Hello beautiful ladies!Its been a little while since I posted but I hope everyone is doing well. Today is Friday so you know what that means! A feature on an amazing hair icon!!
Today's article features Geralidine the Great,a Nigerian Natural Haired woman with amazing hair. She reached wast length hair in 4 years of being natural. A few of the members of the Ghana Hair Chick Facebook page requested for a feature on her and she kindly agreed to answer a few of my questions, so here goes!
Q.How long have you had natural hair?.
A.I've been natural for 5 years. My last relaxer was on October 2008, and I big chopped in June of 2009.
Q.How did you go natural?Did you transition and for how long?
A. I went natural after suffering from breakage post weave installation. My hair thinned out and I swore off all manner of manipulation on my head. I ended up transitioning for 10 months.
Q.What helped you during your transition?Any tips for transitioners?
A.I transitioned by wearing kinky twists. I would periodically redo the twists so that they remained fresh in appearance. I also moisturized obsessively, once I learned that my two textures of hair were fragile. If you're transitioning to becoming natural, experiment with styles that require a low amount of manipulation.
Q.How did your family respond to your decision to go natural and how did you handle it?.
A. My family was accepting of my transition, but I received the most amount of support from my boyfriend who actually assisted me during my big chop. I was resolute in my decision to becoming chemical free, so outside opinions and comments did little to deter me from my mission.
Q.What has been you greatest challenge with your hair and how did you handle it?
A.My hair is extremely dense and tightly coiled. I'm also a heavy shedder. These qualities used to make my detangling sessions dreadful. I adapted to the task by cutting down my detangling and shampooing sessions to once a month, with co-washes in between.
Q.What do you love most about your hair and what was your proudest moment?
A.My proudest moment? Being able to wear a bun! Lol, it may seem silly, but if you have dense 4abc hair like mine, then you know that a lot of work goes into gathering this hair-type into a bun that doesn't pull uncomfortably at your edges.
I love that my hair is thick and dense. I'm happy that I don't have to work too hard to coerce my hair into appearing full.
Q.Please share your regimen/hair care routine with us.
A. I'm very big on protective styling. When I first went natural, the tightly coiled hair mantra of the time was that our hair types liked to be left alone. To an extent, I do agree with this sentiment, and so I employ a lot of protective styles in my regimen (wigs, twists, braids, buns).
Generally speaking, I'm quite simple in my routine- a monthly deep conditioning, detangling and shampooing session, and co-washing whenever it suits me.
Q.What would you say is the most important thing that has helped you retain length and health of your hair?
A.Protective styling and finger detangling have gotten me to waist length in 4 years. These are the two biggest factors that contributed to my length retention.
Q.Any final tips/advice?
A. If you're thinking about doing it, do it. Furthermore, if you are thinking about becoming natural, be prepared to shed a lot of misinformation that you might have had about hair care. Keep an open mind, and lose all your hair expectations. You are embarking on a journey that sets you outside of societal boxes, so don't regress by stringently abiding to hair rules, categories, and expectations. An open and determined mind will push you through the moments of self-doubt and frustration.
Hope you enjoyed reading this and got inspired. If you'd like to see someone specific featured here on the blog, simply drop a comment below and I will try to get her here..lol. Thanks for reading and have a fabulous day!
I have been natural for four years. I big chopped on Oct 11,2009.
During my transition, cornrows with extensions helped me and so did roller sets. Roller sets really helped to hide my new growth but it still allowed me to wear my hair out. Natural hair blogs such as Black Girl Long Hair helped me not to run back to to the creamy crack. My advice to transitioners would be to big chop when it becomes too difficult to handle the two different textures. If you're uncomfortable with the length of your natural hair, big chop it and then keep it in a protective style until you're comfortable enough with its length to wear it out. However, don't hold onto the relaxed ends if they're troubling you like mines were. The tangles & frustration are not worth it.
