Who are the true naturals?

#TBT

So yesterday, I heard about a massive sale on virgin hair by a big retail hair store in Lagos. Being the cheap person that I am, my attention was drawn to the word SALE. LOL.

So, I thought to go have a look; if the price was right I would get me some exotic virgin hair.

I did find something that was good for my wallet. I got two bundles and closure 10 inches natural color, which was made into a wig.  I wanted to have it colored to a light brown but story changed when I asked how much that would cost. (I can color my hair myself! MTCHWEE)

Feeling content, I showed my boyfriend my new acquisition and he said “but are you not natural, why do you need this human hair stuff?" And I said “because I have natural hair doesn't mean I can't wear other types of hair. His response was “NO! That doesn't make you a true natural". We had a long conversation about the matter and we agreed to disagree. 

Our conversation brought to mind an argument I saw online once within the natural hair community. There was #teamnaturalwithoutanyextensions, #teamnaturalwhowearextentions #teamnaturalwhodonotGAF (I made up the hashtags)

Tips on taking off braids

I hate taking out braids myself; however I would rather do it myself than endure the pulling of hair at the salon.

This time I intentionally asked for big braids so taking them out wouldn’t be too much of a challenge for and I wouldn’t lose too many hours in the process.

After the braiding was done three weeks ago, the lady used moose to prevent the hair from looking untidy prematurely. Natural hair tends to stick of the Kankalon fiber after a few days, so moose helps keep my natural hair stiff in the braid. 

When undoing braids in the past I’ve lost hair in the process due to dry/stiff hair.  So this time I had to think of ways to reduce the amount of hair I could potentially lose.

I got the idea of oiling my hair from a youtube video but I thought it would be a better idea to wet or dampen the braids this would help loosen the moose. Then I added oil to give it some slip. The oil I put at the base of my scalp and sprayed on the braids too. 

The oil on the scalp helped a lot as the slip helped undo the knots that form at the base of the braid.

I would recommend this technique for taking off braids, the slip and dampness helps save time by allowing the fiber hair come off easily and undoing the knots too. The entire process took me an hour thirty minutes.

The tools I used include, rat tail comb, a wide tooth comb to comb my hair, scissors to cut the ends of the braids, spray bottle with oil and water, applicator bottle with palm kernel oil (the smelly one)  and a plastic bag to put the old hair in. 

Another advantage of this method is that in the process of taking off the braids I pre-pooed my hair with the palm kernel oil.

Next time you are taking off braids yourself, try this method.