1. What's your name and where are you from?
My name is Jackie aka J. Marie Natural and I’m repping the Southside of Chicago. 2. What is your hair type? 4a, 4b and 4c
3. When did you go natural and what made you do it?
I did my big chop in January of 2009. I wanted to just be myself and stop wearing weaves. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made! 4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? I went natural before the revolution that is going on now so I had almost no support from family and friends, but I persevered and I’m better for it. Plus, almost all those people that didn’t initially support me went natural after they saw my progress! 5. What is your weekly regimen? I make my own hair products under the J. Marie Natural line. I co wash once a week with a J. Marie Natural conditioner (coming soon). Then I use argan, or rice bran oil to twist my hair and seal with my Curl Boost Butter. 6. What is your daily morning regimen? I spritz my hair with water and use one the J. Marie Natural styling products. 7. What is your daily night time regimen? I make about 4-8 twists and sleep in a satin bonnet. 8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? Once a year (usually in December) I get my hair professionally flat ironed. I also get a good trim at this time.
9. Do you braid your hair? If so, how often do you do so in a year?
I wish I was a great braider, because I would braid my hair all the time! However, I get my hair braided at a beauty shop about 4-6 times a year. When it’s not braided, I do a lot of twists, puffs and buns. 10 Wide-tooth comb or Denman brush? I recently threw my Denman brush away in favor of a wide tooth comb. Over the years (I’m 5 years natural), I’ve found that less is more. I don’t need to comb or brush my hair other than to keep tangles at bay so I only need a wide tooth comb to do this. 11. Is your hair normally loose or in a protective-do? Protective styles are my friends! I have 2 small children and protective styles help me save a lot of time and encourage growth. 12. Have you ever had a hair tragedy? What was it? How did you recover from it? Why yes I have! When I was transitioning, I did the worst thing ever! I wanted to wear a sew in with the front part of my hair out so I permed the front part of my hair to match the straight weave that I had sewed in. Needless to say, I totally regretted that because now the front part of my hair will forever be 6 months behind the rest of my hair (in terms of growth). It’s all good though, because it did eventually grow out and I learned a huge lesson. 13. What's your biggest tip for maintaining healthy or long hair? Make sure your hair is moisturized (add water and seal with oil and/or butter) and be gentle to your hair. I’ve found that my hair grows at a great rate, but if I’m not gentle when detangling or taking down twists/braids, that’s when too much hair may come out in the comb and inhibit growth. 14. Where can we find you online? (blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc).
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1. What's your name and where are you from?
Hi, my name is Nia B and I'm from Chicago, IL 2. What is your hair type? I'd say my hair is a mixture of several hair types (some 3c, 4a and 4b) and my hair strands are very fine.
3. When did you go natural and what made you do it?
I went natural in 2000. I decided to do so because my hair was starting to thin in the crown. I was at work one day, and one of my co-workers said I was going bald in the top of my head! Needless to say…that was it for me! I was done relaxing my hair from that day forward and over time proved the constant relaxing and blow drying for me, was the source of my hair thinning. I transitioned for about 5 months and decided I didn’t want the process to be a long and drawn out one, so on a whim I got my shears and off went all my relaxed hair. Back in 2000 when I BCed I had no clue what to do with my hair, so a big tub of “blue gel” was my best friend and I wore a TWA for about 4 months and then decided to loc my hair. After a little over 8 years of wearing locs, I felt I understood my hair enough that I could take care of it whether it was in locs or loose, so I talked it over with my hubby, said a prayer, and decided to cut my locs. I have enjoyed every part of my hair journey since. 4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? Back in 2000, there was very little knowledge on how to properly care for natural hair. There were also very few products to choose from to determine what my hair needed, so I was left to use the same products I used while my hair was relaxed and those did my natural hair absolutely no justice. Fast forward to 2008, there was much more information and a multitude of products to choose from - which left me spending loads of money on finding “the right one”, but it also taught me to listen to my hair and discover what was working and what wasn’t working. 5. What is your weekly regimen? Prior to me having my third child, I used to shampoo and condition my hair weekly. Once my daughter was born, I didn’t have that type of time. That’s when I learned my hair actually responded better to bi-weekly shampooing and conditioning. I start off by saturating my hair with Organic Ghee (clarified butter) and letting it sit underneath a plastic cap or two overnight (this stuff slightly reeks as it sits on your hair). By morning, my hair is soft and has a nice amount of slip to make detangling easier. I then proceed to finger detangle my hair and place in either loose braids or twists. Next , I shampoo my hair in sections and deep condition (putting my hair back in loose twists). Once I'm done, I add a nice amount of oil to my hair, retwist and allow my hair to air dry in preparation for styling. 6. What is your daily morning regimen? I like to keep things really simple. If my hair was twisted the night before, I simply take the twists down and style my hair. If I'm wearing a protective style, I'll gently restyle my hair if need be (e.g. place my hair back into a bun etc). 7. What is your daily night time regimen? Each night I take sections of hair, mist with water, add a leave in conditioner, seal in the moisture with oil, a butter or both (depending on what my hair needs). Next, I retwist/braid my hair or put it in a protective style. 8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? I rarely if ever use heat. Since 2000, I've used heat on my hair 5 times.
