1. What's your name and where are you from?
Hey curlfriends! My name is Jumoke and I am a current student at the beautiful Florida International University and reside in Miami, Florida. 2. What is your hair type? To keep it simple for people, I mostly refer to my hair as kinky lol. My hair is a myriad of 4s with tighter 4c at the nape (kitchen) and sides of my head, looser 4a curls at the crown of my head, and 4b everywhere else! (Ironically, I still am not fully convinced what 4b hair looks like. My 4a and 4c hair are easy to differentiate but I honestly don't know what 4b is lol!) In addition to my hair type, I believe I have low porosity hair for many reasons. For one, it was really difficult for me to learn how to moisturize my hair! My hair hates silicones or anything that just sits on top of my hair which is why I switched to the Curly Girl Method. Also, deep conditioning never really worked for my hair unless if I use heat or steam otherwise it seems like a waste of time and money. In regards to my texture, I have a mix of fine, medium, and coarse hair depending on what part of my head. The parameter of my head and my "baby hairs" tend to be finer and silkier. The crown of my head is the coarsest and my 4c hair is medium in texture. Overall, my hair is thin in density. I really am living proof of multitextured hair!
3. When did you go natural and what made you do it?
I "returned" natural coming into my freshmen year of college in fall 2012. I have a whole article dedicated to my hair journey on my blog which you can find here: My Hair Story Basically, I struggled with my hair my whole life and there came a point in high school when I only found beauty in weaves. By my senior year of high school, I decided to jherri curl my hair (worst decision ever smh) and hated it so I hid under self made weave caps until I could get a job and car in college to fund salon appointments. When I started college at FIU, I was overwhelmed with the amount of natural haired women on campus! (At that point, I didn't even know natural hair was a thing lol.) I had met another fellow Nigerian girl who had been natural for three years and her hair always blew me away! I started to think to myself, how are we the same race and nationality and your hair looks like that and I'm still struggling? Before you know it, the day after Thanksgiving Day, I was chopping the remainder of my jherri curl. Coincidentally enough, since my hair was so damaged from the Jherri curl, I only had two follicles of hair to cut and had a year of new growth underneath so I don't know if one would call it a "big chop" lol. 4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? The most challenging thing about going natural is the learning curve definitely! Literally having to undo years and years of what you thought you knew about your hair to learning something completely different. I keep telling folks that going natural isn't for the faint of heart lol. Returning natural requires a lot of love, patient, and willingness to try something new if your old routine doesn't work. 5. What is your weekly regimen? My weekly regimen fluctuates to whatever suits my hair. Unfortunately since I'm a college student, I have bouts of not taking good care of my hair during times of stress. I'm also a technique junkie (haven't heard of that one yet have you lol) so I tend to either start and fall off different regimens or end up incorporating them into my overall regimen. For example, I incorporate the LOC Method, Curly Girl Method, Greenhouse Method, and the Maximum Hydration Method. Although it seems like a lot, I pick and choose what works for me and what I learn from each method. I usually wash and reset my hair every week preferably on a Saturday and my routine goes as follows:
6. What is your daily morning regimen? In the mornings, I'm either undoing my braids which I do with oil coated hands. If not, I usually style my hair in a puff or frohawk once my braid out starts looking puffy and afro-y. 7. What is your daily night time regimen? At night, I usually just spritz my hair with water and seal with my oil mix. For those days that my hair is unusually dry, I remoisturize my hair with Creco Pelo and oil (I try not to use Shea butter more than once a week as it weighs down my hair). 8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? Yes I do! Occasionally (like every two months), I blowout my hair on warm/cool hair to avoid damage. I straightened my hair once and I was so adamant on not damaging my hair that it ended up looking like a blowout lol.
