Boxed out!

The last time I got braid extensions, I cried!

I was 18, about to go to Uni, and I wanted a hairstyle I could manage without the help of my Gran. So why the tears? Well, (and I still feel pathetic admitting it, but) it was because my Mum and Granma decided to go Bad Cop/Bad Cop on me and ridicule my choice of hairstyle!

They made it very clear that no self-respecting, style-conscious young woman would be seen dead in the outdated, childish style of braids I wanted.  You see I wanted single, not too thick, box braids à la Brandy back in day. Unfortunately my mum and gran insisted on canerow braids à la Alicia Keys. Nothing wrong with that style but NOT want I wanted.  According to them my hair was way too thick for box braids, I have to add too much synthetic hair to my own and I'd end up looking stupid. Just the kinda encouragement you need for when you're about to move away from home!  The humiliation and frustration of supposedly being an adult and not being allowed a say on how I looked broke me that day, hence the waterworks.

                    

                        Brandy circa sometime in the 1990's -
                        What I wanted, minus the burnt ends   

 The style I was strong armed into getting -
Alicia Keys.

 

I hated the braids. They were thick, heavy and I couldn't style them the way I wanted to.  Not surprisingly they only lasted 2 weeks before I took them out and swore never to go there again!


Fast forward 11 years and....I finally went back there, a month ago. As the Queen of my Samba School (EXCITING HUH!! But more about that in a later post) I was having the most amazingly, beautiful costume made for me for Notting Hill Carnival.  The designer wanted big, long hair to go with his eye popping creation!  Hmmmm, up cropped dilemma one. If you've read my Phony or not to phony post, you'll know I prefer not wear hair pieces when I dance, and as you're now fully aware, the last time I had any hair like appendages attached to my own, the experience is not littered with fond memories.  What, to, do?

Do as you're told and OBEY, that's what!

You only get to be the Queen of my Samba school once and Notting Hill is our biggest event, so you goes hard, or you damn well goes home! Besides, I fancied a change, and bum length box braids were one hell of a change!

Blast from the past

Last year one of my friends gave me a copy of The Black Hairdressing and Beauty Training Manual by Hyacinth Jarrett.  I love poring over old books, photos etc and especially because of the subject matter I was all over this book.

Most of the styling in The Black Hairdressing and Beauty Training Manual takes you right back to the 80s and so, I assumed that it would be full of outdated and non natural hair friendly info. I was wrong.  

Make-up tutorial for Skin tone no.2 Medium Olive (left) and Skin tone no.3 Dark brown (right)

Black hairdressers don't always get a good wrap in the Natural Community and unfortunately a lot of the criticisms thrown in their direction are not unfounded. Instances of ignorance, unprofessionalism and down right shocking customer treatment are definitely not unique to Black hairdressers, but they're not as uncommon as they should be. Who hasn't heard a cautionary tale or experienced themselves salon treatments gone wrong, or stylist's that don't seem to know or, perhaps worse, care about what they are doing to a client's hair? It's for reasons like this that I and many other curly girls surfing the Natural Hair Movement have stared away from stylists.  

When it comes to hair, I'm of the opinion that if it's growing out of my body I should know how to look after it better than anyone else, and if I don't, I'll learn! If I want hair advice I don't look to stylists or magazines or even female relatives, I go to the 'Net.  I look to women, many of whom don't have formal hairdressing qualifications but who, through lots of research, trial and error and patience are walking around with awesome healthy heads of hair.

The Black Hairdressing and Beauty Training Manual made me check some of my assumptions about Black hairdressing.  Although there isn't much information specifically about natural hair care, there is lots about basic salon hair and beauty from the scientific breakdown of treatments to how to provide proper client consultations and even how to successfully set up and run a hair care business. The Black Hairdressing and Beauty Training Manual has the all information that you would expect to be a standard part of hairdresser training, but from previous visits to salons where some of the stylists seemed to lack basic hair care knowledge and customer services, it makes you wonder.  

Good hair?

Ever wondered why Black women are obsessed by hair...well, some of us are, more than others ;). How and why anyone would spend prolonged periods of time thinking or writing about their hair?

Intrigued, or just plain confused, let me take you by the hand child and explain.


Before the new year BBC2 aired Good Hair, a 2009 documentary about Black hair by Chris Rock. Now, if the idea of spending an hour and a half watching Chris Rock navigate the world of Black hair sounds like your idea of hell, stay with me.  Good Hair is a lighthearted, funny and enlightening look at the complicated and intricate topic that is Black hair.

