Week 6&7 Update

I got lazy and didn’t make a post last week but I have this video to share which is really funny that might make up for it.

So now my hair has grown, I can stick my afro comb in my hair and it can stay without me holding t in. This is progress. The edges have grown in very nicely, I think the rest from too much brushing and tension has definitely done them a lot of good. I can’t believe that even though it’s nearly a month since I said the curls are coming and they’re still not here. My hair has had this wavy pattern( like I used Jeri curl or something ). (I’m too young to know what Jeri curl is lol). Anyway, at some point I did thing that my hair type has changed because it’s not at tightly curled as I’m used to seeing it. We’ll see how that goes. I’m sure that by Christmas my hair will be a braidable length thinking of getting me some chunky twist because believe it or not, I’ve never had twists *shock horror*.

5 Week Update & the Natural Hair Movement in West Africa

I don’t really have much to say about the 5 week update apart from that my hair is still growing. Same routine, nothing has changed. I ditched the wig now and I’ve been wearing my hair the way it is everyday and I love it! I actually have very mixed feelings about it growing… I love this look…. but then again winter is coming and I don’t want my brain to freeze so the long term short hair might have to wait til another summer or when I live somewhere that is warm enough.

In other news, I have noticed something really major in the British African natural hair community. 2 years ago when I went natural, it wasn’t all that fashionable. These were the days before Lupita was popular and relaxed hair was very much in. Particularly, I noticed that Nigerian ladies were more anti natural hair than any of the other Africans I know. A good number of the African Aunties I have mentioned in previous posts were Nigerians. So it really shocked me this weekend when I was at the African Fellowship I attend, I spoke 2 Nigerian ladies there and they told me they had decided to go natural! One is transitioning and the other cut her hair and was wearing a wig. Her exact words were I am never going to relax again. These are the same people who thought I’d gone cray when I cut my hair 2 years ago. East Africans like Kenyans, Malawians (like me) and South Africans were already way ahead of the game and the natural look was a thing there even before the movement really picked up ground.

So what has happened to popularize the movement to West Africa? I think it could be partially to do with Lupita and other pioneers of the natural hair movement in Africa. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the very famous Nigerian writer has become another natural hair icon for West Africa in recent years, and perhaps people want to have hair like her. I really don’t know the reason so if you think you have an idea of why, comment below. I have just found the very sudden change really perplexing, but none the less, it makes me really happy.

1 Month Update

It has actually been a month since the mega chop! It’s is growing so fast. Nothing much has changed, still the same wash routine but I have to brush it now (this is optional). I could leave it unbrushed and it clumps up into this pattern which looks pretty cool. I am really happy with the overall growth rate. My brother got a haircut the other day so I now have hair longer than his.

I am hoping my hair is going to speed up a little bit because unfortunately the British summer is coming to an end. It’s is getting so chilly and my lack of hair means I get cold on the head much more than before.

The webcam selfie i took whilst writing this post :p

Short Hair Don’t Care #1

So I finally did it!! I went outside of the house, with no wig no head tie and it felt absolutely great and completely normal. There were no weird stares as far as I could see; everybody was surprisingly minding their own business. My dad told me my hair looked great and my mum said was I should care what other people think because I did my hair for me. All of today’s experiences combined, I am definitely feeling a lot more confident with my hair being so short.

So we went on a bit of a thrift shopping trip and it was really awesome. I got this gorgeous winter jacket for £5 (everything was half price) which would have been a good £45 at the original shop so I was really happy with that. Then we went to some family friend’s house which was great fun, tried on a fedora hat to switch it up – I think I might invest in one, I really liked the way that it looked!

Overall, it’s been a really fabby day apart from the torrential rain that fell for 20 minutes , but that’s British weather for you 🙂
Here are pics of the hair/fedora:

nhi|crochet braids

This is AMAZING!

VIVRANT J

Crochet braids have come such a looooooooooing way! Especially since the first set I had back in nineteen-ninety something. Which, might I add, happened to be tiny braids in an orangey-brass-blonde color with patches of black black braids for an accent 0_o! Lord thank you for innovation and progression!

Anyways, this style can be achieved by virtually anybody. It’s also a fun and cheap protective style! You can play with color and texture with very low manipulation to your own tresses.

Before I get to the photos I want to show you this really cool video that combines crochet braids and kinky twists. This woman did an amazing job and I truly think it’s the best way to achieve a lot of the popular chunky marley twists with out giving up your whole weekend.

Amazing right? Now on to the photos.

See? The possibilities are endless! For more natural hair…

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3 Weeks Update

Sorry I Didn’t post it yesterday, the real three week anniversary, I was too busy getting excited about getting my exam results.

So now that it was been three weeks, the growth rate is less noticeable than it was before. I thought that the curls would have started forming but this point but it looks like they are taking their time. The hair is not spiky any more it’s really wavy. I am still wigging it out – but only when I leave the house. I try to wear it as little as possible to stop it from damaging my edges. To be honest, I don’t want to wear the wig anymore. I just have this fear it would fall off even though it is fairly tight. Also, I feel like I’m being deceptive about my hair which I really don’t like. A few more people know that I cut all my hair off now although the reactions have been less extreme than I expected it.

I’ll be starting university soon and I want to make the right impression. I wanna wear my short hair to uni, that’s the goal, but I don’t know what kind of first impression that would make  who cares, imma do it anywayyyyy. In hindsight I realised I really should have cut my hair sooner. But hey, #YOLO #NoRegrets .

Here is a head wrap I was wearing the other day ( I followed how the lady in the video I posted last week did her turban) and it turned out amazing. Got a compliment for it as well when I went out with it 😀
So bring on week 4 on my hair!!! 

