Hope all of you had a great Christmas! For Boxing Day, I’m taking it easy, watching a movie with the Hubby, meeting up with some friends, spending time with family and finally, preparing to have some friends and family over tomorrow. So, in the midst of all of this, I’ve decided to spend a few minutes to continue my Top 5 series today. Today, I’m going to tell you what my Top 5 hair myths for this year are.

• Natural hair is too hard to deal with. My sister and I were having a conversation Christmas Eve about hair and she said, “I will never go natural.” I asked her why not. Her reasoning was that natural hair takes too long to deal with. Once you figure out what your hair needs, dealing with natural hair doesn’t take any longer than dealing with permed hair. The same two hours that my sister takes to wash, condition, dry and flat iron, I take to wash, condition and style my hair. Yes, when I took my braids out, it did take longer (it was stretched out in between baking), but now that I have a routine, it’s nor a big deal. So, natural hair isn’t as time-consuming and problematic as many people would think.
• There is a product that will give you the perfect curl. If your hair doesn’t curl or coil, no product will give you that perfect curl. Point-blank, period. The biggest myth that people buy into is there is a Holy Grail serum/creme/activator that will give your the hair of your dreams. Well, if you aren’t dreaming about the hair that Good Lord already blessed you with, sorry, it’s not going to happen. The best thing that any of us can do for 2010 is to be happy with the hair that you have and work with it. Good hair is the hair that’s growing out of your head. There’s nothing wrong with trying different products to see what they’ll do with your hair texture, but accept the hair that you have.
• Just because it costs more it’s better. When I first started this journey, I was convinced that expensive hair products would do the trick. At that point, I was willing to try almost anything to get my hair looking like how I wanted it to be. That’s such foolishness — it’s just another way to spend money. The products that I rely on the most are relatively inexpensive and, for the most part, are easily accessible at my local drugstore.
• Natural hair is not professional. If you’ve read Hair Politics: Hair at work Part 1 and Part 2, you will know where I stand on that. I can’t speak for everyone’s experience and I won’t try to, but I will say that natural hair is gaining more and more acceptance in the business world. That doesn’t mean that every person who sees you will be happy that you’ve decided not to relax your hair, but I would venture to say that most people will not care. Those would don’t care either are not accepting of their own Blackness and are offended that you would be so bold as to stand out or they are scared of your Blackness and your hair is just an excuse to say that you don’t belong. Keep it corporate in terms of style and you’ll be alright.
• Women who wear natural hair are better than women who wear relaxed hair. When it’s all said and done, hair is hair. I can’t look down on my sister because she relaxes her hair and I don’t. She doesn’t hate herself or want to be someone she isn’t. I’m not my hair, but it’s definitely a part of who I am as a Black woman. My hair says a lot about me — but it doesn’t speak for me. So, let’s not judge each other based on what we do with our hair.

What about you? What are the hair myths that you’d love to see destroyed for 2010?