Tag: natural hair
Tips on caring for afro hair in quarantine, from hairstylist Kemi Akinbola
Use this guide to get your locks on point at home
Article via DazedDigital
Not going out means there’s no need to lay down your edges, secure your wig, apply heat or twist/plait/pack (delete as applicable) your hair every morning. Seriously. If you’ve reached the end of your protective hair cycle, take it out and be free, let your fade grow out until you see your go-to person again. “Now is the perfect time to become good friends with your hair,” says Kemi Akinbola, the hair stylist behind the orange and black waist-length braids IAMDDB sported at Field Day Australia in January. “I had braids in and I was like, ‘I’m in quarantine so these braids are coming out.’ (That way) you can see what your hair is doing everyday, keep it moisturised and spend time detangling. When we come out of this, if you do want to put your hair in a protective style, you’ll know that your hair’s been looked after.”
Formally trained to do all types of hair and styles, Akinbola is a crochet specialist with her own burgeoning music career, and a word-of-mouth client base that includes fellow singer Nao and make-up artist and Dazed Beauty community member Mata Marielle. Operating out of her home, the hairstylist’s approach is organic, steered by Subrina Kidd and experimenting on her own 4B/C texture, and all about empowering people to nurture their own barnets in all their glory. “Use the products you have, try different twist outs, braid outs, cornrows or practise having your hair out. Get used to the way your hair looks and being your authentic self with your hair.” So relax and read on for Akinbola’s tried-and-tested afro hair tips and favourite products.
HAVE ON HAND…
“A good shampoo, ideally sulphate-free and a highly moisturising, deep conditioner. I use Creme of Nature which also has an intense treatment conditioner or the Dizziak shampoo and conditioner. I would make sure I have a good leave-in conditioner too from As I Am or Giovanni to leave in overnight if you want too. Then a nice oil. My hero product which I really really love is Sunny Isle Jamaican Black Castor Oil Pure Butter Lavender. It’s moisturising, smells nice, helps edge regrowth, and you’ll find your hair is extremely soft. Decide how much product to use based on how much hair you have and how it feels – I’m quite heavy-handed. Make sure you get the product onto every strand.”
TAKE YOUR TIME
“What I would do is shampoo and then a deep treatment, put a plastic cap on and leave it on for a while. If you have a hood dryer, sit under that to make sure it penetrates the hair. Detangle your hair, rinse the conditioner out, then put your hair in twists to let it air dry. There’s no rush is there?”
BUILD-UP BE GONE
“It’s best to use a really strong shampoo, maybe a sulphate one, or if it is sulphate-free make sure it foams. If you have a protective style and you find you have a lot of product build-up (when you take it out), don’t be afraid to do more than one shampoo, maybe three or four if you need to. Make sure you really scrub every inch of your scalp. As long as the scalp and hair is fully foamed up and really clean, it should go.”
GET YOUR TWIST OR BRAID OUT POPPING
“Get a wide tooth comb and some leave in conditioner and divide your hair into sections. If you do loads you’ll have a more defined twist out, but if you’re not that fussed, 10-15 is fine. Run leave in conditioner through each section, seal it in with an essential oil of your choice, then detangle with your fingers or a comb. If you don’t mind the shrinkage, do a double strand twist (two chunks of hair to create a rope twist) with each section for a more spiral, afro look. If you want your hair stretched out for length and volume, do it with three for a braid out and a more zigzag look. Make sure the ends are fully moisturised so they coil up.”
“Then leave it to dry. It can be your protective style for a week and if you want to take the sections out, get a nice oil, rub it through each twist /braid and unravel them starting from the end. Seperate them, shake it out and see how it looks. It’s a good time to experiment and there are so many tutorials on YouTube. Type in your hair type and ‘twist out’ to search. Choose a YouTuber who has the same hair type and be realistic about the end result.”
REVIVE YOUR EDGES
“It’s easier to look after your edges if your hair isn’t in a protective style, unless it’s one with your hair like mini twists or cornrows or braids. Castor oil is the main product to apply. Tea Tree oil, rosemary oil, oils that are healing and also give it time. Obviously if your edges are weak, don’t do anything tight around your hairline or slick your hair down. At night, rather than tying a satin scarf around your head like a pirate, which rubs on your edges, put a loose bonnet over your hair instead. A silk or satin pillowcase is fine but if you’re using oils overnight, they’re going to go on the pillow and your face (if you’re not wearing a bonnet). Just keep everything loose until your edges grow back.”
