I’ve been getting into african print clothing. More and more I see stylish and modern pieces with african prints and tie and dyed material. Not so much in Harare but outside of Zimbabwe, especially in South Africa where you’ll find large groups of people from all over Africa. So I looked for few pics from Tumblr:
And am not sure if this one’s African material, but I just couldn’t resist:
Source of all pics: Tumblr
Henna for me was a game changer.
I have known about henna as a dye used to decorate skin from my school days. I would see my Indian school mates coming to school with the pretty henna tattoos and I would excitedly get my own hands done. I remember vaguely too that they used it to dye their hair naturally.
Women with henna tattoos on their hands
Source: Tumblr
So when I, with my extremely damaged head of fine flyaway hair, heard about henna being a great hair treatment for damaged and fine hair, I quickly jumped on the bandwagon. I immediately went and bought a hair dye that had the word henna on it, but it was ‘black henna’ from the Indian grocer since I didn’t really want to have red hair at the time. I went home and mixed it, looked at it and thankfully felt uneasy enough to go research more.
Firstly, any henna that is not a brownish/greenish powder and when mixed is not a greenish/brownish colour, is not natural henna. Whatever it is, might actually cause you more harm than good because it is just a hair dye not henna. Plus the chemicals in those ‘henna dyes’ might be dangerous.
To apply it on the hair; Henna powder is mixed with water and then applied on the hair (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Second, to do any treatment on your hair, especially henna, make sure you do your RESEARCH! When doing a henna treatment, one needs to be fully informed on the process.
So back to my story, I researched more. I got the Henna for Hair book by Catherine Cartwright-Jones (it’s online for free) and I read blog articles on the process. I made sure I was aware of the pros and cons. I was a little worried about the red dye effect, the messy process of applying it and the possibility of losing my curl pattern. Nonetheless I took the plunge. I started off intensely, by doing full henna treatments every week for four weeks, then once a month for about 6 months, now I do full treatments about every 3 months. I do a henna gloss when needed (I’ll explain all these terms in my next post).
Immediately after my first treatment, although I didn’t see a difference, no red colour and no change in my curls, praise God, my hair stopped breaking immediately. After about four applications, my hair indoors was a shiny dark black and under certain lights, had a red gloss to it, like highlights. I absolutely loved it. Even to this day, my curl pattern hasn’t changed, my hair is stronger, is shiny and best of all my strands are thicker.
The best thing about the henna treatments is that all the ingredients are natural and therefore very cheap.
I will explain my henna gloss and full henna treatments in the Part 2.
I believe I have figured out why my hair was acting out.
Although, it seems to be true that my hair porosity has changed from being very porous to normal/low porosity, my hair was dry because my hair had too much protein and also with the change in weather here. I wasn’t getting my balance right. From my last wash, I had used a protein treatment then a moisturising deep conditioner, which I discovered a few days ago when I looked through the ingredients, has some protein too. My leave in conditioner that I used that day, also had some protein. On top of that I was using a 50% aloe vera spritz and since aloe vera mimics proteins, you guessed it, my hair had way too much protein.
So to remedy this, I washed my hair with conditioner, having done a hot oil treatment before to open my hair cuticles more. I conditioned my hair with same deep conditioner (which has some protein, but it’s the only source of protein I used this time), then used oil to seal my strands without any leave in conditioner. My hair is already showing signs of happiness. I will continue spritzing my hair with my aloe vera juice mix though, but I will use 10% of it, with water and oil and no glycerine.
Hopefully, this will be a non-issue soon.
So it’s been an interesting past few weeks for me and my hair.
This natural hair journey, in all honesty, is not the easiest and trying to treat my hair like silk with loving patience at times, can be the last thing on my mind. The journey has it’s ups and downs and at times, I just feel like throwing my hands up and saying ‘ain’t nobody got time for that!’
It’s times like these when I KNOW I’m due to put my hair in a long term protective style like box braids or a twists for a few weeks.
My hair is usually in some state of protection about 95% of the time, when I have my hair out it’s usually in a puff.
My little hair puff
For work, I try to figure out a way to keep my hair neat and the ends tucked away with plaits. Most of the time though, I use half wigs. I don’t weave my hair anymore, because no matter how it’s done or cared for, my fine strands just cannot take it. Wigs are neat, I don’t have to wear them all the time and I have complete access to my hair. Plus my hair seems to loooove them and really thrives. I’m yet to find some natural hair looking wigs that I like though in Harare though, but the search continues.
I started using a spritz a few weeks ago which consisted of about 50% aloe vera juice, 10% glycerine and the rest water, with a few drops of olive oil. At first my hair didn’t really take to it, it felt brittle and dry. I then tried it again and my hair felt moisturised, my coily pattern was more pronounced and my hair was less frizzy. After weeks of happily using it, this week, my hair changed it’s mind. How is it that my hair just starts reacting differently to a product without any external changes?
Spotted forms of Aloe vera are sometimes known as Aloe vera var. chinensis. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Well with some research, some coilies/curlies don’t react well to aloe vera, especially girls with low porosity hair. When I began my journey, I had highly porous hair. Now I’m asking the question of whether my hair porosity has changed and now has a normal or even low porosity. Well considering I have used henna treatments, it’s highly likely.
Hair porosity refers to how easily hair absorbs moisture. This depends on how the cutilcle layers on the hair shaft rests. If they are raised, the hair is highly porous and moisture passes in and out easily. If they are compact and tightly overlapping, the hair has low porosity. This hair type repels moisture, and to get moisture the cuticles have to be raised. Normal porosity is ideal where some moisture is absorbed and retained.
My hair has also previously reacted badly to glycerine when it was dry outside. It’s Fall/Winter here, so the air has become very dry. Since glycerine is a humectant and draws moisture, when it’s cold and dry here, it draws moisture out of the hair strands into the dry surrounding air, making hair dry and brittle. So it could have been the glycerine in the spritz.
So I just began using a spritz with no glycerine, less aloe vera juice and more water and olive oil. So far, my hair is showing very little change, but will check again after a wash.
I’ll report back on results.
And, look forward to more posts on hair porosity.
Truthfully, seeing these pics of Beyonce with her long box braids gets me excited to get box braids again. Last time my braids were quite long at waist length as seen below:
My high bun
My box braids a few months back
I am tempted though… Long braids are so pretty.
Just a thought…
Source: Tumblr
Again, just a thought…
Source: Tumblr
Source: Tumblr
Source: Tumblr
Or I could get twists…
Source: Tumblr
Source of pics: the author; Daily Mail UK; Tumblr
I have been feeling a little frustrated with my hair. It’s moodiness, products not working that used to, it changing (honestly does hair porosity change, because mine seems to) and just feeling a little impatient with my hair growth. I will definately post more on that and what I discover soon. To keep myself motivated and positive though, I decided to find some ladies with extraordinarily beautiful long hair that have been natural for ages. So let’s begin the fun:
American hairoine Cipriana who if I remember well is currently at waist length
Chime Edwards
Chime Edwards
Stunning. Absolutely. I can only dream for now…
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