Please welcome Inesa of 4CNaturalHair who was kind enough to share her tips for shampooing and maintaining kinky twists!

Haaaaaay! I am just loving these Kinky twists. I thought that I already knew how to wash and care for my kinky hair in this protective style, but after doing a little research, I was wrong.

Me, My Hair and I
I am not your expectations
Leisa V. Johnson

Listening to Indie Arie sing I Am Not My Hair is the most accurate testament to my 50 year hair struggle that could ever possibly exist. From the first time I heard the song, the words and images seemed so familiar that I could have sworn Indie crept into the recesses of my psyche to reveal all the anxiety, discontent, and insecurities I have felt about my hair over the years.

Good hair means curls and waves; Bad hair means you look like a slave

As I was growing up my hair was jet black, extremely thick, and average length. But there was one problem: it was considered “bad hair” by the general populace of Black folk. When “pressed and curled” (a process that involved extreme heat, smoke inhalation, and numerous unpleasant encounters with a hot iron comb and my ears and scalp) my hair would look quite nice so said the general populace of Black folk. But several external factors: perspiration, morning dew, rain, or humidity could turn that glistening press and curl into a 3 inch tightly packed afro in 2.3 seconds. I shudder to recall the number of middle and high school dances where I went in with one hair style and came out distressed and embarrassed with a tiny little fro that found its way to my head with each of the night’s dance moves.

 “Thirteen I got a relaxer; I was the source of so much laughter”

“Girl what happened to your hair?” was the reigning cry at the end of each dance as I scuttled out of the gym into the light of minor yet penetrating humiliation. Funny now; not so funny then. It was remnants from such experiences and the sheer desire NOT to be laughed at or picked on that caused me to mutilate and assault my hair over the next 30+ years. Hot combs, lye relaxers, no-lye relaxers, back to lye relaxers because “Your hair is too coarse”, curling irons, plastic curlers, foam rollers, blow dryers, jehrri curls and not to mention an array of miracle inducing hair products that promised to make your hair shiny, manageable, straight and silky. I have to believe that if I had the money wasted on the artillery of assault weapons that I have purchased over the years, the Jeep that my son so desperately wants would be sitting in the driveway of our mortgage free two story split level 250 square foot home as we speak.

At the turn of the century; It’s time for us to redefine who we be

Old school ignorance has played a long and lasting role in defining how we see ourselves and our beauty. About three years ago I was totally shocked by one of my beloved Black male students. Michael had numerous encounters with school administration, the suspension process, and the law. And now he stood in front of me with pants sagging and underwear showing defiantly proclaiming, “I wish my prom date would call herself going to prom with me with braids in her hair. She better go get that stuff straightened out.” I couldn’t believe my ears. “Are you serious?” I retorted. “You mean in this day and age you still feel that a woman has to have straight hair to be attractive or deemed an acceptable prom date?” I pointed out classic African American women such as Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys (before the crossover), and Angela Bassett who have eloquently rocked braids, beauty, and class but all of my examples, explanation, and elaboration couldn’t outweigh his Grandmother’s misguided attempts to define class and beauty by the measuring stick of another race. (I couldn’t help but wonder did she put the same emphasis on lessons about honor, integrity and discipline?)

My parents didn’t made big issue over things like hair texture and skin color and I thank them for that. Even though the side effects of a time period when everything Black was measured against everything White still loomed in their distance. My mother never lamented my hair nor did she ever encourage me to perm my hair, but the wearing of natural unpressed hair and or braids was totally unprofessional and crude in her way of thinking. My father never commented on my hair but one couldn’t help but to observe that the majority of the women my dad found attractive had “good hair”.

