Category Archives: Questions & Answers

Questions and answers on natural hair and going natural.

Q&A | How to Prevent Natural Hair Tangling Up

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Prevent natural hair tangling upHey NHB,

I have REALLY Curly hair (beautiful, naturally very strong and thick) but it also comes at a price! It naturally locks itself VERY quickly (on a daily basis). If I comb my hair out, and wash it, it will literally start to lock while I’m washing it out. I deep condition my hair regularly and keep it moisturised but this doesn’t stop it from tangling up. Unlocking it is long and is more or less like ripping my hair out (even with plenty of moisture and conditioner).

I’m happy to let it do its thing as I rarely comb my hair out into afro style anyway, BUT I want to know if this is negative for my hair, and also do you have any tips for this type of hair.

Thank you NHB!

Hey curlfriend!

Great question!

It seems to be the issue is that you should be stretching your hair? You didn’t mention whether you do or not but I’ll assume you don’t from the question.

Yes curly/coily hair tangles up very easily hence why it’s best to stretch your hair (without heat) so as to somewhat straighten the strands when it gets longer to keep it from tangling up on itself.

The issue is that if you leave it, it makes very hard work when you’re trying to detangle to wash it and this will limit your hair growth too as you will be losing more hair when trying to detangle because your hair is so tangled up. Since you’re not deliberately locking your hair, it’s best to keep your hair in a stretched state and protective styles to keep it from tangling up.

I recently wrote an article on this so definitely check it out. I think it will explain in more detail what I mean.
http://thenhb.com/drying-natural-hair/

I hope this helps!

Q&As – Drying Natural Hair

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“How do you dry your natural hair?”

Great question! This really brought back fond memories of when I just started. It’s really easy to forget sometimes how new I was to everything and that I really didn’t know anything I know now, then!

Well firstly I’ll say, heat free drying options are the best in my opinion as it avoids damage to your hair which prolonged use of heat can cause. In short, the answer here is to get yourself acquainted with air drying!

What is air drying? I hear you ask. Well it means you allow your hair to dry naturally without the application of heat. *shock horror* I know, I know. I felt the exact same way when I started out. In fact I couldn’t actually imagine not using a blow dryer to dry my hair; it just didn’t make sense to me. But, hear me out; let me land. There are many ways to let your hair air dry and it can be done overnight, as opposed to walking around with wet hair. Overnight options include: twisting your hair, braiding your hair, bantu knots, threading, curlformers (check out the previous post on these), flexi rods, roller sets and probably a whole lot more that I can’t think of now! All you need to do is section you hair appropriately (amount of sections will depend on the length and thickness of your hair) and take one of these options. You decide which works best for your hair. personally I love to get my hair as stretched out as possible and I find this works best with curlformers or braids but I usually do braids and curlformers gets tedious for me!

 

Here are some tutorials:

Twists

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSgzJNUOQYg[\]

Braids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI9MHk2m-Gc[\]

Bantu Knots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT9J12bkHv0[\]

 Hope this helps!

Stay cool *puts on shades* :o )

Q&As – Protective hairstyles & breakage

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“Do you find that after you take out your protective hairstyle, you get dry breakage? Because I do, so now I’m a bit hesitant in doing braids again.”

Hmmm interesting question! Personally, I don’t experience any dry breakage. You do have to differentiate however between breakage and shedding. When you leave your hair in for a long time and take it out, you definitely will see quite a bit of hair come out because we shed hair everyday. However, if your hair is actually breaking, such that you may have clumps and patches of hair missing in different parts then it may be that you’ve left the hair in (especially in the case of braids etc.) too long or perhaps it was too tight.

It is very important you ensure that whoever is doing your hair, knows how to handle your hair and that they don’t just blow dry it to oblivion when trying to braid it etc! Also I would recommend that you wash and condition your hair before you put it in a protective hairstyle. Do oil your scalp on a weekly basis whilst in a protective hairstyle and don’t leave the hair in too long  i.e. 2 months should be the maximum in my opinion.

I sincerely hope this helps. Ladies reading this, if you have a similar experience or advice, please let us know! Remember this forum is to help us all so as usual don’t forget to…

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Q&As – Trimming Hair Without Heat

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How Can You Trim Natural Hair Without Straightening It?

This is a very good question!! One that I still found myself asking even up until a few months ago… You can either go to a good hairdresser (who knows how to take care of natural hair) to trim it for you or….DIY.

Now I’m no expert on natural hair care or trimming etc. but I do what works for me. So the way I trim is:

  • Wash hair (either shampoo or cowash)
  • Deep condition and put in twists
  • Trim each twist.

This may seem silly to some but that’s the way I do it for now. I did it at first when I still had relaxed ends so it was easy to differentiate the relaxed from the natural when my hair was wet and I’d just snip off the relaxed bits. Now all my hair is natural, there’s no demarcation, so I literally just trim as I feel LOL. Admittedly I don’t take off too much but that’s because I haven’t experienced split ends etc.I shy away from hairdressers because they can get a bit scissors happy!! *Hides face*

If anyone has a better way, do let us all know!! :D

Don’t forget to…

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Guys & Natural Hair – One perspective

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Okay so I’ve finally had a chance to sit down and blog! This is a special one though. So I’m sure it’s crossed your mind at least once ladies: What Do Guys (especially those of Afro-Caribbean backgrounds) actually think about natural hair?!

Well, ponder no more! Here’s an interview (with more soon to come hopefully!) with an Actor and Young Entrepreneur who goes by the name: WILLZ and is 21 From South London:

What do you think about natural hair?

I think natural hair is beautiful, I applaud those who make an effort to maintain their natural hair as my mother is a hair dresser so from a young age seeing my mothers customers I understood that maintaining natural hair is not easy. Embracing your God given natural hair is definitely making a positive statement.

What are your views on relaxed hair and extensions?

I don’t have nothing against relaxed hair or extensions, in fact I’m not too impressed with the amount of pressure that women get from men about their decisions to use extensions in their hair. Extensions every once in a while is fine by me BUT excessive use of extensions all year round is a different story.


 Do you prefer natural hair, relaxed hair or extensions on ladies?

Natural hair, relaxed hair, extension hair, no hair… I have no preference when it comes to ladies hairstyles. Just as long as they’re confident in their selves they can wear a clowns wig.

Do you think there is an issue with natural hair, extensions and relaxed hair at all I.e. any controversy etc?

Yeah definitely young black brothers got issues with extensions. At one point I was guilty for promoting the banter, but I don’t have an issue with it no more. As I’ve grown I’ve learnt to accept it. As long as you rock it well by all means do your thing. I think the main controversy is that we embrace the European wavy look on black females but the reality is the majority of black females don’t naturally have that texture to their hair. And we’re in a time where afro hair isn’t really glamorized in popular culture as wavy European hair is.

What’s the first thing that springs to mind when you see ladies with natural hair?

AFROCENTRICITY! And Pam Grier (famous actor from the Blaxploitation era) as she was known for sporting her Afro in most of her blockbuster films. I also think about Africa when I see natural hair, it’s a beautiful thing. Natural hair represents the natural beauty to me and it represents a strong confident lady in my eyes.

Any other thought and views you’d like to share on the subject?
I’d like to send a special shout out to Cindy on her blog, although it is for women taking a glance at it I instantly felt a good vibe from it. I’m so sure that many women will appreciate this blog, and I wish you all the best on your future ventures that may be created from this blog. I see it doing a lot of good things. God bless.

Hope this has been a great read! What are your views on this? Feel free to post comments or send more suggestions ;)