Black & White growth….

So we realized that a lot of us black women relax our hair convinced that it grows longer as opposed to when it’s in its natural state. Some people believe that Caucasian hair grows faster than African natural hair. Right…well…that’s why we came up with this document.

We found two ladies; black and white; both have just cut their hair short and asked if we could document their hair growth and be able to draw the conclusion to the growth pace debate.

Meet Ropfiwa aka “Roxy”, a first year Law student:

You’re spotting short hair? Do you prefer your hair that length?
Rox: For now, I’m loving it. Plus it’s low maintenance. But I wanna grow it a little and finally lock it.

Why dreadlocks?
Rox: Because I see how good they look on other people & I’d also want to try them out. You know…experiment.

You had natural hair, and then relaxed it. Why was that?
Rox:Combing it became quiet a mission. I also think I became too lazy to take care of it.

What led to the big chop this time around?
Rox: Relaxed hair became very high-maintenance than natural hair. For a student like me, the trips to the hair salon became more expensive as well.

Do you feel or see yourself any different with your hair being natural as compared to when it’s either relaxed or when wearing weaves?
Rox: I think I look better with natural hair. I like the fact that it doesn’t limit my creativity, so I rock any hairstyle I want when my hair’s natural. I also get more compliments when I’m rocking it natural. 🙂

What kind of comments do you get from people now that your hair is not only cut short, but also natural?
Rox: Some are still stereotypical about natural hair vs straight/relaxed hair but luckily for me, on most occasions I manage to influence some of them to go natural also. I find that a lot of my black friends focus more on length as opposed to growth.

Your hair care regimen…
Rox: It’s simple, really. I wash it every second day to avoid extreme dryness. I’m not fussy about moisture for now, so I normally wait for it to dry out after a wash, and then apply “Black Chick” hair food for a nice shine.

And now say hello to Annabelle aka Anne:

You cut your hair short. care to share what led to it?
Anne: This time around, I was in hospital and could not wash my hair as I was immobile.  Seemed to be the realistic thing to do.

Sorry to hear about your car accident.  Was this the first time your hair is this short?
Anne: I have shaved my hair very often.  As I have gotten older I thought it wouldn’t suite me.

What did you honestly think when you saw yourself in the mirror after the big chop?
Anne: I actually didn’t see what it looked like after they cut it in the hospital.  All previous times it was a bit of a shock seeing it for the 1^st time but as the days pass I got used to it.

How do you feel about it now?
Anne: I’m pretty used to it now.  Do get a little self conscious when people seem to stare.

Caucasian women really love their hair. What kind of reaction do you get from other Caucasian men & women?
Anne: Most don’t understand how I can have my hair so short.  I think Caucasian men prefer woman to have long hair.

You have 3 kids. What do they think of mommy with short hair now?
Anne: My youngest boy (4) has got long hair and he always asks me to cut his hair like mine.  I think the older kids are used to me cutting it this short.

Are you planning on growing it?
Anne: Yes I am…. Don’t know how long it’s gonna take but I’m don’t think I’ll shave it again.

Please take us through your hair care regimen.
Anne: I wash and condition my hair every morning.  When it’s longer I’ll wash and condition every 2 or 3 days.  It’s extremely easy having it this short – Wash and go… No need for a brush.

Would you say its easier to take care of your hair now that its shorter?
Anne: It’s sooooo much easier taking care of my hair now.  When it was longer, you need to blow dry, then use a straightening iron etc. every time u wash

The frochic team wishes you a speedy recovery, Anne.

We’d like to say a bit thank you to these two wonderful ladies for allowing us to document their hair growth for the next few month. Stay tuned for next months length comparison.

Does natural hair have a place in the workplace?

In the workplace there are a lot of things one has to take into account at all times. It’s very important that you act professionally, whether it being by the way you behave or the way you carry yourself. Many companies also have protocol or rules on how they expect their employees to dress in order to represent their company in a positive light.