Does the way I wear my hair determine my integrity? I am expressing my creativity…

So now, how do I feel about my hair in 2011. I can honestly say that I have never hated my hair nor genuinely coveted my neighbor’s hair. I love my hair. I just wish everybody else felt the same. For a while during my journey I would perm my hair between braids and twists. During the straight hair times my main stream co-workers would rave about how they loved my hair. “Oh I just love your hair like this. It’s nice the other way too but I love it like this.” Uuuummm???? Oh well, moving on. I totally reject such terms as nappy, kinky, ghetto, and coarse in reference to my God given mane. (Coarse in terms of ??????? Yeah, right!) These words exude so much negative connotation that I cannot in good conscious bring myself to use them to describe what is my crown and glory. My hair is MY hair. At present it is 80% grey with its natural texture braided in micro braids comingled with synthetic store bought hair. I call it an Ethnic mix and I make no apologies for any of it. When the feeling hits, I change from micros to two strand twists. Right now that’s just how I roll. And as I travel this journey of self- acceptance I will probably ditch the store bought hair, eagerly await the other 20% grey and just let it do what it do knowing all the while that my hair is beautiful!

You can shave it off
Like a South African beauty
Or get it on lock
Like Bob Marley
You can rock it straight
Like Oprah Winfrey
If its not what’s on your head
Its what’s underneath and say HEY..

I am a soul that lives within

Incredible article Leisa!  If you are inspired by Leisa’s story and would like to tell your own, please email me at

diego2memphis@hotmail.com. Thanks! ~ LV

I wanted to take a minute to give a shout out and show my appreciation once again to Nikki of curlynikki.com, who posted Coco’s Natural Hair Puff on “Stubborn Hair” article and video.  You can check it out here: http://www.curlynikki.com/2011/08/natural-hair-puff-on-stubborn-hair.html.  I’m sure the majority of you are already aware of her website, but in case you aren’t, click her banner below and be prepared for a flood of great natural hair information.  Thanks again Nikki!!
By the way, I’m still working on the child hair washing video that I mentioned yesterday.  I almost have it all edited, so please be sure to check back soon! Thanks

Updates: It’s been a busy few weeks, as you may have noticed because of the lack of updates lately.  Coco was recently hired at a new job so she has been working and is getting ready to start school soon.  I, as I’ve mentioned a few times just started a new year of home schooling my children so my days are filled and I spend my nights exhausted .  Still, I have been working on new updates for the website.  I am currently working on a new video on the method that I use to shampoo and detangle my daughter’s hair.

Notes: Speaking of hair washing, I’m excited to have come up with a great method of washing and detangling my daughter’s hair.  I’ve mentioned that trying to shampoo my daughter’s hair in the past has been…for lack of a better word…hell.  I tried washing her hair while she took her baths and anyone who entered my house during those times would have sworn that I was drowning the child.  I once had to have my husband hold her while I tried to rinse out her hair, because she was fighting me like crazy.

The shower was no better.  Actually it was worse because I may as well have been wresting a wet seal.  I almost dropped the poor girl once because she was wet, soapy and slippery acting like she was fighting for her life…not fun.

Enter the kitchen sink!  Why I hadn’t thought of this earlier, I don’t know.  After all, I still have fond memories of lying across the kitchen counter when I was little while my mom shampooed my own hair.  This is the method that I will show in the video that I am working on which includes my detangling and deep conditioning method.  I’ll try to finish and post this video tomorrow.

Observations:  Another “duh” moment for me…deep conditioning is the truth!  Now you may be thinking to yourself, “I already know this”, but bear with me for a moment.  Yes, I have deep conditioned my hair in the past.  At times quite regularly, but the key to a really good deep conditioning method is the use of the right product and the right method.  The deep conditioners that I’ve used in the past were essentially worthless.  This includes some well known all-natural brands.  I won’t name names, but let’s just say I’ve spent a lot of money on hype.  Since I did not see great results from these deep conditioners, I thought to myself, “maybe I don’t need to deep condition.”  I decided not to keep throwing money down the sink for products that were not making a difference.  Well, about a week or so ago, I went to Walgreens and picked up a product that I had never heard of before called BioInfusion Olive Oil Deep Conditioning Treatment .  BioInfusion costs $7.99 and is only available at Walgreens.  It advertises itself as being a mix of nature and science, meaning that it contains some great natural ingredients “infused” with laboratory ingredients.  The first three ingredients are water, Glycerin and Coconut Oil.  I’ve only used it a couple of times so far, so this is not a formal review (I will do a formal review after a few more tries), but I tried it on my daughter’s hair last night and now I’m a believer. After applying the treatment and placing her under the dryer for about 10 minutes, her hair was shinier and a lot healthier looking.  I mean I saw a big difference.  After her hair dried overnight, it still looked moisturized.  It’s too early to tell, but I think I’m in love with this stuff.  More updates on this product to come!

