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.

Holiday Hair Healers

PhytoSpecific are leaders in hair and skin care specifically formulated for black and mixed race women. The collection of shampoos, conditioners and treatments are infused with botanical extracts and natural oils to help balance levels of protein and moisture leaving hair smooth, shiny and resilient.

Our tester tried the Deep Restructuring Shampoo and Balm on return from holiday:

Hair Type - Natural mixed race hair (Afro and Indian)

To say my hair was fried was putting it lightly! I'd had a lovely week in the sun and had washed my hair with the free shampoo at the hotel (always a mistake), put in some Aveda Be Curly curl enhancer (very good by the way) and left my hair like that for a week. The sun shone, the rain fell and the wind blew on my tired locks but I didn't care as I was on holiday and therefore not worrying about my hair.

Touching down in London, I knew I'd have to do something about the matting curls on my head and was wondering which intensive treatment would be able to sort my mop top out. I opted for Phyto Specifc Deep Restructuring Shampoo and Deep Restructuring Balm.

I followed the instructions to the letter:

Deep Restructuring Shampoo
apply on wet hair, massage gently
rinse and leave to foam for a few minutes
rinse thoroughly

Deep Restructuring Balm
spread liberally throughout hair using a wide tooth comb
leave for 15 minutes or more depending on porosity of hair (I left it for an hour underneath a shower cap. Attractive!)
rinse thoroughly

My hair was amazingly soft, sweet smelling and all around lovely. The wide tooth comb simply glided through my hair and it felt clean and in very good condition. I heartily recommend it if you've been a little unkind to your hair and award it 5 out of 5. It does exactly what it says on the tin!

PhytoSpecifc Deep Restructuring Shampoo - £11.50
PhytoSpecifc Deep Restructuring Balm - £19.50

Available at Selfridges or call 020 7620 1771 for stockists

The Good Black Hair Salon Guide

We’ve all been there – your appointment at the salon was 12:00, it’s now 13:30 and no one has so much as offered you a cup of water! We’re not sure what the problem is with a lot of local black hairdressers but in the past, we’ve had to mentally set aside a whole afternoon if we decided to get our hair done as who knew what time we'd actually be seen!

Waitng...we've all been there!

It frustrates us as we want to support local black owned business but their tardiness is costing them clients and money. Enough is enough! We went on a quest to find good hair salons that can work with afro, relaxed, natural and mixed race hair. All the salons listed here have been visited by us so our comments come purely from personal experience.

As we’re based in London, all of these salons are local (ish) to us but if you have had good experiences at salons we’ve not visited, please leave a message in the comments section. Here goes:

Errol Douglas Salon

Errol Douglas Limited
18 Motcomb Street
Knightsbridge
London SW1X 8LB
Tel: 020 7235 0110
www.erroldouglas.com

Very experienced in European, Afro (relaxed or natural), mixed race and synthetic hair and can do pretty much whatever treatment or style you want. They are Knightsbridge based and priced accordingly! They see you on time, are professional and polite and the juniors give the best scalp massages known to man. The only thing we don’t like is that, unless you see Errol himself (and a cut and blow dry with him is £200) all work on Afro hair is done downstairs in the basement. As nice as it is, we’d quite like to sit upstairs sometimes. That said, various team members have won accolades including Afro Hair Dresser of the Year and Celebrity Hair Dresser of the Year.

Price Guide: Relaxer, cut and blow dry from £90

Junior Green Hair & Beauty
39 Knightsbridge
London
SW1X 7NL
Tel: 020 7752 0620
www.junior-green.com

Ex Errol Douglas, you get a much more informal and friendly experience at Junior Green. Very professional, we were seen on time and given time to think about what we wanted to do with our hair (1 mixed race curly, 1 natural afro). They specialise in mixed race hair and cut your hair with straight and curly days in mind. They are also very good with natural hair and offer specialist braiding services which includes work with locks, cornrows, twists and weaves/extensions.

Price guide: Relaxer, cut and blow dry from £85

Kosit Hair Designs
113 Peckham High Street
London
SE15 5SE
Tel: 020 7732 5946
www.kosithair.com

Not in the most salubrious of areas, highlighted by the fact that you have to be buzzed in, the staff in this salon are quick to say the least - you almost feel like you are on a conveyor belt! You are seen as soon as you get in and you are out the door almost just as fast. That said, they are professional, not very chatty (but then we weren’t there to make new friends) and are good at cutting. We deduct points for them not accepting credit/debit cards – cash only and that they charge based on the length of your hair. If you have long, flowing tresses, fair enough, but it felt steep to charge us £80 to cut our hair from mid back to shoulder. The team are experienced though and among them have won various afro/weave/avant garde styling awards. Best for relaxed and mixed race hair.