DIY OILS AND TREATMENTS
“Now’s the time to play around with the oils in your cabinet. Extra virgin olive oil is a good moisturiser and people also like to use coconut oil, peppermint oil is anti-inflammatory if you have an itchy scalp. I like castor oil because it’s very good and I have a lot of hair. It really depends on if you’d like your mix to be thick and it’s a case of trial and error. You just don’t want something that will make your hair crispy. People say that honey, eggs and avocado make a good moisturising home-made mask but I’ve never tried it myself. If you run out of shampoo, you can use apple cider vinegar to clean your hair.”
Author Emma Dabiri is fighting for Afro hair to be protected by the law
Article via DazedDigital
The ‘Don’t Touch My Hair’ author is taking matters into her own hands with a petition to amend the Equality Act
Earlier this month, London student Ruby Williams made headlines when she was awarded an £8,500 settlement in compensation for being repeatedly sent home from school over the course of two years because of her afro hair. A month before, DeAndre Arnold, a senior in Mont Belvieu, Texas, was suspended and banned from attending his high school graduation because of his dreadlocks.
In September 2019, a school in North London reversed its decision to ban cornrows and knotted braids after receiving widespread backlash. In 2018, high school wrestler, Andrew Johnson had his dreadlocks forcibly cut by a referee in order to not forfeit his match. In 2017, Brittany Noble, a news anchor in Mississippi claims she was fired after being told her natural hair was “unprofessional” by her employer.
And these are just the ones that made the news, a few instances of the widespread, global discrimination against black people for wearing their hair in natural styles. While in the UK, the 2010 Equality Act protects against racial discrimination, hair is never explicitly mentioned creating a grey area that allows these prejudices to continue.
To cover similar gaps in US law, the states of California, New York, and New Jersey have all recently passed legislation to specifically protect natural black hairstyles from being discriminated against. Called The CROWN Act, this legislation updated the definition of race used in law to also include “traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles.” This prohibits the enforcement of grooming policies in schools and the workplace that discriminate against hair types including bans on afros, dreadlocks, cornrows, braids and other traditionally black hairstyles.
It is particularly important that students are protected from racist grooming policies at school. According to Just For Kids Law, there has been a rise in the number of children being permanently excluded from school in the last few years and this can have serious consequences on their progress. “These children often end up struggling to access the education they need to progress in their lives, and many end up stuck in Pupil Referral Units,” the group state. “These lack the educational standards of mainstream schools, and children there often fall prey to criminal exploitation and get funnelled into a life of crime.’
To combat this and hoping to implement similar amendments as in the US in the UK is Emma Dabiri. The SOAS teaching fellow and author of Don’t Touch My Hair recently started a petition to amend the UK Equality Act to include hair.
Here, we speak to Dabiri to find out why she’s taking matters into her own hands and what you can do to help.
What was the catalyst for starting the petition?
Emma Dabiri: One story too many about the way in which black and mixed children are being penalised by policies that cry neutrality but are categorically and inherently biased. The excuse is often that the rules are applied evenly to everybody so they’re not discriminatory. But that’s not the case. They are rules created by white people for white people. They are designed according to a standard that suits the characteristics of European textured hair.
The phrase that many of the schools use about ‘tied back’ hair, for instance, is so culturally loaded. My hair doesn’t just tie back. If I was going to tie my hair back in a way deemed neat, I would have to straighten it first, or apply a lot of gel and styling products and scrape it back. It’s the equivalent of telling a European person, ‘Just wear your hair in an afro, just wear your hair in cornrows, just wear it in twist outs.’ Also, all the nonsense about nothing shorter than grade two haircuts and the wilful ignorance about the difference between the appearance of a grade two on Caucasian hair in contrast to Afro hair.
Why is it so important for Afro hair to be legally protected?
Emma Dabiri: The Equality Act of 2010 recognises that people need to be legally protected from racial discrimination, race is a protected characteristic and within that skin colour is explicitly mentioned. However, hair texture remains as much a signifier of African heritage as skin colour, and hair discrimination is a specifically anti-black form of racism which needs to be identified by law.
In addition to shaming children for being of African descent and reinforcing the centuries-old narrative that our hair is something to be ashamed of, excluding children from school can have other serious repercussions.
How can people help beyond the petition? What more can be done?
Emma Dabiri: We’re collecting stories around this type of discrimination, particularly school exclusions. The more awareness we have of the frequency that this is happening, the stronger the case we can build. Also, anyone with a relevant skillset that wants to get involved, be that from a legal background with experience of this kind of campaign to a platform they could use to amplify this, holler!
What are the difficulties around getting legislation passed?
Emma Dabiri: A petition is good for raising awareness but the petition itself is only one cog in a wheel. It takes a lot of work to build a campaign to change legislation. Working with lawyers, the support of MPs, a media campaign, it’s a lot!
What change do you hope it will bring? Do you feel optimistic?
