Hi, my name is Eugenia, a Ghanaian and I am a naturalista.
I have been natural since 2011. After high school, I just had my hair grow out natural and have had it like that since. I enjoy being a naturalista because it is different from what most ladies have on, though the trend seems to be changing now; gravitating towards more natural haired ladies.
What I like about my hair:
- The texture. Though I have very kinky coily hair, it is not hard to manage and manipulate. Though heat isn’t advised for natural hair, I find that using heat in my hair leaves it in a very stretched-out, easy to manipulate texture. So I still use heat in my hair, though I try to keep it minimal in recent times.
- Styling. I am pretty good at styling my natural hair in different ways (though I’ve been lazy about it lately). My go to style is twist outs held up in a pineapple style. I don’t fancy twists using my own hair. I prefer braids to weaves so I’m usually in the former, and mostly twists with kinky hair attachments because it blends well with my hair and is able to last long.
What I don’t like about my hair
- Growth pattern. I have been growing out my hair for 6 years now but my current hair length and volume isn’t commensurate with its age. This however is my fault because I haven’t taken the time to give it the care it needs to grow; I use heat, and initially used to use shampoos and conditioners that had silicons and parabens.
- Dandruff. I used to battle a very flakey scalp and this made my twists or braids look very dirty and old within a short period of time. One lotion, Diprosin, was recommended to me to treat it and since I started using it in my hair, my dandruff has seen great improvement. It’s almost non-existent.
Products
- Shea butter and Dark and Lovely Corrective Leave-In Conditioner- When I started out; first 3-4 years.
- WeNaturals Hemp Range (shampoo, conditioner, leave in conditioner, oil and hair butter)- started using these in 2015 till date
- Eya Naturals shampoo, conditioner and coconut oil- used them once. Highly recommended
- WeNaturals Castor Oil and EVO oil- since 2016 till date
- Shea Moisture JBCO loc & braid butter- as moisturiser since November 2016
- DNA JBCO- since November 2016
- Cantu Cleansing cream shampoo-since 2017
- Jojoba All Natural Moisturising Shampoo from Eden Bodyworks- Not yet used
Other points
- I don’t follow any laid down hair regimen. I wash and condition my hair at least every 2 weeks, except if I’m in a weave or braids. I use the L.O.C method after shampooing. I use the African thread method to stretch out and dry my hair. However, when I’m hard-pressed for time, I dry my hair in the hairdryer. If my hair is out, I braid or twist it in chunks before sleeping.
- My hair doesn’t like oils. Hot oil treatment, I realised, does nothing to my hair, as it’s expected to. Because of this, I no longer do hot oil treatments.
- Deep conditioning mixture of pear and banana with honey and oil leaves my hair feeling dry. I haven’t taken time to try other deep conditioning combinations so I haven’t deep conditioned my hair in a while; for over 6-8 months now
- Natural hair products are expensive. When I was in university, I couldn’t afford the natural hair products which was why I wasn’t big on them initially. Even though I can manage to afford some of them now, they still cost an arm and a leg.
- Managing natural hair, especially kinky coily hair texture, takes a lot of time and dedication.
- Though my hair is not the length I would have loved for it to be at, I love it all the same and flaunt it.
- I will recommend to other naturalistas to use shea butter in their hair. It makes the hair very soft. Also, for shampoo, you can use black soap (a.k.a Alata samina) if you don’t have any natural hair shampoo
Hacks
- Braid or twist your hair before bed, then undo them in the morning, brush the sides and then hold up in a pony. Number 1 go to style for me.
- For holding your hair, you can use a piece of natural hair attachment from old taken-out twists or braids instead of a hair band. The natural hair piece will blend in with your natural hair and look like you used your own hair as a band.
- To avoid shrinkage, you can braid cornrows or regular braids. They keep the hair in a semi stretched-out state.
