Queen Bianca ~ Queen Of Kinks, Curls & Coils® (Neno Natural)

12/12/2014

1. What's your name and where are you from?

Hey guys! I’m Bianca Alexa. Born and raised in England, spent half my life in Puerto Rico and now I live in LA, California

2. What is your hair type?

I have a mix of 3C to 4B

3. When did you go natural and what made you do it?

March 2012 was when I did my bigchop. I used to constantly relax and dye my hair, It was pretty long and I loved having my long straight hair, but over time the heat and chemical damage made my hair really thin and at one point my hair began excessively breaking and shedding. My intention wasn’t to go natural I just wanted my hair healthy again. I cut my hair shoulder length with the intent to keep it straight. As I was looking up short haircuts online I came across a natural hair blog and noticed how healthy and thick natural hair looked and that’s what made me decide to go natural.

4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural?

Accepting myself in all my natural glory. I had never had my hair so short before and I really struggled with it for the first few months. Not only was I unaware that taking care of this new found texture required completely different products compared to what I was using before, I also struggled with finding confidence and redefining my ideal of beauty. I felt like my long hair was my "safety blanket", my "comfort zone"; I think I immediately expected to fall in love with my natural hair, and even though it took some time I ended up discovering so much about myself in the process.

5. What is your weekly regimen?

I’m a no fuss kinda girl, I cowash my hair every 4 to 5 days. I don’t rewet my hair in between washes or add any moisturizer to my hair until I’m going to rewash it again.

6. What is your daily morning regimen?

This ones easy! I just fluff out my hair using my fingers and I’m good to go. I also tend to pull at the ends of my curls constantly throughout the day, it helps with shrinkage.

7. What is your daily night time regimen?

At night I leave my hair loose and sleep on a satin pillow case.

8. Do you use heat on your hair at all?

Just recently I flat ironed my hair because I was curious to see what it would look like. It’s been over 2 years since I’ve applied any sort of direct heat on my hair so it is definitely not something I do often. I made a YouTube video on it to document my process.

9. Do you braid your hair? If so, how often do you do so in a year?

I love French braids I do them quite frequently, especially if I need to deep condition my hair and don’t have time to wash out the conditioner I will just do 2 quick French braids and take them out the next day to wash my hair. One of my favorite braid hairstyles is the crown braid. You can find a tutorial on my YouTube channel on how I achieve the style.

10. Wide-tooth comb or Denman brush?

I’m a finger detangler but if I had to pick one I would say wide-tooth comb, only because I haven’t tried the Denman brush so I can’t really say if its good or not.

11. Is your hair normally loose or in a protective-do?

Loose! Give me big frizzy hair all day every day! I love my wash and goes.

12. Have you ever had a hair tragedy? What was it? How did you recover from it?

Oh gosh yes, where do I start? I’m surprised I still have hair with all the crap I used to put it through. So this was back when I was in collage, I would always do my hair myself (dye, cut, blow-dry, flat iron) everything. My natural hair color is black but for the longest time I had the top half of my hair dyed strawberry blonde, it was such a fun color but I would constantly switch it up to dark red or brown. After a while I dyed my hair black only to bleach it blonde a week later and as you can imagine my hair did not take well to that, I had so much breakage and damage the front part of my hair was probably an inch long. I had to use so many bobby pins to slick the front down until it eventually grew out.

13. What's your biggest tip for maintaining healthy or long hair?

I would say be consistent with your regime and pay attention to your hairs needs. Taking the time to properly detangle your hair can save you from unnecessary breakage in the long run, and also helps save on conditioner which is a plus. You should find a few low manipulation styles that you feel comfortable with. Just being patient with your journey and gentle with your hair can help prevent breakage that will aid in retaining your length.

14. Where can we find you online? (blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc).