Afro and Super Curly Hair

alisara

Just starting a thread as I cant find much for ladies (and gents) with afro hair and super curly hair.

What we do to save money and style our hair, especially as not all of us live in London and have access to afro hairdressers and the like. And if you are mixed race like me and live in a community where you are the only black person (with no information or relatives to advise) what do you do.

Well I for one have had to learn everything for myself and I still dont know a whole lot.

I braid my hair with extensions, sometimes wear an instant weave (the half wigs), have used clip on extensions and went natural. Each and every hairstyle was tedious and expensive, even the natural with all the conditioning products and getting it to sit well. Even the braids although pretty are tedious.

I have learnt nearly everything from youtube and blackhairmedia, and i think this is sad, especially where i live where there is absolutely no advice.

So any tips, good websites etc would be great.

knithappens

Hi alisara,

this is the exact reason i started growing dreadlocks, as they take very little maintanance compared to other styles.
I am mixed race with very tight Afro hair, I have had my hair chemically relaxed, permed, extensioned and natural over the years.

Like you I use a lot of you tube videos, expecialy when I first stated growing my dread, I now use them for styles and such.

I know dread locks are not for every one, just one option.

In the past I bought relaxing kits for £6 or so and did it myself with sucess, these can be picked up from ebay if you dont have a stockist near you, I am lucky to live in Manchester, where things like this are easily available, as too are black hairdressers, but they are often expensive, and dont really cater for varying textures of mixed race hair, such as my daughters , as european hair dresses dont know what to do with it, yet some of the things used in a black hairdressers are too harsh for her hair.

when i was a kid my mum used to cut mine my sisters hair real short in a little afro as she did not know what to do with it, apart from get a comb through it ( got through so many afro combs lol) we grew up in an all white area, with no black family, so there was no one to help teach us how to manage our hair, so it has been trial and error, and still is.

Great thread looking forward to seeing the contributions to is

bajangal

Hi Alisara
I can't offer you any tips, because it seems as if you have tried all the options and are now doing your hair in a way that you are happy with.
I agree that for us who don't live within a heavily populated ethnic area, then it can be difficult to manage our hair.
I have given up paying the exhorbitant salon prices. I now do it myself and once every six months will frequent my local salon for a steam and a cut.
I have seen a few websites but I have never found any of them helpful, because they tell you what to do, but never what to do it with. Fear of advertising, maybe.

alisara

I am looking forward as well to seeing if there are any replies it would be great. I have been laughing away at the bit where your mother cut your hair short, my mother did this as well (she is white it was the late seventies early eighties)

I think dreads are nice and perfectly natural as well but i dont think i would get away with them at work iykswim, i do love nice free-flowing hair though, but do realise it will never be mine unless i fake it!

I havent relaxed mine in a year, i am so proud of the fact as it ruined it as i had been relaxing for years, i just keep it in braids and though attractive i am getting p)))))) off sitting for a whole day doing same, although when done thats it for a month. so i am growing it and taking advice from yet another site called the longhairforum BUT although good so american, most of the products we cant get.

I dream of being able to walk into a shop or chemist and being able to buy products for my hair.......

Anyways, I just hope i receive more replies there has to be ladies with black hair with all their tips out here somewhere...

alisara

thks knithappens and bangagal - going to bed now but thanks all, what is a steam?

ps knithappens i saw your pics by going through the frugal thread your hair looks lovely

lostinrates

alisara thank you for starting this thread.

I am white, but with very curly hair. Most of the time I think I'm really lucky...I love my hair and get lots of compliments on it, but it IS hard work sometimes and expensive. As a child I lived in predominantly black areas, and my friends' mums used to braid my hair along with their own kids'. I still ''resort'' to braids often, especially at this time of the year. I have a funny timetable, out very early in the morning in the weather and getting mucky, and the same in the evening. I need my hair out of the way and neat. My hair looks great when styled from wet, and without me going outside in the rain and mud and wind would be fine for a few days but at this time of year its too cold to style from wet daily, AND of course, that requires expensive product.