Price guide: Not available on website

Hype Coiffure (salons in Balham, Brixton and Battersea)
We visited: 186 Lavender Hill
London
SW11 5TQ
Tel: 020 7223 3800
www.hypecoiffure.com

Home to Afro Hair Dresser of the Year 2010 Kim Johnson and Michelle Sultan, the staff here can’t do enough to help you feel comfortable and relaxed (we saw them let a new mother go into the downstairs office to feed her baby) and take their time to discuss your hair needs and concerns before they get the scissors out. They work on all kinds of hair - natural, relaxed, mixed race, weaves, braids and locks and even treat some scalp conditions. Whatever your hair type or condition, they probably work on it. They also stock and sell Mizani products.

Price guide: Not available on website

Toni & Guy (salons around the UK).
We visited: Unit 2 Cowcross Street
London
EC1M 6DH
Tel: 020 7251 0990
www.toniandguy.com

You may be wondering what Toni & Guy is doing on a guide to afro/mixed race hair but bear with us! While they probably aren’t the first place that come to mind when you’re thinking of a new ‘do – they will cut your hair like no one else will. They aren’t afraid to attack your hair with scissors and gave us probably the best hair cut we’ve ever had. They pay no attention to your scalp or the actual condition of your hair but we didn’t want or expect them to. We were there simply for an edgy haircut. It’s best for relaxed or mixed race hair – we don’t think they would know what to do with natural afro hair. They are very quick (washed, cut and blow-dried within the hour) and at one point we had three people working on our hair, we felt like quite the celebrity. If you’re going to visit another T&G salon, always call in advance to see if they work on your hair type and if possible, go in for a consultation first – for them to see what they’re working with and for you to make sure you are comfortable. We saw Greg at the Farringdon branch and he was very knowledgeable re how to cut naturally curly hair. We’ve also been to the Crouch End and Bluewater branches, but again, call to see if they can work on your hair before booking an appointment.

Price guide: Wash, cut and blow dry - £55 (senior stylist)

As we said earlier, this list is not exhaustive – the article is about salons we’ve personally visited and as we live in London, they are all based here. If you know of others that are just as good, please let us know via the comments section!

Natural Afro Hair in The New York Times

We were pleasantly surprised to see an article in the rather conservative and pretty mainstream NY Times on the rise of natural hair in the African American community. It’s like the UK’s Sunday Times Style magazine doing something similar. Could you imagine?!

Vlogger Maeling Tapp of Natural Chica

Charting the rise of how-to blogs and YouTube videos for women with natural Afro hair, the article looks at the financial, social and personal successes black and mixed race women have had since they let go of the relaxer.

Read the full article here.

Online Find: British Curlies

While looking for products to treat our natural afro hair, we came across British Curlies. Intrigued, due to the fact that it can be hard to source US products – which tend to be better suited to our hair type – we had a brief chat with the company about the natural hair movement and the wonderful world of curly hair!

Jill Scott

British Curlies was launched in May 2009 and has a global following of customers from all ethnicities who they help to understand how to properly care for their curls while providing all the resources to enable them to have their best Curl days ever!

They are the only UK website dedicated to naturally curly hair providing a curl forum, styling advice and a curly emporium with the best products for naturally curly hair.

The company was started by Keisha Jo Lawler after she stopped relaxing her hair. She soon realised that Curlies in the UK did not have a great selection of products or any online community to share and learn from and that Curlies seemed to be lacking representation in the UK media. Keisha Jo wanted to change that!

Solange 

AB: Solange Knowles seems to have started a trend toward natural hair - have you noticed curly hair is more popular now?

BC: Solange is new to the natural curly hair community. The Natural Curly Hair Community has been going strong for many years now and it is nice to see young celebrities realising that they don’t need the weaves or the relaxers to make it in Hollywood or anywhere for that matter. I would definitely not say that we are seeing a trend just the awareness growing as more women realise the harmful effects of chemically processing their hair and equally the joy and beauty to be had in wearing their own natural texture with pride. Type Natural Hair into YouTube and you will see the thousands of women from all over the world celebrating their natural hair. It is an inspiring and joyful movement.

AB: What products work best on different types of curls?

Yaya DaCosta

BC: British Curlies provides solutions for wavy, loose curls, curly and tightly coiled afro curly hair for both adults and children. Each texture has different needs, for instance wavy curls need products that provide hold but no weight while tightly coiled afro textures loves hair butters, oils and heavy creamy products.

