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  • Our Inspiration for this week is the lovely Justmargie, we at GAHL just love your hair and we are so honored to be able to share your journey with our readers. Thank you :) 
    • Have you always been natural? If not what made you go natural?
    I had natural hair since I was a kid but relaxed it when I joined high school because relaxed hair was then easier to maintain in school. However, my fear was always going to the salon for the process of relaxing and I used to cry a lot because it felt like my hair was on fire!! After high school, I continued relaxing my hair twice a year and when I joined campus, I kept starting the transitioning journey but would always relapse. Finally, in 2013, I decided to chop of my hair completely and start a fresh. I didn’t like how my relaxed hair looked and I also saw it as a mark of a new beginning since around the same time, I had made very critical resolutions for myself. And that is how my natural hair journey began.
    • Your hair always looks so healthy, are you on a healthy hair journey? What inspired you to start one?
    One of the main reasons I cut my hair was because it was unhealthy. So healthy hair has always been my goal. Health over length anytime.

    • Do you have a hair routine? How easy was it getting into a regimen, knowing the right products etc?
    When I did the BC, I stuck to a very easy routine where I only washed my hair with conditioner, then a deep conditioned every week and I would apply a mixture of coconut oil, olive oil and castor oil every day. I kept it very simple and it worked. As my hair grew, I became open to adding more products into my regimen. The longer your hair grows, the more you must care for it. So, my washdays reduced to once a fortnight and I fell in love with Tres Semme products so I used them as shampoo and conditioner and they worked. Till today, they are the constant products (plus the three oils) in my regimen though I experiment occasionally with other products as well.
    • How do you fit hair care into your busy lifestyle?
    I have one free day in a week and that day has become my self-care day. On this day, I make time for my hair and prep it for the week.
    • Do you believe in such a thing as bad hair? Do you believe that African/ black women have good hair?
    There is no such thing as bad hair. I believe that when women understand their hair type they will understand their hair needs and that will lead to flourishing hair. All-natural hair, no matter the type, is beautiful.
    • What have you learnt about healthy hair care that you would love to share with African women, especially those who want to start a natural hair journey?
    The most important thing I would tell a new natural is that they should start by understanding their hair type. This will enable them find simple products that work for their hair. They should also keep it simple.
    • What goals do you have for your hair?
    I didn’t know how versatile natural hair is until I began this journey. So, I want to challenge myself to experiment new hairstyles every day with my natural hair.
    • Do you do your own hair? What is your favourite natural hairstyle and why?
    Yes, I do my own hair most of the times and my favourite style is twist outs because they are just simple to do.
    • Do you have a hair idol? Who and why?
    Hair idol? Not quite ;-)
    • Did you always believe that you could grow a huge Afro? What changed your mind?
    I didn’t know I would grow a huge afro. In fact, when I did the big chop, I was absolutely clueless on what the natural hair journey entailed and I did a lot of box braids instead. However, I have learnt something new every day and my boyfriend, who has been my big support system throughout, has always encouraged me to leave my natural hair open and flaunt it.
    • Is there a product you can’t live without?
    Water and Coconut oil
    • Do you think natural hair is expensive to keep?
    No; if you understand what your hair needs, then you will not be swayed to be a product junkie. You will only buy what you need.


    • Do you have hair goals?
     Yes, to have a head with big healthy afro (like we see on magazine covers).


    Follow just margie on Instagram @justmargie
    Blog Justmargie.com 











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    This post is long overdue since I actually have had my braids undone for about three weeks now. Thank you so much for your patience. Please click on the video to watch how I undo my braids.
    After unravelling the braids I rocked a wash and go for a week and then I decided to go back to stretching my hair so as to avoid knots and tangles.
    wash and go on natural type 4 hair

    Undoing braids correctly is a very important step if you are trying to grow your hair out because this is when the most damage occurs. In my latest YouTube video I share with you how I undo mine without causing unnecessary breakage.



    Bun on stretched natural hair
    Stretching my hair brought to my attention that I had actually suffered breakage from the braids. I am not exactly sure what caused the breakage but I can bet on two things. The first one is that the stylist detangled and blow dried my hair with a lot of heat, I probably lost a lot of hair during the blow drying and detangling session than I noticed. 


    The second thing that might have caused the breakage is the fact that braid extensions are too heavy for the hair. I literally weighed myself before taking down the braids and after and there was a difference of about 700g. That is a lot of weight on the hair strands and since the braids were in for 7 weeks it might have caused some breakage too. 

    I am not going to be braiding my hair anytime soon because my aim is to retain as much length as possible. My protecttive style of choice will be buns and two strand twists. 





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    Hi Gahl readers,

    We all have those so called bad hair days where our hair just does not seem to behave. For those days it is important to have one hairstyle that always works in case of bad hair days. I decided to share my emergency hairstyle with you and actually did a hair tutorial to show you how I achieve it too.
    The hairstyle is very easy and needs about five minutes to do and looks great! Here are the products you will need to achieve this look.

