August 6, 2012

• Scab Hair

  When I first performed my Big Chop I noticed that the hair on the sides of my head was different than the hair at the top of my head and back of my head.  I didn't think anything of it since The Curly Girl handbook noted that it may take some time for curls to come in on some parts of your head.  But how long?  No matter how much I moisturized this area it felt rough and dry.  Again, I figured I'd give it a few weeks and then maybe some changes would be seen.  After all this is the area of my head that had the most damage when I had a relaxer and refused to grow.  I'd never had problems with my hair growing before so this was traumatizing to me.  The hair on the sides of my head just kept breaking off and actually looked as if someone had chopped off my hair in the middle of the night.    I knew damage was present in these areas.  Hair dye and the use of relaxers (always starting in these areas every time when putting on the relaxer) had taken it's toll.  I had read how relaxers cause damage under the scalp (well it is lye..the same ingredient used by plumbers to clear out drains) so that makes sense.  With the use of relaxers you damage the hair follicle beneath the skin so the hair ends up dry and coarse.  Per the Method it can take weeks to months to repair the follicle damage.  Curious, I researched more on YouTube and came across several videos speaking about "scab hair".  What in the heck was scab hair?  To get more information review this link:  http://growblackhair.net/scab-hair-it-is-real.  Apparently when you apply the relaxers over a long period of time (for me it's been most of my life...I'm 40 now) some of the chemicals seep beneath the skin and affect hair that hasn't emerged from the scalp.  So, straight hair will grow in (because it has already been affected by chemicals).  This scab hair can take anywhere from six months to one year to completely grow out so that your "real" hair texture will begin to grow.  The best thing to do for this is to continue to moisturize well (even if it appears it's not doing anything).  This is so that as your hair grows, your real texture/healed follicle will receive the moisture it needs to be healthy.  Frequent trims to remove the scab hair may also be necessary (because it's basically like having split ends on the end of healthy hair).  I began to look at my hair more closely and realized I have scab hair on the sides of my head.  The texture is very coarse and doesn't contain any curl pattern whatsoever.  Now, I could have chalked this up to a different hair texture/pattern on my head as most do.  However, it doesn't fall in line with what I'd experienced before my Big Chop which was major damage in the areas where the hair is growing differently.  I'm willing to wait out the next six months to a year to obtain fully healthy hair.  In fact, I chopped off a bit of the scab hair today to speed up the healing of my hair and will continue to trim as necessary.  After I chopped my hair today I did an image search for scab hair and found that my hair was eerily similar to those who chopped their scab hair as well.  Take a look and see for yourself.

   

  Image of Scab Hair I found today on Google:  

   

  Second Image of Scab Hair I found today on Google:  

   

   

  My own chopped hair:  

   

  Another image of my chopped hair:  

   

  See how coarse my hair looks above.

   

  Now here are some pics of me after the chopped hair has been cut off.  My sides are still a bit coarse but much better.  Notice the difference in the curl pattern on the sides versus the top and back.

   

  Left side of my head.

  Right side of my head.  This side seems to have better definition than the left side which is odd since is the side that experience the most severe hair loss.

   

  So tell me, do you think scab hair is real?  What has been your experience since going natural?  Love to hear your thoughts.  

   

  • 4:31 pm
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