For weeks now, my YouTube feed has been absolutely dominated by one thing: Brazilian women with kinky hair reaching down to their mid-backs, filming their morning showers, and almost apologetically admitting they don't really have a 'hair care routine.' No shelves overflowing with twenty products. No three-hour Sunday rituals. Just one quick step, sometimes two, and lengths that are truly breathtaking.
I've watched way too many of these videos lately, and at some point, I felt compelled to really dig into the subject instead of just watching them on repeat. Because in my circle, I constantly hear women saying they feel like they're doing everything right, yet their kinky hair still isn't growing. So, if these Brazilian women have found a shortcut, it's definitely worth understanding what's truly behind it.
And the answer is neither magical nor cultural in the way we might imagine. It's actually quite simple once you grasp one crucial point that almost no one explains correctly: the real issue with kinky hair has never truly been growth. It's breakage.
The myth of the perfect routine we've been sold for years
Since the natural hair movement gained momentum, we've been sold a rather simple equation. Kinky hair equals a long routine. The longer and more product-heavy the routine, the healthier the hair would be. Shampoo, conditioner, mask, leave-in, cream, gel, oil, split end serum, each with its precise function and sacred order of application.
This routine isn't inherently wrong. But it ended up becoming a guilt-inducing norm, almost a test of legitimacy. If you don't have fifteen products in your bathroom, you'd have missed something. And yet, by observing these videos from Brazil, we come across women who use three products, sometimes fewer, and whose kinky hair reaches a length that most adherents of the ten-step routine never achieve.
This contrast seemed too striking to be a coincidence or just a matter of favorable genetics. So I looked into what is truly said about textured hair growth, and the discrepancy between the narrative we're sold and what actually happens at the hair strand level is quite illuminating.
What truly hinders kinky hair length, and it's not growth
Here's the point I find most misunderstood, even among women who have been very seriously caring for their kinky hair for years. Kinky hair grows at roughly the same rate as any other hair type, about one centimeter per month. So, it's not the growth rate that explains why some hair has been stagnating in the same place for two years.
What explains stagnation is length retention, in other words, the ability to keep what the hair produces rather than losing it along the way due to breakage. And with kinky hair, this breakage concentrates in very specific places: the famous twist points of the curl. At each turn of the spiral, the hair fiber undergoes mechanical tension, and the cuticle, that protective layer covering the hair, stretches and opens slightly. These points become fragile areas that give way at the slightest friction.
There's a second, equally crucial mechanism. On straight hair, the sebum produced by the scalp naturally travels down the fiber and moisturizes the lengths. On kinky hair, the spiral shape prevents this sebum from circulating properly to the ends. As a result, the ends suffer from chronic dryness, making them brittle long before they've had time to truly lengthen. This is exactly what a specialized Brazilian article I read on the subject details, explaining that growth rate is never the real problem; it's breakage that constantly negates it.
In other words, a product-heavy routine doesn't necessarily solve this problem. It can even sometimes worsen it if it's accompanied by frequent manipulation, repeated heat, or overly aggressive detangling. What these Brazilian women intuitively do, without articulating it with this vocabulary, is precisely to limit these two sources of breakage. Not by adding products, but by removing actions.
The three actions that replace a cabinet full of products
By looking closer at what these videos have in common, and cross-referencing with what specialized sources on textured hair care say, I've identified three habits that appear almost systematically, much more so than any miracle product.
The first is what's called minimal manipulation. Concretely, this means hairstyles that move little day-to-day, infrequent brushing, and as little heat as possible. Each brush stroke, each flat iron pass, each repeated friction wears down the twist points I mentioned earlier a little more. A specialized resource on textured hair care explains very well the difference between so-called protective styles, worn for several weeks without touching them, and minimal manipulation styles like a bun or a wash and go, which require little maintenance during the week. Both pursue the same goal: keeping hair away from sources of friction, whether hands, clothes, or styling tools.
The second habit is nighttime protection. A night on a cotton pillow means hours of repeated friction during sleep, without us realizing it. A satin scarf or bonnet, or failing that, a satin pillowcase, greatly reduces this invisible friction. It's an action that takes thirty seconds before bed, yet it weighs more heavily on length retention than most treatments we apply in the morning.
The third habit, which I find is most underestimated in France, is regular professional maintenance. Many of these videos show women visiting a hairdresser every two or three months for a trim and a diagnosis, rather than accumulating products at home without ever cutting. Damaged ends, if not removed, will break upwards in a cascade. Regularly trimming a few millimeters is not a sacrifice of length; it's precisely what allows you to maintain it over time, by preventing breakage from traveling up the fiber.
