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1. What's your name and where are you from?
My name is Fanta (yes that is my first name) and I'm from Mali, West Africa. I live in Paris, France so excuse my English please, I'll do my best. 2. What is your hair type? In the half front part and the half bottom part the texture of my hair is different but the curl pattern is 4B everywhere. 
3. When did you go natural and what made you do it?
I first tried to go natural when I was 16 but lack of knowledge in hair care and maintenance made me go back to relaxer and wigs at 19. In 2012 I decided to start a relaxer hair journey after watching all those beautiful women on youtube and blogs. In 6 months my hair grew out so much! It was insane but my hair was so thin and fragile! One day I was really fed up with this thin hair, I took a pair of scissors and cut then off! It was in July 2013. That is when I started my natural hair journey. 4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? Accepting my natural hair. Kinky hair is bad, kinky hair is ugly, kinky hair is not attractive, kinky hair... is not hair! It's just a big mistake from God. That is what this society, in particular black communities tell you. At the beginning, every black person I met (except natural queens and kings) told me to stop this, that I will not find a man, my relaxed hair was more beautiful etc. Going natural was a real freeing therapy for me because I had to stand against my closest friends and family members. I had to learn to love myself and accept my hair in spite of all the criticism and laughters. But I've made it and I'm proud to see today that the same people that laughted at first have big chopped now or are constantly asking me question about going natural because they've started to think about it! 5. What is your weekly regimen? I'm in what I call the 3 day regimen. The first day, Monday for example, I co-wash my hair then I make a deep treatment (conditioner / mask + olive oil + honey). I rince it out, add leave-in and my scelling oil (castor + avocado oils). Then I finger-detangle and style. Three days later, on Thursday, I wash my hair with water only under the shower for. Then leave-in, oils, finger detangling, styling. Three days later, on Sunday, I wash again with water only, make a deep treatment. Then, leave-in, oils, finger-detangling, styling. Three days later... Repeat from the beginning. I color my hair regularly so I need a lot of moisture to prevent breakage and dryness, This three day hair regimen is the one that gives me the best results. Every three months I wash my hair with a shampoo and before I do so I sleep with my home made shea butter treatment (shea butter, castor oil, avocado oil, tea tree oil, rosemary oil and peppermint oil) 6. What is your daily morning regimen? I don't have any morning regimen. In between every three-day washes, I don't do anything to my hair and don't put anything on it. 7. What is your daily night time regimen? I just put my satin scarf on and go to bed! 8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? Since I'm natural I've never use heat on my hair, not even a blow-out! 
9. Do you braid your hair? If so, how often do you do so in a year? If by braid, you mean senegalese twists, marley braids etc. no, I don't braid my hair. 10. Wide-tooth comb or Denman brush? I've never use denman brush and to tell you the whole truth, I rarely comb my hair with tools, I do it with my fingers. I only use a wide tooth comb when I do styles as cornrows or flat twists. 11. Is your hair normally loose or in a protective-do? I love rocking afro's, it's my favorite hairstyle but I've noticed that when I leave my hair in afro for several weeks, it creates a lot of knots and my hair becomes very difficult to detangle even with a comb. So I switch between afro a few days and protective styles a lot of days! 12. Have you ever had a hair tragedy? What was it? How did you recover from it? YES! Four months after my big chop, I decided to dye my hair with Dark & Lovely permanent hair color in Red Hot Rhythm. My hair became so dry, no curls anymore, only dryness and breakage, huge breakage. I started co-washing and deep conditionning my hair twice a week but my hair kept falling everyday and became drier and drier! The only solution was to cut 2,5 inch of hair. Then I started to see my curls and my moisture back. I was devastated, I made the big chop few months ago, my afro was still small and I had to cut it all and start again from the beginning! 13. What's your biggest tip for maintaining healthy or long hair? Always choosing health over length. It's not easy sometimes but I always repeat myself: If you keep your hair healthy, the length will surely come. Listening to my hair is how I choose health over length. I always listen to my hair, everyday I look at them, I look at how many hair fall when I detangle, how my hair feels after washing or deep conditionning, how shiny my hair is or is not, I pay close attention in the morning and in the evening, everywhere and everytime. And if something is wrong, I make everything to find out the reason and the solution until it's OK again. I don't do something or buy a product just because it's the new trend or because my favorite youtuber does it, I do what my hair needs. 14. Where can we find you online? (blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc).
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1 Comment
Heather KW
17/11/2015 02:08:03 am
You're beautiful. I love that after almost 250 features on the site you are both our first person from Mali and the first from France. Leave a Reply. |