Part of the protocol is making sure you are well groomed – that is, neat and appropriate dress attire, and of course you hair must also be kept ‘neat and tidy’. Yes, how your hair looks like is also something that is taken note of  in your work environment. No employer wants to see hair that looks or is ‘un-washed’ or hair that appears ‘untidy’. Now when we talk about hair, this ranges to all types of hair textures. However, it seems that the perception from society at large and the corporate world is that if you are blessed with naturally straight hair or can somehow have your hair relaxed or straightened, this is seen as being more professional-looking. Whilst for someone who wears their hair in an afro, or twists and locks, it can be perceived as being ‘unprofessional’. Could it perhaps be that natural black hair somehow seems or looks “untamed” at times? Other people would prefer that you rather wear your natural hair (afro or locks) in plaits/cornrows, which will help to “tame” down that huge afro or those “unruly” locks. Sometimes it seems the only industry that one can wear their hair in this manner is in the creative industry, were the employees are perceived as being creative-minds and their dress sense is as being funky and trendy; thus their natural hair naturally becomes part of the package.

Well our take in all this, is that natural hair doesn’t have to be seen as ‘unprofessional’ for the corporate world. There are many sistahs, including ourselves, who wear their natural hair with pride – huge afro and all! We believe that as long as your hair is neat, washed (of course) and presentable, then that’s all you need. As we have seen in our “Our celebrities rocking their natural hair” post, many professional ladies are rocking their natural hair in various and creative ways  that are beautiful.

So, to conclude we do feel that natural hair has a place in the boardroom 🙂

We would like to hear from you. Tell us what your thoughts are on this?…

Our Celebrities rocking their natural hair…

You’ve got to love our South African celebrities. Now these are the girls that would make you find yourself in front of the mirror with a pair of scissors aimed at your relaxed hair (for The Big Chop).

Lovely musician Ms Lira (sista never looked so good):

Beautiful poet Lebo Mashile:

Sexy radio jock, actress & former ms SA teen finalist, Bridget Masinga :

Everybody’s favourite actress Mmabatho Montsho (wonder what she’s up to lately):

The energetic TV star Precious Kofi (ahh…you gotta love this chickie):

Cheerful TV personality & former Miss Teen SA  Zizo Beda:

Music powerhouse  Thandiswa Mazwai (It would be nice to see her hair unplaited sometime):

Songbird Siphokazi (girl’s got pipes I tell ya):

Newly-wed radio dj & songstress Unathi:

TV Actress Miranda Mokhele (would really like to see more of her on the small screen):

Another TV actress Nozipho Nkelemba (we want more…we want more….):

Not forgetting our dreadlocked stars:

Claire Mawisa

Tshidi Moholo

Geri Eldson

Yvonne Chaka-Chaka

Simphiwe Dana

And those who were brave enough to go without…our beautiful baldies:

Nkensani Manganyi

Noni Gasa

Pabi Moloi

Thembisile

We are really proud of these beauties for representing all naturals….

We would like to hear from you…tell us who is your favourite natural hair diva?

Little Tsoanelo’s hairstory

With both of us being moms, we considered the frustrations mommies can experience when taking care of  their little girls’ natural crowns in order for their hair to look healthy and beautiful. Our first child story is that of little Tsoanelo (better known as Miss T). We hooked up with her beautiful mom, Ntshadi & got her to tell us the secret behind two year old T’s beautiful hair.

FC: Where are you from and what do you do?
I’m a 20-something year old mother to a beautiful….no, gorgeous two year old girl Tsoanelo aka Miss T. I was born, bread and buttered in Alexandra(a township situated in the northern part of Johannesburg) and I’ve just started to enjoy the u-turn I’ve done in my career by venturing out into the HR sector as a New Business Developer at a reputable consulting agency.

FC: You have a relaxed hair. Your feelings about natural hair…
I have always thought that having your “normal” relaxed hair was the way to go (even though I had the most beautiful ‘fro growing up) because that is how society has programmed us to believe. I tried going natural when I was in Matric (senior year in high school) but had to let go of my dream as   it would not have “looked good” for my Matric Dance night.

