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How to winter proof your natural hair routine

by Evenes Ruth Mafupa
written by Evenes Ruth Mafupa

Yes, winter is upon us and what shall we do except to comply and hide our tresses? Or is it even necessary to hibernate your hair for winter? Well the answer depends on what works for you. As for me and my hair, winter months are spent less active and more resting and out of the cold. Protective styling I mean, and low manipulation hairstyles that also cover my hair from the dry, cold Johannesburg winters.

Knot less braids

So, by now, I have become a total pro in winter proofing my natural, not joking. And that’s what I am about to share with you right now. So, buckle up and let’s get schooled here.

Short Marley Twists

Disclaimer: This method works for those in dry climates during winter months.

  • Do less with your hair. Not kidding. Less is more. should I say low manipulation one more time? There, I said it. Even if you are not a protective styling fan, try not to handle your hair too much. (This tips goes for all year round as well if you are trying to maximising length retention aka hair growth.)
  • Wash your hair at least once a week but please don’t go out in the cold with wet hair. The water will attract more cold to your hair. So, cover your head if your hair is still wet so that your hair doesn’t freeze.
  • More moisture retention techniques for your hair. A leave in conditioner alone may not be enough to retain moisture longer. Try sealing the moisture with a butter or heavier cream. I love whipped Shea butter from Nashe Organics. My hair stays moisturised and soft for days.
  • If you’re up to it, a long term protective style may be a good idea. I know salons are not yet open so this may not be too easy to achieve for a lot of sisters. But if you can do African threading, braid or twist your own hair, this may be time to do it.
  • Wigs are a good friend in winter months. For some people this is a no no. However, they offer quite good covering to your actual hair throughout winter. What I love about wigs is that, I can take it off and attend to my hair daily. It also keeps my head warm.
  • If wigs are not your thing, a crochet hairstyle may offer the same benefits as a wig. A crochet hairstyle with for example Marley hair can offer good covering and keep your head warm as well.
  • Moisturise your hair whether in a protective style or not, more so in winter than ever. Twice a day is ideal but, once a day at least if you are too busy.
  • If head wraps are your thing, cover your head with head wraps when you go out in the cold. I particularly go for my morning jog with a cap or woollen hat. Otherwise my hair will freeze completely.
  • When you go to sleep, a satin bonnet or scarf is a must have. It will help you retain moisture. Put one on soon after spraying your hair so that the moisture can get a chance to sink into your hair.

Here is an easy protective hairstyle that you can do on your hair.

Faux locs

A lot of people I know have a winter hair routine. From braiding or twisting in winter to protect the hair, to head wraps through out winter. What’s your plan? Tell me in the comments below. I would love to know.

 

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DIYHair

Creating a simple routine for your hair

by Evenes Ruth Mafupa
written by Evenes Ruth Mafupa

I know. Some of us have had to make play dough, paint butterflies, assign school work to toddlers when all they want is to play video games or watch other people play them on YouTube. It is cool to be working during the lock down. But, I think I am being stretched much and what I need right now is some me time in a hair salon, having my hair pampered

Sunday Outfit for home church service

Wait, the salons are closed. Eish. What to do now. I need a routine that is simple, basic and I can fit into my busy schedule.

I don’t have a big chunk of time as well, I can’t spare a whole day to be doing hair. Right now, I can literally steal an hour or two here and there so that I can take care of my hair. If it is more than 3 hours, it is already classified as work because then, I will be recording a video for you. So hear is how I am doing it these lock down days. Nothing too complicated. Just the basic stuff so that at the end of this lock down, I don’t end up with a matted mess of hair or worse, hair loss.

Friday

Detangle and pre-poo hair while I am watching a movie with the boys. I don’t use water though because I sleep with the pre-poo on my hair. I just use a water based leave in conditioner that also helps with detangling. I will then wrap my hair in a plastic grocery bag, a bonnet on top and let the greenhouse effect work it’s magic on my hair.

 

Saturday

Wash hair in the shower while taking a bath. Because I pre-pooed, I will shampoo first and apply conditioner to deep condition. I then finish off bathing and washing of personal stuff before rinsing the conditioner out.  I apply some leave in conditioner and braid/twist my hair into 4 sections. It then starts the air drying process.

Deep conditioning

After I finish dressing, I will then apply some more leave in conditioner or a moisturising cream before sealing with whipped Shea butter and do smaller twists or braids or African threading, amaphondo, mabhanzi. And that’s it.

