I never used to believe that natural African hair can become soft, and grew up with the believe that my natural hair/Afro was hard work and would require way too much attention and time that I would rather save. Trust me, many African women and girls choose relaxers as an easy and less demanding method of maintaining hair. A notion I have since learnt is based on lack of education on healthy hair habits and lack of building a hair regime.
Since my natural hair journey begun, I have had people making comments such as "you are lucky your hair is soft", "you aren't pure black African because your hair curls are soft and not hard like mine", "are you sure you aren't mixed race", "my natural hair is much kinkier and harder than yours and that's why I'd rather relax it" etc..... The truth is, I am 100% black African and have coarse hair too, BUT building a good hair regime that includes lots of moisturising has softened my hair. Deep conditioning regularly with hydrating treatments changed the 'tough', 'rough' and unmanageable hair I had. Do not under-estimate the power of moisturising. For info on building a hair regime visit my post from January 2015 that is called "basics of hair care".
Here is a photo of my hair before I started a healthy hair regime:
Before my healthy hair journey I also had unmanageable hair that wasn't soft at all, as you can see below: this photo was taken early 2014 around March. If you zoom into the front, you'll see the knots on my edges that were formed from braiding my hair and keeping the braids for 2-3 months! Obviously with no care for my hair and no regime, I used to have braids all year round, and kept them in intervals of 2-3 months!
Since my natural hair journey begun, I have had people making comments such as "you are lucky your hair is soft", "you aren't pure black African because your hair curls are soft and not hard like mine", "are you sure you aren't mixed race", "my natural hair is much kinkier and harder than yours and that's why I'd rather relax it" etc..... The truth is, I am 100% black African and have coarse hair too, BUT building a good hair regime that includes lots of moisturising has softened my hair. Deep conditioning regularly with hydrating treatments changed the 'tough', 'rough' and unmanageable hair I had. Do not under-estimate the power of moisturising. For info on building a hair regime visit my post from January 2015 that is called "basics of hair care".
Here is a photo of my hair before I started a healthy hair regime:
Before my healthy hair journey I also had unmanageable hair that wasn't soft at all, as you can see below: this photo was taken early 2014 around March. If you zoom into the front, you'll see the knots on my edges that were formed from braiding my hair and keeping the braids for 2-3 months! Obviously with no care for my hair and no regime, I used to have braids all year round, and kept them in intervals of 2-3 months!
This is great!
ReplyDeletePlease post your "after" results.
I'm Greek/South american but I inherited my dad's afro hair and find it extremely dry and course.