YOUR HAIRLINE, YOUR RESPONSIBILITY

Compare Nigerian hair in the 60's with the unhealthy fluff that we see as normal today

If you spend one week in a salon in Nigeria, the number of women with hair and scalp related problems will surprise you. As Nigerians, we rather assign responsibility for a lot of things to other people than learn how to do it ourselves. When I speak to ladies with hair problems like traction alopecia, there is always a story of how the stylist used too much of this or added that other product wrongly. "He or she pulled my hair tightly" or "I was advised to plait my tender scalp so the hair can grow".
While I feel very sorry for them, my response usually is "are you not aware that there is no legislation covering hair care in Nigeria?" We all know that  most of us stylists learned by observing people who might not have  known better themselves. The rate of women with unhealthy hair on the streets can testify to that. So it is for this reason that I advise Nigerian ladies to know their hair first before trusting some else with it. That way, you can guide anyone styling your hair to do what works best for you.

A FEW TIPS TO KEEP AWAY "IYA IYABO" (no hairline)

 Braids, twists and weave-on's are usually the styles of choice for most of us. Not only do they help us save time and money on daily styling ,they also help keep our hair from breaking and/or entangling as a result of over manipulation. While this is a good thing, it can be also be harmful to the hair at our edges. When braids are done too tightly, they can cause damage to your hair follicles leaving you bald in one spot (marginal alopecia) or all through your hair line for the rest of your life. Here are a few tips to remember:

My hair loose chunky twists

1. As the stylist braids your hair, press down the beginning of the braid with your finger to reduce the amount of pressure to your hairline.
2. Avoid plaiting the same style over and over again. If you take down a style like ghana braids, leave your scalp to rest for about 2-3 weeks and then do a different style. As for me, I like to do chunky, loose twists after taking down styles like Ghana-braids or havana twists. 
3. If after braiding or twisting your hair you feel unbearable pain, take down the style. A lot of us think about the money spent but trust me, that amount isn't worth getting bald for.



Notice the sores?

4. The moment you notice little bumps around your hair line with  pus coming out, please loosen your hair immediately and see a specialist. And if you think that it is just hair and should not be taken that seriously, note that sores (like the one in the picture) have been known to cause infections. Where hairlines are concerned, safety should come before beauty.

3 Months of Hair Freedom

For some of us 'free-fro-care' hours are a luxury. Type 4 hair is beautiful but as it gets longer, so does the time and effort to keep it healthy increase. See below for a brief description of what my regimen can be like...

Day 1 (Prepoo): Apply oil and put on a plastic cap, tie a head wrap and dash out of the house. Return home, wash hair, deep condition and braid. 

Day 2 : Hair is still damp so I  apply leave in conditioner, detangle, seal and braid or thread.

Day 3: Hair is dry so I loosen the thread or braids and style.

Too much? I know, but wetin man go do? *sighs.

Tired, I thought of ways that one could reduce the amount of time and money spent on our hair every week without getting bald and the solution?....

PROTECTIVE STYLING!

Want a break from your tight curls? Then get a protective style. With the right style and techniques you can expect length retention without doing much. 

But before running to the market square, I came up with a short list of tests that my protective style/regimen must pass for it to be worth sharing with others.

1.Time spent on daily styling must not exceed 10 miutes

2 month old twists

2.Wash day must not be a 12 hour event
3.Because a healthy scalp will produce healthy hair, the scalp must be accessible,and
4.Hair must be healthy after take down-with a reasonable amount of shedding of course

If any of this points gets a zero...as in if I so much as suffer from a dry and scaly scalp during this time, the trial would get a big red X 

BEFORE STYLING

Hair was washed, deep conditioned, sealed and stretched, ready for styling.

AFTER STYLING

The first week was relatively easy. All I had to do was tie the twists at the back of my hair in a big knot during the day and tie a satin scarf at night. The good thing about this easy every day style was that I could control how much tension the twisted extensions put on my hair line and it took me seconds to tie the twists up.

Weekly maintenance: By the third week, I needed to moisturise my hair so I used that opportunity to wash it and clean my scalp (using NN black soap). When it got a bit dry, I applied castor oil to the roots and sprayed on the hair a mixture of Natural Nigerian leave in conditioner, water, and coconut oil.

SECOND MONTH

By this time, my hair had started looking frizzy but it did not look bad at all. I still got compliments and random strangers asking what and how many extensions I used. (See picture above)

Weekly Maintenance: Hair was kept clean (as stated above) and moisturised. To protect my edges, I took down the extensions and loosely re-twisted each section without using extensions. I don’t think anyone could tell the difference because my hair texture and that of the extensions were not that far apart.

 

Twists get swollen when wet.

THIRD MONTH

By the third month, the parts at the roots were beginning to close-up. To be sure that my hair was not breaking, too dry, or shedding unnaturally, I took down a few twists and noticed something…length! Nice!!

Because the twists were now super frizzy I began brushing my hair with a soft brush (almost daily),and to keep those strands down,I used eco styler gel. But this meant that I had to wash my hair more often.

SOLUTION: Spritz  hair with daily moisture mix (NN leave in, coconut oil and water), smooth hair down with my palms and then tie a satin scarf. 
No more worries about time, damaged hair cuticles, and sticky edges.

By the second week of the third month, I began hearing snapping sounds whenever I had to take the twists apart to oil my scalp. 

What was happening? O_0
The new growth at the root of one section was getting entangled with the sections closest to it. Matting had begun.

SOLUTION: Take down :(

TAKE DOWN MADE EASY

To reduce breakage, I put some olive oil in a spray bottle and sprayed each individual twist from the root to where my hair stopped before loosening . This helped, especially with the hair strands that had begun to get entangled with the extensions.

 

 End Result

So did I get all I wanted? Yes, I did not loose hair (#4), did not suffer from dandruff and dry scalp during and after this time (#2 and #3), and best of all I had 3 months of mane freedom! (#1)

Did I encounter any problems? The only problem worth sharing is that I had to trim off some new growth at my edges-twice. This is because the free hair was growing longer but I was not brushing it (for fear of breakage) and so it began to matt, forming into a small fine lock (dada)

Did I learn anything during this period? Yes, I learnt that...

-Type 4 hair is better off with little manipulation

-Natural hair does not need to be time and money consuming

-Travelling for long periods at a time or having a busy life in general does not have to be more stressful because you have natural hair and

-I think I'm going to get my hair locked at some point in my life :)

  
Lets hear from you, can you carry a style for more than 3 weeks? If No, tell us why and if yes, please share your hair type and regimen .