Sunday

I may wear my hair in a twist out or comb it out into a floppy afro if I didn’t manage to put it into a protective style that can last at least a week. I will moisturise and twist it at night into smaller twists or longer lasting amaphondo before covering it with a satin scarf/bonnet whatever my fancy is, before going to sleep.

Monday to Thursday

My hair will be in twists or amaphondo. A get up and go protective style. After bathing, I remove the scarf, neaten my edges and I’m good to go. At night, I will spray with my daily moisturising spray from Nashe Organics, bonnet or scarf my head up and hit the pillow.

In twists

African Threading using Brazilian Wool

Doing African Threading using acrylic yarn

Friday

We start the whole process again.

There we go! I told you, simple and basic. And my hairstyles don’t look bad as well. My family has seen me in these hairstyles before. So, I’m not being ugly to them here. I’m just keeping things real considering the time on my hands.

 

Whatever you do, keep it simple, do things bit by bit if you can’t fit it all in a day, keep your hair moisturised, clean and healthy and look cute. You don’t need to be going to work to look groomed. Be comfortable but look cute.

I did a whole video on taking care of your hair at home during the lock down period, in partnership with Darling South Africa recently. The video is below.

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Hair

Lock Down with kids and working from home!

by Evenes Ruth Mafupa
written by Evenes Ruth Mafupa

I am not complaining, no not at all. I am so blessed to have my family here with me and also to be able to work during the lock down. I would not have it any other way. Not the lock down of course, the kids and being able to work.

I wish there was no lock down at all. The lives being lost, people are sick, the anxiety all around and the impact on the economy. It’s not a joke guys. This is really hectic to another level altogether.

But there are challenges in this situation as well. I have to share the day with the whole family. Breakfast takes longer to have and getting the boys to sit and do their school work is a task and a half. Now I know. Home schooling is not my kind of gig.

Dining room turned into study centre

Having 3 boys, all in school means that, time is divided on all 3 and making sure they are making some progress on school work is important.

 

We are also not immune to the anxiety that is all around. Trying to stay away from the internet for continuous news updates is helping though. We only view statistics at end of day.

Some baking fun with the boys

During the day, we try and get on with our routine, well, some kind of routine we come up with, to get the work of the day done. From chores, school work, preparing meals to taking some time playing outside.

Some skipping and outdoor games

I end up doing most of my writing or editing videos at night. If I do any work during the day, it’s for a limited time only. I only look at emails and messages here and there so I can ship any orders for Natural Moisture.

Doing some sewing as well.

Having a routine with the family things has helped us big deal. And of course, I also have a lock down routine for my hair for when I am not in a long term protective style. And that is basically washing my hair every second day.

That’s right. every second day. At first, it was because I had to. My scalp was flaking like I had signed a contract to host dandruff on my scalp. The dandruff would show up soon after washing the hair. I also ended up applying a scalp moisturiser which helped a lot.

In chunky twists

It’s a scalp balm that turned out too creamy and I decided to use it as a scalp moisturiser. And guess what It is working especially if I apply it soon after I wash my hair. I then put my hair into chunky twists and that’s it until next wash day. No twist out here. I wash my hair in twists too. So, I only take them out to detangle, apply conditioner and re-twist.

Some art

I got this from a WhatsApp group and I thought it was real sound advice on working from home while home schooling the kids during this lock down period. I’m sure it could help you as well. Here are the points in short.

  • Keep a morning routine. Wake up at the same time, make breakfast at the same time, get dressed at the same time, etc. This is actually really important in general for anyone that works from home, but is also important for reminding your kids that this isn’t a weekend day but a school day.
  • If your kids have organised school activities do those first. The key, though, is to help the kids figure out how their system works, and make it clear they are responsible for finishing their assignments on their own and bearing the consequences if they don’t do their work, do it poorly.  You want to get out of the business of helping them do everything as soon as possible, which will accrue to their long-term benefit and your short-term benefit!
  • Limit screen time and go for video games than just watching TV or movies on devises. Video games engage their senses more. But, don’t beat yourself for either choice at some point you need a few hours of not being interrupted to get work done, and screens work; this situation won’t last forever.
  • Make sure you have some sort of physical activity. At least an hour of physical activity, preferably outside in the sun if possible will do the whole family a lot of good.
  • If you are fortunate to have a partner, work in shifts. For example, the husband can be responsible for the kids until lunchtime, and the wife for the afternoon and dinner. Two hours on and two hours off could work too; this is not only important for actually getting work done, but also for scheduling calls and meetings. Put the shifts in your work calendar and do your best to hold to them.

