Can African-Americans Grow Their Hair Long Naturally?

Yes. And it’s all explained in one word…

Shrinkage

And it goes a little something like this.

First off, there are people with just really long natural hair. It grows down.

But there is also the thing called shrinkage (at least, that’s how I’ve heard it called)

Our hair when growing out, comes out bunched up and curly. It’s “bunched up” as you will. Because of that, it grows out, not down.

Think of a spring.

And try to stick one on top of the other.

As opposed to the same wire made flat, with another on top of it, the spring will have way more volume to it.

The hairs on a black person’s head are lying on top of each other like a spring. So it looks like this:

So it doesn’t look long. The hairs are bunched up and curly.

This woman looks like she has short hair. BUT, if you were to pull one of those curls, they’d likely reach past her shoulder. That’s shrinkage. Our hair looks far smaller than it actually is.

Think about the spring again. If you were to stretch out the spring, it would be far longer than it appears to be initially. Same with hair.

And the tighter the curls, the more the shrinkage.