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

25/11/2014

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

My name is Shamika, but I go by Mika! I'm from the lovely island of St.Thomas, US Virgin Islands!

2. What is your hair type?

I have 4c hair or kinky hair.

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

I have never relaxed my hair. I've been natural for 27 years. However, I started taking care of my own natural hair in 2010. Prior to 2010, my hair had been cared for by my mother and various hair braiders.

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

The most challenging thing at the beginning of my natural hair care independence was just learning what works on my hair and what doesn't. At that point my hair had never been trimmed, I didn't know about the LOC method or any of the natural hair care methods for that matter. So there was a long period of experimenting with different products and methods to determine what works best for my hair.

5. What is your weekly regimen?

I wash my hair every week. My wash days consists of shampooing my hair preferably with a sulfate-free shampoo, detangling (with a wide-tooth comb) my hair in quadrants with a slippery conditioner like Tressemme Curl Hydration, and deep conditioning my hair with a thick product like Cantu's Deep Treatment Masque.

6. What is your daily morning regimen?

My daily morning regimen consists of spritzing my hair with water or working a water based moisturizer/leave-in into my hair. I seal the moisture in with whatever oils I have to hand (shea butter, vitamin E oil, hot-six oil, etc.) and style my hair for the day if it was not already in a style.

7. What is your daily night time regimen?

I tend to wear a lot of simple protective styles, so I just take the style down and moisturize like I do in the morning. Then I put my hair into four jumbo plaits and sleep with a satin bonnet.

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

Very, very rarely. When I do, it's usually to blow dry my hair to get some length. Before I do blow dry, I protect my hair with a heat protecting serum.

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

There was a point in time when all my styles consisted of braids. However, this year I've only done extensive braiding maybe twice.

10. Wide-tooth comb or Denman brush?

Wide-tooth comb! I have thought about using a Denman brush, but I think it'll do more harm than good because my hair is really thick.

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

It's normally in protective-dos. Twists, buns, goddess twists, funky last minute styles, you name it.

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

Oh my gosh this is so embarrassing, but yes it was very tragic. I was in the process of taking out a crotchet braids style and was cutting the synthetic hair really low so that all I would have to do is loosen out the natural hair that was in cornrows. I had just gotten into an argument and wasn't paying attention to what I was cutting. I reached the back of my head for a cornrow to start loosening it and realized that I chopped it off at the nape of my neck. There's no real way to recover from that other than to just let it grow back. I also took a mental note to NEVER handle my hair when I'm angry.

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

My biggest tip is Keep It Simple. I find the less I do to my hair in terms of manipulation, the less chance I have of experiencing a significant amount of breakage. I also have a much easier time detangling on wash days.

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