The 26th of this month will mark the sixth year of my natural journey!  I have learned a lot about myself and my hair through the years (a whole lot of trial and error).  I began documenting my journey as soon as I did the BC.  Well, I went through my archives to pull out the very first article that I wrote after I BCed.  This article comes from my old Hair Journey website. I’m posting this for those who are fairly new to the site and are interested in how my journey began.  Well, here goes…

The First Steps in My Natural Journey (originally posted 11/13/05)

Like most things, my hair journey began with a question that led to a thought. And that question was, “What if I stopped relaxing my hair?” Followed by the thought, “Maybe I can go natural.” Well, I do not remember if these were the exact words, but this is basically what it boiled down to.

I am getting ahead of myself, so let me back up a few months.

My husband, my son and I moved from San Diego, California to Tennessee in September of 2004. San Diego, as some of you may know, is one of the most expensive cities in the USA to live in. We could not afford to buy a house there. My husband had just graduated from graduate school, without many prospects for a job, I was a stay-at-home mom and my beloved mother-in-law had just passed away leaving behind what she worked so hard all of her life to get – a beautiful three bedroom home out in the suburbs in Tennessee. We were living in a two bedroom apartment in a not-go-great neighborhood in San Diego, paying only $150 less than my mother-in-law’s mortgage. We decided to take the chance, pack it up and move 2,000 miles away to the south. It was tough in San Diego, so we figured that the south, with it’s lower cost of living, we would have better financial success.

Well it turns out that sometimes you have to wander through the wilderness before you reach the land of milk and honey. What do I mean by that? Well, it took my husband a whole year to find a job here in the south in his field. In the meantime, I was still staying-at-home with my son while helping my husband start up his basketball recruitment business. Let’s just say that the money was not flowing.

What does this have to do with my hair journey? Since the money was not flowing, my hair was not being relaxed regularly. We moved to the south in September. My mom relaxed my hair for me in December. Then my mother’s day gift from my husband was a trip to the hair salon for a relaxer in May. And somewhere in between that time I had the idea to buy a relaxer and put it in myself. Do you see what I’m getting at? My hair was seriously neglected.

In July of 2005, as my May relaxer was beginning to get old and my new growth was growing thick under the relaxed ends, I began to think about solutions for my hair. I started looking closely at my new growth wondering, why am I hiding it? While this thought was swimming around in my head, I began to seek information on the web about natural hair, I started noticing women at church with beautiful natural hair and a friend of mine visited from San Diego with a newly cropped, beautiful TWA (Teenie Weenie Afro). Soon after, I ran across Nappturality on the web. This site showcases women with natural hair through pictures, articles and a forum. I spent the majority of my days on Nappturality reading and stalking albums. From there I found other sites such as Motown Girl’s website, which documents her progression from relaxed hair to natural hair. I started saying to myself, “I may actually be able to go natural!”

This thought lead to the beginning of my mental transition. I had to transition my mind from what society thought was beautiful to what God made beautiful. I had to let go of the images on the music videos of straight silky hair. I had to let go of the negative images of nappy hair. I had to stop saying to myself that my hair was too nappy to be natural or that I was too dark skinned to be natural. I thought about the powerful scene in Spike Lee’s movie “School Daze” where you had the straight fine hair sisters and the nappy hair sisters singing about hair and I had to ask myself, am I ready to be completely on the other side of that spectrum?

Once those thoughts were eradicated, the next step was preparing myself to face the world with nappy hair. I began to tell my family and friends that I was thinking about cutting the relaxer out of my hair. I started with my husband, who thought that I was joking or going through some sort of phase. After the jokes ended he was very supportive. He even offered to cut my relaxed hair off for me. I talked to my sister-in-law about it and she was supportive. My parents were also supportive.

