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Note: This article is only my opinion, and by no means scientific. I'm sure this article will ruffle some natural feathers, but put down the heat protectant and hear me out.
If you read any of the articles about the use of heat, you'd swear that 90% of naturals who use heat -- pressing combs, flat irons -- get heat damage. If you've got heat damage, by no means am I saying you don't have it.
Do You Believe the Heat Damage Hype?
Heat damage is real, especially among finer hair naturals, but I wonder is it as common as some would have us to believe. Many naturals swear that just one use of heat can cause lasting damage. Many, many naturals claim that heat training -- the process of regularly using flat irons and pressing combs to obtain straight styles -- is nothing but heat damage.
Not gonna dispute what's going on in any other naturals' head, but let me give you something to think about:
I don't believe that all this heat damage is a "natural" phenomenon. Think about when you had a relaxer. Chances are, you had a relaxer, blow dry, and then your hair was curled to death. Especially if you had a short style. Why wouldn't our relaxed hair -- which, would be chemically weakened by relaxer bonds -- suffer the same, if not worse fate, when it came to heat damage?
Is Heat the Devil?
Why does it seem that heat damage is a new term circa 2000s, when black women have been wearing relaxers and frying their hair for at least have a century? If you read most hair blogs and naturals' avowing any use of heat, you'd think heat is the the devil.
I can only use myself and others I know as examples. Except for a brief dalliance with a texturizer in 2007, my last relaxer was in 1995. I know, a long time ago. But, I'd get my hair blow dried straight, flat ironed and finally a slight curl with curlers in a super hot Marcel iron. Lots of heat.
Full disclosure: I was a heat trained natural on and off until 2008, when I began wearing my hair curly. I have never experienced large scale heat damage.
Does a No Heat Regimen Work For Everyone?
Again, no scientific study here, but I'd gather that my regimen was much like others. And if you had short hair, you had even more heat, with direct heat from those curlers, applied throughout the hair, concentrated on each strand.
Pressing curls and stove curling irons are by no means new; they've been around quite some time. I find it hard to believe that our hair in a relaxed state was stronger than our natural hair. Am I anti-heat? Depends on your hair.
I know that I've not used heat for months at a time. And guess what? My hair still tangles, knots up and gets SSKs in the crown -- the thickest portion of my hair. I can either risk heat damage or have to cut out knots in my head. I don't know which is worse.
Why Heat Damage Now?
Up until 2008, I never heard of folks chopping all their hair of because it was damaged. I can't count the number of flat iron and pressed styles I had with naked, no product hair. We knew nothing about heat protectants then, and we cranked that heat up! My stylist routinely gave me a deep conditioner, but you were lucky if your stylist put a little oil in your hair before flat ironing or pressing.
True, most of us didn't wear our hair curly, so we never knew if it wouldn't revert back to curly; we only cared that it was straight. However, if the same heat damage in dictators were used then as used now, we all had heat damage, right?
Is Relaxed Hair Stronger Than Natural?
I mean, we'd still have split ends, right? I've read plenty of stories of naturals getting their hair flat ironed once and then reporting split end city. Some so severe over a length of time that they do a big chop to get rid of the damaged ends.
When I was relaxed, I never recall anyone who cut all their relaxed hair off because of heat damage. I know some folks who had their hair fall out because of bad allergic reactions or poor applications of relaxers, but never anyone who did a big chop because of heat damage on their relaxed hair.
Yet, I can't tell you the number of naturals who will do a big chop after just one application of heat. Does it depend on how much heat you use? Of course. If you are flat ironing your hair every week, you can expect some damage.
All I'm doing is asking critical questions; I'm hoping to get answers. I hear lots of naturals experience heat damage, but I've never seen anyone admit to heat damage when they had relaxed hair. Did it not exist then? Am I saying that heat won't damage our hair? No, it depends on your hair.
Just wanted to give you some things to think about.
What do you think? Is heat damage now as naturals as common as some would believe? Did you ever experience heat damage when you had relaxed hair?
I think people experience heat damage when they're relaxed. It may be harder to detect because like you said, they're not looking to see if the hair reverts back to being curly. However, I think if a permed girl's hair is straggly looking, limp and looking overly dried and fried, I think that is a sign of heat damaged relaxed hair. I steered away from too much heat when I was relaxed because I knew too much heat mean overly dry hair which could lead to breakage and split ends.
ReplyDelete@Casha_A-League, Thanks for reading the blog and commenting. You're right, stragglym limp relaxed hair is definitely a sign. I just don't think heat damage relaxed hair is something that is rarely talked about, like it doesn't exist.
ReplyDeleteyou raise an interesting point. i think for a lot of naturals it's more so internalized fear of their hair becoming straight. to a lot of people if they lose their curl even to a less extent they feel as though their hair is damaged. it all depends on how one chooses to define damage. For me, damaged hair is hair that lacks body, splits and breaks. When i was flat ironing my hair every week, it had body (lots of it), it flowed and for the most part it retained length well. in any case i grew my hair from shoulder to bra strap in the span of a year and a half, flat ironing every week and i didn't have see through ends at any point. but by the end of that year i'd racked up a fair share of split ends that needed to go- about two inches worth. and on top of that, i was also trimming throughout that time period.
ReplyDeletecontrast that with now, having put off heat for five months now, i still don't have a single split end that i've seen on my hair. i haven't blow dried or flat ironed since july and my hair is the healthiest it has ever been and it retains length even better.
so i guess it depends on what your goal is. i am all for heat- but i know that if i use it now especially as i had been using it, it will take me longer to reach my length goals. so for me, i'm putting off heat until my hair gets to my ultimate goal of waist length.
it's not the devil, and i wish people would quit painting it that way and just take accountability for their own misuse of it. i know several black girls who put heat on their hair but who have gorgeous, thick long healthy manes down their back. the key is moderation, as you said in the article.
very well expressed. thanks for thinking outside the box!
i've never thought about heat damaged relaxed hair, but it certainly does exist. i'd wager that most short haired relaxed women have quite the degree of heat damage. in fact, i've seen the difference between heat damaged relaxed heads and those without heat damage- and there's a HUGE difference, but no one ever talks about that. i think it's a topic that ought to be explored more, especially by relaxed women themselves since it definitely concerns their hair.
Thanks, @LittleBabyBug, for commenting! I don't know if we'll ever see the end of this argument about heat damage. Some heads can take it and some can't. It's a hair-by-hair decision. I definitely think some people are more prone to heat damage, but I know more folks, myself included, who had lush, thick natural hair despite regular heat sessions. And I know my hair WAS severely damaged when I was relaxed. But why we act as if relaxed women don't have heat damage I'll never know.
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