Highlights of the Natural Hair meet up (2)

...Continued from the previous post

Next came screwy hair. She commenced her session with a presentation titled Kitchen Beautician. Basically, what this means is that what are those things you can readily find in your kitchen and at the same time, can be used for conditioning your hair? Some of these are

Apple Cider Vinegar, Lime and Lemon, milk, Honey, Black tea, eggs, avocado, mayonnaise, yoghurts, banana, coconut oil, olive oil, jojoba oil, castor oil, shea butter, henna, sweet almond oiul, aloe vera juice/gel/plant

She went ahead to explain each item in detail, but as we know, I will never finish this post if I put all that here. Some of the points she made are

• Make sure the olive oil is extra virgin and cold press
• Castor oil doesn’t make hair grow faster, but it makes it stronger, thereby reducing breakage and resulting in hair retention. This is why people think it makes hair grow faster
• Don’t rub shea butter on a dry hair, it will most likely not be effective this way, apply it on a damp hair
• Don’t put your shea butter in a microwave oven when you want to melt it. Use a bowl with hot water in it. This will make sure the shea butter retains its nutrients
• Use a T-shirt to dry your hair, instead of a towel, in order to avoid damaging your cuticles (eye opener for me)
• Cover your hair with a satin bonnet, before going to bed to help trap in moisture
• Raw silk is not good for your hair
• Managing your hair is not about the products you use, it has more to do with technique

She then went on to talk about finding products in Lagos. this was more of an interactive session

Markets and Villages: honey, shea butter, abakaliki rice

Grocery stores and Pharmacies: Olive oil, Mayonnaise, Yoghurt, castor oil, jojoba oil and other essential oils

Next came our one and only natmane to work on our confidence. She talked about loving your natural hair and carrying it with courage. It was really inspirational. People were loving it and laughing all through. Some of her points were

• Detangle your hair with your hand, as much as possible

Ways of stretching your hair

• No heat method: Braids, twists, flexi rods, banding and threading
• Low heat methods: Roller setting, blow drying
• 
  
• Be sure to use a heat protectant before applying heat to your hair

She talked about caring for your locks and made so many points

She then went on to talk about battling the evil forces of salons. People were rolling on the floor at this point. The highlights are

• Teach your stylist how to wash your hair or do it yourself
• Teach your stylist how to comb your hair or do it yourself
• Do not let your stylist comb your hair with the ‘evil small comb’ (she was talking about the famous small blue comb)
• Bring a clean old cotton T-shirt to the salon to dry your hair
• Do not let your stylist roughly towel dry your hair
• Always make your stylist sections your hair when washing, conditioning or styling

She then proceeded to do what she knows how to do best - make someone’s hair. At this point, I wished I had gone to the meet up with an unmade hair.

We wrote our hair goals on the wall, I hope I can achieve these goals, there was a raffle draw. I met lovely people and made some connections

I am sure you do not want to miss the next one, I will communicate the date whenever they start making arrangements for it.

P.S: I was interviewed by Omozo of O'naturals, another natural hair blogger. I believe you will pick one or two points about your hair from the interview. You can read it up by clicking here.

P.S.S: From, the natural hair poll gadget, we can see that the major issue people have with their natural hair at the moment is styling, followed by maintenance. If you haven't clicked, plese, do so now so that we can know your needs and try our best to meet them. Thanks, meet you at the next post.