new thread
A spikey afro?
http://messenger.msn.com/ (yes, that's the link)
I would call that "omg wtf" hair.
Yeah really. I prefer hair that grows the opposite of up.
Hair that answers the question "What if Don King went for dreds?"
Only in America...
Picture Purged
I wouldn't do my hair like that...
That is what happens to some black guys when they take their hair out of Cornrows. I should know, I seen so many african american guys with long hair usualy in Cornrows.
We're picking him apart (no pun intended) and he doesn't even know it, which seems rather unfair.
During my first grow-out, I didn't do any combing. I guess it was part of my whole "freedom from hassle" motivation that drove my desire to go long. Anyhow, my hair was pretty dense and thick back then (mid 20s) so it grew straight up for at least 3, maybe even 4 inches before falling over. In fact, people actually asked me if I used anything on it and were impressed that I didn't. If I were going to grow from short again, I wouldn't hesitate to let it go straight up.
African ethnic hair can grow really high before falling over and that's cool--remember the huge 'fros from the 70s? It would be interesting if that came back.
How does the hair's thickness affect how much it grows up? By "thickness" do you mean how thick the hair strands are or the number of hairs (I never really understood this)? Or does that not have much of an effect?
Hair that grows up does so mostly because it is curly, very curly, or kinky. Such hair types naturally envelop/accommodate a lot of air, whereas straight and loosely wavy hair don't. put bluntly, this is what is called "volume." Curly hair has a lot of it. Wavy hair has some, and straight hair has very little. It's just the way things are. There is no value judgment related to any of this.
The guy in the photo has very, very curly hair, so it's not going to simply fall down while still fairly short. It's going to grow up/out, not down. His hair naturally has so much volume that it will be a long time before it starts falling down. Yes, it is much like the 70s afros.
He could slick it down with oils and silicones to mimic a flatter, straighter hair type, but why? Why deny one's true heritage? We should be proud of who we are, not ashamed if we don't fit some predefined concept of beauty. Often long hair is considered gross and unkempt by those who hold an anti-longhair bias. We decry such narrow-mindedness and untruth. Likewise, harshly judging this guy is no more fair. Some African Americans have hair like this, and it would be nice for them to feel more comfortable with their natural state than feel pressured to fit in with mainstream cultural expectations. I live in a largely African-American community, and almost all of the men shave their hair within 1/8 inch of their scalps, and many of the women do, too, unless they get their longer hair ironed flat, which is very harsh on it. I consider all of this a shame.
JE
There are some general terms used to describe various hair qualities, and the four subject terms often cause trouble.
"Thick" and "thin" refer to overall, collective hair volume that includes all strands. "Average" is in the middle. Hair volume is measured by circumference of the ponytail at the nape of the neck. It doesn't relate directly to total NUMBER of hair strands.
"Coarse" and "fine" refer to individual hair strand widths. "Medium" is in the middle. Of course all are small measurements, but coarse hair strands can be double, triple, or quadruple the size of fine strands. Coarse hair is stronger and can handle more regular hair care. It seems to handle silicones better, as well as dyeing. Fine hair is more fragile and requires more gentle hair care and handling. Fine hair tends to be more silky and smooth.
A person with fine hair can actually have more individual strands of hair on his/her head, although the volume of total hair may be average, while a person with coarse hair could have fewer actual strands and have greater hair volume.
JE
Contrary to the earlier posts, hair doesn't have to be curly to grow straight up. I think for me it was a combination of:
1. thick strands. A teacher once remarked that Asians had thick hair (this was a physics class and he was demonstrating the use of a micrometer). He measured the thickness of an Asian girl's hair, then I volunteered that I could beat that. I carefully plucked one of my thicker hairs (I have lots of diffferent kinds mixed in) and it was thicker than hers.
2. Deep follicles. I think this allows the strand to maintain its direction.
3. Many years of bad haircuts and a dislike for the combing ritual, which is why I went long in the first place.
The real high hair came into play during my first ponytail length growout. My second and current tail-length growout wasn't characterized by such wild hair. I suspect that it's because I was older, had thinner strands, and had hair pulled back previously for many months. That eliminated items 1 and 3.
If you still don't believe straight (or in my case, wavy) hair can grow straight up, just think about all the guys with "cowlicks". I wish I had a dime for every time my parents said "you have to train your hair". Well I did--just not the way they wanted.
Exactly the same thing happened to me when I first grew mine out. My brother used to call me Johnny Bravo, after a cartoon figure he watched who had tall hair.
When I got my hair cut and grew it again, this did not happen.
It looks like some wiery african-american hair that is strong enough to be put into such a style.
My guess is that it's the kind of hair that he wants, since he is willing to let MSN put his photo on the net for millions to see.
Looks like it's just a 'fro that's rather uneven.. He was probably going for the spiked-hair look, but in an afro.
I think it looks pretty cool, personally. A little out of the ordinary, but then again, I imagine that's what he's going for, anyways.