    1. An afro comb (optional)
    2. A styling cream or Gel check out my review on the enliven Gel.
    3. A hair tie
    4. Bobby pins (optional)
    5. A soft hair brush.

    Watch the video for details. And do not forget to comment, like and please subscribe. 



    Thanks for watching and stay blessed!

    Joanne.



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    I have wanted to blog for such a Long time but unfortunately I just could not find time to do so.
    In February I straightened my hair and was surprised at the length I had retained since starting my long term transition to natural hair. My hair shrinks up so much that my hair always looks very short but I love it all the same. I also love the versatility of natural hair. I have so many styling options and almost all of them look great. look at the hairstyles below the first one was just twists which I later decided to do bantu knots on. at first I thought it was a fail but I actually liked it a lot! The second one is a twist out which was done one wet hair.

    twist bantu knot out

     
    Twist out!
    Twist Out!
    
    I have a setback!!! My best go to hairstyle since I became fully natural has been the high puff. It is a great protective style for the ends but if overdone or done too tightly then the hair around the hairline begin to suffer because of the constant pulling. I had to learn this from experience. I would not say that my hairline is damaged but most of the hair especially on the sides is only a quarter of the length it used to be. So I am trying my best to do hairstyles that will not pull and damage my hairline. If you ladies have any suggestions I am all ears :)

    Thanks for reading and God bless you
    Joanne.
    

     
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    Happy Easter ladies!!! and the few gentlemen who check out our blog ;)
    Easter is a time when we remember that Jesus the son of God, who had no sin whatsoever became sin and took our place on that cross. He gave His life on that cross to make up for what went wrong in the garden of Eden and because of this great sacrifice we have been saved! the greatest gift ever for everyone who believes in Jesus as the son of God who was crucified, died and rose again on the third day and sits on the right hand of the Father. He gave us the right to become children of God! As if that was not enough He sent us His Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth and He lives in us! he is with us all the time! That is just amazing.


    Over the last couple of months I have been learning to depend on God and most of the time I have had to learn the hard way. I have been in situations where I urgently needed a shoulder to cry on or rather complain on, so naturally the first people I would run to would be my friends. But I have heard to learn that friends are only human you can put them on your speed dial but they are not always available. They have their own lives to live and their own issues and sometimes they just are not available! not because they don´t want to but because sometimes they just cannot be there for me. In moments like these I realized that I have another friend who is always there and only longs for me to bring everything to Him. A friend who has the perfect solutions to all issues I may have. Slowly but surely I have put God on my speed dial. I call upon Him anytime I feel like and that is just amazing because I find comfort in Him. He has become my best friend and I am looking forward to getting to know Him better everyday.  
    Take a moment to review your on speed dial, who do you run to first?
    God wants to be number one in every area of your life (Matt 6:33)

    Scripture Reference.
    John 16


    Thanks for reading and stay blessed.

    Joanne


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    On the 31st of January was 2 years since my last relaxer. In hair blogger language I am 24 months post relaxer!!! hurrah!!! it seems like only yesterday that I announced to you that I was transitioning to natural hair. If you missed on that you can read about it here My transition announcement 
    Two years down the line I am fully natural and loving it. I love my relaxed hair and I love my natural hair too. Contrary to many women who feel that going natural brought them a feeling of liberation, mine did not I am the exact same person I was when I was relaxed. To me Afro hair is beautiful no matter how you choose to wear it as long as you keep it healthy. Your hair your choice!
    My hair before washing and conditioning
    My hair blown out/ blow dried
    Hair blown out. I was so tired already but the hair looked good!!!

     
    I decided to straighten my hair just to see what it looked like straight and in the process I learned yet another lesson. While my hair was still relaxed it was much easier to get  straight. Natural hair needs a lot more time!! It took me a total of 5 hours to wash, condition, blow out/dry, flat iron and trim my hair I was so exhausted afterwards that I could not even take pictures. Too bad because my hair reverted a little bit during the night. My hair desperately needs a good trim but all in all I am very happy with it´s overall condition. I love the thickness and  have enough hair to play around with. I love having hair to play around with and that is why I settled for a long term transition instead of a big chop. I ended up chopping off the rest of my relaxed/ texlaxed ends at 17 Months post relaxer you can read about that here just in case you missed out on that Long term transition update!
    Flat ironed hair at 2 years post relaxer
     
    flat ironed hair at 2 years post relaxer
    The journey has had it´s ups and downs and I am really grateful to God for giving me the strength and patience to get to know my hair and learn to care for it. I am still learning though because this hair is just full of surprises. I have three different curl patterns on my head and I am still learning how to care for each because they behave very differently.
    I have finally found a hair care routine that works well for my hair. If you would like a blog post on my latest hair care routine, please comment below.   
    My goal for this year is to get to mid back length when my hair is stretched/ straight. This means that I will be on a very strict hair routine until I achieve my goal :)
    What is your goal length for this year? 

    Thanks for reading and God bless you!
    Joanne
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