We offer a service called the Curl Guide in our Curly Emporium where customers who need product selection help can submit their questions and get information on choosing the right products for their personal texture. We also have videos showing great styling ideas plus style guides that can be printed off our site in the comfort of your home.

Whatever your hair type – corkscrew curls, fractal curls, wavy or cherub curls – British Curlies has the right advice and product selections for you. They ship internationally and carry bestsellers like Mixed Chicks, Miss Jessie’s and Kinky Curly.

www.britishcurlies.co.uk

Tried and Tested: Mizani Supreme Oil

When we first came across Supreme Oil (silicone, mineral oil and paraben-free), we had mixed feelings. We were excited because Mizani is very popular in the US and as it comes from the beauty giant that is L’Oreal, we knew lots of research and development would have gone into it.

On the other hand, the list of things this product could be used for was, for want of a better word, unbelievable!

I mean read all this!

• Before or after blow-drying, heat styling or finishing
• As a pre-shampoo treatment
• To hydrate the scalp and relieve dryness
• As an overnight treatment
• To moisturise natural curls, locks, braids, relaxed hair, human hair extensions/wigs
• To moisturise skin (apply a few drops to bath water or on skin after bathing)
• Layered over or under other hair or body products

How can one product do all that we thought?





Well we tip our hat to Mizani because their Supreme Oil did all that plus tax! Ignore Public Enemy and do believe the hype!

With ingredients like sesame, jojoba, almond, avocado, apricot and sunflower oils, the 99% naturally derived product was so mild we used it (and continue to) on a 10 month old baby and a 4 year old girl's hair. Natural hair of course!

We used it in a variety of ways - pre washing as a mini treatment, post washing before blow-drying, as a serum before using irons, on dry scalp patches, on natural, mixed and relaxed hair. All testers said the product was amazing. It leaves the hair and scalp shiny but not weighed down and is incredibly lightweight. It also smells nice. Is there nothing this oil can’t do!

The bottle says you only need a couple of drops but we found we had to use a few drops a few times to get the result we wanted but that may be due to the fact that a lot of our testers had mid length hair.

The cheapest place we found it was online here. The only downside is that you can’t just pop to the shops and buy it as it is only available in salons so call 0800 121 4676 to find stockists near you.

With a RRP of £19.95 for a 122ml bottle, you don’t use much at a time so it should last a good while. We give it a well deserved 5 out of 5!

Tried and Tested: Philip Kingsley Moisture Extreme Shampoo and Conditioner

Like many of you, we have been inspired by Solange Knowles and her natural hair journey. It can be tricky figuring out what products to use on transitioning or natural hair. Fear not! We are going to sift through the shelves of shampoos, conditioners and treatments and report back on what’s good, what’s bad and what you need to stay way from!

Solange Knowles

Our first review is of Philip Kingsley’s Moisture Extreme Shampoo and Conditoner.

Kingsley is a famous and well respected trichologist – an expert in the structure and function of human hair including the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and disorders of the hair and scalp – so we had high expectations of these products, especially as they are meant for, according to the packaging, ‘textured, afro, mixed, curly and porous hair’. It should even work on synthetic hair or extensions.

We weren’t disappointed!

The shampoo left our natural afro hair feeling fresh but not dried out and one application was enough for it to be perfectly clean.

The conditioner applied well. We found we had to use a fair amount to get good coverage but that may be more down to the length of our hair (past shoulders) than the actual product. Once the conditioner was on the hair we went through it with a wide tooth comb and after rinsing, found the hair easy to manage and hardly tangled at all. Plus it smelled nice!

We heartily recommend and give Philip Kingsley’s Moisture Extreme Shampoo and Conditoner 4 out of 5.

Moisture Extreme Shampoo £14.30 for 200ml
Moisture Extreme Conditioner £17.40 for 200ml

Visit www.philipkingsley.co.uk to buy online or to find stockists near you.

Raven Symone Goes Natural

Another day, another celebrity ditches the relaxer/weave and works with what just grows out of their head.

Disney actress Raven Symone  (she’ll always be little Olivia from The Cosby Show to us!) debuted her new curly lo’ fro’ at Steve Harvey's Disney’s Dreamers Academy event at Epcot, Florida earlier this month.

We remember her being interviewed in Chris Rock’s documentary ‘Good Hair’ saying at times she would spend over $1000 on a weave. Yikes!

She looks great and she’ll save some money. Everyone wins!

Natural Hair Warrior - Natalie Barrett

We love the natural look here so we're really looking forward to the new venture of London actress Natalie Barrett who's setting up her own natural hair club. Natalie has had parts in BBC shows Dr Who and Psychoville and she's also a hair model. We can see why.

