How Often Should Black Men Wash Their Hair

It Is no secret that afro hair is different. The look and feel are strong indicators of that fact. Taking care of Afro hair is not difficult but requires a good understanding of what works and what is damaging to afro hair. This means that the way in which we take care of our hair is different.

 

It’s Dry

We’ve all heard that black hair in general is drier than other hair, but why?  This is mostly because of the curls in our hair. The natural oils that are in everyone’s scalps travel down straight hair much more easily than curly hair.  This alone makes black hair more dry and subject to breakage/loss. The natural oil just doesn’t get to most of our hair.

There Is nothing that can be done about this since the curliness of our hair is determined by the bulb shape of the hair follicle, which is determined genetically.  Hooked bulbs cause curly hair and round bulbs cause straight hair.

 

Washing

Due to the unique nature of black hair, we must be more conscious about the drying effects of most shampoos.  Shampoos tend to contain chemicals that strip the existing oils off of your hair, which may be fine for straight hair, but can be overly damaging to curly hair, which doesn’t replace the oils as easily.

While you’ll need to take into account how curly your hair is, generally washing afro hair 1 – 2 times a week with a good shampoo achieves the desired cleaning effect without overly drying out our hair.  It is also ok to condition hair daily.

With this knowledge and these tips you should be set to get the look you want without any troubles.

AS SEEN IN

  • GQ
  • Forbes Meet The Founders
  • Ask Men Best Beard Oil
  • Essence
  • Black Hair Mag
  • BBC
  • Business Insider
  • Strategist
  • Evening Standard
  • Netflix
  • My London