Just how it was when i woke up this morning #webcamselfie

The fancy looking turban, really love this look

The headscarf i’m wearing at the moment

Natural Hair Is Not For Everyone

I recently watched a YouTube video by talking about how natural hair isn’t for everyone. Like most controversial video on the internet, there were two camps of people. The people who would have just read the title of the video and been like “ oh no she didn’t ” but watched to see what she would say, and the other group would have just gone straight to the comments section with their “I don’t agree with you” comments.
After watching the video, I was inclined to agree with every single point she made about why natural hair is not for everyone. The reasons she gave are not superficial like you don’t have the face for it or it looks unprofessional.
I have summarized her reasons to three words: Courage, Care and Curls
Courage
Deciding to have natural hair takes courage because it requires breaking the social norm of relaxing your hair and it will ultimately lead to you standing out much more than you did before – especially if you do a big chop. What I have personally learnt over the years of having natural hair is that you need to have a really thick skin to put up with the negative comments that people will make about your hair (yes there are nice comment, but there are some pretty ugly comments too). I know from my own person experience people don’t hold back from showing/ telling you how they feel about your hair. Some of it is direct comments, and sometimes it’s passive aggressive comments like oh so when are you getting your hair braided again. If you are someone who cares a lot about what people think, and you would not be able to put up with people having a word in on how you look, then natural hair is not for you. To add to this, if you don’t wanna stand out (people looking at you weird, touching your hair) , then once again, it is probably not for you.

Care
Natural hair requires just as much, if not more care than relaxed hair. You will have to invest a lot of time and money finding the right products and methods for taking care of your hair. As the hair grows longer, the , more work you have to do to maintain it and keep it from looking like a hot mess. (My mum emphasised this point a lot to me, and I finally get that long natural hair is probably not for me until I learn to commit to care ). Unfortunately, there are not a lot of natural hair specialists at the hairdressers which means that you’ll ether do your own hair or you get it done by a hairdresser who doesn’t know how to treat the natural hair (Will make another post about this). So basically, if you don’t think you’ll be able to commit to taking care of you natural hair, then it won’t be for you.

Curls
Some people go natural for the curls. I don’t know who created the hair type system but it’s brought a hierarchy to the natural community. Some ladies go natural in the hope that when their hair grows, they will have loose curls which seem to be more desirable than tighter curls*. If you don’t know what your natural hair is like, then your hair could be anything between loose and tight curls, but you don’t know what you will get. So what happens is that people go natural, but when their hair grows and turns out to be really tight curls, they find themselves really disappointed. If the curly hair is what you’re looking for, there are plenty of good weaves and wigs that would do the job.

After reading this, it could maybe give you some insight as to whether you should be natural or not.
*I love my tightly coiled hair, but what I was saying is based on what I have noted from the natural hair community, reminds me a bit of the light skin/ dark skin debate, but that is a story for another post.
🙂

Here is a link to the video, it was on the Sunshine Abuwi Channel. I really like her videos she’s a bit like me, likes wearing her natural hair short.Natural Hair Is Not For Everyone

30+ Head Wrap Styles for Natural Girls

The Fashion Foot

Being natural can be a challenge due to the protection that is needed for our ends no matter what hair texture you have. Though our scalp is an important part of our hair care, the care of our ends is vital because they make up the section of our hair that gets most of the brunt of daily damage. Whether it’s our environment, diet, or we’re falling asleep on cotton pillow cases, which absorb the oils needed for moisture, or we can’t keep our hands out of our hair which will rob our hair of said moisture. In the end, the moisture we give them is sucked up from daily activities. Therefore, aside from other protective styling, head wraps are a great way to protect your hair by covering your ends and making them less susceptible to damage.

What I like about this first video is how it covers the…

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Two Weeks Update: The Curls Are Coming!

Time is going by so quickly and it is now two weeks since I took the plunge into baldness. The hair is growing really fast!!! So After initially shaving my head, as the hair grew, i entered into what I would like to call the spiky phase, My hair was just growing straight out and sticking out, and whenever i touched it, it felt very stubbly. Now that it has been 2 weeks, I can feel the curls coming!  Woo hooo! Now that it has grown a bit, it is no longer sticking out, but it is falling in a curved shape. ( My brother thinks it’s weird i’m, so fascinated by this because he’s used to it all haha). 

So in the middle part of my hair, it is growing really fast. However, the edges are a bit slow and look patchier. But i know as it grows this will be less obvious. The regimen is still the same. Still wigging it out until when i can brush it. I was speaking to my mum and i just might be allowed to dye it 🙂 🙂 We’ll see! But for now, here are some progress pics 🙂

Side view where the edges are

The Front

The back

10 Days Update!

First of all let me just say WOW! I never cease to be amazed from all the times that I have cut my hair, just how fast my hair grows. So after only 10 days, I have gone from looking rather bald, to having a head full of black specs of hair on my head. I reckon by the time a month has passed I won’t mind going out and rocking my short hair.
The best thing I have to say about shaving my hair is that I do not need to brush it. My hair before was long (in my terms anyway), washing could be a bit of a nightmare, dealing with tangles. I realised that having shower is considerable quicker than when I had longer hair. In addition, the regiment is very low maintenance because I simply have to shampoo, dry and spritz. As far as natural hair goes, this must be the easiest it will ever get.
Fingers crossed, this will be the last time I drastically cut my hair and I am going to try and grow it real big. I realised that I have actually cut my hair short 3 summers in a row. Maybe I can set myself a no scissors challenge and see how it goes 