London actress Natalie Barrett by Jason Grant

Natalie is not the only one showing off her natural locks. American singer Solange Knowles is very much a poster girl for the movement.

Doesn't Solange look great?

The afro of the  Grammy-winning jazz musician Esperanza Spalding is a sight to behold.

Esperanza rocks the big afro

Fancy the look? Well, Natalie Barrett is ready to open the door. We found out her plans recently.

Afro Boudoir: Tell me about your natural hair club.


Natalie: The natural hair club will basically just be highlighting people with natural hair, talking about what they use, what they like, what they didn’t. I’ll be talking about my journey and  my favourite products.


AB: Why did you decide to set up the natural hair club?


Natalie: Many women want natural hair so this is something to help them discuss how they are going to do it or to show them various hairstyles. I’ve been natural for a couple of years now, so I would like to document what I’ve gone through to get to where I am now. I’m looking forward to hearing other people’s stories on there.

Natalie Barrett by Jason Grant

AB: What’s your signature natural hairstyle?

Natalie: I twist my hair into small sections at night using shea butter and then just let it out in the morning, so my hair looks curly. Halfway through the day, it just shrinks a bit.

AB: What response do you get from people about your loosened twists?

Natalie: I'm sometimes asked if it’s a weave, while others compliment me.

AB: You mentioned that you use shea butter in your hair. Tell us about that?

Natalie: It started when I went to The Gambia. I visited the market and they cut me a piece of the raw natural shea butter than can be used on your skin or hair.  My hair felt a lot more moisturised and healthier. It’s the best thing for my hair.

Natalie Barrett by Jason Grant

AB: What do you add to your shea butter mix?

Natalie: I use shea butter, mint and jojoba oil.

AB: If someone was really conflicted between going natural or carrying on using relaxers, what advice would you give them?

Natalie: They say that when you are pregnant you are not supposed to perm your hair. To me, that says the perm is doing something to your child. So it’s going into your body and affecting something. They also say it takes seven years for the perm to grow out of your hair, so don’t perm your hair. Don’t do it. If you have to weave it or put in extensions, do that, but don’t perm your hair.

AB: You are also an actress, how did you get started in the profession?

Natalie: I studied Media Production at university. That involved a lot of directing and script-writing. I enjoyed that but then I thought I really want to act. I’ve always loved acting since I was a child. Drama school was really expensive, so after university, I auditioned for a theatre production and to my surprise, I got the part and that’s where it all started for me.

AB: What’s been your meatiest role so far?

Natalie: On the scary comedy BBC2 show Psychoville. I was a nurse and I had to be funny. I normally play straight roles, so it was a challenge for me.

AB: It must be quite challenging moving from one genre to another. Do you have a preference?

Natalie: Being serious or dramatic is easy when acting, but being comedic is harder. That’s why I like those sort of roles and I’d like to do more.

AB: Is there any person, living or dead that you’d like to play in a movie biopic of their life?

Natalie: Either Oprah Winfrey or Angela Bassett.

Natalie Barrett's hair club is now live on www.nataliebarrett.com

Shea Butter, Sheer Beauty

As the natural hair movement has gained pace in recent years, so has the use of the wonder product, shea butter. For many brown-skinned women, it has become an essential part of their beauty regime. Here it is in its raw form just as you would buy in any market across West Africa.

Raw organic shea butter

Shea butter comes from the shea-karite tree that can only be found in Africa. But what makes it so special? Well, frankly, it has far too many fantastic characteristics to list here. Suffice to say, it is a great moisturiser and conditioner which helps the hair retain softness and prevents breakage. 


In its natural form, it does have a slight odour that some people dislike, but that is less of a 
problem these days as many people choose to whip their shea butter with other carrier and essential oils. We've tried it, we love it and absolutely recommend it. If you would like to try it at home, here is just one of a number of videos to help you out.

However, if you really can't be bothered, then there are several online retailers who sell whipped shea butter. The wonderful thing about shea butter is that it is not just an amazing product for hair, but also for the skin. It is blessed with vitamins A, E and F which maintain, protect and rejuvenate the skin. It can even help get rid of eczema.


We are also pretty impressed that French skincare brand L'Occitane En Provence sells 100% raw Organic Shea Butter straight from Burkina Faso. It's not cheap at £24 for a 150ml tub but it is lovely! Our favourite product is their luxurious Shea Butter Hand Cream at £17 for £150 ml tube. Sometimes though, it really is worth spending a little extra money to enjoy the small luxuries of life.

£24.50

£17

Alternatively, get into your kitchen and start whisking.