Good hair itself is a loaded term, a hang up from African slavery in the Americas which is still used to denote hair that is supposedly more 'European' in appearance.  Slaves who looked or acted less 'African' were favoured over those who didn't, and all aspects of Africaness were deemed inferior.

Simply explained,

Good hair = long, thick, loose curls or straight, shiny, manageable, like European hair.

Bad hair = short, nappy aka tightly curled, dull, unmanageable, like African hair.

I'll admit that unless you're a Black women the subject of Black hair is pretty confounding.   On the surface it might seem niche and superficial, but in trying to deconstruct the topic, Good Hair delves into an issue that's a symptom of systemic denigration of people of African descent and their culture that sadly didn't end with the abolition of slavery.  Sounds deep huh, and it is.

Chris Rock interviewing a little girl getting a Relaxer

I thought I knew a lot about Black hair when I first watched Good Hair 4 years ago, but I didn't know for example that in the US the Black hair industry is worth upwards of $9Billion, yep Billion, or that some US women fly across states to get their hair done! As a life long Relaxer virgin I don't know what it felt like to have a Relaxer, a solution derived from caustic Sodium Hydroxide that's applied to your hair and scalp in order to straighten curls.  Seeing the affect Sodium Hydroxide has on chicken flesh and on metal as well as descriptions of the likes of Nia Long, the Rev Al Sharpton and other interviewees, that it's akin to your skull being on fire was enough to vow to keep me relaxer free for life!

If you're not black is it relevant? Well hair is part of your appearance, your identity.  As an individual if you were subconsciously and implicitly told that part of your identity was unacceptable and unattractive it would become a deep rooted internal issue no? Worse still, if these messages are relayed to a group of people to the point were they themselves began to police and subjugate their own community in an attempt to keep everyone in line, imagine the long lasting impact.  It's something that we have all probably experienced to an extent at some point in our lives regardless of background.  Whether it's your hair, body, sexuality, religion or life achievements, we're all taught we should be striving towards some sort of ideal. How successfully we do so dictates our self worth and affects our position in the world.

'Hair as a metaphor for life', yeah why not! So watch Good Hair, if nothing else it'll explain why you should never, under any circumstances touch a Black woman's hair without asking!

            

You can watch the first part of Good Hair by clicking the link above (sorry, could not find a better quality version in full and without subtitles, but if you're trying to brush up on your French, win win!). This video channel has uploaded the doc in 6 parts so when the end of video screen comes up just look for Good Hair part 2-6 and so forth until part 6-6.



Kanika x

A year in hair....well almost

'Hair as a metaphor for life', is how the idea behind our blog has been summed up.


Sounds ridiculous? Well, not really.  For me definitely and for Miss Karla, there's a lot of truth in that statement.  What we've done with our hair has, many times reflected what we were or weren't doing with ourselves.  Karla for example this year finally took out her braid extensions, writing about the experience here.  They had become her equivalent of a hair blanky that she was slowly having to ween herself off,  and now, she's having a whole heap of fun with her new, freer do.  I can personally vouch that her shiny, super soft head of healthy hair is looking very cute indeed and is currently accompanying her are she gets ready to fulfill one of her life dreams: dancing with a famous Rio Samba School for Rio Carnival 2014.


My hair.....hmmm, my hair is hanging on in there despite some odious instances of neglect this year.

Fascinator, pompadour &
victory rolls for a
40's style party

At the start of 2013 I was all about trying new stuff. I was all over the retro updos (left), pinning, headscarves and quiffs. I dusted of my Curlformers like I said I would and managed to master my own take on a Rose the Riveter do (below right).  

At some point this year my hair and I entered into a long distant relationship. As I got busier, more stressed and feeling less like my myself the fun of experimenting fizzled out. Lack of time and inclination meant that chunky twists pinned back in simple updos became my go to style. Quickish, practical and low maintenance, praise be!

Scarf purchase courtesy
of Brixton Market

In May I finally visited the hairdressers for a straighten 'n' trim, my first in 2 years (I know, I know, will never, ever leave it that long again to get a trim), the split ends and fairy knots were too much to bear.  Sadly, there are no joyous pics of me frolicking about with my shorter, straight hair, and it wasn't coz I couldn't fix my face long enough for pouting over the shorter length to take a decent pic. Truth be told I was disappointed that despite my careful maintenance, my bra strap length hair (yep it was that long, sniff) was getting sizeable chop coz the ends were in a sorry state.  However, better more consistent care would have prevented that in the first place, so I had to take it like a big girl and remember my hair was better off. Anyway, aside from that I was too busy and too feeling stressed to give a damn about posing for hair selfies, which I suck at taking anyway.

