By CHINELO EZE
As a stylist specializing in natural African hair, what transformations have you witnessed in your clients when they decide to embrace their natural texture?
Just to clarify I am a natural hair coach and a brand founder, so I don’t style hair, I teach people how to grow their hair to longer lengths and care for it. I have coached hundreds of women.
I have witnessed numerous transformations when women decide to embrace their hair. For example, many become emboldened to wear their natural hair to work for the very first time. This often translates to increased confidence in themselves which many say affects their work positively. I have seen women decide to wear their hair on their wedding day, graduation and even to normal social functions. These women often report feeling more confident, and happy, with the added belief that they are capable of going on to achieve other things. Many also use the word ‘freedom” a lot. Sometimes we forget or rather get so accustomed to the discomfort of wearing added hair on our head. Many welcome the freedom.
I must however say it is not always positive. Nigerian women especially report negative comments from family members, being called ‘ house girl’ to looking” poor” to some people suggesting they will find it hard to find partners with natural hair. Sadly, this has discouraged some people from progressing on their journey to embracing their hair.
What are some common mistakes people make when caring for their kinky hair, and what advice can you offer to maintain and celebrate its natural beauty?
Braids are destroying a lot of people’s hair, including our children’s hair!
The most common mistake I observe is the overuse of braids, weaves and wigs, especially when women go back-to-back with braids or weaves or from braids to weaves. Or even just relying on these for too many years. The frequent tension on the scalp, the tension on the strands of hair and the dryness of the artificial fibre all contribute to long-term damage. This damage is often worse on the edges or temple of the hair. Too many women have lost too much hair on their edges, and it is making them look considerably older. Sadly, they then find themselves trying to camouflage it.
While I sometimes support the use of a fibre spray to camouflage the loss, others try to camouflage the hair loss by wearing wigs or weaves, and the wigs just press on the edges creating further tension that worsens the situation. Others persist with the same braids but will opt for a middle-parting, this does not help! it still rubs on the sides. What I want to get through to people is this braids should be done occasionally, not 5 times a year! And no one should be braiding 3-year-old hair or adding extra hair to a child that is below the age of 8 years old. This can be problematic for their scalp hair and future hair development. This trend of adding hair to babies’ hair or braiding two-year-olds hair is damaging and extremely unfortunate.
In your experience, how do societal standards and media influence the choices people make regarding their hair, and how can individuals counteract these influences?
I often experience different attitudes between my Nigerian clients and my British clients. The societal standards, pressure and media influence in Nigeria are still not favourable to natural hair, especially amongst corporate Nigerians. I have worked with senior executives in the Nigerian banking sector who absolutely cannot wear their hair to work because some of the Banks have draconian and outdated HR policies around dress codes. Policies that are not inclusive of our beautiful hair. I will never forget the sadness and frustration of one of my clients who suffered from Traction Alopecia but still could not give up weaves and wigs because that was the expectation of the sector. Culturally we have interpreted professional to mean straight or European-looking hair. We don’t even question this.
How many times have you seen Executive Directors of banks in simple cornrows? Or African Didi? Or with just their natural hair in a bun? Very rarely, and staff internalise this. What we are inadvertently saying is that how we come is not enough that we must adopt the look of the West to be professional. Of course, we often hide behind ‘ natural hair is hard and difficult to manage’ but it is not. What many struggle with is the reality of the visuals. We must be honest with ourselves.
One of my younger clients was told by her female boss that natural hair was not acceptable in the office. She stopped. The corporate image in Nigeria needs to evolve. This will also help to tackle the massive wave of hair loss I see. The Oil and Gas sector is just as bad, in fact, corporate Nigeria, a lot of them, seem to be stuck in a very Western idea of what a professional looks like. And the West itself seem to be moving on much faster from these ideals. Firstly, in the UK it is illegal to discriminate based on hair. Secondly, there is now a strong movement towards embracing ourselves as we are and not twisting and bending to conform to standards that are not inclusive.
In the media, things are still behind across all countries. What we still get as the standard or ideal beauty is straight or looser curls. Nollywood bombards us with this as well as Hollywood. I have begun to speak with a few people in Nollywood and they are open to change and diversity in beauty which is very heartwarming.
