Natural Afro Hair on CNN.com

First The New York Times, now mainstream broadcaster CNN.com has an article on afro hair (take note UK press!)

Called ‘Can I Touch it? The Fascination with Natural African-American Hair’ the article tells of a woman just about to leave a restaurant when a middle aged white woman tried to touch her natural hair, styled in twists:

"She missed by mere seconds, she was actually going to grab my hair as I walked past her," recalled Winfrey Harris who runs the blog What Tami Said. "I turned around and she said, 'Oh, your hair is neat.' It just floored me because who does that, just reaches out and touches strangers?"

Good question. And Winfrey Harris is not alone, the articles tells of countless others who’ve been asked the rather bizaare question: “ Can I touch your hair?’

As children a lot us us had our white friends asking, and sometimes not even asking, to touch our ‘cotton wool hair’. Now we get less requests but will never forget one black lady asking if our shoulder length hair was real. It was but she didn’t believe. Cue her hands feeling around for the tracks!

Have you ever had strangers asking to touch your natural hair?

Read the full story here.

The Mizani Afro Catwalk Awards

The Mizani Afro Catwalk Awards are a competition especially for those who work with afro hair where the winner can secure a place at the L’Oréal Colour Trophy - the industry’s longest running and most fashion forward competition.

The six finalists were:

Craig Chapman Salon, Cornwall
Cutting Room Creative, Leeds
Junior Green, Knightsbridge
Hype Coiffure, Brixton
TONI & GUY Bristol
TONI & GUY Regent Street

Each team had two and a half hours to create a look on a model of African or Caribbean descent and include their knowledge of Autumn/Winter 2011/12 catwalk trends before presenting it to afro hair specialists Alexi Rosso, Anne Veck, Sandra Webb and Errol Douglas MBE.

2011 L’Oréal Colour Trophy Mizani Afro Catwalk Award Finalists:

Craig Chapman, Cornwall

TONI & GUY Bristol

TONI & GUY Regent Street

Junior Green, Knightsbridge

Hype Coiffure, Brixton

Cutting Room Creative, Leeds

The 2011 overall Mizani award winner will be announced at the L’Oréal Colour Trophy Grand Final on July 4 2011 at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London (tickets still available).

If you're looking for a good hairdresser, these six would be a good place to start!

Tried and Tested: Wen® by Chaz Dean Hair Treatment

Wen® is a range of hair products from Hollywood hairdresser Chaz Dean (he’s worked on stars at the Oscars and MTV Music Awards) that are free of SLS and nasty chemicals.

We tried the Re-Moist Intensive Hair Treatment which was designed for use before and after any chemical treatments (i.e. relaxers) to add moisture, body and shine and to restore your hair and give it a bit of strength.

They are so sure you will be pleased with the results they offer a 60 day money back guarantee – even if the containers are empty!

Our tester is mixed race with dry, unruly and thick relaxed hair (her words not ours!). Here is what she had to say:

Feel: The product feels substantial and has the qualities you'd expect of an intensive hair treatment; heavy, creamy and rich.

Smell: A sweet coconut aroma which is relaxing and smells 'clean' without the greasy oiliness that coconut products often have.

Texture: A thick, rich, soothing texture which immediately made me feel like I was using something substantial on my thick, dry hair.

The conditioning treatment was very easy to use with a simple application after shampoo, on wet hair. The hair treatment definitely helped smooth my hair whilst blow drying, which makes me believe it worked in nourishing my hair. The scent was sweet and the texture of the product was very relaxing and felt nourishing.

The only thing I would change about it is perhaps the packaging as it wasn't entirely aesthetically pleasing and probably isn't something that I'd take off the shelf in a shop. Aside from that, I would give it 4 out of 5 and don't doubt that continued use would be beneficial in soothing dry, coarse hair like mine!

WEN® by Chaz Dean Re-Moist Intensive Hair Treatment - Cucumber Aloe. £18.95

www.wenhaircare.co.uk

Hair Inspiration

When we want a new hairstyle, it isn’t as simple as opening a copy of our favourite glossy mag and pointing to a celeb/model and asking for her hair – we have to search that bit harder.

