Curl confessions

Posted in hair practices by Jen

Hi there!

I’ve been seeing people air all their hair’s dirty laundry on various blogs under the tag “Curl Confessions” and I decided to also let the breeze blow this fowl’s butt.

Without further ado, here are a few of my “dirty little secrets”:

1. It seems like I am constantly in a war with dandruff. Sometimes I win the battle for a while but in the long run dandruff runs this war.

2. I haven’t done a protein treatment in ages. I honestly can’t be bothered.

3. I have soooo many single strand knots!!!! They drive me so crazy!

4. I break off the aforementioned knots with my hands. I just yank at them.

5. I’m forever playing with the hair at my edges and nape. This is a horrible habit that I believe is the major reason for my having much shorter hair in those areas.

6. I have hand-in-hair syndrome. Nos 3,4 and 5 must have given you a clue.

7. I am very heavy handed with products especially conditioner. As a member of team cheapskate, this is bad for business as I’m always running out of stuff.

8. I have moments when I think about relaxing my hair.

9. I’m forever obsessing about my hair growing; stretching it this way and that way to see if it has grown in the last 5 minutes, daydreaming about all the styles I’ll do when it’s loooonnngg.

10. Given the funds, opportunity and funds(yes I said funds twice), I would be the Product Junkie of life! Like I would probably go gaga and need rehab.

11. Many times I can’t even be bothered to be gentle cos I don’t have the time or patience. I will pull my hair, comb/detangle aggressively, comb my hair dry etc.

12. I’ve only ever had leave in conditioner twice(although I just invested in some now cos I’m trying to change). Usually I just seal my damp hair with oil or use my regular rinse-out conditioner as a leave in and call it a day.

13. I usually forget to wash my satin bonnet often. The next one I buy has to be white or a light colour so I can see when it’s dirty and be shamed into washing it.

I’ll stop here cos right now I can’t think of any more. Remember God said we should not judge oh!

Do you do any of the things I’ve listed? Do you do worse? Or are you a saint in the hair department? Let us know in the comment section.

In other news, the blog has an email address now. I’ve added it to the “About” page but here it is nigerianandnatural@gmail.com

Feel free to email me.

Xoxo

7Mar2014

Ain’t you glad it’s Friday

Posted in hair update, styling by Jen

Yeah, I’m not so good with titles so forgive me.
Hey y’all!
I just wanted to drop by and say hi! It’s Friday so I’m in high spirits.

My hair’s been in puffs most days(remember I said they would be my go to style? I wasn’t kidding).
By the 18th of this month, my hair would be 8 months old!!! 4 more months and we’ll be at a year old. Wow.

Anyways, I’m not going to bore you with words today; here are some pictures of how my hair’s been recently for your viewing pleasure.

Puffs, puffs, puffs and more puffs.

I tried mini twists but I took them out after 2 days and I never wore them out of my house.

Notice the colour on the side of my head? More on that later

Shrinkage why??!!!!!

Talk to y’all later,
Peace!

1Mar2014

We made a wig!

Posted in hairxperiment, protective styling by Jen

Hello beautiful people, welcome to March!

So this post is looong overdue considering my sister and I made this in November or so.

I’d recently read two tutorials on making wigs (this one and this one ) and I’d also watched a Youtube video about it(can’t find the link) so the idea of making one had been lingering in my head. I love a good DIY(~~#TeamCheapskate~~ #TeamAdventurous) and my sister is ever ready to join in so we thought why not make a fringe wig?

The process wasn’t properly documented but please bear with me and the pictures I managed to get.

Tools needed
-A wig cap (I got a pack of 2 for N100 from some hair shop in my neighborhood)

-Your weave of choice (I used a mixture of old weaves I had: Passion,Supreme and some Peruvian I believe)

-A plastic/nylon bag

-Bonding glue (Got a bottle for N300 from the store where I got the wig cap)

-Scissors and(or) a razor blade

-A wig stand/doll or a person to make the wig on (I used my sister since I didn’t have a stand/doll)

What to do

The first step is to put a nylon/plastic bag over the wig stand/doll or person’s head. Trust me, the glue can and will seep through the wig cap so you don’t want a wig that you can’t take off the stand or person’s head after making it.