So I find my self, a white woman in my thirties, wearing pigs tails much of the time Monday to Friday. This is great for when I'm outside, but noone can argue its sophisticated or mature, and I'd love to find other ways of coping. For example, my pigs tails today have been with me outside, I have a vets appointment this morning and a meeting this afternoon for my new business. I have no time to do my hair before then so I will have to wrap my plaits around my head in to a style Heidi wuld have been more familiar with....sigh.

glowgirl_2

After so many experiments I cant count the best things to tame my hair is washing it in non protein products, use a micro fibre towel and pat dry dont rub, brush it as little as possible and then put it up in a bun (I use a donut) when its wet and leave it to dry naturally, when you take it down it should be curly/wavy and glossy with a bit of body and no triangle head, I am white with curly/wavy (type 2b) hair - dont use heat on it if you can help it:)

Dawning

I can't post links yet but if you go to a site called british curlies and onto the Forum there, the girls are all very helpful.

knithappens

alisara wrote: »

thks knithappens and bangagal - going to bed now but thanks all, what is a steam?

ps knithappens i saw your pics by going through the frugal thread your hair looks lovely

Thanks, my hair is now at a stage where I can play with it and style it.

ooh and a steam, is just that, a deep coditioning treatment, when you sit under the steamer for 30or so minuts, it does wonders for you hair, i used to do the same years ago by goignin the steam roo at the gym and putting my intensive coditioner on before i went in haha - very frugal.

alisara - I have pics of me and my sis with my brothers, when we show people they think the pics are of al boys haha

alisara

glowgirl wrote: »

After so many experiments I cant count the best things to tame my hair is washing it in non protein products, use a micro fibre towel and pat dry dont rub, brush it as little as possible and then put it up in a bun (I use a donut) when its wet and leave it to dry naturally, when you take it down it should be curly/wavy and glossy with a bit of body and no triangle head, I am white with curly/wavy (type 2b) hair - dont use heat on it if you can help it:)

I think I shall buy one of those microfibre towels that sounds good - I have a doughnut as well, I love buns as when you do them while hair is wet - say brush straight with a bit of serum - your hair dries straight without heat. Sometimes when I wear my hair natural I will try this, but in all honesty it takes a whole damn day to dry straight - so weekends only, but it is good to dry hair naturally - lol at the triangle head - my head is more a circle head i.e springs out all over

alisara

knithappens wrote: »

Thanks, my hair is now at a stage where I can play with it and style it.

ooh and a steam, is just that, a deep coditioning treatment, when you sit under the steamer for 30or so minuts, it does wonders for you hair, i used to do the same years ago by goignin the steam roo at the gym and putting my intensive coditioner on before i went in haha - very frugal.

alisara - I have pics of me and my sis with my brothers, when we show people they think the pics are of al boys haha

Just lost a whole post. Cant stop laughin at the part where you looked like a boy, my sisters and I looked like boys a lot of people really did think so ....

Thank you re the steam treatment, i live in n.ireland so doubt i would get that but it puts me in mind of hot oil treatments and wrapping my hair in a warm towel whilst conditioner is on, i must start that again as it did work.

I started the post as well as because i live in n.ireland it is easy to get ripped off with regards to hair and i need all the tips and moneysaving ideas that i can get. We do have black hairdressers here and i hope i am not offending anyone but they are not registered and my hair is precious and they like to charge people a full months salary and this is no exaggeration.

On the other hand we have really good mainstream hairdressers who like to say oh we worked in london for a while and did afro hair (sure they did) so they faff around with hair telling me all about it (a load of mad rubbish whilst i want to run but am too polite to do so as at that point in their chair) then maybe relax it (and wait for it some took pictures for their training i felt like an eejit again was too polite and a fool with money in those days) to find my hair had broken of or put in extensions (as black hair is slow to grow - the cheek, no wonder it could be slow to grow going inot their hair salons and with your hair coming out with their chemicals - which if they had proper knowledge they would never have attempted in the first place)the list goes on and they charge x3 times your monthly salary.....

sorry for the rant but the black hairdressing industry outside of big British cities is pants, it is non-existent