Dear Naa,

So sorry you had to spend hours to get your hair done. On top of that, you just could not sleep well because of the headache. Black girl hair problems are real. You know, after I had short hair for over a year, the wig became like an ex you never want to see again. Itis just an occasional business now. Why aren’t lots of ladies comfortable just walking around with the afro? I mean just wash your hair and go. I see ‘wash and go’ tutorials on YouTube and the products used is definitely not ‘wash and go’. I think every type of hair has its struggles.

I honestly thought our Caucasian sisters just wake up and move but nope, not that way. It all depends on your hair type. Can you believe some have to shampoo their hair everyday or every two days? I don’t know about you but that sounds like a lot of work to me. Looks like the hair struggle is everywhere. It is just sad that over the years, beauty is defined by having silky long hair and light skin. But thank God the narrative is gradually changing. We are all beautiful, whether your hair is kinky, straight, curly etc. No matter your skin colour, you are beautiful.

I am beginning to appreciate walking around in my natural hair more often. Because of the versatility of hairstyles that we do, some people find it hard to understand how the black hair works and always struggle to recognise us as soon as we change our hairstyle. This all happened at the seminar, when one lady complimented my hair and asked how did I get it to look that way. Mind you, I had braids. As soon as I told her that I attached extensions, she was amazed. She could not fathom how I had managed to add extra hair and it looked like mine so much. I just laughed and let it go.

  Photo: Braids.

What brought up the hair talk was this: Imagine you were clueless about the nature of the Black hair. You saw someone in pixie haircut the night before, you wake up the next morning and here is this person walking around with long hair. I am sure you will wonder about the secret to the overnight success of this hair growth. That is what happened when my colleague from Ghana decided to take off her pixie hair wig cap, wash her hair and appear in her long natural hair. This time it was the guys that were shocked. They were wondering how she pulled that off. So many questions. We just sat them down, gave a mini lecture and had to talk about protective styling as well.

Photo: Pixie Haircut Wig Cap

Photo: Natural Long Hair

It got to a time I got tired of explaining. One time, I appeared at a gathering in a top bun. One woman just exclaimed ‘oh you have cut your hair!’. I just smiled and said yes because I was not in the mood to give a lecture.

Here is another one: I love top buns because they are fast and easy to do before stepping out, so I go out in them often. One fine morning, I had used my shea butter and some water for the hair. And because I was in a hurry, I didn’t it mix it well so there were some white patches. I arrived and one woman asked what was in my hair. I told her it was shea butter and water. The next question was ‘Is that what keeps your hair up?’ LOL, this 4C black hair¹ is magical my dear, it defies gravity.

 Photo: Top Bun

Well, it is quite expensive to get your hair done here. Therefore, get ready to spend or become your own hairstylist. So if you have plans of relocating, please go and be an apprentice for your local hairdresser for some time. It will come in handy, trust me.

African hair is beautiful. Its tight kinky curls, volume and colour are unique. We stand out and we have to embrace it. Probably I am saying this because my hair is at a good manageable length.

My dear friend, I have visited a salon here but that is another story for another letter. Enjoy your braids and sometimes slow service of our dear hairstylists. Take care and have a lovely week.

Lots of love,

Ems.

Lexicons

1. 4C hair: it is the name used to describe the texture of a particular afro hair type. It is has extremely tight curls and coils.