I'm a happily nappy African American mom of two biracial children. Glad to see you here. Come on in, have a seat, and I’ll fix you a tall glass of iced tea. Let’s talk about this thing called a nappy kitchen.‘Growing’ Dirt for Nappy Hair
Growing up, we were told that keeping your hair too clean was bad for Black folks’ hair. Dirty hair was seen as a good thing. Allowing your hair and scalp to get dirty, or to develop ‘growing’ dirt was suppose to actually make your hair grow.
It was believed that washing actually made the hair weak because of the hair that was shed during detangling. Personally, I believe it to be an old wives tale. Have you ever heard of ‘growing’ dirt? If so, what have you heard about it and what is your take on it?
April 22nd, 2009 at 08:08
I’ve never heard about growing dirt. It sounds unsanitary to me.
May 3rd, 2009 at 07:46
I think the growing dirt myth came about because many black women’s hair would be dry and it would take a considerable amount of time to restore the moisture and/or softness to the hair after washing. I think the idea was to stretch the amount of times between shampooing so that less breakage would occur. I think this idea later got passed around and became ‘hair grows best when it’s dirty’ idea.
I’ve heard it, but I’d never heard any of these old wive’s tales until I moved to the south.
May 4th, 2009 at 09:56
I think that black women use to take time between washes because they were not familiar with things such as co-washing. I am pretty sure that most black women thought of washing hair only with shampoo, and in that case, it would make sense to wait longer between washes because they did not want to have their hair dried out and stripped from daily shampoo washes. However, now that we are more knowledgeable about things such as co-washing, it is important that those that have the knowledg spread that knowledge.
May 27th, 2009 at 01:29
i’ve never heard of growing dirt and yes washing your hair too frequently, depending on the hair texture, can indeed cause breakage. I have 2c-3c hair and the 3c hair tends to break off and become drier if I wash it too much…but my hair has grown alot more since I started co-washing every week. I used to believe that keeeping your hair dirty would grow it longer, but in reality, it just made me have more dandruff and oil build up. I love washing my hair because I don’t have to worry about my hair reverting when it’s wet. I love my curls and waves now.