1. I just cut my hair/about to cut my hair but I don’t know what to do.
- Styles: Depending on when you cut your hair, it might still be too short to style. The My Styles page has photos of my different styles, from my baby afro days too. I’m also doing a timeline blog post series where I summarise my monthly experiences as well as styles. Then of course there’s my YouTube channel where I show you how I do my styles.
- Products: Please use My Products page as a guideline. My suggestion is to experiment
as we all have different heads of hair. What works for me might work for
you – perfect! But if it doesn’t, please don’t feel disheartened and try
something else. Don’t stick to something if it’s causing your hair to dry/break/smell funny etc. - Routine: Same as above, don’t limit yourself. Try something,
if it doesn’t work, move on to the next thing. I found my routine by
trial and error and adjusting things to suit my schedule, lifestyle,
hair needs and goals. If washing your hair once a week leads to dry
hair, try every other week. Many naturals find shampoo too drying so
they opt to co-wash instead (using conditioner) and it works for them. I
use gel regularly and if I only co-wash, my hair gets gunky so I wash
with shampoo. My routine changes during winter because it’s colder and
drier. Trial and error. Find your routine and adjust it accordingly.
2. My hair’s so tough I can’t even comb it.
If you have hair that hurts when you comb it dry, stop combing it dry. This was the single best tip I found online and it changed my relationship with my hair forever. Fro is a different beast
when I comb it dry as opposed to when I conditioner comb it. Trust me.
Some ladies are blessed with hair that doesn’t break combs when it’s
dry. Mine does – hence the introduction to relaxer at age 8. Throw out
any fine tooth combs. They’re not our fros’ friends. Our hair is very
curly and every point the hair bends is a breaking point so it’s very
fragile. Fine tooth combs don’t have much space to let your coily hair
shaft pass though smoothly so are likely to break it instead.
Use a wide tooth comb, smack on conditioner and comb your hair in
sections tackling the ends first and working your way upwards to reduce
breakage. If your hair is damp, it gives it more elasticity and easier
to comb through provided it doesn’t have any knots. It’s a myth that we
need to comb our hair everyday or at all. Some naturals just use their
fingers to detangle and that’s enough. I comb my hair once a week, no
lie. And I never do it unless I have conditioner on. So I wash my hair,
put my deep conditioner mix on, finger detangle then comb it in sections
with a shower comb. You’ll see in my videos that the only time a comb
touches my hair during the week is to blend in the scalp gaps my evening
mabutu (chunky braids) create. By then, I’ve spritzed and
stretched my hair so it doesn’t hurt. I can’t stress enough how this has
helped me and my hair. We don’t fight over this anymore.
3. My hairline is thinning, what can I do to restore it?
I haven’t had much experience with a thinning or receding hairline. The
only time my hairline was in real trouble was the last time I relaxed my
hair. But many women who write to me do. Kavuli of Good Hair Diaries
wrote a great blog post about this issue. Please read it here for
the causes and tips to combat it.
4. What’s your routine and what do you use on your hair?
The products I use and where to buy them can be found in this blog post.
My routine can be found in this blog post.
5. Please share more photos of when your hair was shorter.
I’m currently doing
retrospective posts summarising my time being natural. They can be found
on my Being Natural page. For a quick look at what I was rocking in a certain month have a look at my Photo Timeline.
6. I’d like to try and make your Daily Spritz, but I don’t understand the ingredients list. What’s a part?
A ‘part’ is a measurement you predetermine yourself and add ingredients to your mix in relation to that measurement. For example: if you have a measuring spoon that is 50ml then that could represent 1 part. So if the recipe is: 2 parts water, 1 part oil, .5 part glycerin, it means you’re putting 100ml water, 50ml oil and 25ml glycerin. I wrote the recipe that way because people have differently sized bottles. Mine is 150ml but yours might be 250ml. It won’t be helpful for you to get my exact measurements because your bottle will end up half empty. Hence the parts style description.
7. What hair colour did you use?
Garnier Nutrisse shade 7.3.
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