The piece is quite long and you may get it from your WhatsApp connections. Just thought to summarise the main points that I thought are really helpful.

Here is also some advice from yours truly on how to survive the lock down mentally. You do know that nothing is ever going to be business as usual when it comes to our relationships as well right? Indeed. Spending so much time with the people we live with will either be hectic or a blessing. Here is some advice to make it work, enjoy each other by respecting one another and knowing that you are actually on the same team. So, no competing against each other. You can’t win against your team mate right. When your team mate has lost, you have lost. And if it’s a win, you both win.  I hope the video helps in a way.

All the best. Stay at home. Stay positive and let’s fight the battle together. Blessings and life to you and yours.

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Hair care

My current regimen on shorter hair

by Evenes Ruth Mafupa
written by Evenes Ruth Mafupa

Although my hair is much shorter than it used to be, it’s in no way a TWA. So, I cannot just wash and let it be, well sometimes I do and then I have to deal with detangling and removing the knots afterwards. That makes it not a good idea to just let it be or wash it daily in the shower for that matter. It is however much easier and faster to handle my hair now in its shorter state which is a big plus for me. Detangling is not a session on its own. It kind of happens as I was my hair and run my fingers through it. I also can wash my hair, apply conditioner and comb it out into an afro in less than 30 minutes which is great. Below, I share with you my current regimen or routine to take care of my hair.

Wash days

Wash days are once a week and if I can pull it off, once every 2 weeks but rarely so. Once a week is more like the norm. Because I sometimes flake on my scalp, I often do a pre-shampoo treatment aka pre-poo. For that I use the Nashe Organics Moisturising daily Hair Spray, mixed with a bit of Head & Shoulders African Hair and scalp care shampoo. I apply the mixture on my scalp then go under the steamer for about 10 minutes. This helps to lift all the dandruff from my scalp so that when I wash, my scalp is as clean as it can possibly can. I will then shampoo with the Nashe African black soap, followed by conditioning with the moisturising conditioner or do a protein treatment which I only do once a month. With the protein treatment, I also go under the steamer for 15 minutes and then rinse. When I am all washed, I will apply a leave-in conditioner and you guys know that my first choice will be the Nashe Organics Leave-in styler which I love love love. What can I say, it’s one of my products. I will then either comb it out in to an afro or do large flat twists because single twists don’t hold at all due to the length of my hair. I also do wash n go’s using gel, but that is quite rare these days, especially after I started doing high puffs and enjoying them to the max. I also apply some oil on the scalp to keep it moisturised for longer. More like general skin care after a wash.

Daily maintenance

I am not doing much to my hair these days on a daily basis because of the length. When my hair is out, I don’t use anything to cover my hair since I have a satin pillowcase. In the morning, I rub my leave-in conditioner on my hands and massage it on the ends of my hair while lifting the flat sides and that’s it. When I have a style in, I cover my hair with a satin bonnet or scarf and I am spoiled rotten for choice when it comes to scarfs because I have quite a lot. Mornings are breeze when my hair is in a protective style. I basically just remove the doek/scarf/headwrap and I am good to go. I also spray my scalp and hair daily when my hair is in a protective style. Not so much when my hair is out to prevent shrinkage because I use the Nashe Organics Moisturising Daily Hair Spray which is water based. You know, shrinkage is not always welcome. However, I do use it at least twice in between washes to introduce moisture on my hair so that my hair is not dry and brittle. But I always have to do flat twists afterwards to stretch my hair.

Trimming split ends

Well, I have trimmed my hair only once since I cut it in June. Looking at how healthy my hair looks after the cut and how crazy it is growing  or rather how much length I have retained since the cut, I have become less attached, in fact, not attached at all to damaged ends. If they should go, they go. No questions about that. I will choose healthier hair to longer hair anytime and so far, I am loving my healthier hair.

Getting ready to do some production

That’s all, no rocket science at all. Just sticking to what works and leaving out everything else. I’m sitting for exams again in November and for that period, I want to see if I can get away with wigging. I have not done much of that since I cut my hair. But I want to try that. Otherwise, thank you for coming by. If you have any questions, do ask in the comments section below. God bless you abundantly and be you all the time because no one can be better than you. Here is to peace, love, happiness and joy. Blessings

 

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