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

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

5/9/2016

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

I am Chadel Mathurin from the beautiful island of St.Lucia, which is part of the Caribbean archipelago.

2. What is your hair type?

I am not a huge proponent of the hair typing system as I think our hair is too diverse to ever fall into one limited grouping; however, I fall into the type 4 range. A little 4a, mostly 4b and 4c strands.

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

I began my transition to natural hair from relaxer on March 26th 2011, after getting relaxers for about 1.5 years; and I big chopped on August 26th, 2011.
Long story short about what made me do it…. when I put a relaxer in my hair, I stated that I was conducting a “social experiment”… I wanted to measure whether men in St.Lucia were more attracted to long flowy hair as opposed to natural hair that refused to show its true length. (The whole colourism phenomenon). So I pretty much always knew I would be growing out my hair when my social experiment was done. Besides, I began missing my natural hair and its diversity. Relaxed hair lacked personality and was boring for me and those scalp burns were not the truth!

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

Nothing really. I had been natural most of my life; I was just excited to start fresh and I saw every stage as a new adventure.

5. What is your weekly regimen?

This is such a broad question. Despite this, most of my regimen is done on wash day.
I prepoo weekly before I wash my hair; usually on the same day as my wash day. With my prepoo, I may start out by spraying my ACV mix to my scalp to begin to lift the dirt that has accumulated. I then apply a liberal amount of coconut oil or olive oil to my strands to protect against hygral fatigue.

With respect to washing, I wash once a week, either on a Saturday or Sunday. Currently, I alternate between using the As I Am Coconut Cowash and a Shampoo. After my wash is complete, I almost ALWAYS deep condition my hair. I alternate between an elasticity treatment and a moisture-infusing deep conditioner, usually doing an elasticity treatment at least once a month.

I (mostly) finger detangle under running water with a moisturizing conditioner and I twist my hair into the already present sections and allow it to air dry.

With respect to my moisture regimen, after my hair is about 70% dry, I apply my leave in conditioner, followed by oil based product and then a cream- The LOC method. I usually twist right after since twists dry quicker. I remoisturise on the third day after wash day. What I use is dependent on how my hair feels and what it needs.

6. What is your daily morning regimen?

My daily morning regimen usually consists of taking my hair down if I retwisted or re-plaited the night before. I am not a morning person so I keep it quite simple.

7. What is your daily night time regimen?

My daily night time regimen would involve placing my hair into four huge twists or plaits to refresh my definition. On the 3rd day after wash day, I may need to add some water and seal with an oil just to add a little bit more moisture to my hair.

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

I am not very big on heat, and my hair does not seem too keen on it either. However, I will use a blow dryer once in a while, especially if I resort to washing my hair very late at night. I blow dry about 4-6 times for the year if so many, using the tension method.

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

I do braid my hair. I probably put in jumbo marley twists in three times for the year.

10. Wide-tooth comb or Denman brush?

Both. Depending on what the desired end result is. I very rarely use tools, however, if I am doing a style which requires my hair to be thoroughly detangled, or I am blowdrying, I may use a wide toothed comb. I save the denman brush for the rare occasions when I care to have NO tangle in site, or if I decide to flat iron.

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

My hair is normally loose.

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

I haven’t had any major hair tragedy that I can think of. The event that comes the closest though, was color treating my hair. My hair refused to be soothed into accepting moisture and the roughness was evident.

To deal with this, I simply cut out the colour. A mini chop first, and a series of trims after.

Recently as well, my scalp reacted to the installment of synthetic hair and bruised up and itched quite a bit. This is as close to a tragedy as I have experienced.

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

My biggest tip for maintaining healthy hair is to maintain a healthy lifestyle overall.. eat nutritious food, manage your emotions, sleep, be gentle with your hair , use products with great ingredients and deep condition.

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