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

4/10/2014

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

My Name is Crystal, and I was born and raised in New York.

2. What is your hair type?

My hair is composed of 2 different textures. I am a 3c in the crown area, and a 4a all over the rest of my head.

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

I went back to natural hair last year, May 17th, 2013. I originally started my healthy hair care journey on youtube, to teach ladies about caring for relaxed hair, and learn from them. After learning more information about how chemicals affect our hair growth, I began to texlax my hair. Soon after I started to transition for about a year and 3 months to my natural hair, before my big chop. It’s the happiest decision I ever made.

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

The most challenging thing about going natural, was the idea of cutting my long relaxed hair off, in exchange for my tight coils. When your ends are relaxed, they make your curls appear elongated, but as soon as you do your big chop... shrinkage occurs. I was afraid of how I would look, and how others would perceive me. Would my own natural hair suit me? Accepting my natural beauty was the hardest challenge.

5. What is your weekly regimen?

Due to being a beauty blogger, I am always changing hair styles a few times a week, and I accumulate a large amount of product build up. I will co-wash my hair mid-week to allow my hair to be more workable, and moisturized/seal for the next style. I will then cleanse, and deep condition my hair once a week. I am always paying attention to what exactly my hair needs. Due to my hair being protein sensitive. I also monitor my hair closely to ensure it does not become over moisturized.

6. What is your daily morning regimen?

My morning routine, is taking my hair out of however I wrapped it in satin the night before, and grabbing my favorite oil (usually coconut oil) to apply to my hair. I usually flat twist my hair, so I would use the oil to take down the twist to avoid frizz.

If my hair is a wash and go, or second day hair, I may give my hair a light spritz, with my aloe mixture, and scrunch or run a bit of oil through my hair, shake and go.

7. What is your daily night time regimen?

Usually at night I will moisturize and seal my hair, especially my ends with oil. I re-flatwist my hair with a curling creme if necessary, and place my satin bonnet on my head. If my hair is not frizzy and still full of curl definition after the day's events, I will just pineapple my hair with a satin scarf, and thats it!

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

I have flat ironed my hair twice since I have been natural, and blow dried my hair once. I usually avoid heat, and choose to air dry my hair. I do sometimes use heating caps, for my deep conditioning sessions.

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

I put braids in my hair, as a protective style to give my hair a break. I do it once a year, if I choose to, in the summer time.

10. Wide-tooth comb or Denman brush?

I mostly finger detangle, due to my fine hair strands. Whenever I choose to do a heavy duty detangling session, I use both items. The Wide-tooth comb first to get ride of any knots, and then the Denman brush to catch any shed hair, and smooth my hair. I love the denman brush.

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

If it was up to me I would mostly wear my hair out and loose. I love having free, big hair. However, that usually leads to tangles, and breakage for me. Thus, during the school year I opt to having my hair in a protective style, underneath my wigs.

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

My most devastating, traumatic hair moment, occurred during my freshman year of college in Michigan. I was unaware of the effects of hard water vs soft water. Since my hair was not accustomed to Michigan’s hard water, it began to break, appear and feel dry, stick together, and barely absorbed or retained any moisture. I couldn’t figure out if it was a protein or moisture overload.

After searching all over the internet I found out about the effects of hard water, and mineral deposits. I went straight to Sally’s and bought the ION Hard Water Shampoo, which did the trick, in clarifying my hair. I began to wash my hair with jugs of purified water, until the next year when I was able to get my own suite, and buy a filtered shower head.

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

LEAVE YOUR HAIR ALONE. I retained so much length, when I stopped playing with my hair, and over manipulating it. I know it is a hard task, especially if you love experimenting with your hair. However, when I protected my hair under wigs, moisturized it with a spritz a few times a week, sealed the ends with oil and deep conditioned once a week, it became much more healthy. I retained more length and was able to see so much more growth.

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