To most women, the fashionable return of natural, kinky, curly and wavy hair is about as welcome as the revival of the miniskirt. After decades of teasing, blow-drying, processing and yanking our hair straight, suddenly we are being asked to get back to nature.
How many women reading this story even know what their original hair looks like anymore? About the only time we catch ourselves un-styled is when weÂ’re soaking wet on a beach or in a maternity ward far from a comforting stash of products and a powerful blow-dryer.
While straight hair may confer authority and respectability, it also signals a great loss of originality, sensuality and, simply put, fun. Like natural beauty of any kind, natural hair takes a little work. But once you find the best way to style and nourish your true locks you may never want a boring blow-out again.
In pursuit of my original kink, I began uptown in Manhattan and worked my way downtown—sniffing out as many miracle products as I could fit into a canvas tote along the way...
msn shopping
Treatment Shampoo
$19.50
NeimanMarcus.com
J.F. Lazartigue
Makeup musts for parties
OprahÂ’s beauty picks
As seen in... MSN Women
Gil Ferrer—the French celebrity hairstylist whose salon tends Candace Bushnell’s blondeness and keeps Meg Ryan artfully tousled—is adamant about nourishing hair. For summer, he suggests a deep-heat moisture treatment once a month to protect the follicles and keep the scalp stimulated.
"A sealed cuticle," he explains, "means less frizz, more shine and greater tenacity in the face of everyday breakage." Ferrer sells old-fashioned heating caps and suggests an even simpler home treatment: Slather your hair with a deep conditioner, cover it with plastic wrap and then top everything with hot towels. "Do it while you drink your coffee," he suggests. "Pop some damp towels in the microwave and keep the hair warm consistently for 12 minutes, and conditioning becomes a healthy habit."
Known for his specialists, Ferrer had me consult his trichologist and then get a custom cut based on the natural fall of my mixed-up mane. Trichology is the science of the hair and scalp, a relatively new study introduced to America in 1977. Christopher Mackin leads the field, jumping jets to go settle Nicole Kidman's or Julia Roberts' tresses as well as passing on critical advice to mere mortals.
As Mackin exfoliates, clarifies and moisturizes the scalp, he also educates. "Wash your scalp using gentle circular motions with the balls of your fingers to awaken the scalp" he urges, "and blot your hair dry between shampoo and conditioner so that the nourishment can penetrate the hair shaft."
Mackin stresses a diet rich in fish, fresh veggies and dairy and recommends a thorough brushing of the hair to stimulate the scalp just before bedtime. "Oxygen carried through the blood stimulates the scalp" he says. Glamour, the natural kind, starts at the root.
When Vincent "The Master from Brazil" cuts my hair he snips it completely dry, following the natural shape. Afterwards, he flipped my mane from side to side with a technique the Gil Ferrer Salon calls "the tossed salad", which feels a bit like aerobics for hair. Suddenly the locks are aloft, not frozen or tortured into place, and a razored feather cut releases the curl.
Four fabulous hours later, I am the natural hair woman. More Sonia Braga, less Peter Frampton. Kinky, glossy and moisturized, it does seem a little excessive to spend this much time getting back to nature, yet education is what allows a lady to make the best of her God-given locks. It was comforting to know that simple things like eating well and brushing thoroughly can improve my hairÂ’s condition, especially in such a product-driven era. In my case, stubborn frizz just needed some gentle layering and my naturally-flat roots needed the aerating upward motions of Vincent, Brazilian lord of the hair salad.
Heading downtown to Lorraine Massey (author of Curly Girl, through Workman publishing), co-owner of the Devachan salon in Soho and inventor of a range of fabulous curl-inducing shampoos, I enriched my natural hair knowledge. Relaxed and down-to-earth, MasseyÂ’s solutions for dry and damaged hair can be as simple as diluting shampoo with spring water, abandoning shampoo altogether (she uses only conditioner on her ringlets) or making an avocado-based natural smoothie and letting it soak into the tips for 20 minutes.
Hair, Massey believes, needs to be retrained back into its natural curls, especially if it has been regularly straightened through styling or products. Letting African-American hair grow kinky (and smoothing it with the help of extra conditioner) and allowing corkscrew curls a slight halo of frizz are both central to her mantra.
