list of light leave-ins she should try and im still trying to get her to deep condition. We both cut our hair last year, my BC has grown in leaps and bounds but her hair hasn't made much progress.

 

[MsLizziA]

I used to assume all white girls just naturally had swinging, healthy, long shiny hair. But something funny happened when I started paying attention to my own hair health. I started noticing plenty of white girls have split ends, broken off patches, and dry, overprocessed heads. I have white friends that damage their hair by blow drying it on high each day, flat ironing it daily, using hairspray, and excessive brushing. Damage is damage.
Sad to say, but I think that they "expect" us to have short, damaged hair. They may not necessarily think of themselves as having damaged hair because theirs may be long, but the splits are ridiculous and their hair is void of shine & body, which = damage.
They have the same issues we do.

And you know your right. I noticed the same thing once i started paying attention to my hair too. they do have a lot of split ends. i looked at one girl's hair and just wanted to baggy it.. it was awful

 

[SweetTea]

They can definitely have growth/retention problems. I think usually, like it is for the majority of black women, the problem is with retention because all of the white women I've seen with hair that "doesn't grow" seem to be stuck at shoulder length. (Hmmm....) In high school I remember this one white girl from my English class was asking if milk would make her hair grow. She had shoulder length hair and I'm sure it was breaking because the ends weren't that great and she often had broken hairs on her clothes. I saw her in the local grocery store the other day and her hair appears to not have retained an inch in the past six years. Same damaged ends...

 

[MsLizziA]

Milk? wow.. ok

 

[Mz.MoMo5235]

Milk? wow.. ok

milk has lots of biotin in it plus its protein... pretty good for hair really (internally.. not sure but on it though)

 

[MsLizziA]

oh ok.. like i need more biotin in my life...lol

 

[Hairsnob]

I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't know that white people could use curling irons until I was in my early 20's. I thought it would burn and stick to the irons like when I tried to straighten my dollbaby's hair with a straightening comb when I was little

I also thought they HAD to wash their hair everyday. It's not everyday, sometimes every 2-3 days.

I do know that I hear plenty of WW complaining of thin hair and resorting to curlier styles to make it look fuller. Well I don't hear that complaint anymore now that weaves/wigs have crossed the barrier.

 

[MsLizziA]

I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't know that white people could use curling irons until I was in my early 20's. I thought it would burn and stick to the irons like when I tried to straighten my dollbaby's hair with a straightening comb when I was little

I also thought they HAD to wash their hair everyday. It's not everyday, sometimes every 2-3 days.

I do know that I hear plenty of WW complaining of thin hair and resorting to curlier styles to make it look fuller. Well I don't hear that complaint anymore now that weaves/wigs have crossed the barrier.

I was shocked to find out that they wore those!

 

[caribeandiva]

I have an Asian acquaintance who does the Japanese straightener, blond high lights, flat irons on the regular, blow dries every day, and sleeps with her hair out on cotton pillow cases. Her hair has been stuck at ratty shoulder length for I don't know how long. Sometimes I just want to jump her and clip then baggy those scraggly ends... This is a prime example that it doesn't matter if you have naturally straight coarse, hair; if you do multiple chemical process, use heat frequently, and don't protect your hair, it will break off. It is not limited to black girls.

Great post!

 

[lovegymnasts]

I guess no one else will say this so I will...
I think any one can find one or two Anglo/Hispanic/Asian/Other that have difficulty maintaining or retaining length but I can literally walk in a church or an office and point out a couple of dozen females of African descent that have retention/maintenance/hair care issues. Not to mention, the disparity in the hair of the children. With my job, I see children on a daily basis. At least 80% (low estimate) of the little black girls I see have messed up hair and it does not matter whether they are in the care of their parents or an alternate caregiver. I do not see any of their counterparts with hair issues. Well, the only hair issues I see are dirty or lice infested but these are the result of neglect.
I'm sorry, in my experience which is not every one's, other races have an easier time growing/maintaining/retaining their hair. One of the reasons for this is that we as a people have lost the knowledge of how to care for our hair but also type 4 hair is more fragile.

My 2 cents