9. Do you braid your hair? If so, how often do you do so in a year?
No, I don't braid my hair. 10 Wide-tooth comb or Denman brush? Neither (lol). I'm a fingers and hands girl. They are the most reliable, gentle and efficient tools I own. 11. Is your hair normally loose or in a protective-do? My hair is in some sort of protective style at least 85 - 90% of the time. For me, protective styling and keeping my hair moisturized has helped me retain length and beyond that, I have seen my hair's heath improve since it's not full on exposed to all the elements I come in contact with on a daily basis. 12. Have you ever had a hair tragedy? What was it? How did you recover from it? Oh gosh yes! And the bad part is I knew better. I wrote a long blog post about it, but I'll spare you all and give the Cliff Notes version of what happened. Last year I went to the mall to take my son shopping for his 8th grade graduation. While he was in one of the shops, a young lady at a kiosk that sold flat irons asked if she could she show me something. My good sense said "tell her no!", my ego said "my hair can take it!", so I sat down in her chair. It was humid outside and I just knew my hair would revert once we got to my car. It didn't. Instead I smelt the familiar scent of burnt hair. When I got home, I doused my hair with water and still no curl. I waited and waited, and after a few hours, I was still left with bone straight hair. I cut the hair off. All 13 inches or or so. Luckily, it was only a small section near the crown of my head. My husband told me not to cut it, but the constant reminder of my bad decision was more painful than simply getting rid of the hair and starting anew. Honestly, that experience was actually bigger than just my hair. It showed me when we make bad decisions that yield not so desirable outcomes, we can't hide from it. We need to face that thing head on and deal with. 13. What's your biggest tip for maintaining healthy or long hair? It's important to listen to your hair, observe how your hair responds to products and styles you choose to wear. Your hair will show you when you're taking good care of it (both externally and internally) and whatever is working for your hair, continue to do that! Also, focus on your own hair and not someone else's. I think we spend more time drooling over someone else's hair, what products they use and their regimen that we neglect our own hair needs. 14. Where can we find you online? (blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc). You can find me on
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1. What's your name and where are you from?
Hello! My name is Ashlei and I currently live in Chicago, IL. 2. What is your hair type? My hair falls in the 4C category. It's a little kinky, a little coily, and a whole lot of curly.
3. When did you go natural and what made you do it?
I went natural back in February of 2011, so compared to some I'm still fairly new. My relaxed hair was always really damaged and made me extremely insecure about myself. I didn't want to start wearing weaves as it just wasn't my style, so I started researching wearing my hair in its natural form and after a very short transitioning process I did the big chop and haven't looked back since! 4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? I think the most challenging thing was re-learning how to take proper care of my hair, it's not something that you accomplish over night. I'm still learning new things about my hair. 5. What is your weekly regimen? I co-wash/shampoo once a week - depending on my schedule. On weeks that I co-wash I usually do a light finger detangling, and then on weeks that I do a full shampoo wash (with an ACV wash and deep conditioning) I go for a thorough detangling session. 6. What is your daily morning regimen? In the morning I typically massage/fluff out my fro (if I didn't put it in twists the night before) while in the shower and then spritz it with my moisturizing spray. Depending on what I'm planning to do with it I may also add in raw shea butter and/or Shea Moisture's Curl Smoothie. 7. What is your daily night time regimen? I keep it pretty simple at night. I'll spray it again with my moisturizing spray and tie it up in a silk scarf before hitting the bed. 8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? Nope! I've had heat damage before, so I tend to stay away.
9. Do you braid your hair? If so, how often do you do so in a year?
Not really, I've had senegalese twists put in and I'm thinking of doing something similar again this summer, but it's not something I tend to do often. I keep it very simple when it comes to my hair. 10 Wide-tooth comb or Denman brush? Wide tooth comb! I've tried the Denman brush and it just was not my friend, haha! 11. Is your hair normally loose or in a protective-do? It's normally loose, I like letting it do its own thing. 12. Have you ever had a hair tragedy? What was it? How did you recover from it? I haven't had a hair tragedy, at least not while being natural. I went natural because my relaxed hair was such a tragedy. I've had days where a twist out didn't look as well as I'd hoped, but I'd consider that more of a hair annoyance, haha! 13. What's your biggest tip for maintaining healthy or long hair? Patience and Keep It Simple. When I first started out I thought I needed to use all these products and do all these things that would ensure health and growth, but the longer I've been natural the more I find keeping things as simple as possible pays off more in the long run. But patience is key! :) 14. Where can we find you online? (blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc). You can find me pretty much everywhere online :)
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