When my hair was returned to its natural fold of waves and curls, I no longer feared rain (the great curl machine) or "bed head". In fact, I jumped out of bed keen to see where the day and the kink would take me! Her specially formulated non-detergent shampoos were also complimentary to hair that had been confused and weighed down by too many styling aids.
Enlightened by scalp science, heat treatments, curl care and gentler products, I realized that wearing hair natural is an artful mix of the right cut, the right formulas and knowing when to leave well enough alone. Find your balance and bounce back. HereÂ’s how:
Natural styling secrets
1. If you donÂ’t have the time let the sun dry your hair naturally, then buy a diffuser. Once you discover just how much curl your hair has, decide how to wear it. Curls can be stretched into fat waves using foam rollers or a wide-toothed comb, or tightened with finger waves and a spritz of setting lotion.
2. For hair that is flat on top and curly on the bottom, twist at the roots, spray with rose or lavender water and apply tight pin curls for about half an hour. Finger-style to keep the curls elevated.
3. Try the no-touchy method: Finger-smooth wet hair and then sleep on it, or wear it in the sun. Frizzing happens when hair gets mauled.
4. Use the weekend to experiment with natural setting techniques and homemade treatments. Pad around the house in pin curls, long tiny braids (for pre-Raphaelite crimping) or goopy olive oil on your split ends for damage control. Wild, sexy hair might be the result.
5. Wear an up-do at work that unfurls into slinky long looks for night. Coil two sides into loose bunches and pin, or wear a chignon that allows less pressure to fall on the crown of the head. Tight ponytails have been know to create temporary pattern baldness in women, so loosen up.
Natural care know-how
1. Use radically less shampoo or water it down with spring water. Choose shampoos with very low detergent levels or none at all.
2. Cutting off an inch or two every six weeks keeps hair healthy. No matter how gentle you are with hair, the tips get brittle. Trimming is a smart move, not a sacrifice.
3. Rinse beach or pool hair with a bottle of club soda after your swim, and choose leave-in conditioners with built-in sunscreens.
Anna Johnson is the author of Handbags: The Power of the Purse and Three Black Skirts: All You Need to Survive and has written for Elle, Vanity Fair, Vogue UK and other magazines. She's a correspondent for the Australian cable-TV program By Design. Born in Australia, she divides her time between New York City and Sydney.[img][/img][img][/img]
BTW I was going natural for about 2 years. Then a month ago I relented and got a ceramic flat iron. Not for any other reasont than I was tired of the style and am going straight for a while - for a change. Then I will go back. The beauty of naturally curly and wavy hair is that you cna change day by day
I do see though it dries out the hair - my ends are already beaten up.
I've been natural now for about 3 months - straight -
I found products last month that I like - catcurls or something like that - hotblue bottles
I like their leave in conditioner and the curl booster - it only takes a little bit
For the top of my hair the gel works great
I finally found products that work for my hair without buying the whole store -
Anyway - now if I could jsut get up the nerve to cut my hair
That is my next move
I really need to go shorter to have a more snazzy style
I like long hair - butr I have been wanting a more professional , controled type of cut - like the profl women have - and you have to go shorter for that
Hey all! My hair is in the 4s I believe….I don't have the chart in front of me…. I cut it off--to about an inch long! About 3 and a half years ago, and now that it's getting long, I'm finding myself more and more at a loss for how to care for it. I've tried making my own products--which really work great, but they are hard to keep up on….maybe when my life is more organized….so since I found Stacy's products, I will definitely be on those--I just have to get money situated…..
There were some cool techniques in this thread.
Another problem I have is finding people who can cut natural hair in my area. I could get away with having someone trim it, but no one who really knows how to cut it into a style. I'm about this close to just trying to do it myself, cuz I haven't gotten it trimmed in a LONG time--which I used to always be good about--and my hair is now too shaggy to wear down. GRRRRR. I'm weary about going into salons and such, because I don't want to use ANY chemicals in my hair! The only people I've found that use natural products (actually only one) is just someone who does it at home and doesn't know a whole lot about styling and such. And she is used to much "kinkier" hair, so mine is weird for her to work on…..
