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!

London's Natural Beauties: Exhibit C. Sian

This week's installment comes in the shape of a dancer, repique playing, hard working fun loving mother of two, Sian. A true natural beauty who shows that minimal work can actually lead to maximum effect!

NAME: Sian
AGE: Undisclosed
NATURAL FOR: 20 years / 9 years in Locs

When You Gonna: So Sian, why did you go natural and why locs?

Sian: Because I'm LAZY!! My sister is a hairdresser and so she used to do my hair, but when I had my daughters I needed a low maintenance style so locs it was!

WYG: So it wasn't political for you? You weren't trying to make a stand against the mainstream?

S: Nope. I just needed something easy. I just tie it up and go.

WYG: How often do you get it re-done?

S: I go to the hairdresser every 6 to 8 weeks and let them do their thing. They wash it, re-twist it and I'm good to go.

WYG: Sounds like a complete time saver. Ok, last question. Do you have any favourite products?

S: I really like Rosemary oil which I water down to use. It smells really nice. And my hairdressers at Adornment365 always recommend products to me which I use.

Sian's go-to moisturising Hair Freshener

WYG: Great! Thanks Sian.


**GET INVOLVED!**
If you would like to take part in this feature or know of any Natural Beauties you think we should show here GET IN TOUCH! Email us at: whenyougonnasortyourselfout@gmail.com 

London's Natural Beauties: Exhibit B. Ami

The next installment of London's Natural Beauties was found at The London School of Samba. Dancer, NATURAL BLONDE and general French gorgeousness answers our questions.

NAME: Ami
AGE: 28
NATURAL FOR: 4 and a half years

When You Gonna: Why did you go Natural?

Ami: Because I felt like 'Natural is beautiful' and I wanted to make a statement. I had worn relaxers, weaves and stuff like all Black girls. We are made to feeling that it's prettier, easier, low maintenance and it's what you see on TV and in movies. But I felt that  my natural hair was just as beautiful so here I am.

WYG: Do you find any limitations with your natural hair?

A: My hair is curly but really fine and because it's so light, if I plait it, it makes me look bald! I need to gather a lot of hair to make a style look good.

WYG: Have you tried faux-hawks or pinning up the sides? There are lots of tutorials on Youtube...

A: No, but I definitely will!

WYG: You have such beautiful hair. Natural blonde too! Amazing. OK, finally, do you have a product that you can't live without:

A: Mizani True Textures Curl Stretch. It leaves my hair light and moisturized. I love it.

Ami's Must Have Product for light moisturizing

WYG: Thanks Ami.




**GET INVOLVED!**
If you would like to take part in this feature or know of any Natural Beauties you think we should show here GET IN TOUCH! Email us at: whenyougonnasortyourselfout@gmail.com 

London's Natural Beauties - Exhibit A. Ama

The road to having glorious Natural Hair rarely runs smoothly, and every now and then we need inspirational people to look at and remind ourselves that it's not all for nothing. That although natural hair styles may not be represented widely in the media, we have fabulous ladies representing all over our fair city.

This feature is to recognise some of London's Natural Beauties (...hence the title).

NAME: Ama
AGE: 28
NATURAL FOR:  10 years (Locs-aversary 3 years this September)

When You Gonna:  Why did you go natural?

Ama: I decided it would be healthier for my hair and I had memories of having amazing hair as a kid.  My hair was relaxed when I was 7 and by 18 I felt ready for a change. I'd seen a small image of a woman with beautiful Natural hair in 2-strand twists in Black Hair magazine and had an urge. So I cut my hair off and got that do.

W: What one product could you not live without?

A: Moischa made by my hair salon, Adornment 365. A little bit on my hands and spread evenly through my locs leaves them feeling completely moisturised and healthy. Actually, can I have 2 products?

WYG: Go on then.

A: OK, my second would be Jamaican Black Castor Oil.  Old school but it works. I go to the Naturally Thinking shop in Carshalton or order online to get ingredients to mix with it, such as grapeseed oil, extra virgin coconut oil, avocado oil and essences such as bitter orange and vanilla to get a smell I like. I mix them all in a bottle and spritz it on my locs to retain moisture that way.

Ama's 2nd Must Have

WYG: Thanks Ama, that's all amazing. Finally do you have any top tips for our readers?

A: Yeah, if you like to mix oils or hair treatments, keep them in dark or aluminium bottles to stop the oils from oxidising and losing their goodness.

WYG: Awesome.


**GET INVOLVED!**
If you would like to take part in this feature or know of any Natural Beauties you think we should show here GET IN TOUCH! Email us at: whenyougonnasortyourselfout@gmail.com