I was still afraid of what outsiders would say about me. I thought about what it would be like to go to the store and/or the mall with nappy hair. I am very happily married, but it’s nice sometimes to be thought of as attractive by others. I was afraid that I would no longer get those “You’re an attractive sistah” type of looks from men or that women would look at me like I was crazy.

After a while, I decided that those things really did not matter. I was getting more and more anxious to cut the relaxer, but I barely had an inch of new growth. I began looking at pictures of women with TWAs (Teenie Weenie Afros), on the internet, trying to picture my face underneath the short cropped hair. I had a friend tell me that I would really have to be confident to cut my hair down that short. I questioned myself, “Are you confident enough to pull it off?”

Well, to make a long story short, I decided that all the questioning in the world would not stop me from wanting to be natural. Almost three months after my last relaxer, I went to the neighborhood beauty salon and made an appointment to have all the relaxer cut out of my hair. After the stylist picked her lower jaw up off of the floor, she gave me a date and time to come in. On July 26, 2005, I walked into the salon with 9 – 12 inches of relaxed hair and walked out with less than an inch of nappy hair. As I watched her sweep up the pile of relaxed hair off the floor, as the other patrons looked on in disbelief, I smiled, rubbed my little stubble of new growth and said “Good riddance! I’m beginning a new journey!”

We’re back from our 2 week vacation/road trip.  We had a great time, but now I am hard at work.  I am currently working on a how-to video for the Ghana Plait bun that I wore for the first week of my vacation (I have to edit a 20 minute video down to around 8 minutes).  I loved the style and feel that it is a great protective style for the summer months.  I hope to have that video completed and uploaded either late tonight or some time tomorrow.  I’ll be posting the video here on the site, on our facebook fan page, my tumblr page, twitter page  and of course our youtube page. Please check back!

For those who have not “liked” our facebook page or who don’t follow on twitter, you probably don’t know that we are currently on vacation in Oceanside California after a three day road trip from Tennessee.  I love road trips, because you get to see parts of the country that you would not get a chance to see when flying.  We went through the states of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and finally Cali.  By the way, I am so in love with Albuquerque New Mexico!  It is a gorgeous city from the highways, to the homes, down to the architecture and colors chosen to paint the buildings…beautiful!

Anyway, this trip has inspired me to re-announce another way to be featured on the website.  Last year, I introduced the “Natural-ness in the States” feature and received about 20 submissions from states all over the country (check out our “Rep Your State” beauties here: RYS).  States  featured so far include Florida, California, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas, New Mexico, Missouri, Oklahoma and Virginia. My goal was to attempt to post people from the majority, if not all of the states in the US.  I think I want to try it again…so…if you are interested in “Repping Your State”, please check out the following link: Natural-ness in the States.

Don’t live in the United States?  That’s OK, I haven’t left you out.  I’d love to feature you as well!  Here’s the link for naturals outside of the United States: Global Natural-ness.  Here’s the link to check out some of our past Global features: GN

Anyway, back to our trip.  Oceanside is about 40 minutes north of San Diego.  The city of San Diego is so significant for me because it is where I lived for ten years before relocating to Tennessee.   I’m a Cali girl born and raised, originally from the San Francisco Bay area, I moved to San Diego after graduating from high school to attend San Diego State University.  I received my BA in Psychology and my Master of Social Work degrees from SDSU.  San Diego is also where I met some of my best lifelong friends, met and married my husband of almost 10 years and gave birth to my first child.  In other words, this is where I achieved some of my most significant milestones.

Why the heck did we move from this city of paradise to the south?  Well, in a nutshell, affordability.  In the south, we could afford a home.  In San Diego, our rent was more than our current mortgage.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with our decision to relocate.  The south has its own beauty and is so rich in history.  However, it is nice to be back in the city where I experienced so many beginnings.