Also….do you all brush it out daily? I usually only brush it out every week or twice a week because not until it goes a few days do my curls really start to spiral up. I'm wondering if a change in products will help this, though. I also noticed that if I braid it after I brush it--even big braids, that when I wash it next time, it curls up better.
Posted: Sun 30 Apr 2006 17:23 Post subject: Dillard's says 'ethnic' hair harder to clean
Quote:
Dillard's says 'ethnic' hair harder to clean in response to discrimination suit By Emanuella Grinberg, Court TV
Tue Apr 25, 5:44 PM ET
(Court TV) — Almost three years after Vaughan Thomas says she paid an inflated price at a Montgomery, Ala., hair salon simply for being black, lawyers for Dillard's beauty salons went to court Tuesday to defend the department store from allegations of what Thomas and others call "race-based pricing."
Thomas is one of eight black women suing the department store for racial discrimination after she allegedly was told that Dillard's beauty salons charge black customers more than whites because of the "kinky" nature of "ethnic" hair.
"Hair is hair regardless of what color you are, and the prices should be the same for everybody," Thomas told Courttv.com. "This is a practice that's still being done in the 21st century, and it should be stopped."
While lawyers for Dillard's deny that the retailer practices "race-based pricing," they claim that scientific evidence supports the theory that "ethnic" hair requires more effort to treat — and therefore should be subject to higher pricing.
A defense brief submitted in Alabama federal court cites numerous supposed characteristics of black hair that make treating it more "time consuming and technically demanding than fulfilling the minimal (or non-existent) conditioning needs" of the typical white customer.
"The rendering of professional hair care is a personal service typically tailored to the specific needs and preferences of the individual," Dillard's scientific expert, Mort Westman, said in a deposition. "Numerous factors exist and must be considered during the process of cleansing, conditioning and styling, rendering the resultant treatment somewhat unique."
The brief, which is based in large part on Westman's declaration and a study published in 2003 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, highlights the "highly brittle, tightly curled" texture of ethnic hair as a factor that prolongs the cleansing portion of the treatment.
The brief also refers to "lack of resiliency" and the frequent use of "intricate coiffures" and extensions as other factors that affect the complexity of drying and styling the hair of black customers.
"These factors would typically indicate that the pricing for the shampooing, conditioning and styling of the African-American client would normally be higher than that of the Caucasian client," Westman claims.
The cosmetic chemist is expected to appear in Birmingham federal court this week to testify on Dillard's behalf in a hearing on whether the individual lawsuits should be consolidated under one class-action lawsuit.
The lead attorney for Dillard's, Brian Bostick, said he expected to finish his case by Thursday. He declined to comment further, citing orders from Dillard's. The company's in-house general counsel did not return calls for comment.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs presented their case two weeks ago in support of their argument that Dillard's alleged pricing scheme was part of a systematic effort to charge customers across the country solely on the basis of race.
One of the advantages to class-certification would be the plaintiffs' ability to seek an injunction against Dillard's from continuing its race-based pricing, said lead attorney, Patrick Cooper.
"It's amazing to me that a Fortune 500 company would use this kind of pseudo-science in court to prove that it takes longer to wash African-American hair," Cooper said.
"The day they can show me that every black woman in the country has the same hair is the day I'll ask the judge to dismiss the case immediately," he said.
Joined: 29 Jun 2007 {Posts: 10 } Location: Ypsilanti, MI, United States
Posted: Sat 30 Jun 2007 10:00 Post subject:
BlendedBeauty wrote:
Does anyone use that chart to clasify their hair? The one that goes 1,2,3a, 3b, 3c, 4. I've noticed that most mixies say they are inbetween 3b and 3c but there is such a range in there it is impossible for mixies to really use the chart. I found pictures and have separated the 3b section into 10 different types. Can I post the link to the types that I have added?
Seems to be an older thread, but I thought I would post a response.
Between my husband and I, we figured out that I am between a BB2 and BB3, with some of both and plenty of frizz as a 'side dish'.
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