Brooklyn's Natural Beauties

In continuation from my last, slightly stalkerish post, in which I showed you all some of the hottest Naturalites spotted at Brooklyn's 2013 AFROPUNK Fest last month; I wanted to introduce you to some of my favourites.

Brooklyn's Natural Beauty Exhibit A: TESSA 

NAME: Tessa Kagbala
Age: 29
NATURAL FOR: 12 years.
Tessa's family are Rastafarian and she went natural to challenge the ideas of beauty that were around her every day.

2 MUST HAVE PRODUCTS:
- Karen's Body Beautiful Sweet Ambrosia (available from Target or online) and
- Natural Shea butter + Olive Oil

Tessa's Top Tip:
Use Bentonite clay wash regularly to cleanse your hair from root to tip without stripping it of its natural oils.



Follow Tessa's blog at www.afroista.com  She is more than just a chick with a 'fro...

Brooklyn's Natural Beauty Exhibit B: BETHLEHEM

NAME: Bethlehem
NATURAL FOR: 7 years.
Bethlehem is natively from Ethiopia and although had used relaxers before, hated depending on it to feel good. She grew out her relaxer and one day took a breath and cut her ends off herself into her sink! Since then she's tried various styles and experiments regularly with her curls.

2 MUST HAVE PRODUCTS:
- Queen Helene's Royal Curl Shaping Creme available to buy online
- Kinky-Curly Knot Today Leave-In Conditioner

Bethlehem's Top Tips: Buy inexpensive Natural hair products from www.terressentials.com.
In Ethiopia women often put butter in their hair before washing... But that doesn't work (and it smells.) So she created her own special Pre-Poo mix:
Ingredients:
Egg yolks
Oil (olive, jojoba or Moroccan, whichever you prefer)
Coconut Cream
Avocado

Whisk the egg yolk and oil together bit by bit to create mayonnaise. Then add the coconut cream and avocado. Add more oil as needed and coat your hair. Cover your hair and do your business. Wash out after a couple of hours and boom - soft, beautiful curls!

Brooklyn's Natural Beauties Exhibits C-F: PARIS, JULES, ZAHRA and NDELEA

NAMES (l-r): Zahra, Paris, Jules, and Ndelea
NATURAL FOR: 16 years, 13years, 10 years, 15years!

Interestingly, they all went Natural in their teens years, rejecting the image of straight haired beauty that surrounded them. Zahra grew up in Hawaii and said she didn't have a colour complex, but instead wanted hair she could run her fingers through, like the other girls. Eventually though she had a realisation: "I can be beautiful in a way that can represent beauty for others."

2 MUST HAVE PRODUCTS:
Z - Apple Cider Vinegar  and Olive oil. "If you can't find it in the kitchen, you don't need to use it!"
P - Nature's Blessing Sweet Almond Oil and that's it!
J - Water! And Jojoba oil - which she'd been using for years but was so clueless after first going Natural, she was calling it 'Joe-Joe-buh' oil. Needless to say she has much more of an clue these days...
N - Shea Butter is a must have. "And whatever else I can find in the kitchen."

Brooklyn's Natural Beauty Exhibit G: JENNIFER

NAME: Jennifer

Age: 29
NATURAL FOR: 12 years
Jennifer had been Natural and had long hair until she had it relaxed before high school. After it breaking and not being as long as it had in the past, she decided to go back to natural hair at the age of 17 and hasn't looked back as her hair is relatively easy to maintain!

JENNIFER'S 2 MUST-HAVE PRODUCTS:
- Miss Jessie's Curly Butter Cream
- Miss Jessie's Supersweetback Treatment

Big up Miss Jessie which you can buy in the UK online from the Curly Emporium here :-)

Brooklyn's Natural Beauties Exhibits H and I: ADAMA AND SIQUELE

NAMES: Siquele and Adama (Meaning "Queenly") 

AGES: 29 and 'A Lady Never Tells'
NATURAL FOR: 12 years for both

Siaquele decided she was through with relaxers. She was tired of conforming to the neat pretty look and so wanted to grow out her natural curls. She loves her baby curls so much, she shaves her hair down every February to rock a refreshed new look.
Adama grew her locs as an experiment and now wears waist length hair. At AFROPUNK fest she told me she was trying out a shorter look by twisting up her locs ahead of chopping them off...but, by the end of the day had decided she preferred her long hair.

