 Back when my hair was very thick!
What's my name? Heather
Where am I from? I was born and bred in Malawi, Africa but I live in England, UK. Where is Neno Natural based? Chicago, USA and London, England. Personally, I live in London (most of the time) but most of my goods are stocked and sold in the USA. When did I decide to go natural? In about March 2011. I unbraided my hair to find that the relaxed portion of my hair had entirely fallen out at the back. Despite this, I was still going to relax my hair but my cousin and sister who were with me at the time said, "Why don't you just leave it natural?" "Na-, what?" Seriously, the concept of keeping natural hair had never occurred to me. I thought it was like moving back from computer to typewriter - you simply wouldn't do it! They pulled up some YouTube videos of African Americans who were "going natural" and the beautiful results that they were having and I was sold!  18 months after transitioning to natural.
How long had I been relaxing my hair for prior to "going natural"? c.24 years by my own estimate. My mother first relaxed my hair when I was about 3 years old, I believe.
What was year 1 of being natural like? Tough. I looked silly. I was transitioning and only the top half of my hair had any relaxed hair on it. Like I said, all the natural hair on the back half had fallen out completely. The protective/conservative hairstyles I fashioned to work are so cringeworthy I can't put them up! Perhaps one day. What is Neno? Neno (the "e" is pronounced like the "e" in bed) is the village where my dad was born and raised. I decided to name all my proprietary routines after Neno because my roots lie in Neno and it's the roots of my hair that I am trying to nourish and grow (pun intended). What's Neno village like? Think beyond the back of beyond - dirt roads, mountains...It's great, especially if you're running from the police, they'd never find you there! Jokes aside, Bill Clinton's been there: the Clinton Foundation is doing some fantastic work out in Neno.
What's the point of the Neno Natural hair blog? It started out as a hair diary. Then I got interested in learning the science of my hair and became more analytical.
Where do we get our info? some things, we learn through trial and error, others we get off fellow 'naturals', books and journal articles. We will always provide links to any sources used for your verification. Follow me @NenoNatural and check out Neno Natural's Haircare Store.
Lowwis
5/6/2012 04:56:24 am
Im so excited about this. I'm in a similar condition to where u were a year ago.. My relaxed hair is struggling and I'm in the middle of trying to go natural but have no idea what to do with my half-natural half relaxed hair.. I think I'll learn a lot from this blog, can't wait!
annie
18/2/2013 05:13:25 pm
Hie Heather, i was wondering how come you don't sell you hair products here in malawi. We would love to have them here also because its really hard to find good products for natural hair here.
Heather @ Neno Natural
21/2/2013 07:30:53 pm
Hi Annie
Moni
1/4/2013 07:08:42 am
When will you start selling in England?
Heather @ Neno Natural
1/4/2013 06:40:25 pm
Hi Moni
Anna
22/12/2014 10:19:34 am
My hair does not grow. I see many women with pics like yours, the hair grows atleast till shoulder length while relaxed and grows while it's natural. No matter relax or natural it's always a little past necklength and then it breaks off. Protective styling (cornrows under a lace front during winter months, redone every week because more than a week with added moisture does not permit the cornrows to last), hot oil treatments once a month, deep conditironing, moisturizing every (other) day and sealing with jojoba or castor oil, protean treatment when necessary (every 8 weeks), heat use max. once a year. Ends trimmed every 6 months. Nothing works. I have been natural for over 5 years and I'm still at necklength. Comments are closed.
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I now blog about wealth creation - so if you have any money questions meet me there, you can do all sorts of cool things like leave me a voicemail.
By Heather Katsonga-Woodward
I was a natural hair blogger and mixtress living between London & Chicago from 2012 to 2017. I always thought I was 4C but some say 4B; images below - you decide! Heather xx
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Photo used under Creative Commons from robertivanc
