Are We Losing Our Black Hair Care Recipes?

There’s a fear amongst many young Black people—especially those living and working in Western countries—that we’re losing our hair and beauty methods or rather “recipes” (including our cooking skills, languages, and more) by embracing new modernized techniques, such as the divisive “no oils, no butters” wash day method, which rejects the use of heavy oils such as caster oil and coconut oil that has been used in Black hair care for generations. Popular curly hair specialists such as Acacia Breeze regularly face backlash from promoting their curly-cut techniques that move away from some of the practices that many of us have grown up with (even though the results of her clients and others are incredible). On the other hand, some natural hair creators, such as Youtuber StarPuppy,  have made public admissions claiming they are returning to what they say has always worked for the culture; clays, oils, butters, and more. The goalposts to what effective natural hair care should look like always seem to be moving; natural hair communities online go back and forth between ingredients they stand behind and the ones that they now demonize as “bad”. It’s hard to keep up.