What's the big deal with Natural Afro Hair?

Hello, my natural hair people.  We hope you have been well and are enjoying the pleasure your natural black Afro hair brings to you once, healthy, nourished and moisturized. 

As we’re moving through the summer months, many of us have decided to have a different look for the warmer season and have tried to garner inspiration from many different sources.  Have you ever been scrolling on social media platforms, seen a hair video or picture and thought, yes! I’m going to try that style?  You then go and purchase products, then you come to realize they are not healthy for your hair, or you and further realize your hair does not match the texture of the video/post you have just seen, it’s either too short or too long, it does not have the shine that it needs, or your desired colour does not look like the picture on the box? 

What do you do in this situation?  Apart from becoming extremely frustrated, the best things to do are to go back to basics and find out the fundamentals of your natural Afro hair and ask yourself a few valuable questions.  

1.     Do you know what your natural hair type/texture is? 

2.     Are you aware someone can have different hair textures on the same head of hair?  

3.     Do you realize although genetics plays a major role in the texture and look of your hair, you can be in the same family, have the same mother and father and yet your hair textures are different from that of your siblings?

4.     Does your hair flourish and have noticeable growth spurts in different seasons?

5.     Are you aware medications, chemicals and your age can also alter the characteristics and thickness of your hair?

 What type of Natural Afro Hair do you have?

 Although these questions seem pretty standard and something that we should all know, you may be surprised by the number of people who have never completed this kind of detective work on their own hair. H.U.G.E Online provides a guide What are the Different Types of Hair Curls where different textures of natural hair and looks are briefly outlined to help you gain a better understanding of your hair and therefore, what would and would not work with your particular hair type.

 The Internet is also full off many breakdowns and theories regarding the porosity of hair.  Porosity in basic terms is about how well your hair absorbs and retains moisture, which is decided by your hair cuticle.  There are 3 main categories:

·      Low porosity

·      Medium porosity 

·      High Porosity

There are also many techniques with people advising to wash your hair and once it’s clean and dry, to place a strand of hair in a glass of water to determine if it floats – the results being if it floats for a while before sinking, you are likely to have low porosity hair and if it quickly sinks to the bottom of the glass, you are likely to have high porosity hair – the science behind these types of tests are inconclusive.

 In your quest to obtain and maintain healthy natural afro hair, it might also be an idea to visit a qualified trichologist, who specializes in Black Afro Hair Care to give you a thorough examination and identify any issues you may be experiencing.  You will then be able to make informed decisions about styling, products natural black hair products to use, or routines needed to look after your precious curls, kinks and coils.

What’s the Big deal with Natural Black Hair products?

The Black Afro Hair care industry is a Trillion dollar industry with reports African Americans spend $1.5 trillion dollars each year in the United States of America and Great Britain came in at 1.72 Billion pounds in December 2019. With these types of numbers being spent annually, natural black hair products and therefore the industry itself if very much a big deal!  Due to the global lockdowns and then easing of lockdown measures, the predicted spend within the black Afro hair industry is due to rise, allowing the industry to grow from strength to strength.

The natural afro hair care community have had many new manufacturers coming into the market to finally take charge and make products that are suitable for us, exposing the fact there were many beauty stores and supermarket shelves that were lacking in natural black hair products that were made for natural afro hair.  For many people who do not have Afro hair, it almost seems crazy to not have standard products such as shampoo and conditioner that would be readily available in everyday stores.  H.U.G.E Online are proud to support manufactures coming to the market who understand the complexities of caring for natural afro hair and the importance of chemical and cruelty free natural black hair products for our customers.  Thankfully with H.U.G.E Online, you are able to shop and learn about the people who have put these brands together and provided much needed quality products for our hair and skin health.  You can view the range of the No1 online retailer for black owned manufacturers here.