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They made it very clear that no self-respecting, style-conscious young woman would be seen dead in the outdated, childish style of braids I wanted.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!

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!

Carnaval carry on

Rio from Sugar Loaf Mountain (photo Miguel Buergo)

 



This time last year I was in Rio de Janeiro for Carnaval!

I have never, and probably will never experience anything like it.  It's an multi-sensory assault on your person that just keeps coming.   They don't call it the biggest show on earth for nothing.  This year it's Karla's turn to go crazy at Carnival, and knowing how much of a Brasilophile she is, she'll have been going hard on the Samba for the past month.  Can't wait to hear all of her tales when she gets back!

In Brazil Carnival isn't just something to do one bank holiday at the end of summer like it is here in London.  In the run up to Lent,  it's the one time of year when norms are turned on their head.   People from all corners of society collectively let out what seems like a long held breath, temporarily leaving stresses behind and embracing the spirit of fantasy, realisation of imagination and jubilation that is Carnaval.  Street parties, parades and general gatherings of all sizes attract the oldest and youngest to celebrate, dance and have fun.

Samba is at the heart of many communities in Brazil and Carnaval is the pinnacle of this.  Samba schools work throughout the year and invest hundreds if not thousands of hours and enough money to make your eyes water, into Carnaval. Each school can take thousands of their participants out on parade, giving their members the chance to publicly show their immense pride in the community that is their samba school.

The flag bearers of Rocinha samba school (Miguel Buergo)

Last weekend, Rio Samba schools paraded in the famous Marquis de Sapucai Sambadrome.  The annual event is judged and this year's results were announced on Wednesday. 2013's victors of Group Especiale, the top ranking group, are [*drum roll*]....Vila Isabel.  Tomorrow night they'll head up the Champions Parade in the Sambadrome, along with the other top 6 schools: Beija Flor, Tijuca, Imperatriz, Salgueiro and Grande Rio.  

Clara Paixao

So, before it's all over for another year I had to feature this stunning woman, Clara Paixao from Beija Flor samba school. I'll level with you, I'm a lil' bit obsessed.  This woman is gorgeous, a great dancer AND the proud owner of a lovely head of Natural hair.  Clara has talked about how she has received negative comments for not wearing weaves or straightening her hair, the default for many women samba dancers in Brazil, and how she's chosen to embrace her natural hair because she sees it as an important part of being a mulata .  This insightful article from Black Women of Brazil tries to define what a mulata is.

In November, Clara came second runner up (Princessa) in the 2013 Rainha do Carnaval (Queen of Carnival) competition. It's a prestigious contest. The winner was Evelyn Bastos from Mangueira, an equally stunning and phenomenal dancer and only 18 years old at the time!  Check her out too, I could be wrong but I think she also has natural hair.  This summer I'll hopefully get the opportunity to see both Clara and Evelyn in flesh, when I go to Coburg International Samba festival in Germany. Til then I'll try to keep my stalking to a minimum!

Here's a video of Clara's routine and her being crowned 2nd Princessa, loving her tiara topped fro at the end.

Kanika x

p.s. I'm pretty sure you can watch the Champions parade live online tomorrow. If I find the right link I'll update the post with it before tomorrow night.

My first Natural Hair event

Last month I well and truly fell face first off the blogging band wagon.  I've been a bad blogger.  Mainly preoccupied with sorting shit out, starting a new job and such, but I'm here to make amends!


Three weeks ago, Friday 25th January to be exact, I finally got my act together and made it to my first natural hair event, the Nubian Beauty and Photography event in Stratford!
Hosted by and featuring a photography exhibition by Louise Sam, the night was held at Purely Natural.  I'm not familiar with the area so had no idea this salon, which caters for Afro and Natural Afro Hair existed, but you learn something new everyday!  Word on the street is that they were enlisted to groom the hair Ms Knowles the younger when she was in town recently, so if it's good enough for her...

Nubian Beauty and Photography Event Friday 25th Jan 2013

Of course, my week old hair do was looking a little tired thanks to a sweaty samba session the night before.  Hiding my messy barnet underneath a hat would have defeated the purpose of the game, so Friday afternoon was spent trying to revive a dishevelled 2 strand twist into a halfway decent up do!

