I have been natural for about 16 months now.
The Transitions
I went completely bald in May of 2017 – for no special reason besides the fact that I was sick of having hair and thought bald would be a cute look, which it was.
I tried to first go natural in December of 2015 after an 8 month transition from texlaxed hair. I had been contemplating it for a while then. I coloured my texlaxed hair red, and it eventually started breaking, which pushed me to go natural and then began my transition.
The Cut Life (2016)
In 2016, I started getting tempted to get an undercut – which I did and loved. I started getting into the idea of cutting my hair more and more and ended up cutting more of my hair throughout the year. I figured it would hurt me to want to try out the cut life when I have retained more length – so better to get it done with then. I remember cutting it pretty low sometime in September, growing it out into a bob. I think I may have enjoyed being the short-haired girl during Miss Malawi a little too much.
Going Bald (2015)
After the pageant was done, I was tired of playing around with my hair and in a way also needed a change. That was the beginning of my natural hair journey.
The Natural Hair Journey (2017)
For the first four months of my natural journey, I had my hair braided up in Twists. I enjoyed having those twists a little too much. It got to a point I told myself If my hair got too tangled because of keeping them in too long< I would just cut my hair and start over. That is definitely not a risk I am willing to take now – more so the reason I fear getting braids now even when I really want to.
For the rest of my journey, I have rocked flat-twists which I find pretty low maintenance to me. I wear them in so many variations and I love them.
I never comb my hair, and I such am limited in my choice of styles. I choose to not comb my hair because I do not want to experience the pain that is associated with – and I am really comfortable with my messy fro look. I also do not want any breakage to occur in my hair. I have realised that I can keep my hair in a messy state for a week or two but still have a breeze detangling when my hair is pre-pooed.
I found out a few months ago I can pull my hair into a puff now and oh the joy! I love rocking afropuffs as a protective style when I am not in my flat-twists.
One Week Moisture Afro-puff (Washday) Routine
I have very tightly coiled, thick 4C hair. I love how big and crazy it gets sometimes. I am even more obsessed with the way my puff looks when I style it.
My biggest challenged was keeping my hair moisturised through the week as it was in my puff.
Here is a routine I use to keep my hair healthy, stretched and moisturised for a whole week.
Finger detangling and Twisting
I rarely even wash my hair untwisted.
I spritz some water on my hair and finger detangle. I then add my rinse-off conditioner mix and proceed to twist my hair into several twists.
Because my hair is short(er), I section my head into four parts, and proceed to twist in 9 sections on each of the four sections. I normally end up with about 36 twists allover my head.
I hope I can reduce these twists to 16 (4 in each section) in a few months. That will be very efficient for me.
Deep Condition
I let me pre-poo sit in those twists under a cap for about an hour or two. I normally just do 30 minutes if I am using heat (Which I rarely ever use).
Shampoo
I choose to shampoo my hair after deep conditioning to reduce product build up. I prefer my leave on conditioner to my rinse off, and try to make sure my hair in product-free when I apply my leave on mix.
I choose to shampoo my hair weekly because I live in an extremely dusty city and I just love to have my hair clean.
I shampoo with my Glycolemon anti-dandruff shampoo. It is pretty light, smells lovely and leaves my hair feeling very clean.
Detangling, Retwisting and Bantu Knotting
I keep my hair in the twisted sections, unravel one a time for detangling. I will unravel one, moisturise with my mix, retwist and tightly bantu knot it.
I do this for all the 36 twists.
I then wrap my hair in my satin scarf and sleep with my knots on. That is why I opt to have my washday on Friday nights as those are the nights I stay in (And I usually have events on Saturdays so I like my hair to be fresh for that).
Unravelling the knots and Twists.
If my hair was thoroughly detangled, this process is such a breeze! I use the Olive Oil (it’s not real oil – yikes) but it is truly the best. I had been looking for a nice thick oil that would not weigh my hair down. I was doing Tapiwa’s hair in Uni (who has very gorgeous hair by the way – and it’s her birthday today!!!!) when she came in with this hair oil. I loved the fact that it was clear but was rather anxious about its heavy non-oil texture.
It sure did surprise me when her hair was dry – how shiny and nicely coated the oil had left her hair. When I found it 2 years later, of course I got myself a bottle and I have never looked back.
I comb through each section as I unravel because my intention is to have a puff and not to maintain the knot curls. You can rock the curls, I just don’t do it. This is mostly because my hair is quite porous (awesome) but that also means that it easily attracts moisture from the sounding and denses up. I have nothing against my natural curls so hey.
I love the Bantu knot out method, because unlike normal twists, Bantu knots maintain the puffy look.
Otherwise that is how I wash my hair and get it ready for my puff to last me the entire week.
I threw this hair in a quick puff and hurried on to MC an event last saturday.
If you want me to post about what goes in my conditioner mixes, drop a comment down below and I will get to that!
All my love,
Ntha
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