(Our weave)

(The bonding glue)

(wig cap)

Then put the wig cap over that

So that done, starting from the back, first use the weave to measure the place you’re going to stick it to and snip off any excess. Proceed to put bonding glue on the track of your weave.Then stick it on

(It should look something like this. Stick it on from one end of the neck to the other)

Keep sticking it on this way until up you get to the top of the ears.
From there on, you’re going to stick it on around the circumference of the head or in a circular pattern so it falls over the face(I didn’t take a picture of this but here’s a picture from The Fashion Engineer)

So keep doing this until you have a small circle left to fill

Now what you’re going to do is to take a strip of weave and put glue on the track and roll it up tight(Again, no picture was taken so here’s one from Love Ifeyinwa)

Then put some glue in the circle left to fill and stick the rolled up strip in there.

I proceeded to press down that place with a hot straightener(I used a semi-hot iron too. Don’t judge me). Please don’t do this part if the weave you used is synthetic; it will burn.

Now you can cut the fringe however you like.

Funnily enough, I have never worn this wig out of my house. Maybe it’s because I feel there is something disconcerting about wigs; I feel like I could be walking on the road and a strong wind will take it right off my head.

Wigs are great protective styles. You can cornrow your hair under them and take them off at night so your hair can breathe. They give you full license to take care of your real hair without struggle as opposed to sew ins.

So, if you’re into DIYs or you just need a new inexpensive wig or you just want to try your hand at something new, give this a shot.

Jen out!

6Jan2014

My week of styling and stretched hair

Posted in styling by Jen

Happy new year!!!!!! *insert fireworks*
May this year be your best year yet; may it be filled with love, joy, peace, progress, success, laughter and prosperity every day! We pray for longer,healthier hair this year, amen!!

So on to the hair talk. I took out my weave on Wed(Jan 1st) and for the first time since I’ve been getting weaves, there was little or no dandruff in my hair or on the weave tracks! *shakes bottom*
I’d like to believe that keeping my hair and scalp moisturized + cleaning with apple cider vinegar resulted in my dandruff free hair. And my hair was so moisturized and soft after I took out the cornrows under the weave albeit a little grimy in some places.

So I decided I wanted to try something new and keep my hair stretched and styled all week long. I also wanted to avoid combing as much as possible. So here’s the week in pictures:

And then on Friday I was too late to take out my flat twists so I hastily threw on a head wrap. Everyone at work had a comment about it! From “South African woman” to “mama” to “Fulani girl” etc etc

products used
-Cantu creamy hair lotion(as a leave in/moisturizer)- N2900 at Casa Bella, Ikeja city mall
-Taliah Waajid curly curl cream(to twist)- N2890 at Casa Bella, Ikeja city mall
-Castor oil (to oil scalp)
-Shea butter mix(to seal in moisture)-contains Shea butter, olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, glycerin and peppermint oil

Till next time,
Xoxo(Yes I LOVED Gossip Girl)

18Aug2013

NYSC camp and a 2nd big chop

Posted in big chop by Jen

Hello world!!! It’s been a minute!
So I was at the NYSC camp from June 25th to July 16th 😥 People are not joking when they say that camp is hard! In the first week, I was feeling so rundown and sick from all the marching and waking up at 3am. It wasn’t so bad though in the end; I met some cool people and I had a bit of fun.

