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Black People Can’t Have Long Hair

Another myth African-Americans believe when it comes to 4c and the kinkiest hair types

Destiny S. Harris
AfroSapiophile
3 min readApr 12, 2022

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Photo Credit: A picture of me several years ago

Not only Black females have asked me if my hair is real, but Black males as well.

“Is that your hair?”

“Is that all yours?”

“No way is that your hair!”

“Is that weave?”

^^^ These are some phrases I’ve received. Some of my own family has even asked (haha).

For some odd reason, many African-Americans believe it’s not possible to have long hair unless you’re mixed with something other than Black (note: we’re all mixed with a bunch of things, but we all have dominant genes); this is probably because people with straight-up black hair are known to have kinky and short hair that breaks off at the soonest chance.

Untrue.

Black People Can Grow Long Hair If They Want

My mother did my hair for half of my life, and it was always long. I’ve worn protective styling 95% of the time, but in those rare moments I take my hair out, the length is there (You can’t tell how long my actual hair is since I keep it up in twists; my hair shrinks >50%). The key to my length, though, has been the protective…

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AfroSapiophile
AfroSapiophile

Published in AfroSapiophile

AfroSapiophile is a hub for critical thinking and analysis pertaining to civil rights, human rights, systemic racism and sexism across politics, entertainment, and history.

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