I went natural by learning from a texlaxed blogger! Yes, healthy tips work for all!!!

Some of you might get astonished by my statement, I definitely went natural by learning what to do from a blogger whose hair is relaxed (texlaxed). Sounds unrealistic right? Truth is all states of hair need good care, and therefore healthy hair habits tend to work for both texlaxed or natural hair. The difference being frequency. Read further for better understanding of this statement.

• For about 2 years all I ever did was marvel at other naturals' hair and admire their kinks. I was one of those readers/followers who would want the good looking natural hair yet sit and do very little about it, despite following many sources of inspiration. 
• Eventually I got fed up of not walking the talk and decided to focus and follow a blogger whose language and style of writing matched mine. This way we would be on the same boat despite being physically apart, know what I mean?
• My inspiration to go natural and all I ever learnt to get good hair was from Fatima, who goes by Hairequest on Instagram. Her blog is hairequest.blogspot.com. 
• Fatima texlaxes her hair, i.e. she uses a relaxer but intentionally under processes the hair. 
• However I found her hair tips useful and they worked and still work for me.
• The reason these tips work for my natural hair which unlike hers is not relaxed, is because hair tends to have the same principles of behaviour. 
• What I mean by this is, all hair, whether relaxed or not has the same chemical build. In other words, all hair is made up of keratin. All hair has a cuticle, cortex and medulla. And all hair requires a balance between protein and moisture. The only difference between someone like Fatima and me is frequency and duration for which we treat our hair. For example, since her hair is relaxed, her hair pattern changed from doily to almost straight, therefore it may absorb moisture quicker than mine. But at the end of the day, both our hairs require moisture. There are many more examples I could delve into, but that's not the point. The crux of this post is to make you aware of the fact that healthy hair tips work for any type of hair. So find a blogger who you understand well, and learn! You'll be surprised how your hair will love you and thank you. Happy hair growing, to all of us, as long as we have healthy hair it doesn't matter if it is texlaxed or not. 

Love - AfroMoriri

Full steps - how to soften Afro hair without relaxers

One of the main challenges about going natural and no longer relaxing hair is the course, hard and 'unmanageable' texture of the hair. It can become a daunting and frustrating situation when you are new to the journey of natural hair, mainly due to having had an easier way to deal with the hair - let's be honest, relaxed hair is sleek and easy, therefore doesn't require much thought in maintaining it.

If you are a new natural who is frustrated by the kinky texture of the hair, or you are a natural who finds combing and styling your hair a painful (literally) process, then this is the perfect read you need.  The big question is, can you attain soft hair? Yes, yes and yes. And this is how:

Soft afro natural hair - without relaxing the hair

This is what worked for me, and hopefully it works for you too:

• Build a hair regimen and stick to it, even if it is 90% of the time. I am not perfect and get days when I am lazy to wash my hair, or days when a small thing such as spritzing my hair with my water & oil mix seems too laborious. A regimen is a method/grooming pattern that you follow, for example, every morning you shower and brush your teeth; that is a body care regimen which you follow as part of your hygiene and self love. Your hair also needs a hair care regimen. 
•  A regimen doesn't have to be complicated, and should cover basics of hair care that are: washing the hair and keeping it balanced in terms of its water to protein ratio.
• How often you wash your hair depends on your weather conditions (e.g. hot weather weather that makes your scalp sweaty and oily requires more washes). Another factor is how active your lifestyle is (e.g. if you work out or have a physically demanding job you would require more washes to cleanse the hair and scalp). Lastly, consider your natural hair behaviour (e.g, do you naturally have oily hair that requires more frequent washes? Do you have dry flaky hair, dandruff etc, that may require less washes or more etc.
• When washing your hair, include pre-poos as these prevent your hair from being stripped of moisture. If you are lazy to prepoo then co-wash (conditioner wash instead of shampoo). However be careful not to be lazy allllll the time as shampooing hair helps remove product build up. 
• The balance between moisture and protein is important because protein is the building block of hair, and moisture is the 'life support' to the hair strands. Without enough protein the hair strands get damaged, leading to hair breakage. Moisture on the other hand is important as it keeps the hair strands 'alive' by giving them a glow and suppleness. Dry hair is essentially hair that lacks moisture, and also leads to breakage. 
• To attain soft hair you should ensure your hair is moisturised at all levels/layers.  What this means is moisture should reach the inside of your hair strands, i.e. cortex, but should also be on the outside of your hair, i.e. cuticle. The cortex is chemically designed by nature (your genes) to determine strength, texture and colour of your hair. So if you moisturise internally, you get moisture right to the core structure that is meant to determine your texture. In this case, if you have 4c hair like me, you can soften it by deep conditioning.
• Deep conditioning your hair should be part of your regimen as it moisturised hair from the inside. And deep conditioning has to be regular, e.g. once a week if you live in hot climates or once every 10 days if you live in less drying climates.
• Spritzing your hair (daily or every 2 days) with a water & oil mix should be part of your regimen as it moisturises hair from the outside layer, and therefore revives your hair's moisture.
• But before spritzing your hair to revive moisture, always ensure you've locked in the moisture from your deep conditioning by sealing with both a butter and oil, e.g. Shea butter and olive oil.
• If you consistently moisturise your hair, it will eventually get soft and manageable. The key is consistency. You can even find your curl pattern changing once your hair is fully hydrated, I find my hair looks a bit like 4b hair when it is hydrated. But when it is dry my 4c texture tightens even more and I end up with very crooked wirey hair. 
• Initially when I started my healthy hair journey, my 4c hair was not soft at all, it was super dry and hard to deal with. It took me 6 months of consistent deep conditioning and daily moisturising to attain soft hair.
• Great moisturising deep conditioners are the ones whose ingredients list aqua as the first ingredient, as that means they are water based. Essential/useful in the ingredient list are things like glycerine, aloe vera, jojoba oil, avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil, argan oil etc.
• Never comb your hair while it is dry as this won't only be painful but will also result in breakage and split ends. Use a wide tooth comb when combing the hair.
• Detangle your hair regularly as knotted and matted hair results in a tough texture that is difficult to manage.
• Don't give up, you'll soon discover short cuts that are still efficient. So put in the work until you understand your hair

