THE STRUGGLES OF HAVING NATURAL HAIR ~BLACK GIRLS

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Hey guysssss!!! Hope y’all are good! Great!

My week went great! I’m working on something really really really nice and no one knows it, not even my friends so yeah, it’s pretty huge, for me and I hope that when it’s out, you guys would be as excited as I am but it’ll probably be out before my birthday next year so don’t anticipate yet till like June 😂.

I also attended two ceremonies last week! One thing I will always love Nigeria for, especially my tribe, is the way we throw our parties. When we want to throw parties, we go all the way innnnnnnn cause it’s either it rocks or it flops, no in between!

So this post has been long requested by you girls (and some guys) and now, I’m delivering. Why?

Because I’m a good person 😌

Basically, I selected girls that I know are pretty serious with their hair, kinda. I am the laziest when it comes to my hair (talking like I’m not lazy with almost every other thing as well) and Sophie, my twinsie (who’s also featuring on today’s post) is always talking about how she takes care of her hair and in my mind I’m like “God, bestow upon me such strength”.

Introducing the blog guests for todayyyy!!!

BLOG GUESTS

Q/A

1. How long have you been growing your hair for?

Blessing: 4 years

Sophie: Since about 2017 (roughly 4 years)

Elizabeth: I cut my hair ending of last year because of breakage so let’s say almost a year now.

2. What type is your hair?

Blessing: Type 4C

Sophie: Mostly 4b

Elizabeth:

3. Do you use DIYs on your hair? If yes, what type?

Blessing: Yes I do. Aloe Vera deep conditioning, ginger and onions pre-poo, coconut oil and egg deep conditioning (I’ve done this just once).

Sophie: Yes….I use anything I can find on the internet but I steer clear from DIYs using eggs, honey and banana just because I personally dont like them (not that they’re bad or anything). I mostly use rice water and deep conditioner DIYs that use avocados mainly because my grandma has them lying all about the house.

Elizabeth: DIYs; I’m not really skilled with these but I try rice water masks once in a while.

4. What do you use to prevent breakage?

Blessing: I steam my hair with some natural products, I use leave in conditioners and I seal my ends.

Sophie: Try putting your hair away in a protective style like braids (make sure they’re not too tight or else you’re going to have even more breakage) and the most important part which most people neglect is to moisturize their hair even in these protective styles. Get a spray bottle, mix some oil, water and leave in conditioner and spritz your scalp regularly. Oh and dont be leaving your braids in for yearssssss…..2 months is fine as long as you’re keeping your braids clean.

Elizabeth: Nothing at all -the height of my laziness- but I’ll try something soon.

5. Why don’t black women like it when people touch our hair?

Blessing: screams slightly in reckless abandon Not after I have combed and arranged my hair! When people touch my hair, I feel like you’ve ruined it in a way or you’re staining my hair or something sha😂

Sophie: When I first went natural, I really liked people touching my hair because people were like “Oh my God your hair is really growing!” They loved it and I kinda felt proud about that but now it’s like people want to poke their fingers in your hair like they can’t believe a black person can have so much hair. It’s even worse when you go abroad because they just stare and some people will actually come up to you and touch it without asking. Some people are fine with it, if you ask, but others just don’t dont want you to touch their hair.
Plus I put a lot of work into making my hair look good and neat all for someone to touch it and ruin it.

Elizabeth: First of all, we don’t like unnecessary attention simply because everything about us is different (the sort of attention you would give to a pink lion in the zoo) and it takes a lot of time and energy to get our hair done. I personally would go ghetto on anybody who touches my hair after all the sweat and blood I put into styling it.

6. What is your favorite updo or style?

Blessing: The regular Afro puff

Sophie: I really love twist and knotless braids.

Elizabeth: It has to be a low bun; easy to do and very versatile.

7. What product do you recommend for girls (or guys) who want to grow their natural hair?

Blessing: Coconut oil, Shea butter, Castor oil, Leave In conditioner, Hair bonnet.

Sophie: Asides the basic shampoo and conditioner, always always always have oils even if you dont have a leave in conditioner. I always have coconut, castor oil and shea butter, you can have coconut, olive, castor, almond, jojoba, argan oil, etc. DIYs are a good option if you’re a natural on a budget.

Elizabeth: Omo I don’t know – maybe rice water masks ?

8. What’s your usual wash day like?

Blessing: Omoooooooo! It’s a lot of stress!😩 it’s a lot of work and the shrinkage that occurs afterwards is just sad but A girl’s hair has to be clean right?

Sophie: I start by sectioning my hair into about 8 parts (4 on each side) and braiding each of them
Shampooing my scalp
Conditioning my entire head
I deep condition and wrap my hair in a plastic bag and towel
Wait for about an hour then rinse it off
Then moisturize my hair with a leave in conditioner, shea butter and coconut oil.
It’s a long process but it’s worth it.

