Grow African Hair Long GAHL

Exactly 4 years and four months ago, I decided to stop straightening my hair using chemical relaxers. This was the best decision I ever made concerning my hair because it has never been this healthy.

During these four years I have learnt a lot about my hair and I would like to share these lessons with you.

Accept your hair as it is

After ending my transition it dawned on me that my hair just didn’t look like any of the YouTube gurus I had been following all through my transition. The texture just wasn’t the same and my hair shrunk like crazy. If you have recently gone natural or are currently transitioning to natural, chances are that your hair will look different than what you expect and special in its own way.

Less is more

The less I do with my hair, the more it thrives. Most of the hairstyles I do usually last a week and need very little if any manipulation at all. If you are a length chaser please keep this in mind.

Health over length

In as much as I love long hair, I prefer healthy hair more. Healthy hair looks attractive regardless of its length. It helps to get regular trims to keep the hair looking healthy.

Braiding is not for everyone.

Braids are a beautiful protective style, but the reality is that if you have a sensitive hairline like me. Braids are not for you!

There is no one size fits all.

At the beginning of my natural journey I used to co-wash my hair because that is what most naturals were doing. The truth is my hair hated it after co-washing its was as if I had done absolutely nothing and even styling was a problem afterwards. I opted to shampoo my hair with every wash-day. Even though there are natural hair rules that you have to follow, take time to listen to your hair and give it exactly what it wants.

Scalp oiling is not for everyone

I came to the realization that my scalp produces enough sebum. Sebum is the oil produced by your skin, have you ever shampooed your hair and rinsed it off only to find that your scalp still had some whitish looking residue? That is sebum and it is actually healthy for your hair if it is not completely washed off. If your scalp produces enough sebum then you don’t need to oil your scalp but if your scalp is naturally dry then light oils for your scalp will come in handy.

Check out my natural hair update video and please subscribe!

Thank you for reading ,

Love Joanne.

Happy 2017!!!
I had taken a break from blogging and now I am back with a detailed update of my healthy hair journey in 2016.

A hair journey can be a challenging task but just like any other journey in life, there is a fulfilment when goals are reached. However, most of us in healthy hair journeys focus so much on length retention that we actually forget to have fun with our hair and just enjoy it. So in 2016 I decided that I was still going to chase length but at the same time I was gong to have fun while at it. This was a good decision because in the process of trying out new things I ended up learning more about what my hair actually needs, what works for it and what doesn’t. Below are some of the hairstyles I tried out in 2016

My hair care routine for 2016 was also very simple and entailed:

Pre shampoo treatment (tropical coconut oil brand Alison)
Shampoo once a week (herbal essences hello hydration shampoo I recently incorporated African black soap to my routine).
Condition with a moisturizing conditioner once a week and a protein based (has hydrolyzed proteins) conditioner once a months (I am yet to settle on any particular brands). I do not use any deep conditioners.
Stretch hair using twists and bantu knots(Check tutorial on my YouTube channel)
Moisturize and seal with an oil or butter every other day.
Wear one hairstyle per week to reduce manipulation.
Always wear a scarf to bed.

When it comes to retaining length and maintaining the ends of my hair, protective styling comes in handy. If you are reading this and you have always thought that hair had to be braided or in a weave to be protected I hope to convince you otherwise. A protective hairstyle is any hairstyle that keeps your ends off your clothes and ideally hidden to avoid damage. Buns are a great way to protect your hair and still have access to it at all times. To protect my hairline I create a loose pompadour or loose mini buns at the front to reduce the pressure applied on my hairline.

braid out pompadour

braids are the most common protective hairstyle in Kenya and in Africa as a whole. They are also one of the main causes for hair damage and more so hairline damage. The last time I had braids done was about a year ago and I loved the braids. But unfortunately I suffered so much damage that I promised myself that I wont ever braid my hair again.

Mini twists are a life saver for those weeks when the last thing on my mind is my hair, they are not only versatile but also easy to wash and care for.

All buns and no afro makes me a dull girl so 2016 was also full of afros and some variation of the afro, remember my goal was to have fun but not damage my hair at the same time. to achieve this I made sure that these kinds of hairstyles would only last upto three days to avoid knots and tangles.

I like to stretch my hair out because my curls are so tight which makes tangling and knotting very easy and my go to ways of stretching is either blow drying on cool to medium air using the tension method or using bantu knots. Please check for the link below for a tutorial on this method.

Thank you for reading,

Joanne

YouTube tutorials I shared in 2016

Wash day: https://youtu.be/bqQdBgq4za0

Hair care routine: https://youtu.be/Uay8pPOqXu0

Stretching hair without heat: https://youtu.be/9IaryAJX_Xs

How to wash and care for braids: https://youtu.be/ZY3HXfHzfss

How to undo braids without breakage: https://youtu.be/2DFKD4BYoKM

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I ended my long-term transition to natural at 17 months post relaxer; this was back in June 2014. I would be lying if I said that it was a challenge to deal with my natural hair immediately because it was not. My biggest challenge was Knots and tangles! I had these bad guys literally everywhere! There were hundreds of them all over my hair and it was just frustrating. Seeing that this was an issue for me I shared a post explaining my ordeal with knots and you ladies were so awesome in giving me tips which really helped me to reduce those knots. With the tips I got as well as my own research and experiences I managed to reduce the knots by 90%.

