Yes it is my hair

On a visit to my Tailor, I met another customer waiting for her clothes. As I was looking at other clothes the customer asked me how long I had my "kinky twists". And that was when the wahala started o! I told her it is my hair and she told me "It cannot be your hair!" Waaaat? We kept going back and forth.

Me: It is my hair.
Sister Customer: It is not your hair. It is kinky twists.
Me: It is my natural hair.
Sister Customer: It is not your natural hair.
Me: Touch it and you will see it is my hair.
Sister Customer: I don't need to touch it because I know it is not your hair. It is attachment.




Definitely not extensions; just small twists with natural hair and rolled with perm rollers


Na wa o!

The Tailor entered the gist.

Aunty Tailor: It is her hair. I know her. Her hair is natural.
Sister Customer: It is CANNOT be her hair. Just tell me what extensions you used.
Me: *looking bewildered and shocked*

I went back to looking at clothes and left Aunty Tailor to defend 'my' ownership of 'my' hair. I am not sure what Aunty Tailor told her but after a while I heard "Ooookaaaay! Ah I cannot wait for my hair to grow that long!" At that point I took a hard look at Sister Customer only to notice that she is at the beginning stage of dreadlocs!

*smh*

Keep it natural!

Omozo

So I did the big chop, now what?

Honestly there really isn’t much to do after a big chop except, wait for the hair to grow ( that's if you plan on growing it out). The TWA ( teeny weeny afro) is one of the easiest styles to take care of while natural. Though it is easy and stress free that doesn’t mean you need to neglect it. It still helps if you do these basic three things to help it grow healthy.

1.) Wash Regularly: Clean your hair with a good shampoo that is free from sulphates. Sulphates dry out curly hair like crazy. When I had a TWA I actually experimented with a variety of shampoos. I also tried a few shampoo bars. I liked the shampoo bars a lot because I could just grab them and rub around my head. When you have short hair it’s easy to wash hair often. To get all the scientific low down about sulphates and shampoo, check out Jc of Natural Haven

2.) Condition: After you wash with a shampoo, always follow up with a good conditioner.  When my hair was short, I often just did a conditioner wash daily. I only used shampoo once a week or every 10 days.  

No matter how gentle your hair shampoo is, it will still end up stripping hair of its natural oils. Conditioners help to reintroduce moisture, soften hair and make hair easier to comb.  See Curly Nikki's post on hair conditioners

3.) Moisturize your hair often: We cannot over emphasize the importance of a well moisturized head of hair. It makes all the difference in the world. Naturally curly hair can get DRY. This means that whatever opportunity you get, you have to moisturize. So you may try experimenting with a variety of moisturizers to find what best suites you. Many naturals use natural products like shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, olive oil to lock in moisture. So you will have to do your research to find what works for you

So while waiting for your hair to grow long take this time to educate yourself as much as possible on natural hair and what to expect along the journey. Read blogs, and look at other naturals experiences. Hopefully you’ll learn from their mistakes and avoid them yourself. 

Nse Again!

This month's edition of Complete Fashion Nigeria has Nse Ikpe-Etim on the cover rocking a twist-out fro hawk!
See our interview of her here and see her rocking the AMAAs here.

Love it! Love it!

Kudos and well done to Complete Fashion and the Stylist for keeping Nse's hair as is and not putting her in a weave or whatever else. And snaps to Nse too because I am guessing she would have asked to use her natural hair. And Nse, your hair looks GREAT!

Keep it natural!

Omozo

I straightened my hair

Yesterday I went to the hair salon and straightened my hair. Oh boy!

I washed my hair, put leave-in conditioner and my O'Naturals Cocoa-shea hair butter. Then I stretched my hair with thread. I felt that I should "help" the straightening process by stretching out my hair a bit. Then I went to the salon and said *drum roll* "I want to straighten my hair". The stylist opened her eyes widely and I grinned sheepishly. This stylist has styled my hair before so we have history. I sat down in the chair and still kept asking myself whether I should not just twist my hair and call it a night. I forged ahead.

I took my own serum because I guessed (and rightly so) that there would be none at the salon. I instructed the stylist on how to use the serum and, to her credit, she took the instructions well and used the serum well. When I saw the smoke coming out of the flat iron I almost jumped out of the chair! Meeeeen! Then she started to straighten my hair. Every time she ran the flat iron over my hair there was this evil hisssssss that could be heard. I could hear my hair strands crying "Whyyyyy? Why do you torture us so? Whyyyyyyyy?" After straightening about 3 sections at the back of my head,  I asked her to stop. I took a deep breath and we continued. When we were done my hair looked straight. Well, not too straight because I told her to chill on the straightening. It also looks very full.

I must be honest, it was traumatic for me. *Yes I am a bit of a drama queen* That amount of direct and high heat on any texture of hair cannot be good. Yes I could see some of my real hair length and my hair was bouncy but at what cost? I got home and put more hair butter on my ends.

One thing that is very important when applying any form of heat to your, is the use of serum. Use a serum. Use a serum. The serum will protect your hair from heat damage. Regularly applying high heat directly to your hair is not a healthy hair practice because the hair is exposed to heat damage. If you must, try to space it out a bit and give your hair a bit of a break between each straightening session.

So will I do it again anytime soon? Nah. This kind of trauma takes time to heal.

Keep it natural!

Omozo