Let’s get to know you.

How long have you been a natural?

Big chop or transition?

Do you have an idea what your hair type and porosity is?

What’s your regimen like?

Any hair products you can’t do without?

What’s your go-to hairstyle? Any fave hairstyle?

Challenges you face as a natural.

Do you have any hair/styling secret? 😉

Has going natural changed anything about you?

Do you think you'll ever return to the creamy crack?

Any advice for your natural sisters out there?

How do we keep in touch with you? 

1.  Section, section, and section: Dividing your hair into smaller sections is key. Moisturizing hair in smaller sections gets more moisture to the strands than doing so in bigger sections. You could section it into 4 parts or more.
2. Take down each section, one at a time, and apply the conditioner from root to tip, concentrating on the ends.
3. Please don’t be stingy with the conditioner, be generous and distribute it evenly by combing hair after applying.
4. Now it’s time to seal in all that moisture, to prevent the moisture from evaporating from the hair shaft. Use your preferred oil or butter to seal in.

1.  I take one twist, apply shampoo, scrub and rinse it out.
2. Apply a second round of shampoo, scrub and rinse out again.
3. Then take the next twist and repeat step 1 & 2. So if I had 8 twists, I would have shampooed 16 times and rinsed 16 times!
4. Then apply a deep conditioner to each twist by unraveling it, combing through and retwisting it.
5. At least 30 minutes under a shower cap to let the deep conditioner do its work.
6.  Rinse hair.

1. Apply shampoo all over my hair, lightly scrub to remove most of the dirt and rinse out - 5 minutes.
2. Take each twist, apply a second round of shampoo and scrub. - 10 minutes
3. At this point, I don’t rinse out until I’m done shampooing and scrubbing all the sections of my hair.
4. Rinse out shampoo from all the twists at once. - 5 minutes. So if I had 8 twists, I would have shampooed 9 times and rinsed out just twice! Amazeballs!
5. Then apply a deep conditioner to each twist by unraveling it, combing through and retwisting it - 25 minutes.
6. At least 30 minutes under a shower cap to let the deep conditioner do its work.
7. Rinse hair - 10 minutes

• 1. As usual, hair should be clean and well detangled.
• 2. Section a small part of your hair, this is where the clips(blings) will be attached. Usually, I just do a side part, then further divide it in two.

• 3. Take one of the section and make box cuts, you can do as much as you like, I just kept mine on the minimal though.

• 4. Take one section of the hair in box cut and hold with a small rubber band.

•  5. Twist, join it to the next section and secure with a band.

• 6. Divide it in two and drag it to have a firmer hold.

• 10. Wake up the next day, unravel twists, fluff and go!

Day 1

Day 6

Curls, Curls...more curls

What you’ll need:

1. Water in a spray bottle
2. Leave in conditioner
3. Detangling comb/brush
4. Gel

1. Section a small part of your hair and thoroughly dampen the section with water.
2. Apply leave-in conditioner, smooth it through and detangle your hair.
3. Apply gel and smoothen through in a raking motion.
4. Shingling: Take each individual curl in the section and smoothening it down to separate it from the rest of the section. i.e separating the curls strand by strand.
5. Do this for your whole hair, then gently shake your head for a while(like you’re saying ‘no’). This helps to separate the coils and to remove excess water.
6. Style your hair in the direction that you want it to go and let it dry. 
7. You can add some oil after it dries.

1. This style is best achieved on hair that is cleansed, without any build up. It will last longer this way.
2. Get ready to keep your hair wet throughout the entire process. This allows you to capture the curls you have in your wet state. Water and conditioner bring out your curl pattern, and the gel captures your curl pattern.
3. Don’t add too much gel, I did this and my hair didn’t completely get dried until the next day. I also had a few white flakes on my hair. Don’t be like me.

Mornings:

• For the first 5 days: Added oil, lightly rake my hands through my hair, shake and go.
• On the 6th day, I finally spritz with water, applied oil then little gel and let it dry 

Night:

• Pineapple up.
• If I want a stretched hair, I twist more than half of each section, then secure with rubber bands

Let’s get to know you.

How long have you been a natural?

Do you have an idea what your hair type and porosity is?

What’s your regimen like?

Any hair products you can’t do without?

What’s your go-to hairstyle? Any fave hairstyle?

Challenges you face as a natural.