Love - AfroMoriri

Instagram 1000 followers give away! Don't miss out....

We have reached 1000 followers on Instagram and would like to thank all our readers and followers for the support. Thanks as well, to you readers who diligently follow this blog and find the content useful.

In case you would like to stand a chance to win hair products worth R1000, in honor of the 1000 followers on Instagram, here are the rules, why not try your luck:
1. You must follow AfroMoriri on Instagram
2. Repost the give away photo on Instagram
3. Tag friends in the repost
4. Follow AfroMoriri on Facebook

The product hamper contains products that cater for all stages of your wash day, i.e. a sulfate free shampoo, a moisturising deep conditioner, a protein deep conditioner and a leave-in conditioner:
1.SheaMoisture shampoo
2. SheaMoisture deep treatment masque
3. Aphogee keratin treatment
4. African Pride Leave-in conditioner

Love - AfroMoriri

Who am I?

I just realised that my blog doesn't have much information on who I am. In case you would like to get to know me 'better', below is a synopsis of the lady behind the brand AfroMoriri. A cyber girlfriend (hopefully she becomes a real life friend) of mine who owns a blog called oliviazjournal.com interviewed me, so I found it worthwhile to share some of the answers I gave her with you; for the full interview feel free to visit her blog.

Introduce yourself.

I have a very unusual name – Daffodils, and usually get very interesting reactions to it whenever I introduce myself. Many times have I had people even say “no, your real name please, the one in your birth certificate”. I find it humorous and entertaining to have people doubt who you are due to their lack of knowledge or familiarity with certain words/names. My other name is Matlhogonolo and means blessings. The family I come from originates from Botswana and are of the Seele descent, so I am Tswana. My own family is in South Africa and resides in the city of Gold – Johannesburg.

When and Why did you return natural?

I first went ‘natural’ late 2009, but would do what we call a blow out (partially-relaxing) every 2 months.  That went on until 2011. In August on 2011 my hair literally fell off my head while I was removing braids. So I was compelled to shave off all my hair and start afresh. September 2011 marked the beginning of pure natural hair, however this was not a healthy hair journey I embarked on. All I did was braid my hair month after month, and the reason for that was I believed natural hair was hard to manage and the best way to deal with it was tucking it away. I didn’t want relaxers anymore because even when I had relaxed hair I spent 99% of the time in braids. The only time I took them off was when it was time to relax the hair, then a week later I would have new plaits done.  So I told myself I would go natural as I wasn’t wearing my hair out anyway. My healthy hair journey as a natural only started in May 2014 after I did extensive research on YouTube and Google.

 b) Do you find yourself making a “U-turn” sometimes later? (Back to relaxed hair 
etc) 

I doubt I will ever relax my hair bone straight but I do not rule out a healthier way of getting relaxed hair, i.e. texlaxing. To be honest I sometimes get tempted to relax my hair, usually this is in moments where I feel down about my hair, when I think it’s not progressing enough or when I feel lazy to put in the work for managing it. My ‘pick-me-up’ from these low moments is usually browsing through my photos. It always amazes me how much progress my hair has made by assessing photos, I get to appreciate progress in my hair line, hair thickness, volume, length, styling and overall health.

What does your “CROWN” (fro) mean to you? What story does your hair tell?

My crown reminds me that a woman’s hair is her glory. It reminds me to be confident and proud of the hair naturally given to me. It also reminds me that hair is not a measure ofwho I am and who I should be, but a reminder that it is part of my accessories of beauty. So I should enjoy its versatility and the freedom of expression it allows me. In a weird way, since going on a healthy natural path, my crown is like a little baby that I enjoy nourishing and nurturing. Yes I get odd moments of weakness like the one in the above comment but for majority of the time, I love and enjoy taking care of the jewel of my head.

What’s your hair routine & which products do you use?

My full regimen is available on my blog but a summary of what this entails is: a weekly wash, then a hydrating deep condition session followed by moisturizing & sealing in the moisture. Every fortnight I deep condition for protein replenishment. On a daily basis I spritz the hair with a mix of distilled water and extra virgin olive oil, castor oil and pure glycerine.  I don’t have staple products but generally use ORS, Shea Moisture and African Pride products.

What’s your biggest hair challenge and how do you deal with it?

Patience for finger detangling, in particular the detailed finger detangle I do once very 4 weeks or whenever my hair needs it. It generally takes me 4-5 hours and can be really laborious and boring. I try to watch tv series while doing it but please find me a miracle solution/product to never having tangled 4cHair. LOL!