1. Wash and go´s

Before going natural I always dreamt of wearing a wash and go and of course after going natural this was the first hairstyle I tried out and truly loved, however I came to realise that with this hairstyle my hair also developed countless knots. Due to the serious shrinkage that occurs as the hair dries up, kinky hair tends to curl up in itself and loop around itself causing knots.

I decided to avoid this hairstyle until recently when I discovered that a wash and go could be kept knot and tangle free by doing conditioner washes every other day and properly detangling the hair. The only problem with this is that the process is time consuming and because of this I will continue to avoid wash and go´s.

2. Split ends.

Stubborn knots should be cut with a pair of scissors and not pulled out or snapped at simply because this will lead to split ends. I had to learn this the hard way.

3. Detangling, moisturizing and sealing

Moisturized hair keeps the hair soft and manageable which makes it easier to detangle. Detangled hair is less like to knot.

4. Stretching natural hair.

Keeping natural hair stretched will keep knots away and will definitely help with length retention because you will not need to trim your hair often. There are several ways to get stretched hair which include, twisting, African threading, braid outs, all sorts of rod sets and blow drying. My technique of choice is twisting. After washing and conditioning my hair I keep my hair in twists and eventually moisturize, seal in the moisture with an oil then I proceed to finger detangle my hair carefully smoothing it out and stretching out the curls with my finger. If you would like a video tutorial on this technique please leave a comment below.

5. Sectioning hair.

I don’t always section my hair but I know that working in smaller sections make detangling much easier than working with a huge section at once.

6. Combing

Combing or finger detangling your hair from the roots towards the ends is a sure way of creating tangles and knots. Avoid this at all costs.

7. Protective styling and low manipulation

Protective styles that keep your hair stretched are a great way to avoid knots and tangles. Braids and cornrows are great for this but you need to make sure that they are done correctly and not too tight.

If you follow me on Instagram you have probably seen that my hair is in a protective hairstyle. I got box braids done at the Umoja market in Nairobi about a week and a half ago.

Umoja market is a market that mainly deals with hair. There are lots of stalls which only do hair and they are known for working very fast. If you have not been to this market or to Kenyatta market then you need one major pointer! Find a number of a stylist from someone who has been there before. This will spare you a lot of trouble because the ladies who do hair walk as far as the bus stop to try and convince potential customers to have their hair done at their stalls. It can be really annoying because those ladies don't leave one alone easily.
Before getting my braids I conditioned my hair with the Zoe white conditioner and applied coconut oil afterwards. A review on the Zoe white conditioner coming soon on the blog). I went to the salon to stretch out my hair and to me it looked stretched enough to braid. But when I got to the Salon the lady said it had to be straightened otherwise it would be too painful for me. I agreed to have it straightened. The lady who was assigned to blow out my hair picked up the blow dryer and was about to start blow drying my hair without even detangling it first! I was shocked! So I spoke up and told her that if she did that she would just break my hair.(I know we hair journey people are very sensitive when it comes to our hair.) she seemed like she really had no idea what to do with my hair . She went on ahead and got her boss who took her time to detangle my hair in sections and then blow out my hair. Her boss complimented my hair a lot and asked me to go back sometime for a straw set. She also wanted to know how I managed my natural hair without plaiting or braiding. Up to that point my hair has not been braided in more than one year.

I talked hair with the stylist until she was done blow drying to distract myself from all that heat going into my hair! I honestly even prayed against heat damage I believe that I can ask God for everything
After that torture it was time to get braided up. I am quite conservative and never really want to experiment with colours but when the stylist suggested I try the hair colour 1B/30 I was a bit sceptical but gave in. For me it was also important to get the lightest braids they had and in this case it was the xpression braids. I don't regret that decision because they are very light. Abuja hair which I used a year ago felt noticeably heavier on my head. Remember that synthetic hair is much heavier than our own hair, getting light synthetic hair will reduce unnecessary breakage.
I mentioned earlier on that the braiders at Umoja one market are very fast, this is because the braids are fixed by about three people at the same time and you might have about two people finish up the fixed braids. This is very fast but for someone who has their hair braided once a year it is painful because the scalp is more sensitive to stress.
The ladies did a great job though. I asked for medium sized braids and got exactly that. The hair they parted to do the braids was also proportional to the size of the braid which means that it can't be too heavy for my hair and end up pulling out my hair. It is so annoying when the braid weighs much more than the parted hair because it causes breakage.

I also realized that it was a good idea to have the hair straight prior to braiding because my hair blended in perfectly with the braiding hair. There were and still aren't any hairs sticking out. My only question is what it will look like after my first wash. If you have experience with braids and natural hair please comment below.
Within two hours the braids were done! One of the ladies took some thread and tied all the hair into a ponytail. This was so painful! As if that was not enough she had to put the hair into hot water which made it a thousand times heavier than normal and this made the pain unbearable. I tried to control myself but I couldn't so I undid the thread and let the hair loose. I decided to let the hair fall in the same direction they were braided and this really eased the pain. Making the braids fall into the opposite direction as the one they were done in to start with can cause too much stress on the hair follicles and pull them out prematurely causing bald spots in extreme cases.
As long as there is discomfort while lifting up braids while styling, leave the braids alone let them fall in their natural direction until the hair grows out a little bit and the braids become looser.
It is now almost two weeks with these braids and I still have them in their natural direction but as soon as they become looser I will experiment more with braid hairstyles (looking forward to this J
I know this post is long but I hope it has been informative to you. If you have any tips for braids please share below.

Thanks for reading & stay blessed!
Joanne

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