Emma Dabiri: My intention is that the biased policing of black hair will be recognised as the discriminatory practice that it is and made illegal. Do I feel optimistic? It’s really really shocking that is something that needs to be fought for in 2020 so given that reality, it’s kind of hard to feel optimistic, but a lot of people are galvanised, now’s really the time to make the change that is desperately needed.
Naomi Campbell Shares Rare Photo of Her Natural Hair in Cornrows on Instagram
The supermodel is taking a break from her signature straight hair
Naomi Campbell has ditched her signature straight hair once again. The supermodel shared a photo of herself in a new light on Instagram, showing off cornrows.
“Bare it all. ?? ,” she wrote in the caption of the photo, where she was positively glowing. “Done in Kenya ?? #NAOMIAFRICA.” In the last few posts Campbell shared, including the announcement that she was fronting a beauty campaign for Nars, the model had long straight hair.
Campbell has embraced her natural hair texture before, though, as recently as this past New York Fashion Week when she wore curls to take in Raf Simons’ last show for Calvin Klein, for spring 2019 (as pictured above). According to Campbell, she has been wearing natural hair more and more, in part to reverse some of the damage that years of wigs and extensions have done on her head.
“I do take more care of my hair now, because I lost all of it with extensions,” she toldThe Evening Standard in May of 2017. “I am more careful and I do different things.” When asked if her natural hair has grown back after she experienced hair loss, Campbell replied, “Yes. Thank God”.
She also talked about wearing wigs and extensions, saying, “Everybody in the world wears wigs. It doesn’t matter any more. I do what I want, or whatever the job calls for.” As for other kinds of add-ons to her appearance, like Botox and fillers, Campbell said, “If I want to do anything to myself I go pay for it and do it. If I want to do it, I do it. It’s like if I want to get eyelashes, I get them.”
Last fall, Campbell’s hairstylist Ro Morgan talked about the importance of taking breaks from extensions and wigs to allow your natural hair to thrive. “As the name suggests, a weave break is a period of time one removes their hair extensions from their hair and wears their natural hair, whether it’s in its curly state or straightened,” he toldEssence. “People who wear weaves should give themselves a weave break to avoid the risk of traction alopecia. Also, to properly cleanse the scalp and make sure that the health of the hair and scalp is maintained… I believe one should take a weave break every six months or so, for a few weeks.” Morgan has also given his take on Campbell’s latest natural hairstyle: “Her beauty is BEYOND!!!”
Article via Allure
The U.S. Navy Is Just Now Allowing Black Female Sailors To Wear Their Natural Hair
Hair styling has never really been a “just hair” issue for black women. Whether rocking it in the professional world or during a protest, afros, locs and braids have long served both as a means of personal, religious and sociopolitical expression.
The U.S. military has had strict dress and grooming codes in place. But, as more and more black women have joined the armed forces, the issue of hair became more complicated. Many soldiers lobbied for the right to wear their hair in varied styles.
According to the Marine Corps Times, the U.S. Marines became the first branch to allow locs and twists, starting the policy in December 2015. According to News One, the U.S. Army followed suit in January 2017.
Now, according to the Associated Press, the U.S. Navy is joining in on the inclusive hairstyle movement and will allow locs, ropelike strands (such as braids or twists), wider hair buns and ponytails to be worn by its female servicemembers.
“Because of the texture of my hair, it stood straight up,” recalled Captain Thurraya Kent, who was forced to remove her braids under the old policy. “It was a very embarrassing moment that stays with you.”
Kent went on to serve as the senior member of the group who recommended the policy update.
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson and Yeoman First Class LaToya Jones announced the new policy during a Facebook Live event on Tuesday. Other black servicewomen in the recommendation group joined as well, per OANN.
“It’s my honor to announce that CNO and CNP have announced the following recommendations: loc hairstyles will be authorized, hair bun width will be authorized to be equal to the width of the back of the head, ponytails will be authorized in all service, working and PT uniforms,” Jones noted proudly.
“I think it’s a step forward,” noted Lieutenant Commander Jess Cameron. “They’re getting more female feedback in the service, and updating what I think are somewhat antiquated guidelines that maybe no longer serve their purpose in today’s society, today’s military.”
Article via: The U.S. Navy Is Just Now Allowing Black Female Sailors To Wear Their Natural Hair
Rachel Dolezal, outed as white, now braiding hair for money
I guess it’s hard bein’ a BLACK WOMAN ain’t it Rachel? As you can see she lookin’ like Rapunzel with her long blond braids, she has no job so what does every BLACK WOMAN do to make ends meet she’s braiding folks (probably black folks) hair. I wonder has she been pulled over by police and harassed? Hmmmmm…. I wonder will she ever try to apply again for her white privilege Master Credit card? BUT FOR NOW HER WHITE PRIVILEGE MASTER CREDIT CARD IS REVOKED!!
Christopher Seward
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution