Curl R Us: Vikky is Ab Fab!

Finger coils

My name is Vikky Wambui, I have been natural for 18 months and I am a product junkie!

I had relaxed hair for over 10 years before I decided to go natural...some may say that my hair looked healthy, but over the years it had started to thin, break & was quite dry despite regular trips to the hairdresser’s for rather pricey “treatments” (read deep conditioners) and using top of the range hair relaxing brands.

Texturisers: The other natural hair?

A while back, a friend rocked up at my house sporting a bad a$$ afro and I almost passed out.  I hadn't seen her with her hair out of braids in goodness knows how long and I vividly remember her telling me when I went natural that I'd get bored and return to crack so you can imagine how surprised I was to see her join team kinky. Then she told me it was texturised and I was floored. The texturisers I'd seen before then had all looked just like relaxers but hers looked and felt natural. She was quite pleased with the results as she had been toying with the idea of natural hair for a while.

texturised hair in a fro

Can everyone rock natural hair?

I have been following with great interest a post on a Facebook group about a lady who went to a reknowned Kenyan hairdresser's salon. The lady in question had her hair washed using his own range of products, twisted and dried under a hood drier. When the twists were undone, this was the result: 

ta-daaaa! 

Needless to say the lady in question was displeased and complained. 

The hairdresser's response was as follows: 

9 Reasons Natural Hair is Hard Work

Yeah, I said it.

Many, many people I know want to go natural. I don't think it's a trend or anything. Most have just noticed that, after years and, in some cases, decades, of chemically straightening their hair, it's not as thick or healthy as it used to be. So they stop relaxing and, for those not brave enough to cut it all off, start braiding. And that's where they get stuck. Living in braids and weaves to grow out their relaxers but too scared to wear their natural hair out once they successfully transition. Most of them see natural hair as unmanageable, hard to style and hard to maintain. 'It's just too much work', they say, 'I can't do all those things you do' and, my favourite, 'It's not like I can run around in matutas (three-strand braids)'.

kamatano with matutas

And you know what? I agree. Natural hair isn't easy. Infact, it's bloody hard work!

How to Soften Hard Natural Hair

I get a lot of messages from readers asking for help so I thought I would start answering the most frequently asked questions. This is a question that I am constantly asked and that comes up a lot on many groups and forums.

Q: "Hi, my hair is really hard and difficult to comb no matter how much oil I use.  How do I get it to be soft?'

Source: The Natural Haven

A: I grew up with so-called 'hard' hair so I personally feel a lot of pain when I hear that word used to describe hair. There are three main reasons why your hair would feel hard:

Baking Soda Rinse

After my holiday, my hair was desperately dry, despite always co-washing after swimming.  In my last week at the coast, I used coconut oil in my hair every night after a wash and I believe this helped a lot, because it penetrates the hair strand, nourishing and strengthening the hair from the inside out.  Although it was extremely humid, and despite adding glycerin to my spritz, I believe it was the daily exposure to chlorine (and to some extent, salt water) that was the main cause of the dryness. So the first thing I did the day after our return home was to have a full wash and deep condition day.

Following my research on removing chlorine from hair, I decided to try a baking soda rinse because I had it in the house. Convenience is key to being a happy natural. 

Chemical relaxer on a 3 year old and general jaw-dropping hateration...

Twice this week some cray cray conversations have started up over my baby's hair. What.Is.Happening. 

Conversation 1:

I was at church on Sunday and a lady comes up with her adorable toddler to talk to the lady I'm sitting with. I comment on how cute her hair is and she asks me how I get my daughter's hair so curly. Now, people generally glaze over if I do the whole natural hair spiel so I kept it simple and said I wash it with conditioner.  She said she didn't think her daughter's hair could do that and I asked her if it was curly when wet. When she said 'Yes' I responded that it was likely it would curl up too with co-washing and shingling (I didn't use those words, i just thought them in my head). Then she goes 'That's alright, I prefer the neat look'....

#Taxi!