Do you have any hair/styling secret? 😉

What’s the best thing about being natural?

Any advice for your natural sisters out there?

How do we keep in touch with you? 

1.  I spend less time during the washing process.
2. This also helps minimize tangles caused by manipulation, giving me a better chance of retaining length.
3.  It ensures my hair is getting cleaned thoroughly as no part is being ignored. 

Let’s get to know you.

How long have you been natural?

Big chop or transition?

What’s the story behind you going back to your natural roots?

Do you have an idea what your hair type and porosity is?

What’s your regimen like?

• I pre-poo with a basic conditioner and coconut oil for an hour or more, sometimes overnight. Then detangle and section into 4 parts.
• Then I wash with shampoo ( Yves Rocher for bouncy curls or Aussie miracle moist) these are the ones I can easily pick up from the store and they are super affordable. 
• I condition with the Yves Rocher bouncy curls conditioner, rinse that out.
• Afterwards with the Aussie miracle moist conditioner, I deep condition with a plastic bag or shower cap over my head for at least 1 hour. (this is done every other week).
• Then I rinse with green tea, Condition with Cantu leave-in conditioner and finally, I seal the moisture in with my DIY shea butter, coconut oil, and almond oil mix. 

Any hair products you can’t do without?

What’s your go-to hairstyle? Any fave hairstyle?

Challenges you face as a natural.

Do you have any hair/styling secret? *wink*

Has going natural changed anything about you?

Do you think you’ll ever return back to the creamy crack?

Any advice for your natural sisters out there?

How do we keep in touch with you?

Length Check

• I skip the use of rinse out conditioners after shampooing, it makes my wash day shorter and having a well detangled pre-pooed hair just makes this step easier to skip.
•  Sealing my hair with coconut oil mixed with shea butter to make a better sealant and give more shine.
• Trimming more frequently than twice a year now.

Single Strand Knots

1.  Make sure hair is properly detangled, starting from the end to the root.
2.  Keep the ends of your hair regularly coated with oil or thick butters, as this adds weight to it, preventing it from curling around each other and forming knots.
3. When braiding/twisting your natural hair, twirl the ends around your fingers, this makes it curly at the end and prevents it from knotting.

What is Okro? Better not to assume everyone knows that.

Okra or Okro known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It is valued for its edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with supporters of West African, Ethiopian, and South Asian origins.

Why Okra for the hair?

1. It is 100% natural with no chemicals.
2. It is less expensive, the picture above is about one-quarter of a dollar.
3. Okra’s also high in Vitamins A & C, folic acid, calcium, zinc, including biotin, all of which make it incredibly nourishing for the hair.
4. Protein and oil found in the seeds of okra are enriched with amino acids with the likes of tryptophan, cystine and other sulfur amino acids which is really great to give dry or damaged hair some strength. 

Okra gel Preparation

1. Cut 3-10 pieces of okra vertically.
2. Boil the okra until frothy and slimy.
3. Strain the mixture into a container.
4. You can add lemon or oils if you like(I added just extra virgin olive oil and Vitamin E to make it last longer). This was what mine looked like after the preparation. I allowed it to cool(kept it in the fridge) before using it on my hair.

Using Okro gel for leave-in

Forgive this poor picture, still learning the art of Hair Photography

I had my hair in twists using the above steps and I had very minimal breakage like never before. 

Back view

Front view + dripping ends (Tired face)

I left the twists on for about two days while I spritz my hair once a day. On the day I was set to let out the hair, I first added a few drops of anti-frizz argan oil to the tips of my fingers while I gently separate my twists. 

Few things I noticed while I do this:

• My hair was still moisturized even after two days, thanks to the spritz I applied every day before I unraveled it.
• There were no flakes of any sort. My hair was completely flake-less if there's a word like that.
• The twists were easy to unravel and separated to further smaller sections to have a full hair. There were no tangles at my ends which is a first-time experience for me.

I made sure the anti-frizz argan oil was always on my tips every time I detangle. After separating it to the level I felt satisfied with, I used an afro wide-tooth comb to lift my roots to have a fuller look with the twists-out and here we go:

        

• It doesn't have much hold; I think I wasn't really surprised with this since the hair was really moisturized and soft. I can live with hair that's not so crunchy.
• The slimy nature can really piss one off especially if you're not careful with how you handle the movement of bringing it out of the bottle to applying it to your hair.