This is how I usually wore my hair at camp. I was in love with that black hair band

Hair care at camp wasn’t hard because I had a Teeny Weeny Afro(TWA) which is somewhat easy to maintain. I went to camp with castor oil and olive oil in tiny bottles, my spray bottle, a bottle of Giovanni conditioner, a cotton T-shirt to dry my hair, shea butter in a small container and my wide tooth comb. Usually, I’d spray my hair with my water,olive oil and conditioner mixture, comb it, put my black hair band on and be out the door before the female soldiers came to chase us out. Then on Sundays, I’d cowash with my Giovanni conditioner and put some castor oil, olive oil and sheabutter in my damp hair and let it air dry. Pretty easy! Once, I was rushing and I combed my hair dry without spraying it. And I didn’t even comb gently because I was in such a hurry. The headache I got was out of this world. I got a lot of comments in camp about my hair. A number of people thought it looked good on me, some thought I looked like Pokello from Big Brother Africa(my room mates actually called me Pokello instead of Jennifer and I had to answer), many asked me why I cut it, a man I’d never met before told me “why did you cut your hair? you look somehow”(imagine that).

So I got back from camp and decided I wanted a cute fade; I wanted my hair a bit shorter at the sides so it could grow out that way. Cos I had seen this natural haired girl in the picture below on Instagram and I had fallen in love with her hair

So on July 17th I headed to the barber shop armed with pictures of girls with the fade haircut that I had saved off Google but the barber was nowhere to be found. I went back on July 18th and after waiting for 30mins, mr barber finally showed up and I showed him the pictures and told him not to cut the middle part at all, just the sides and a bit a the back like the pictures. He said okay and I said. “Don’t make me look like a boy oh” and he began cutting. The thing about me is that I don’t know how to complain about bad services rendered to me so I just sit there and let you do whatever you want. So mr Barber was chopping and chopping and chopping and I was just there quiet, transfixed. In my head I was screaming “nooooooo! Stooooop!” but my lips stayed glued together. The barber kept muttering “so soft” as he was cutting my hair and finally he asked “what hair cream do you use”. So maybe the softness put him in a trance so he just kept cutting and cutting, lol. I left the barber shop with short hair and no fade but I made up my mind to rock that hair so hard that all the girls that saw me would want to shave their heads. LOL

This is what my hair looked like after the barber dealt with it

But in the end, it’s hair and it will grow and it has grown. Yay! It’s still not as long as it was before the barber got his hands on it but it has grown quite a bit. I’m however battling dandruff; that didn’t end when I did the big chop so I’m going to try different remedies as seen on Google and see what works. I’ve tried Apple Cider Vinegar(ACV) with no improvement or maybe I didn’t do it right. We’ll see anyways. (Do share your remedies with me if you have any)

This is what it looks like now

This is what it looks like stretched out(isn’t shrinkage a female dog?)

So till the next post, I bid you all peace and love and all things good.

15Jun2013

Big chop

Posted in big chop by Jen

Dear world, I’m glad to announce that I’ve done the big chop! *moonwalks across your screen*. I did it at home, by myself(no one wanted to help just in case I regretted it and blamed them or just because they didn’t support my cutting my hair). I sat in front of the mirror and cut in sections. I used my spray bottle filled with water,a bit of olive oil and a bit of Giovanni smooth as silk conditioner to spray my hair so I could tell the natural hair from the relaxed ends.

My spray bottle(I’m a cheapskate so I just used an old body splash bottle that I washed thoroughly but if u want to buy a spray bottle, you can get at Sizzelle,The Kinky Apothecary or The Hair City)

For the back parts I couldn’t see in the mirror, I just felt the hair with my fingers and cut where the relaxed hair started(didn’t spray since I couldn’t see the hair).

Before I started cutting

Almost done

My hair!

