Healthy Hair Feature: Redecouverte

1) Are you natural, relaxed, texlaxed, or transitioning?
I've been natural since September 2006.

2) What mistakes have you made in your hair care journey?
I am not sure if it qualifies as a mistake but for the past two years I haven't made up my mind whether I wanted locs or just rock my loose hair. I love locs and think they're absolutely beautiful. I also love my loose hair, its thickness and versatility. So I've had a few past locking attempt that did not last more than 3 months. I end up missing my loose hair and take down the babies locs. My hair locks pretty fast and taking down my hair can be quite traumatic. In the long run, it affects my ends.

3) What is your current HEALTHY HAIR routine?
I don't really have a routine, I go with the flow. I usually wash my hair twice a week (Wednesdays and Sundays) and then do either a hot oil treatment or a deep conditioning. I use mostly natural products because they are more nourishing to my hair than commercial ones. Once in a while I'll do a rhassoul treatment.

Other than that, I don't really have a set routine.

4) Do you have a HEALTHY BODY routine? If so, what is it?
In regards to skincare, I use the oil cleansing method for my face. I exfoliate once or twice a week and do a facial mask as needed.
I mostly use shea butter for my body and I also love exfoliating once to twice a week.
In regards to diet, I still need to work on it. I have severe Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and diabetes running in the family so last year I decided to change completely my diet and went vegan cold turkey. Eventually I decided to adopt a vegetarian diet with as little dairy products as I can (I still love lattes and ice cream) and include raw foods. My diet is still a work in progress and it has been hard to say goodbye to comfort meals such as chapatis, samosas, jollof rice etc..

5) Do you have any advice for those seeking healthy tresses?
Yes, first and foremost don't get caught up in hair typing. I grew up mainly in West Africa, mostly Ghana and Senegal and I've never heard about hair types until I came to the USA. I don't think it really matters whether you have 4 a, b, c, d because each head is unique. I still don't know what my hair type is and I am fine.

The second advice will be not to compare yourself to others and just be happy with your own progress. This is hard because we go to hair forums and stalk people's fotki to be inspired especially when we have little support outside of the online communities. But when I started finding myself resenting people who have big chopped and had more hair in 6 months than me in 4 years, I had to take a step back and remember that each person is different.

Last but not least, do what works for you and have fun. Sometimes we get caught up in hair challenges and we become stressed out if we don't see any progress.