Elizabeth: Jesus ! God save us ! Help me someone !
I usually don’t attempt to wash my hair myself, my mom helps me or I go to a salon

9. Why are Black women worried about getting their hair wet?

Blessing: The shrinkage!! One minute your hair is long and you’re feeling yourself, the next minute, it looks really small and you’ll be wondering where your hair left you for.

Sophie: I think because of the shrinkage but I’m not really afraid of it. Shrinkage is annoying but it’s nothing to be afraid of. Shrinkage actually indicates healthy hair so embrace it.

Elizabeth: To me, this would apply to black women with natural hair. When water touches natural hair, it goes right back to its original curly thick state. Talk about hours wasted on flat ironing.

10. What are the struggles of growing your natural hair?

Blessing: Forgetting to wear a bonnet before you fall asleep after a long day. Just be ready to go to war with your hair.

Sophie: I’d say the negative stereotypes surrounding it, how seen as unprofessional and all that. There’s also so much information about natural hair that we want to absorb it all but you cant absorb it all. Just find out what your hair likes, make a regimen and stick to it. Another problem is impatience, our hair’s real length is always hidden because of the doily nature and because of shrinkage, your hair doesnt look like its growing because it’s all curly and then you get impatient because you’re not seeing the results that your friend got or that YouTuber got. Another issue is comparing your hair to people of different hair types. You sit down and cry because your 4c hair isnt growing like that of your biracial friend with 3c/4a hair type. Natural hair needs time, patience and a lot of love.

Elizabeth: I don’t take care of my hair which is a bad thing. I attribute it to laziness but I think the main struggle is trying to maintain moisture and retain the oils/conditioners you put into it. My hair is really thick and it takes quite a lot for products to penetrate, products other people might use in a month, I would use in less.

11. Does trimming actually help grow your hair?

Blessing: Welllll, trimming only helps when you have split ends. If not, do not trim your hair! Do not!

Sophie: Trimming doesnt help your hair grow per say. It just saves the rest of the length of your hair. If you have split ends you should be trimming your ends maybe every 6 months or so. You trim the dead ends to save the rest of the hair because the hair will keep splitting upwards and it will eventually break off and you’ll lose more length than if you had just trimmed it from the beginning.

Elizabeth: I don’t really trim ; most of the time I go with big chops. Until recently I didn’t know the benefits of trimming, I was raised to believe big chops help with growth.

12. Do you get questions like “Is that your real hair?” Or “is that all yours?” And what’s your response?

Blessing: Yes I do😂 I say yes and smile. Sometimes I flaunt it more after I say yes because it’s not easy!

Sophie: I go “yep”, then they start touching my hair or looking at my scalp. I even had a classmate ask if I was fully Nigerian. I hate how we associate really long, thick hair with being biracial. Anyone can have long and thick hair if you put the work in.

Elizabeth: Yes and it can get very embarrassing so I usually don’t let my hair down around people. I go with a bun or cornrows

13. Words of encouragement to the people who are thinking of transitioning back to their natural hair or those who are about to start growing it from the scratch?

Blessing: The natural hair journey is worth it! Just be ready for the stress, have the necessary products and use them accordingly. Also, use more natural products because finding the right product for your hair might turn you to a product junkie.

Sophie: I actually wanted to go natural since js3, my best friend had really long and thick natural hair and whenever she loosened her hair, she’d put it in a puff and I was always jealous of that, I wanted my hair to do that. I told my hairdresser I wanted to go natural but she really discouraged me saying “natural hair doesnt grow”, “if you transition, all your hair will fall out”, “your hair will be hard and tough to manage”, etc. She put so many bad thoughts about natural hair in my head but I’ve always been a stubborn kid😅. I did it anyway and honestly my hair has never been this long or healthy. I’ve never had this information on hair either. Do your research and think if its something you’re able to handle. At the beginning it might be scary because there’s so much information out there and you want to absorb as much of it as you can but take it easy, listen to your hair and observe what it likes and doesn’t like. Follow YouTube channels that talk about hair OF YOUR TYPE. When I was relaxed, I was always following hair care videos from white women.🤦🏽‍♀️

Elizabeth: I told my best friend this- transition because you want to, not because everyone is doing it and it seems like a cool trend to follow. Natural hair is expensive af to maintain especially if you don’t know your hair type. The products and the time and energy; don’t transition unless you know that you can keep up. Your hair might not be like all those transformations videos of relaxed to natural hair videos you see on tiktok or IG and then you’ll start to have unnecessary worries about why your hair growth is slow or why it doesn’t curl like in the videos you see. Conclusion: don’t do it if you can’t keep up with it.

And this is where y’all go: Thank you Ib! We love you!

And then I would go: Awwwnnn *blushes*

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed the post and for those of you that are currently trying to grow your hair then you can message anyone of them in their social media handles which will be right below this

Blessing: Snapchat: bleh_ish
Twitter: Black_specie
Instagram: blessinggilbert_

Sophie: Instagram: @s_omo.x

Elizabeth: Instagram: @elizabethmeebi

Alright guyssssss, I really hope you enjoyed this post! If you did, kindly like, comment down below and share the link! Love you, byeee!!!

Till next week, drops ink