2 MUST HAVE PRODUCTS:
S - Natural Shea Butter and Aloe Vera Gel
A - Natural Shea Butter and Coconut Oil - Simple is best.



All Hail the Brooklyn Beauties.


Karla x

AFROPUNK 2013

Last week I got back from a trip to New York, during which I went to the very cool (and free!) AFROPUNK FEST!

AFROPUNK is a Brooklyn based 2-day, all day festival that celebrates the best in Black Alternative music. Last year's lineup included Janelle Monáe and Erykah Badu, and this yeart saw Public Enemy's Chuck D, ?uestlove from the Roots and Theophilus London hitting the stage, as well as some lesser known but equally excellent groups (Look up Vintage Trouble - very charismatic James Brown-esque disco/rock outfit).

The 9th AFROPUNK FEST line up

Phony or not to phony?

 To phony or not to phony?  This is a question that as a part time samba dancer I've asked myself several times.

Dunno what I'm on about. I’ll show you.  What do these beautiful Brazilian passistas have in common?

Lovely, lovely passistas (blackwomenofbrazil.com)

They’re all wearing itsy bitsy shiny bikinis, have the same megawatt smiles, but hang on one cotton picking minute! You there! I say, Miss Blue there’s something different about you! Its....its.....Bingo! It’s the hair. You‘re not sporting the same luscious hair as the others.  

For many passistas ‘Megahair': long, flowing, ultra feminine hair, usually loosely curled, is part of the look and hair flicking, a compulsory part of any self respecting mulata’s choreography. You don’t often see passistas sporting natural afro’s like Clara Paixao, who I featured last month in Carnaval carry on. Those who don’t naturally possess Megahair, fake it, turning to Brazilian blow outs, weaves, wigs, extensions and straighteners, and then, there’s the phony pony. 

Being the centre of the samba world, Brazil dictates samba fashion.  So if the samba gods decree female dancers be decked with flowing manes of hair, then so it shall be, and most female dancers obey this command. But not I. 

When I dance, I never straighten my hair or never wear it out.  I have my natural hair in protective styles like twists, tied back or pinned out of the way (like below mini twists, pinned back), and here’s why.

Me at Coburg Samba Festival 2012, Germany 
(Noriega Photographics)

1.     It’s easy ‘n’ fuss free...ish.

2.   When you samba you sweat! You could be wearing a samba bikini outdoors in 7˚C London (yes I’ve done that before), and after a couple of minutes you're perspiring in places you never knew had sweat glands.  Think about that next time you want to hug up close to a passista 'n' get your picture, mwhaha! Freshly straightened hair wouldn’t stand a chance, sweating out sooner than you can say ‘afro’.  

3.   Samba dancers wear elaborate headdresses that are secured tightly onto our heads.  They might look stunning, but after a while your skull feels like it’s being crushed and your hair’s the only thing providing any cushioning.  Us passista’s have to suffer a little for our art!

London's Natural Beauties - Exhibit E. Isabelle

Say a big, friendly hello to our second London Natural Beauty of the year.  A beautiful mother, dancer, singer, student and lover of life from Belgium, Isabelle!

Name: Isabelle (some call me Izy)
Age: is irrelevant
Natural since: May 2011. Let's get started, shall we...?

December 2011 - ....yeah ok, I blow dry my hair to make it bigger!
March 2012 - There is still remnants of my coloured hair.
December 2012 -  Yay! I can finally make a pony tail! All my coloured hair is gone! Now it's really 'au naturel'!

When You Gonna: Tell us about your hair journey. Why did you decide to go Natural?

Isabelle: To start off with, I want to clarify, I didn't GO Natural, I AM Natural!
Like most African women, before growing our own opinion about ourselves, I was forced to obey clear rules and conform to the norm in order to look acceptable. Without much thinking I embraced it. Never mind the numerous failures and mistakes, never mind using toxic products and risking being bold. Never mind the huge amount of time and money "invested." I started to alter the nature of my hair since oh... oh hang on! I thought I was born with tresses on! Anyway once you reach your teens, the incredible business of trying to rule your hair the way they refuse to, is second nature.
It took my boyfriend telling me endlessly that he adored my hair to take a second look at what Mama gave me. That's how, for the first time of my conscious life I decided to love, accept and care for what I had.  It's one of the best decisions I have ever made!

WYG: Describe your hair?