I found out that it’s advisable to use hair shears instead of regular scissors because regular scissors can cause damage and split ends but I threw caution to the wind and used regular scissors that I got for N60 at a shop that sells tailoring supplies in my neighborhood. If you don’t want to use plain scissors, you can get hair shears for around N1400 and above at Sizzelle, a Nigerian online store that sells natural hair stuff.
After I was done cutting, I rinsed my hair for about 2 minutes with just water then I put a mixture of about 2 tablespoons of my Giovanni conditioner,1 teaspoon of olive oil and 2 teaspoons of honey in my hair to deep condition it. I didn’t have a plastic/shower cap so I just put one of those small black nylon bags that most traders/shops put what you buy in for you, over my hair and tied 3 or 4 scarves over that to generate as much heat as possible. I went about my business(watching TV. Lol) and then rinsed it out about 3 hours later and put some more Giovanni conditioner in my hair,combed through with my wide-toothed comb and rinsed it out. I patted my hair with an old cotton T-shirt(it’s better to use this instead of a towel because a towel can cause breakage. It’s also better to pat and not rub). I didn’t totally dry it, I left it somewhat damp. I then put some more Giovanni in as a leave in, followed by a mix of castor oil and olive oil and then some Shea butter. By this time I’d noticed that my hair wasn’t very evenly cut so I had my aunt trim around a bit. And voila! My end result

I think I look pretty good. I love it. Still getting used to it but I think it’s not bad at all. I got loads and loads of compliments and a few natural haired girls “welcomed me to the club” lol. As you would expect, I also got some why’s and I-don’t-like-it’s.

This is how I usually wore my hair before- braids and weaves but I left it alone most of the time in just a ponytail.

In case you’re wondering why I decided to take the plunge and go natural, my reason is really not that deep. I didn’t want to “stop using the creamy crack” or have healthier hair(well, I kinda did but that wasn’t my main reason) or whatever deep reason there is out there to go natural. I simply wanted a different look and a fresh start(sound weird? Lol).
So, this is newly natural me signing out! Until my next post!

13Jun2013

The Big Chop is tomorrow!

Posted in big chop, products by Jen

So my big chop is tomorrow! *happy dancing* I’m so excited! It’s the kind of excitement that gives you a funny feeling in your belly because it’s mixed with little doses of fear,anticipation,doubt and anxiety. So 5 minutes ago, literally, I decided to snip a small part of my hair to kind of prepare my mind a little bit plus I wanted to get a picture of what my length would be like.

(Ignore how messy my hair looks). My sister was looking at me like I was crazy! LOL!

In the time since my last post, I’ve been trying to find as much info as I can get on everything natural hair related from hair porosity(how well your hair absorbs and maintains moisture) to recommended products to hair care regimens.
From my research, I found so many product dos and don’ts and so many rules; even the rules have rules under them(LOL). Some examples of the rules I found are:
-don’t use shampoos with sulfates(they dry out your hair and are harsh. Find more info on sulfate in shampoos here)
-don’t use conditioners and other products with silicones(usually things in the ingredient section that end with -cone, -xane and -conol) but you can use products with water soluble silicones because they will be washed away when you wash your hair.(To find out more about silicones, check here)
-if you use conditioners with silicones(not water soluble) you have to use a shampoo with sulfate to get the silicones out of your hair if not you will have build-up(basically the silicones will coat your hair and scalp and create build-up making your hair dull and drab) but you might be able to get rid of the build-up using baking soda or apple cider vinegar.
-don’t use products with mineral oil, petroleum jelly and paraben.
-wear a silk/satin scarf/bonnet to bed or sleep on a silk/satin pillowcase because cotton can cause damage to your hair and suck out moisture.
-don’t comb your hair when it’s dry. Comb it when it’s wet and apply your products when it’s wet as well.
-always use an oil or(and) a butter to seal in moisture.

These are just a few of the numerous rules you will find. It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to follow every single natural hair rule you see because there are some conflicting rules, there are too many rules and we don’t all have the same kind of hair and what works for one person may not work for another. So what I’ve decided to do is to try as much as possible to follow the basic rules that are more common or that almost everyone follows as I try to find out what my hair likes and build my own regimen.

