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

9/7/2014

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

My name is Dominique Payne and I’m from Memphis, Tennessee.

2. What is your hair type?

I have what you call “corkscrew” curls. My curl pattern is 3b/3c according to NaturallyCurly’s website.

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

I started wearing my hair natural back in September 2011. That decision stemmed from the heat damage that I had at the time. Back then, I never really paid much attention to what I was doing to my hair health-wise. I would flat iron or curl my hair every other day, which eventually led to me having about 4 inches of heat-damaged ends. One day I woke up and decided to stop butchering my hair. My decision has paid off since then as I no longer battle with heat damage.

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

I remember having such a hard time trying to learn about all the different chemicals and ingredients that go into a product, and knowing how to distinguish between “good” ingredients versus “bad” ingredients. The truth is, there’s so much information on the chemical makeup of hair care products that it can sometimes get overwhelming.

My simple solution starting out was to stray away from the main harsh detergents such as sulfates, parabens and silicones. Once I finally got into the groove of actually reading ingredients lists, it got a bit easier and I started incorporating my knowledge of ingredients into my purchasing decisions.

5. What is your weekly regimen?

My regimen tends to change overtime. My current weekly routine is to cleanse and condition my hair on the weekends. To cleanse I use DevaCurl No-Poo and to condition I opt more towards DevaCurl One Condition, although I do use other conditioners from time to time. I do deep treatments every other week. One of my favorite moisturizers to use is Shea Moisture’s Thickening Growth Milk. I also like to style with a light defining gel by DevaCurl. I air-dry my hair throughout the day, which takes around 4 to 5 hours… My hair holds a lot of water (lol). Throughout the week, I apply water and oil as needed to prolong my wash and go.

6. What is your daily morning regimen?

Five days out of the week, I’m usually in a rush. So I have to be quick, especially since I’m not a morning person at all (lol). All I do is take my hair down from the pineapple, spritz a little water (if needed) and shake my hair. I like to call it my fluff n’ go! Literally, I’m done in less than 2 minutes!

7. What is your daily night time regimen?

My night time regimen is even more simple than my morning regimen. I just put my hair up in a high ponytail at the top of my head (called a pineapple) and sleep on a satin pillowcase to prevent moisture loss and frizz.

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

No heat for me! In fact, the only heat that I will allow is from the sun or my hair dryer bonnet, which I only use for deep treatments. Both are indirect sources of heat. After my past experience with battling heat damage, I am all about protecting my hair from direct heat.

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

I very rarely braid my hair. If anything, I’ll do French braids or “Pocahontas” braids when I’m feeling cutesy or bored.

10. Wide-tooth comb or Denman brush?

Neither. I prefer my fingers. Finger-detangling is the best!

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

Occasionally, I wear my hair up in a bun. But my hair is down 99.99% of the time because I like my hair BIG and wild! “Curly hair don’t care” is my motto!

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

I wouldn’t necessarily call this a hair tragedy. However, a few months ago I tried a protein treatment, which completely backfired on me. Afterwards, it left my hair feeling very stiff and hard for days. Once I did a deep moisture treatment, my hair bounced back to normal. That’s the beauty of trial and error with natural hair. Needless to say, I quickly learned my hair doesn’t require protein treatments.

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

There’s so many tips on maintaining healthy hair and even more on how to maintain length. You just have to choose which ones work best for you or even create your own tips. What is more important to me is health. As long as your hair is healthy, it will grow. My biggest piece of advice would be to listen to your hair. It will tell you its needs, its wants and what it doesn’t like. Focus on YOUR hair. Don’t try to mimic others without reason.

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