Shedding and Your Natural Hair Styles

Depending on your detangling routine, your natural hair styles may have an abundance of hair ball clumps. Now don’t get me wrong, nothing is better than someone reaching for your face under a dim light saying, “There’s something in your hair.” All to have them pull out a lovely loose clump of shed hair for all the world to see. Yikes! Where do I go under the table?

Are there knots in your natural hair styles? Read about how these knots are caused.

Daily Hair Loss???

However did you know that most people can shed between 50 and 100 hairs per day? (Dermatology Insights p. 24) That’s about 350-700 hairs a week. Wow! Those numbers increase the chances for a reach-for-your-hair-clump-at-dinner disaster to happen to your natural hair styles.

Yet, this shedding is the natural progression of hair growth since 90 percent of the hair is continuously active and growing. The remaining 10 percent is in the resting phase which lasts about two to three months (aad.org). Then the hair is shed. This is why hair can’t grow evenly because all of the hairs on your head are never doing the same thing at any given time.

Our hair is really amazing. Just think, if our follicles were all active at the same time, in the same cycle, and same phase, perhaps we wouldn’t have to trim that much. Yet at the end of the hair’s growth cycle, all of our hair could also shed at the same time. All of it!

But since each hair is at a different stage in the growth cycle, we are shedding and growing hair simultaneously. Remarkable!

Removing the Clumps!

Many naturals detangle hair on wash day. However, to remove shed hair from your scalp before then, you can finger comb your hair. To do this:

1) Soften hair with a leave-in conditioner or butter from the night before.

2) Carefully take a small section of hair and take your index finger and very slowly “comb" it down a couple of hair strands to separate them and look for hair clumps. They are easy to see because they usually are thick little masses of hair on or near the end of a couple of hair strands.

3) Slowly remove each hair strand from the clump until it is loosened or there is only a single strand left.

Loosen Up

The key is to not create a tense knot. The hairs have to be loose for this to work. The minute the hairs become tight, the knot becomes more complicated.

Soft, conditioned hair and patient hands are necessary to prevent shed hair clumps and nights of camping out under the table.

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