We’ve been thinking about a new look and have found it hard to find relevant people in the public eye to get ideas from. With that in mind we’ve put together this mini look book. It’s for us as much as it is for you! One to ‘cut out and keep’ for the next time you’re at the salon perhaps?


Short

Midi

Up

Long

Pony

We know we've omittted curly but that's the subject for a whole other post!

Solange, Selita and Cassie Talk Hair

Solange Knowles, Seltia Ebanks and Cassie are the new faces of Carol’s Daughter – a US based company started by Lisa Price (whose Mother is called Carol, hence the name) that produces natural haircare products for natural, relaxed, curly, healthy and damaged hair types.

Selita, Solange & Cassie

The three spokeswomen sat down with Lisa and discussed all things hair.

Watch the video here.

Bye Bye Beadhead!

Now ladies, we all know we should wrap our hair at night – but do we? Every night? We know we don’t! Our intentions are good but not only is the look mildly unattractive (to put it lightly!) sometimes the scarf slips off, we’re too tired, we actually want to look cute at bedtime – the list goes on.

So we were quite excited to come across SilkPerfect Pur – a 100% pure mulberry silk pillowcase.
Most of us know silk or satin is better for our hair but do we know why? Now for the science bit!

Hair strand after sleeping on cotton pillowcase

Hair strand after sleeping on silk pillowcase

Silk is exceptionally smooth on a microscopic level which helps to avoid friction of the hair shaft, leaving the hair looking glossy and smooth from the moment you wake. Silk is made up of strings of amino acid which has the same ph level as your skin. These proteins help to prevent frizzing and split ends. Silk reduces the loss of natural hair oils and moisture by preventing osmosis, leaving its natural shine intact.

We tried the SilkPerfect Pur pillowcase and have to say that it really does work! Our hair was much less frizzy, dry and crazy looking in the morning.

Recent customer surveys by the company found that 79% felt their frizz was improved and 80% saw a reduction in knots and tangles. We agree! As does celebrity fan Alexandra Burke.

Alexandra Burke

The pillowcase we tried – the SilkPerfect Pur – costs £25 for two and at the moment is on offer with buy one get one free!  Post and packaging is £3.50 no matter where in the world you live or how many you buy – a pretty good deal.

Visit the Silk Perfect site for more info.

Hair - Are You Ultra Sleek or Messy Chic?

Two key looks that emerged from the catwalks this season were ‘ultra sleek’ and ‘messy chic’. The look can be applied to a variety of hairstyles.

Long hair
The sleek look is very flattering on square and round faces. Blow dry your hair with the comb extension on the dryer and/or with a round brush. Use irons to straighten small sections at a time ensuring you use a protective serum. We like Paul Mitchell Gloss Drops  and Aveda’s Smooth Infusion Glossing Straightner as they don’t weigh down the hair. To be very on-trend, part your hair down the middle.

Chanel Iman at Gucci

For the messy chic look, it might be easier to use extensions if you don’t want to damage your own hair. Use a volumising spray on damp hair, twist random pieces and leave to dry naturally.

Jourdan Dunn at Emilio Pucci

Hair up
The sleek look is easy and you probably wear your hair like this anyway. Pull into a low pony leaving the ends inside the hair band and use a gel or hairspray to tame any flyaways. Job done!

Melodie Monrose at Gucci

The messy version is just as simple. Use a texturing spray to create a little interest, pull into a pony at the crown and leave a few random ends free. If it’s a little too messy, pin some of the ends into loops.

Chanel Iman at D&G

Braids
Pull into a sleek low pony and plait the ends into a fishtail braid. There’s a very handy video here that gives a step by step guide.

For the messy chic look, sweep hair to one side, plait the stretched out sides and pull out the ends for a scruffy finish.

Natural Hair Heroine – Solange Knowles

We’re not sure we’d like Beyoncé as our sister. No offence B! Could we ever step out from her formidable shadow? We like to think we’d handle it a la Solange Knowles and style ourselves in the polar opposite fashion direction.

Solange and Beyoncé

Beyoncé seems to favour lace front wigs and blingaliciousness while Solange likes to keep it a lot more urban and natural. We like her style.

Solange Knowles

She’s been spotted recently with short natural hair and now braids (as has Brandy – again – and Kim Kardashian). Is the style a bit 1996 or has Solange brought them back to the present day?

She works the turban!