It hs been ges since I was on this platform! Alot was happening in my country politically. We had our general elections last year and we had to go back to the ballot a second time! It wasn't easy and the economy suffered greatly in all sectors.
But, am back now, hopefully I will be consistent in my posting. I see I have 301 followers now..yeeeiii. Thanks for the follows guys.
I will start off by celebrating my one year anniversary since going natural. By natural I mean I no longer use chemicals to straighten my hair:-) Its been a wonderful journey discovering the versatility of my hair. Despite feeling impatient that its not getting long fast enough...but today I did a length check and waaoo.
The last pic on the right I took today and the difference from first day is amazing. I wrote a Facebook update on it today, you can read it here:
https://www.facebook.com/helen.kariuki.3
Or I can list the 10 things I have learnt from my natural hair journey:
- Water is your natural hairs best friend when it comes to moisture: My hair is prone to losing moisture fast so I add glycerine in my water in a spray bottle. Glycerine is a humectant and it helps attract moisture to my hair hence keeping the hair soft and easy to manage.
2.Conditioner, conditioner, conditioner. African hair needs lots of conditioner, it acts as a relaxer and helps soften the hair and define your natural hair curl. - If you want to grow your edges, use Onion juice. I have tried black Jamaican castor oil ..but onion juice works better. Apply at night and wash off in the morning. You have to be ready to deal with the smell though!..:-))
- My hair loves, loves, loves unrefined coconut oil. I tried olive oil but didn't work as well.
- Moisture is the key to growing your natural hair. African hair tends to dry out and break so keep your hair moisturized.
- Try and avoid heat. It damages your hair so keep that blow drier at an arms length no matter how tempting it is to straighten your hair. There are other methods to straighten it without using heat e.g threading.
- Due to loss of moisture, use a satin bonnet while sleeping. It prevents loss of moisture and doesn't absorb oils from your hair.
- African hair tends to be brittle so avoid combs and if you have to, wide toothed combs are the best. Also its advisable to wet hair first to avoid breakage.
- Basically your natural hair tends to need a lot of TLC. You have to create time for it, but its very versatile such that as long as its moisturized, you can style it anyway you want.
- You tube is the best teacher: I have learnt a lot from managing it to styling it.
There you go. If you are thinking of going natural, I hope this helps.