I met my friend and fellow natural head Ami beforehand,  both natural hair event virgins we were equally excited and not really sure what to expect.  As soon as we got there however, the smiley faces and spread of nibbles put us at ease.  Yes, we've both craven but hey, there are worse vices!

Karla's hairstory...in pictures

I've been putting this off for months but it's a new year now, no more procrastination.

Kanika delved deep into her soul to write about her life and experiences with her hair MONTHS ago and I still haven't managed to post mine.

It's not that I don't want to share my story - the reason I decided to stop relaxing my hair which led to my frantic search for UK based Natural Hair blogs, which led to the creation of this blog - I just can't seem to find an appropriate starting point. As you can see, I've written about practically everything else I think about. The way I feel about pressure to be married already, my response to the 'OMG THERE ARE NO BLACK GIRLS ON GIRLS!' furore, yet my reason for joining forces with my friend to write about my coming to terms with my God given hairtype, I guess isn't immediately apparent.

So here it is in pictures for your perusal.


Once upon a time there was a little girl named Karla-Jayne who had 'soft hair'. Her mother would wash it with aloe vera that she would buy from Brixton market so it would grow long and stay soft.

Kanika's Hair regime

My regime is very simple and I do the same thing throughout the year.  I reckon I can get away with this because in London, the seasons can meld into one!  Humidity can be a challenge, but it's rarely too hot or cold to bother with fancy pants, seasonal specific regimes. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!   However, I have also been too lazy, cautious and poor to experiment with lots of different products and techniques, so my reggy has remained pretty much the same for the last 3 years.

I have a lot of hair and try to treat it as gently as possible, but lawdy sometimes it tries my patience! This is what I have to deal with.

Crazy girl hair  - 

Big 'n' poofy at the root, stretched at the ends 

& producty. Time for a wash!

Hair texture

My hair’s like an unruly child, who hates doing what it’s told and loves to run wild and free. It’s thick, dense, with I think normal porosity (but I'm still trying to work that out) and type wise it's a mixture of 3C & 4A. I haven’t properly checked the length for 18mnths when I had my last trim (I know, I know, I’m bad) but it’s about bra-strap length. Here is good guide from NaturallyCurly.com about texture typing. 

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 

#TexturedChats

Last night (or early this morning) I took part in a twitter conversation lead by YouTubers and Natural Hair advocates and vloggers Mahogany Curls

Subscribe to her youtube channel y'all!

and Jouelzy.

Subscribe to her channel too!!

Things like this are why I love today's society and social media. During another insomnia laden night, I was able to sit and discuss my hair, fears and issues with these women so far away from me but experiencing the same things. No matter where you live, a lot of Natural hair issues are the same.

Misconceptions about Natural Hair looking unprofessional lit a major spark in conversation. Women were commenting that in the Southern States, it was more likely to be other Black people most likely to give you a side eye if you walk in with big hair. Someone else said it was like people could only deal with Afro hair if you have perfectly defined curls so that they can compare you to Beyonce and 'understand' you and your hair this way. 

The idea of this Natural Hair movement being a lifestyle rather than a trend was an interesting topic. 

Jouelzy ‏@Jouelzy

Even if you view being natural as a lifestyle, you have to remember to not let it define u. Hair is versatile @MahoganyCurls#texturedchats

I guess for myself, it is a new way of life as it's ushered in a new way that I think about and see myself. I look in the mirror and what I see is different from what I've seen over the past 19years. But I'm growing more confident in knowing that it is all me.


The key idea was that whether it is a trend or a lifestyle, to all of these women working with their hair in its natural state was important enough that they invested real time, money and interest into discovering this element of themselves they, no, we've been fighting for so long: our hair. Just because it's not straight doesn't make us ugly or unprofessional. It's not something to stare at in confusion or disgust. If your hair stylist tries to put you off transitioning from relaxed to straightened hair - time to change stylists. If your hair stylist complains they can't do anything with your curls, tell them to subscribe to any number of YouTube channels showing which products to use, how to use them and styles to try. For me and many others I discovered, finding hair tutorials on YouTube was pivotal in my deciding having curly hair WAS something I wanted and having pretty styles WAS something I could achieve.

