Queen J’Nai ~ Queen Of Kinks,﻿ C﻿u﻿rls ﻿& Coils® (Neno Natural)﻿

Queen J’Nai ~ Queen Of Kinks, Curls & Coils® (Neno Natural)

19/10/2015

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

My name is J’Nai and I was born and raised in Cajun country a.k.a. New Orleans, Louisiana.

2. What is your hair type?

Like most naturals, my hair is multi-textured. It ranges from 3c around my nape area to 4b-c in the middle and very top of my head. The majority of my hair is 4a.

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

When I was in college, I got very lazy with my hair care, and it started to break off really badly. After that, I started getting sew-ins to give my hair a break, but I would leave them in for too long and wouldn't take care of my hair underneath. It's safe to say my hair was a total wreck. My last year of college is when I decided to go natural. I stopped using heat and switched up my products and styles and have never looked back.

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

It took a while for me to get comfortable in my own skin again. It was a drastic change going from a long and silky weave to a short afro. At times, I felt embarrassed to go outside. I didn't know how to take care of it, let alone style it to make it look good… People who knew me looked at me differently and with hesitation. But I adjusted, and it opened my eyes to a new world of beauty and creativity. I had a renewed appreciation for black hair and a deeper love for myself.

5. What is your weekly regimen?

My weekly regimen is usually dictated by the style that I am rocking for that week. My usual style is a two strand twist out. So, on Monday, I will wash or co-wash and deep condition my hair. Then, I will twist it up. I try to wear my hair in twists at least for two days, mainly for protection but also because my twist outs tend to look better this way. Then, I rock a twist out for the remainder of the week. I usually don't have to remoisturize in between styling because the products I use help me to retain moisture. If my hair is just out of whack, I will co-wash it and style again.

6. What is your daily morning regimen?

It’s very simple: take off my bonnet cap, shake, fluff, and go! I try to pick it out for volume, also. Because I leave my twists in for so long and I use heavy products that weigh my hair down, its harder to get the big fro unless I do a wash and go.

7. What is your daily night time regimen?

My nighttime regimen is also very simple… I just throw my bonnet on lol. If I have a rod or roller set in, I will put it in a puff just an inch or two above my hairline and throw it in a bonnet. My hair isn’t long enough for a pineapple yet. Sometimes I give myself a scalp massage with Jamaican black castor oil and aloe vera juice to help with growth. This is usually before a wash day.

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

I usually only use heat to blow dry my hair before a trim. After I trim, sometimes I straighten it or wand curl it. I trim 3 times a year.

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

I do, and I love it! My mother never braided my hair as a child, but I love getting it braided as an adult. Last year, I braided my hair into box braids twice: once in the summer and once in the fall. This year, I installed senegalese twists in March. So far, I have only braided my hair for easy maintenance during vacation. I want to braid my hair within the next few weeks just for style purposes because I just love braided styles.

10. Wide-tooth comb or Denman brush?

I do use a wide tooth, but I only use it to get major tangles out of big sections before going in with my Michele Mercier detangling brush on smaller sections.

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

It’s about 50/50 for me. My hair is usually in two-strand twists. I wear those for about two to three days with and without accessories. Then, I wear a twist out for the rest of the week or until I can wash my hair again. When I decide to change it up, the styles vary between protective styles and loose styles.

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

In my opinion, I have had two really “wtf” moments.

The first was when I did a DIY protein treatment with mayonnaise and egg. This is before I knew my hair was protein-sensitive. I left it in for an hour, and when I went to rinse it out, all I could hear and feel was hair snapping. It was horrible! I got it back together tho…

The second time was the last time I dyed my hair with box dye. I bought the wrong box color-burgundy instead of fire red-and thought it would have the same effect as what I was used to using. I was wrong. My hair was burgundy. I hated it. So, I bought color remover to get rid of the color, and that was the first time my hair had ever felt dry and damaged since I started coloring it. My hair was usually very soft, but now it felt coarse. My hair still feels like this somewhat, especially after shampooing.

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

The biggest tip I can give is to give your hair the most TLC you can. Always treat your hair like a newborn baby. If you feed it the right nutrients and be gentle with it, it will grow long and strong!

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