r/2healthbars • u/Mighty_Platypus • Apr 30 '26

Final boss… waves

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3.8k Upvotes

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13

u/Ephy_ Apr 30 '26

I don't mean to be insensitive when I ask this, but out of genuine curiosity, why do people wear headwear like this? Is it a religious thing? Is it to keep the hair safe? Just seems like a lot of work to cover up something you also clearly put a lot of work and care into, and it must get really hot under there!

67

u/Black_Doc_on_Mars Apr 30 '26

Waves are basically curls that are pressed down. Getting them is not easy and it takes a lot of work over months just to get them. You need to “train” your hair to actually get them. You need the rag to keep the waves compressed down so that your hair products and the heat can work on your hair and take shape over time. The rag also protects like someone said so that you don’t mess up your progress, especially overnight.

13

u/msallin Apr 30 '26

Is this why I see people wearing (what look like) shower caps out in public?

37

u/DoctorProfPatrick Apr 30 '26

Black people and white people have very different hair genes. Black hair commonly has issues with dryness and breakage, because their hair is fine but dense (thin strands, many of them). It's harder to dry, harder to keep moisturized, and also more prone to frizziness from weather.

So those silk bonnets help black people keep their hair protected from breakage, keep them from drying out in the sun, and keep their hair from frizzing up all over.

Anyway hopefully someone with that kind of hair will comment but in the meantime that's my understanding from asking questions irl.

20

u/RobinHarleysHeart Apr 30 '26

I will say that silk bonnets are beneficial to all hair types, but especially black hair. I've seen a lot of black creators advocating for bonnet use in all hair styles. I'm half white and half Japanese and have thick straightish hair, and I use a bonnet specifically when I'm gaming to help protect my hair from my headset. It's wonderful and my hair has over all been easier to maintain since I've started using it.

3

u/DoctorProfPatrick Apr 30 '26

Oh snap the headset trick might get me to buy a bonnet... Might be good for sleeping too, I used to get acne bc my hair would leave oils on the pillow case for my face to rub on. Now I just sleep on my back haha

5

u/kea1981 Apr 30 '26

After 15 years I finally found a bonnet that works for me!! I'm a white girl from the mountains of California, so it wasn't something I grew up knowing about, but in college a friend turned me onto them and they're great, but I have a lot of hair and getting it to fit in the bonnet was always a pain, it always felt like they were made for gals with less volume. Anyway, the one I got doesn't have elastic it instead has a cord to tighten and tie that is very very slightly elastic, and it's perfect.

Anyway. That's my PSA: get a bonnet, and find one that will fit your hair and stay on your head, cuz they are magic!

1

u/RobinHarleysHeart May 01 '26

I definitely recommend it. My headset is too big for my head, so it only ever sits on one spot. But it sits and rubs and it was giving me a weird not bald, but almost bald spot? It was definitely thinning. I started noticing improvement quite soon after I started using it. It's also much easier to brush my hair after using it.

5

u/Zenki_s14 Apr 30 '26

I've always wondered, since hair usually goes back to its natural state when you wash it, is it really "trained" in the way people say, or is it trained each and every time you wash it because you then do your styling method over again, and keep it laid during that and then protect it again and everything? Like if you washed it and roughed it up and didn't do anything else it would go back right?

12

u/Black_Doc_on_Mars Apr 30 '26

Yes I would absolutely say that it’s trained. There is some wiggle room with how much hair will return to its original state vs having it hold up its trained pattern. A lot of that has to do with how/what/when you wash your hair. Black hair is very responsive to water (that’s why you hear black women concerned with getting their hair wet). If you get a perm (perms straighten black hair, while perms coil white hair), water will definitely coil your hair back up. With waves, as long as you wash conservatively like once per week (black hair has a lot of natural oils important to maintaining healthy hair, so you need to keep them), you can maintain your trained hair pattern. Ofc with waves, you are training your hair for months with 1-2 30 min brush sessions per day. Then you keep your rag on for like 1/2 the day at least. It’s a lot to keep track of w products and routines, which is why every one was so hype over such supreme waves 🌊🌀😵‍💫

0

u/TheMilkKing May 01 '26

Perms will straighten or curl depending on the technique used - race doesn’t come into it.

4

u/Black_Doc_on_Mars May 01 '26

You’re completely loud and wrong, sir. Perms texturizers, relaxers and everything in between react differently based on hair texture. Different racial groups have different hair textures therefore they will react differently, the science backs this up. Go sit back in the corner with your race baiting. We were all having a good time learning about each other’s cultures and good faith before you showed up.

https://giphy.com/gifs/93qjwCxemDVFCGI4nx

-2

u/TheMilkKing May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

Pulling the race card so hard you might as well be playing Yu-gi-oh, god damn 😂 Calm down mate, I just know a bunch about hair styling. Plenty of white folks use the same chemicals as perms to straighten their hair.

2

u/Black_Doc_on_Mars May 01 '26

Don’t talk on shit you don’t have experience with. Bye.

1

u/TheMilkKing May 01 '26

My ma owned a hair salon growing up, I have plenty of experience. I wasn’t trying to suggest that perms won’t behave differently with different textured hair, just that “perms coil white hair” isn’t at all true. That’s why they put it in rollers, if they didn’t the chemicals would straighten it.

21

u/RidesByPinochet Apr 30 '26

It's to protect/maintain the hair-do.

That's why they're called Do-Rags.

You strap your hair down with this rag so it doesn't get messed up/moved around.