Most importantly, we're doing this so that our daughters will grow up seeing women with beautiful curly hair and will learn to love theirs instead of aspiring for straight blonde hair like I did as a girl. Took me a while to get here, but I'm so glad I'm here now. And I'm super glad to know that I'm not alone.

                          

                              Gotta learn to love your hair so little girls watching you will love theirs too.

Karla

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 

The Secret to Having Long Hair...for Black Girls

"Babe, Afro hair doesn't grow like ours does. That's why they have short hair and wear fake hair. That's right isn't it?" The enlightened blonde explained to her silly boyfriend and then turns to me to back her up.

"Ummmm, no I don't think that's right", I tried to explain, but I admit, I was confused. Why wasn't my hair as long as hers? Since my hair had been relaxed, the longest it had been was bra strap length (before the 'Rachel haircut' episode. Please, I don't wanna talk about it), but I had been rocking a long bob for about 7 years at that point. Regular trimming/haircuts always resulted in my hair seeming to constantly stay the same length.

Since growing out my relaxed hair and cutting off the straight ends, I realised that the problem had been the chemicals in the relaxer. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. The fact that I often had a burned scalp after having my curly roots relaxed combined with the fact that every day I would shake whole strands of hair out of my head when I woke up, probably did not bode well for my attempts to grow my hair long. Now, chemical free, the edges of my hair which were the most prone to breaking, are the longest they've been in years and my hair feels healthy and strong. Now's it's just a matter of time before I achieve the hair length I enjoyed as a child, BR (Before Relaxer).

Recently, my trusty YouTube suggestions guide introduced me to the video blogger Franchesca Ramsey (aka @ChescaLeigh aka the Creator of Shit White Girls Say...to Black Girls) and a product she and a few other people were advertising to those waiting and willing their hair to grow.

           

Patience.

Sometimes you just need reminding.

Karla

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 

Hair story so far...part 1

The different definitions of what it is to be ‘Natural’ are as varied as there are heads of hair. For some this means sticking to strict regimes that cut out chemicals, heat styling and other techniques that can be damaging to hair.  But for others it’s as simple as consigning the creamy crack to room101. 

For us being natural translates as, trying to cut down on things like sulphates, silicones, reducing heat use and using natural products where possible; but whatever happens - NO CHEMICAL STRAIGHTENER!

Neither one of us are Natural Nazis, we don’t follow elaborate set routines and don’t do a great deal with our hair.  We’re at different stages of our hair journey but we are both determined to persevere with this Natural stuff, to learn more, experiment more and take care of what it is growing out of our scalps!

So, how did we go from curly to straight to curly again? ......Read on.

Kanika’s hair story

Protective styling 'n' profiling

My hair has been never chemically straightened, but that did not equate with healthy hair...   Operation Healthy Natural Hair started in November 2009, but 3 years on I haven’t reached my hair goals and I still have a lot to learn. 

I’m a low maintenance kinda gal who’s never done much to my hair and is pretty useless at styling it. But in spite of that, or maybe because of it, my hair was always thick, strongish and lengthy. Unfortunately, my persistent thinning and dry ends with their splits aplenty, were a tell tale sign that my barnet was in need of some extra TLC. I was always told I had ‘good hair’, but that was little consolation when it never seemed to behave itself and I struggled to retain length, something I just got used to and accepted. The culprit: too much blowdrying, not enough conditioning and some heavy handed treatment.

Why Natural?

Because natural hair is:

Versatile, Able to get wet, Linked to a sense of IDENTITY, different, it's own kind of beautiful, Political, Healthier, LIBERATING, About Independence (I know my hair, thank you), FUN, Pretty, A way to stand out from the crowd (in a good way), A test of patience, A test of creativity, Challenging - and Rewarding,

Our way of expressing ourselves.