The natural hair movement

[blackgothicdoll]

Interesting thread. I don't know my ethnicity more than I'm black American, that's about it. Most of us are 70-85% African, the rest depends on what other ethnicities were enslaved with our ancestors or where our ancestors sewed their roots following freedom (for those of us whose roots involved slavery, my dad's side did, my mom's is a mystery). Anyhow, my skin tone is enough to tell me or anyone else I am a black American, I can do what I please with my hair.

I had a white male tell me when I wore my hair straight it was cultural appropriation of Europeans... Clearly a troll but seriously, who cares? I don't think I've seen much of the militant natural thing going around recently (re: if you relax your hair you hate yourself) but I do remember when the NHM first exploded there was plenty of that.

I digress, I never knew going natural was an option at all until we got a high school student who transferred from Florida I think, with long natural hair she wore straight sometimes. This was 2009/2010. It wasn't a big movement then, so when I told my mom I wanted to stop gettng relaxers she thought I was crazy and said 'you NEED a relax, your hair is nappy'. I still big chopped in 2010, was made fun of until I went to college and a lot of people my age had started going natural as well.

Tangent aside, I think the movement is wonderful to show people that there are other options. It's not just black women, it's women with a texture of hair who have been trained in some way to change their texture. It's nice to show all of us that we can grow our hair from the roots, without heat or chemicals or what not and still be beautiful.

Today, it's more about product reviews, consumerism, fads, clickbait and page traffic. Could live without it and that's actually what brought me to this forum. I don't want to buy a million products or rub mud on my hair I just want to stop damaging it and treating it like crap. I tend to watch videos of most curly hair just because curly hair is natural hair and vice versa. I do understand the difference culturally, but I also hate divisiveness as well as the monetization of women struggling with their hair.

So in summary, I have mixed feelings about how it's started and where it's going.

[proo]

Thanks for chiming in blackgothicdoll-
I find these circuitous stories of owning one’s uniqueness fascinating!
Could you share some bullet points of your current routine please?

[blackgothicdoll]

Hi proo! I currently am still working on it, but have been consistently using pointers from 1ballerina (YouTube): https://fas.org/sgp/library/quist2/index.html and herlucidsky (fotki): https://public.fotki.com/Herlucidsky/my-natural-hair-/

What they both do is stretch their hair with braids and wear braid-outs as their texture. The only difference is I don't wear my hair out because I have a lot of straight hair from heat damage, so I bun it or dutch braids, or otherwise style the resulting braid waves. It helps avoid knots and tangles from shrinkage, and helps me efficiently apply product to my hair. I also use shea butter, which they both recommend. So my routine is:

Heavy oil/Hot oil Treatment: Warm oil and apply heavily to hair and scalp, leave on for 3 hours or overnight
Condition: (CWC), the first conditioner helps get the oil out because the shampoo alone won't.
Wash: Shampoo, sulfate or sulfate free alternating
Condition: Second condition, sometimes a deep conditioner

Then I style using LCO, usually Kinky Curly Knot Today, whipped shea butter, and any oil (I have so many). I put in my 10-12 braids, let those braids dry for an entire day, then I take them out and usually go right to dutch braids to stretch the curls out even more. As the week passes I can do buns and such.

[proo]

Thanks for all that bgd-
How often do you shampoo?
Do you consider porosity?

[blackgothicdoll]

Thanks for all that bgd-
How often do you shampoo?
Do you consider porosity?

I don't really have a routine, usually just when I feel the need to, which can be anywhere between 3-7 days, 5 being the most likely. I used to consider porosity, but honestly lately I've totally forgotten about it. My hair seems to fit the description of low porosity, but I've never done a porosity test as I read they can be inaccurate.

[proo]

Are protein treatments in your rotation?

[lapushka]

I have watched the hype evolve on YT. It probably will come and go like any other new fad. I have no intention of wasting rice for this. If it is at all a waste; nor am I prepared to put this on my head; I have plenty of "real" products to use up. Even though, some companies have jumped on the bandwagon and are doing some form of rice water in their products - they are out there!

[Hairkay]

I have watched the hype evolve on YT. It probably will come and go like any other new fad. I have no intention of wasting rice for this. If it is at all a waste; nor am I prepared to put this on my head; I have plenty of "real" products to use up. Even though, some companies have jumped on the bandwagon and are doing some form of rice water in their products - they are out there!

Yes that trend will run it's course until the next one. I will happily use DIY stuff because that's most suitable for my situation. I knew about using oats long before someone mentioned it on youtube and I do use that. Rice would suit those who regularly cook with it so it's readily available to them. This would be those who have trouble getting hair products due to cost or lack of access or allergy problems.

[blackgothicdoll]

Well, lately I do swear by flax seed gel, I add some shea butter and a tbsp of fenugreek seeds while cooking it and it's the best thing since sliced bread. Most gels dry out my hair or have protein, or smell too much, etc, so gel was the one product I just could not find a match for in almost 10 years (well, ecostyler olive was a hit until they changed their formula, now it does not work in my humid area). I tried rice water but wasn't really impressed enough to continue it... plus the sanitary concerns of putting anything fermented in my hair. :/

proo I do a protein treatment generally when I think to myself 'huh, when's the last time I did a protein treatment'? Lol. I think I don't actually need them, because months can pass and I will see no sign of moisture overload or of even desiring protein. It's usually an afterthought, to be safe, or because I've heard I'm supposed to do it so I really can't give any true experience regarding protein for my hair. :/

[meteor]

I definitely learned a lot from the natural hair movement... mostly techniques, especially:

- oil rinses (they are sometimes called "ROO - rinse-out oil" on the LHC, for some reason),
- squish-to-condish,
- pre-poo and other forms of oiling,
- LOC,
- silky scarves for bed,
- protective styling in different ways that can actually can look interesting (including experimenting with synthetic hair instead of messing with your own natural hair),
- washing hair in sections (in braids) and other forms of tangle prevention and management... and the list goes on and on.

Even though I can use only a couple ideas at this point (silk scarves and sectioned washing), since my hair is too long now for anything other than benign neglect at this point, other ideas are still solid and can work for many heads of hair.

But I think the most important thing I learned was to take hair seriously and not chop it off just because it can take a bit of time sometimes. Natural hair movement turned around my hair philosophy completely, because I used to think that if hair is too massive to handle, then I should just cut it, but NHM promotes a lot of patience and acceptance, there is also no shaming for significant lengths. If anything, there is an actual appreciation/respect of length, including on men and kids.

I think overall it's pretty helpful.
Oh, and my favorite naturalistas are probably the Urban Bush Babes (Cipriana and TK Quann), but I like many others that were mentioned here, too.