Hair Interview with Ibhaze

Name

Ibhaze Uduehi

Where are you from?

Edo State

What do you do?

I work as a Business Development Officer in an Information and Communication Technology firm in Abuja.

So I know that in secondary school you wore your hair natural but afterwards you tried relaxers and texturisers. Tell us why you decided to go natural again?

I was in France for a while when I noticed my relaxed hair had started breaking off and it was getting more and more difficult to maintain it. Of course, in the small city I was living in, there were only 2 African hair salons and they weren’t cheap, so I had to beg a friend to help me relax my hair whenever she could(she was studying law so that was almost never).

So, one day, I walked into one of the African hair salons and noticed a framed picture of a black woman with a glorious natural mane. That was actually the 2^nd time I cut my hair.

The first time was after Oghomwen came over, I saw her lovely long hair and wanted to do a transplant. So some months later, I woke up one fine and cut all the relaxed hair off. Since then, I tried jehri curls and baby curls for the “mixed” look but it just never felt right.

So I cut my hair early this year and I’m back to my natural wiry kink for good!

What’s your natural hair regimen?

I’m actually at the “obsessive” phase of my hair so this is the point where I’m trying anything and everything that’s claimed to be gold for natural hair. So far, I’ve been using Oghowmen’s shea butter mixture with essential oils, castor oil and glycerine as hair cream, Dark ‘n’ Lovely Ultra Cholesterol Deep Conditionning which I leave in overnight with my hair in a wrap and any basic oil spray to soften and moisturize my hair.

So far, so good! Now onto the famous coconut oil and I’ll be trying the Organic Mayonnaise Conditioning to see if it’ll make my hair softer and even healthier than it is right now.

I’ve had my hair in braids for a couple of months now with barely any intervals between braids so I feel it needs to breathe and be nurtured. So I’ll be doing a lot of deep and leave-in conditioning and try to make it a habit.

How do people react to your natural hair? Are they positive or negative?

People are actually very positive about my natural hair. Random strangers walk up to me and ask if it’s my hair that I’ve twisted or did I put something in? Then, they touch it and wow at it and go on to tell me why they could never do what I’m doing cos their hair’s too this or too that. I used to believe that I had the worst hair texture in the world as it’s really wiry (hairdressers never fail to stress that) and it’s not that full. But I’ve and am learning to maintain it and am loving the adventure!

People sometimes ask, with amazement on their faces, why I’m keeping my hair natural. A male friend though recently advised me to relax it for people to see the length. That was funny.

Comment about natural hair in the work place. Do you feel awkward about wearing your natural hair to work?

Not at all! And I’ve never been brought to book on my locs, twist/twist out or whatever style I had on. People compliment and also generally mind their business otherwise. As long as I look good and presentable, there’s no problem at all. It also helps to have a mouth that puts them in their place when they start voicing opinionsJ.

**bisous**