I never really officially announced it but I’ve been running the blog for a whole year now. It has been a great experience having a blog but being a hair blogger is way different then just randomly making YouTube videos whenever I don’t feel like doing my homework which is basically what I had been doing previously. I want to discuss some of the challenges that I’ve come across being a hair blogger – not on the side of the technical challenges or time challenges (that can be a separate post). In case you’ve seen your favorite blogger chop all her hair off, maybe it’s because she wanted something new, but it could also be because her hair health was really suffering due to her blog, so I’m going to talk about a few ways that natural hair bloggers sacrifice their hair health for you, our lovely readers!

When Bloggers Do Too Many Product Reviews

My current stash of reviewed or soon to be reviewed products… at least the ones that’ve made it out of gift bags

When companies send us products – whether they are from a big brand or a really small brand – we want to be able to try out those products and let our readers/viewers/listeners know exactly how they work for our hair. Depending on how large of a following bloggers have, we can receive anywhere from 1 to 50 to maybe even 100 requests in a year asking us to review a gel/shampoo/hair oil/deep conditioner/you name it. For me, it’s important to try the products that I’m recommending to you guys or giving away during my monthly giveaways. So in the past year, I have been trying out new products on my hair nearly every month; what that means is every shampoo cycle I’m using a completely new set of products on my hair – maybe the shampoo is the same but the leave-in conditioner, moisturizer, and/or oil nearly always changes from month to month (but no more moving forward, and you can read more about it here). Now my hair doesn’t always like whatever product is being sent to me, but for the sake of having an accurate review I do try my best to use everything at least twice before I’ll put up a review about it; that way I can give you the best information about how it works for me so you can know how it might work for your hair. But, in the sad but sometimes true event that my hair is NOT feeling a product, I still have to use it again the following week just to really be sure I didn’t do something wrong (like I did here). Using products that might not work for us for the sake of information creation + the stress of switching products all the time is definitely one way that natural hair bloggers sacrifice their hair health for the sake of their blog.

  When Bloggers Do Too Many Styles

An assortment of hairstyles by yours truly

Another way that hair bloggers sometimes put their hair health on the back burners for the sake of their blog is by trying a lot of different styles. I know when havana twists first came out I was really excited to do them (and I got a whole lot of YT views from those vids), and when kinky weaves were becoming popular, I did one of those for you guys too. But honestly when I got that weave, my hair suffered a little bit but for the sake of showing you guys, I kind of sucked it up and went through the whole 6 weeks. Protective styles can be dangerous y’all! People also have really short attention spans and so I feel like bloggers are expected to have a twist out one week day, then bantu knots the next, then mini twists, and then an updo – so we’re constantly playing with our hair, trying to do something new and fresh and exciting to please the people. And errybody knows the best way to grow and maintain the health of kinky hair is really to leave it alone – so obviously all this styling, or over manipulation, is counterproductive to a healthy head of hair.

Final Thoughts

I feel like there are a couple of bloggers and I’m not saying names, but by writing this article I’ve kind of included myself that have succumbed to this problem where they’re using a lot of products and doing a lot of styles in the best interest of their readers but not in their own hair’s best interest. I’m curious to see if readers are aware of the “demands” of blogging and how it can affect our own hair, and whether you feel like you can encourage/support your favorite hair bloggers to prioritize their hair health over your  desire to see them do a bantu knot out using the new Shea Moisture line.

Do you ever think about your favorite natural hair bloggers’ hair health? How can we strike a balance between providing regular style tutorials and product reviews with maintaining the health of our hair?