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?
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:
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?
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 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!
WYG: Top tips?
 |
| 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
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!
WYG: Thank you very much Isabelle, some wise words if we ever did hear them!
So true Izzy, "regaining the respect for our own individuality" - my respect to you. Greg
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