I: My hair is absolutely amazing. No, seriously!
It is soft and adapts pretty well to whatever I want. I can make it into a large big afro or sophisticated 40's hairstyle, I can make it wavy, curly, straight... I love it!
Only down side, it is so not in a hurry to grow and can break pretty easily. Oh, and it shrinks like crazy!  But a more objective viewer would describe my hair as 4C-4D, Black and roughly 25cm long.

WYG: What is your hair like at the moment:

I: Ah! It's winter time so I want to minimise manipulations. I put my hair in a protective style: loose dread lock that I redo every 4 to 6 weeks.

WYG: What's your routine like?

I: I always try to keep it as simple as possible but not simpler.
I co-wash my hair every month. As you may know already co-washing is washing hair with conditioner. It's less aggressive than regular shampoo and still contains enough cleansing agent.
Every morning I lightly spray my hair with water (I want to try coconut water soon) to hydrate it.
Then I gently seal the moisture at the tip of my hair with natural oils. It can be coconut oil, avocado oil, rosemary oil or Shea butter depending on the state of my hair, my mood and the weather outside.  I style and go.  At night I wrap my hair in a silk scarf....Nooooot! It would be THE thing to do! But I'm working on it...'  

WYG: Favourite products

I: I couldn't go without water, coconut oil and Shea butter!

Shea Butter

WYG: Top tips?

I: Forget the noise of the new miracle products here and what your best friend's doing there.  Just listen to what your hair has to say. It knows best!

WYG: Best thing about being Natural

I: It's almost a spiritual journey, first it takes love, acceptance, care to grow your own hair. It takes love, acceptance and care to be a beautiful woman. Secondly, symbolically speaking, it is reclaiming our true nature. It is refusing to comply with a certain idea of beauty that is not ours. It is finally regaining the respect for our own individuality.

           

   

WYG: Thank you very much Isabelle, some wise words if we ever did hear them!

School you - Winifred Atwell

Friday evening I was minding my own business watching the One Show on BBC1. It was already an episode that had caught my attention.  Not only did it feature one of my heroes, Lord Robert Winston, talking about coping with the lose of his father, but, the show's special guest was the beautiful Naomi Harris, another lady who I have a definite girl crush on, talking about her part in James Bond, fashion and her up and coming role as Winnie Mandela in The Long Walk to Freedom - the Nelson Mandela biopic.

Naomi (middle) with One Show presenters Chris Evans (left) & Alex Jones (right)

About 2/3's of the way into the program they featured a women I had never heard of, Winifred Atwell (1914-1983).  This Trinidad born British pianist achieved some remarkable things in her life.   When she moved to the UK in 1946, she gained a place at the Royal Academy of Music, becoming the first female pianist to be awarded the Academy's highest grading for musicianship.  She later went on to be the first Black person to have a UK number one in the singles chart, the first British artist to sell a million records and then to have 2 other consecutive million selling hits, another first.   Over her career, Winifred Atwell sold in excess of 20 MILLION records!

Here's Winifred and one of her most popular hits 'Five Finger Boogie'

Winifred also enjoyed International fame.  When she moved to Australia in the 1960's her celebrity prompted the Australian government at the time, to give her special dispensation from their racist immigration laws and allow her to make the country her home. While there Winifred was outspoken about Racism in the country and fought to highlight the injustices towards Aboriginal Australians.

Winifred getting her hair did in her salon

These are just a fraction of Winifred Atwell's achievements.  They're made all the more impressive by the fact that Post-WW2 immigration to Britain, from it's colonies, had resulted in Racial tensions and many ethnic minorities faced considerable prejudice.


I was pretty damn impressed by Winifred already and then the One Show dropped this nugget....Winifred opened what's believed to be the UK's first salon catering to Black women in Brixton, in 1956.  In the package, hairdresser Errol Douglas comments on the significance of this. 


Unfortunately the original building on Railton Rd, where Winifred's Salon once stood, is no longer there.  Ironically it was burnt down in the 1981 Race Riots.

You can watch Friday's One Show HERE on iPlayer as long as it's up.  The segment about Winifred starts from 21.14 mins.


How have I never heard about this remarkable woman! Have you?!



Kanika x

Rio de Jan-HAIR-o

Brasil is a beautiful country with such a rich mixed heritage that it is impossible not to see this in the people. It's the country where Africa meets Portugal and they combine with the country's indigenous races. Not to mention the German communities in the South of the country where they live side by side with Japanese and Italians...

The women and their hair types are representative of this uberblend.

Since I've been back in Rio, I am taking special note of all the mulheres working natural curls over here.

Here are some ;Natural beauties I've spotted so far who everyday give me the courage to eventually taking my braids out...