Well, I’d better sign off before I begin rambling.  I hope you are all having a terrific day and I also hope you’ll consider submitting to either the “Natural-ness in the States” or “Global Natural-ness” features.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t really think about my hair very much.  What do I mean by that?  Well, when I first cut the relaxer out of my hair, my hair was on my mind a lot.  I wondered what people thought of it. I noticed every curly head that I passed or that I saw on TV.  I was constantly visiting natural hair websites and forums looking for inspiration or product ideas.  My hand was always in my hair (serious hand in hair syndrome) and I was always motivated to try new things.  Now that I am approaching my 6th year of sporting my natural tresses, I find that I don’t think about my hair very much.  It has become just another part of me… like my arm or my leg.  In other words, I’m no longer obsessed with it.

It’s funny how that happens.  I guess it’s sort of a good thing, because I’ve come to the point where my hair just is.  I’m way passed the point of trying to turn it into what it is not, I sort of just roll with it. I could care less that my hair isn’t curly.  I know one thing, this attitude has really cut down on my product purchases.  I have a few products that I really like and I pretty much stick with them.  Don’t get me wrong, I occasionally walk by the aisles in target and find myself tempted to try something new, but new products are a whole lot easier to resist now.  A few years ago, I was trying almost any product I could get my hands on.

I really don’t have a point with this post.  I just find it interesting how over time, you sort of get comfortable with certain things and they do not cross your mind as much. Is it just me?  Have long have you been natural?  Are you still obsessed with your hair?

Have you been to our youtube channel?  Currently I have how-to videos, product reviews and other hair commentary posted.  My how-to videos include styles done on my own hair, my daughter’s and my son’s hair.  My sister Co, the more creative hair stylist, also has how-to videos and healthy eating recipes there. If you are interested in checking them out you can visit by going directly to our channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/naturalnessdotcom?feature=mhum) or checking out our videos without leaving this site by clicking youtube in the wibiya bar below.  If you like what you see, be sure to subscribe!

I admit that I have not been as diligent as I could be about posting how-to videos.  Partly because my camera was not giving me the quality of videos that I wanted and I was not happy with my video making software.  The good news is, I just ordered a better video making software program.  Yay! I’m happy!  I also have a camera that I hope will create better quality videos.  I am ready to go full swing into video making!

One more thing I wanted to mention…there are videos on this website that are not located on our youtube page. These videos were created quite a while ago…some as far back as 2005 when I first went natural.  You can check out all of our archived how-to videos here: video archives.

Thanks and be sure to check out our youtube page from time to time!

Note: By the way…if you are seeing double underlined words in my posts, please bear with me.  I’m in the process of trying out a new ad program.  The double underlined words link to ads, but I am having that feature removed because I don’t like it.  Sorry about any inconvenience. Hopefully the double underlined ad links will be gone in a day or so!

I love that there are so many websites, blogs and forums dedicated to natural hair.  In fact, I spent quite a bit of time on one particular youtube channel today, where I saw a video on how to do pin curls (which I may be inspired to try one day).  Now as I watch these videos and see how cute certain styles are on certain heads of hair, I always try to keep in mind that while the style may turn out cute on the video, it may not work as well on my head/hair.

I think that it is important to keep this thought in mind, because it helps to eliminate the “I wish my hair was like that” thoughts.  I do not believe that those thoughts are very productive.  While it is fine to admire the beauty of someone else’s hair, it is not helpful to put down your own hair.  OK, so my hair does not hang in pretty spirals when I do a bantu knot-out (true story), but I can get it into a great looking afro. Ask yourself, what does my hair do well?  If your answer is nothing, than you probably have not spent enough time getting to know your hair.

Again, this is all a part of learning to love what you have.  If you find that you are having a tough time learning to accept your hair for what it is, it may be time to step away from blogs and youtube videos and take time to get to know your own hair. Explore, experiment and maybe try a wash-n-go every once in a while.  If you find that you just cannot stay away from youtube and natural hair pictures (I understand…believe me) than make sure that you are using these things as inspiration and not as a measuring stick for comparing your own hair.  Once you stop comparing, I believe that you will begin to see your hair in a different light.  You’re then on your way to learning to love what you were blessed with.