It is very hard for individuals to counteract this because their livelihoods depend on it. What I encourage is more dialogue with bosses and HR, but many do not feel confident, they don’t want to be labelled as trouble makers and they want to progress so they often can’t speak up. I think we need to appeal to workplaces to review their hair policies. The happier your staff are in themselves, the more productive they will be. Let us not forget that wigs in particular are not the most comfortable either! Some women are dealing with low-level discomfort throughout the day, imagine how much more comfortable many would feel without the additions – it could transform productivity, but we are stuck with an image of a professional that is not ours or is no longer serving us. It is odd.
Can you recommend some styling tips or products that can help people confidently showcase their African hair’s unique beauty?
I recommend getting into the habit of washing your hair regularly, weekly or twice a month.
As for styling, I will ask women to use my 3 E’s as a guide. So, ask yourself these questions. Is it easy on the scalp? Is it easy on the strands? Is it easy to down? If you answer No to any of these questions do not do the hairstyle or do it infrequently. The simpler the styling, the better for your scalp and hair health.
How do you collaborate with organizations like the NGO we’re featuring to empower individuals to love and appreciate their kinky hair?
I have been a huge fan of Lekia’s work for many years. I have spoken at her events, I have collaborated with her on projects like her survey and supported with giveaways. She is doing a wonderful job and I hope we find even more ways to work together in the future.
As a hair coach who has worked with hair, especially black women’s hair, why do you think they don’t like their hair, or is that changing and why do you think there’s a change?
You are correct, many people don’t like their hair, but many don’t even admit this. Instead, they will say “It’s hard, difficult, tough, unruly’ and use many other negative descriptions that I hate repeating. But we were not born disliking our hair, we were conditioned to. If you look at magazines, movies, TV, actresses, actors, and even in a fashion that is a lot more sympathetic to natural hair, the overwhelming image of beauty is straight, wavy or long hair. You also have to understand that many businesses benefit from us disliking our hair, the wigs and weave market benefit and so they will push and push and give you what seems like an easy option – opt out of dealing with your hair completely. But this harms individuals and even our confidence as a people.
Let’s look at popular culture, how many of the Big Brother contestants have worn their natural hair? how many of the top Nollywood/Hollywood actresses have natural hair that they wear proudly and often? Having natural hair under wigs and braids all the time does not count. We need the visuals of natural hair. I can only think of two actresses in Nigeria who constantly give us that visuals Kate Henshaw and Beverley Naya. Look we even had a pastor recently go viral for telling women NOT to wear their hair because it will prevent them from finding a husband. All the messaging around young black girls and women is saying it is not nice, so how can they like it? Of course, things are changing but it is very slowly. To love our hair despite the external hate requires intentionally loving it, it requires being a little bit of a rebel, it requires not following the crowd and it requires acceptance of criticism. This is difficult. It is sometimes difficult for me and I teach it daily. I grew into completely loving my hair because I no longer wanted to hide behind wigs and weaves. Things are changing slowly.
What are the myth busters about the afro/kinky hair?
That our hair is strong and tough – it is not. It is scientifically shown to be the most fragile of hair types because of the coils, each coil and twist makes it more susceptible to breakage so we are the group that should do the least to our hair, but the ones who do the most.
We don’t need to wash regularly – washing every week is optimal, every 10 days is second best and no one should be going for over two weeks without cleaning the scalp that excretes its oils which must be cleansed off frequently for growth and a healthy scalp.
Braids grow hair. Braids don’t grow hair, your hair is growing because you are alive and healthy. Sometimes, people see length retention with braids i.e increased length because they have left their hair alone, but this added length can also be achieved by simplifying one’s styling without the disadvantages that come with braids sometimes eg tension on the scalp, tightness, harsh on thin strands. People with thin hair should braid less.
Our hair can’t grow long. I have proved this with my clients and their children, time and time again that our hair can grow incredibly long! I have clients with waist-length hair, some are at bra strap and below. We believed this myth for a while! Even I did! Until I grew my hair past my bra strap!