The major problem for me so far has been choosing products to use and where to find said products in Nigeria.
So far, these are the products I’ve gotten:

1) olive oil

With Olive oil, you need to get Cold pressed extra virgin olive oil to get the best results out of it. This brand, Goya, is widely available in almost all grocery stores and supermarkets in Nigeria. There’s always a bottle, if not more, of this at my house because we use it in church and I use it to cook(I’ve been on a weight loss journey and it’s one of the healthiest oil options). This brand comes in small, medium and large. This is the medium bottle and I got it for N500 at a small store in my neighborhood. I will be using this(mixed with castor oil) as my oil to seal in moisture, mixing it with some water to spray my hair when it needs a pick-me-up, mixing it with other things to deep condition my hair etc. There are so many uses for this so it wouldn’t hurt to get a bottle.

2)Castor oil

With castor oil as well, you need to get cold pressed/cold drawn. You can get this at almost any supermarket or pharmacy(because it is usually administered orally for constipation) in Nigeria. I got this for N450 at a pharmacy. Castor oil is great for sealing in moisture, can be used in a deep conditioning mix etc. It is also rumored to make hair grow, it reduces breakage and it makes hair stronger. It’s a thick oil so it’s highly advisable to mix it with other oils so it doesn’t weigh down your hair. I washed an old relaxer activator bottle and filled it with a mixture of castor and olive oil(1 part castor to 2 parts olive).

3)Shea butter(locally known as Ori)

This is one of the greatest blessings God gave us in this part of the world as far as I’m concerned. It’s very cheap and available locally. You should choose the unrefined kind. You can get it in markets and if you don’t, some salons sell it as well(if you don’t find it, you can always ask around or ask the market sellers or the salon workers where you can get it). You can use this as your butter to seal in moisture, soften your hair etc. You can use it alone or you can mix it with oils. It’s great for your hair and if it doesn’t work for your hair, you can always put it in your body lotion or use it as a lip balm.
From the picture above, you can see that the ones I have aren’t the same colour. I’m used to the colour on the left so when I bought the one on the right and saw the colour, I was worried because it looked odd to me. I asked around and the general consensus was that nothing was wrong with it(my mum even said the regular one has that colour because it’s bleached so the one on the right is the unbleached version. My friend said maybe they mixed something in with the one on the right). Anyways, I decided to stop fretting and I just mixed the one on the right with some of the one on the left. When I bought them, they were in nylon bags so I transferred them into these cream containers that I’ve washed and decided to repurpose. I don’t remember how much the one on the left cost(I’m guessing about N100) but the one on the right was N100(this is about half of it because I shared it with my brothers so I would say what’s in the container is actually like N50’s worth of Shea butter).

4) Giovanni smooth as silk deeper moisture conditioner

I read several reviews about this online and it seemed to rank high in the natural community. It’s silicone free and free of many other chemicals. I really like it. I’ve used it once to cowash my hair(cowasing or conditioner washing is washing your hair with conditioner only; no shampoo) and I’ve also been using it as a leave in conditioner(haven’t gotten a leave in yet and I read several reviews of people using it as a leave in and loving it). I also mixed a very small amount of it in a spray bottle with water and olive oil to spray my hair with whenever it needs a little more moisture or a pick-me-up as I said earlier. A little of it goes a long way(which is great because it’s kind of pricey) and it makes my hair soft and easy to detangle. It’s not so common in Nigeria. I got this at Casa Bella in Ikeja City Mall, Alausa for N3010. It is also available at Casa Bella in The Palms,Lekki, Casa Bella in Shoprite, Surulere and Casa Bella in Shoprite(Grand towers), Apo in Abuja. You can also buy it at this Nigerian natural hair store: The Kinky Apothecary

Casa Bella also carries many natural haircare products as well so you should definitely check them out. This is a picture of the numbers on my receipt in case you want to call them for enquiries

I also bought a wide toothed comb and a few hair accessories from a store in my neighborhood. I’m ordering shampoo and hair gel and I will keep you posted when I get them and anything else.

Tomorrow is the big day!!! *dances into the sunset*