None of these three actions are expensive, and none require a shelf full of products. This is probably what makes these videos so unsettling for many of us, myself included at first. We're used to thinking that the more you do, the better it is. Here, almost the opposite proves true.
This doesn't mean they use absolutely nothing after shampooing either. Looking closer, what appears almost every time in these videos isn't a random piling up, but a precise technique that the textured hair community calls the LOC method, for liquid, oil, cream. You first hydrate the hair with water or a moisturizing spray, then seal with an oil—coconut, avocado, or castor depending on the hair—and finish with a cream or vegetable butter that locks everything in. Three products, a precise order, and you're done. There's also a variant, the LCO method, which reverses the oil and cream, more recommended for low porosity hair that gets saturated quickly. The correct order mainly depends on hair porosity, meaning its ability to absorb and retain moisture, and this is probably the only real technical decision to make. So, it's not the total absence of product that makes the difference compared to the ten-step routine; it's the act of stopping at three targeted actions instead of endlessly layering.
What I would do differently if I had to start all over again
If I had to summarize what these videos taught me in one sentence, it would be this: Stop looking for what to add, and start looking for what you can remove. Concretely, for the first week, I would advise finding a single hairstyle that lasts several days without needing to be touched up morning and night. The second step, almost free, is to invest in a satin pillowcase or bonnet, and truly wear it every night, not just when you remember. And the third, often the most postponed, is to make an appointment with a professional for a real split end diagnosis, rather than continuing to guess alone what's wrong.
None of these steps require changing everything at once, and that's probably why the method is sustainable in the long run, unlike a ten-step routine that gets abandoned after three weeks due to lack of time.
Does it also work if you live in France or other European countries?
I also don't want to sell you an overly simplistic shortcut. There are real differences between Brazil and France or other European countries that it would be dishonest to overlook. The Brazilian climate, more humid in many regions, naturally limits dryness of the hair lengths, a factor that clearly favors retention. Access to a hairdresser specializing in textured hair is also often simpler and more ingrained in daily habits there, whereas in Europe many women still struggle to find a competent professional near them.
It's also important to keep in mind a rather obvious bias. Videos that go viral show impressive cases, not the average of all Brazilian women with kinky hair. We never see hair that stagnates, only those that have flourished, which gives a slightly skewed impression of the process's ease.
That said, the three fundamental mechanisms remain valid everywhere, regardless of climate or country. Reducing manipulation, limiting nighttime friction, and regularly maintaining your ends work on Parisian kinky hair exactly as they do on kinky hair in Salvador de Bahia. What changes is mainly the additional effort sometimes required in France to compensate for a drier climate, for example, by being a little more attentive to hydration, without falling back into the fifteen products from the start.
The questions I'm asked most often on the subject
- Does kinky hair really grow slower than other hair types?
No, the growth rate is generally comparable, around one centimeter per month for the vast majority of people, regardless of curl type. What varies greatly from person to person is the amount of breakage, not the amount of growth.
- Do you have to stop using products completely to see a difference?
No, it's not about stopping everything overnight. It's mainly about stopping damaging actions, like too frequent heat or dry detangling, rather than piling on treatments hoping to compensate for the damage.
- How often should you trim your ends to preserve length?
Most professionals recommend a light trim every three to four months, depending on the condition of the ends. The goal is not to lose length, but to prevent a damaged end from continuing to break upwards.
- What exactly is the LOC method?
LOC stands for liquid, oil, cream. You first hydrate the hair with water, seal with an oil, and lock it in with a cream or vegetable butter. For low porosity hair, the oil and cream are often reversed, which is then called the LCO method, to avoid weighing down the lengths.
I think what makes these videos about Brazilian women's hair so captivating isn't that they reveal an inaccessible secret. It's that they challenge an idea we've been told for years: that beautiful kinky hair is earned through time and products. The truth seems simpler and, in a way, more reassuring. What truly matters isn't piling on moisturizing products hoping to compensate; it's reducing what damages the fiber daily—manipulation, heat, friction.
And for that, the most effective action often remains the one most neglected: regular maintenance by a professional who truly understands textured hair, capable of trimming just what's needed and honestly telling you where you stand. It's probably worth taking the time to find a good specialized salon near you, rather than continuing to pile on products hoping that will be enough to compensate.