9. Do you braid your hair? If so, how often do you do so in a year?
As far as single braids with braiding hair (that's what Nigerians call it lol), no, I stopped doing that back in 2013. I realized that my thin hair could not handle the weight of extensions so I always end up paying the price when I take them down. I would lose tons and tons of hair and it simply was not worth it anymore. I use to do box braids/twists and kinky twists with Marley hair but my natural hair was not benefitting from long term protective styling so I just let that go. Anyways sha, I do a mean crochet braid! ;) 10. Wide-tooth comb or Denman brush? Chai! Neither lol. My hair is not strong nor is it thick enough to withstand most tools. #DeathToMyHair! 11. Is your hair normally loose or in a protective-do? Loose! Anyone who knows me knows how much I abhor long term "protective styling." Why does my hair need to be completely hidden for months at a time to be protected? That's what low manipulation styling and hats are for lol. The few times a year when my hair is hidden and I'm either wearing a wig, weave, or quick ponytail, I never hide behind the term "protective styling". No my dear, I'm just wearing a wig lol. Sometimes you just want to change up your look without compromising your own hair. 12. Have you ever had a hair tragedy? What was it? How did you recover from it? Fadda God... The calamity of the jherri curl! If you want to hear my whole hair story, once again check out my blog or click the link above. To sum up, I got a jherri curl done my senior year of high school and it was just so bad. I reeked for a whole week, dripped on my clothes, and on top of that- I looked like a damn poodle smh. Never again. To answer the question though, my solution was to hide under weaves and wigs until it grew out so I don't know if that's a valid answer lol. Ladies, save yourself the stress. Just don't do it and love your natural hair lol. 13. What's your biggest tip for maintaining healthy or long hair? Oh wow it's difficult to just pick one so here's two-
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?
Hello! My name is Paula Bland aka NaturallyGreer and I am from New Orleans, Louisiana 2. What is your hair type? Not really sure if I fit into a type due to me having multiple textures throughout my head. I am definitely in the category of a 4 but have a mix of a-c.
3. When did you go natural and what made you do it?
I started to go natural in 2008 while in nursing school and was driven by not wanting to look like everyone else. I would get tired of the growing and breaking off episodes I would have with my hair as well. I was also very curious to see my true texture. I remember as a child, my hair being super thick and hard to deal with at times but I never had to do my hair myself so I was unfamiliar with how to manipulate and deal with my natural texture. 4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? The transitioning phase. Seeing what my hair could be and comparing it to the limp, lifeless, permed ends was very frustrating. 5. What is your weekly regimen? That changes pending the style but I moisture my hair daily with a aloe based moisturizing spray. On wash days I usually wash my hair with a rhassoul clay based mud wash, I deep condition once every 2 weeks to one month, moisturize with aloe moisturizing spray, and seal with butter of choice. 6. What is your daily morning regimen? I usually wear a lot of styles that are easily preserved and protective like twists, flat twists, or crochet braids. So my regimen usually consists of a daily moisturizer and butter/oil sealant. 7. What is your daily night time regimen? Usually just making sure a silk bonnet is applied or silk twisters are place at ends of a section if I have done a twist out to preserve the style. 8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? I have in the past but have found due to the multiple textures, my hair responds drastically different in various areas so after cutting off over 12 inches last year, I have decided not to go through the heartache again.
9. Do you braid your hair? If so, how often do you do so in a year?
I just learned how to braid so it’s not very good so I usually do twist. 10. Wide-tooth comb or Denman brush? Wide tooth comb when I use anything. I find that the Denman pulls and breaks my hair too much, especially in the middle. 11. Is your hair normally loose or in a protective-do? Protective, I am pregnant right now and really like to limit how much time and what I do with my hair.While you're pregnant you get the weirdest urges with your hair so tucking it away is best for me. 12. Have you ever had a hair tragedy? What was it? How did you recover from it? My greatest tragedy happened after having my daughter in 2012. I was very lazy with my hair during that pregnancy and found myself straightening my hair a bunch due to the ease. After the hormonal shifts and postpartum set in, I started to lose a lot of my hair around the temples and my hair texture changed due to the lost of protein structure because of my straightening regiment. I recovered from this by cutting off 12 inches in 2014 after not wanting to bother with the raggedy, stringy, limp ends again like I did while growing my hair out of the relaxer. 13. What's your biggest tip for maintaining healthy or long hair? Know your hair and know what it likes. It’s as simple as that. Don’t make it difficult. 14. Where can we find you online? (blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc).
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Who's The Queen of Kinks?You are! Everyone is the queen of their own kinks, curls & coils. On this blog you can enjoy the natural hair journeys of dozens of curly queens. Categories
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