FC: Tell us about Miss T’s hair.
When I had Miss T the first thing that my midwife asked me was “who does she look like?”, which was not me by the way…….and then the second comment was about the hair (boy, oh boy, did my baby have hair). It was curly, pitch black and was full all round – I loved it!

FC:Please take us through her hair care regimen before the chop.
Like any new mother I had difficulties in finding the right products for the new addition to our family and I tried a lot of different products (most of which were gifts from my baby shower); from, which soap to use for her bath, which shampoo, which brand etc. The list and variety was endless and in order to get the ones that I was most happy about I had to go through the trial and error route. Stick to what we like and eliminate what we don’t.
After a while I found that the Johnson’s Baby range was IT for us, she had no allergies to it and I was happy with the smell and the calming effect it has on my nunu.
At first I used the Head to Toe body wash on her body and her hair(every two days or so), and I’d towel-dry her hair and use the Baby Oil as a moisturiser. Then when she turned 4 months we decided that it would be more convenient for us to start having her hair in plaits (mologo) and the first time we tried it out, she looked pretty and we were able to have four lines of the “benny and betty style” done. We used old black stockings (cut into strips) and not wool as I believed that wool would be too thin and get more tangled than the stockings.

Plaitting her hair became a norm and we would have her hair in plaits for two weeks and then in pig tails or a plain afro for a week (so that her scalp can breathe a bit). Because her hair and scalp were now more “exposed” I decided to change her hair products. I used the J&J Shampoo and Detangling Spray with every wash and then after her hair was dry I used the Pure Royal Repair & Grow Hair food and the Scalp Treatment for basing her scalp after plaitting. I would wash her hair at least once a week even when she had it in plaits and then I would base her scalp after every wash.

Styling T’s hair was a bit of a nightmare at times, so I decided to have a hairdresser braid her hair for me in the comfort of our home (this worked wonderfully for us). This meant she could sleep during the process and also have her toys around to keep her busy. Having someone else braid her hair also meant that the person  had to be patient.

FC: What led to the chop?
The decision to cut her hair was a difficult one, but it was something that had to be done. Her father is from the Zulu culture and according to their tradition the chop was suppose to have happened when she turned one (but we kept postponing). A week before her second birthday I decided to give her a fresh start and give her the long awaited chop……(I was more in tears than her when it happened). I loved her hair and so did she……even though now she boasts about having it cut.

FC: Are you planning on growing it back the natural way?
I would love for her to enjoy her natural hair for as long as possible, I have no intentions of ever relaxing her hair until she’s in high school (or longer). After reading Nangi’s and Matlhodi’s stories I have decided to take the journey of being natural with them and Miss T, of course……so all the weaves and relaxed hair are coming off as of January 2010 and Miss Ndlovu will be growing an afro with Miss T……

Wish me luck!

Here are a couple of pictures of Miss T’s hair and the various hairstyles she rocked.

Ahh..see…there’s hope mommies & aunties. 🙂

 

Taking care of your natural hair

Hey you beautiful sistahs! Probably many of you have experienced that dry ‘scrunchy’ feeling in your natural hair, every now and then. Your hair feels dry to the touch and just looks so lifeless – no shine, no sheen or even moisture.

Well, you are not alone. This is one of the main issues for someone trying to maintain their natural hair. That brings us to the part of how to take care of your hair so that it’s manageable, feels soft and most importantly its healthy!

One main thing our hair craves for is moisture, and lots of it. With the right amount of moisture our hair comes to life and all those tight curls suddenly loosen up. There are many different types of moisturizers that are good for our hair, but the main one is nothing more than just plain H2O – water!

Yip, it’s that easy. We suggest having a spritz bottle filled with water and to ‘spray’ your hair once or twice a week (just spray little so that you hair is not drenching wet). You can find all different types of spritz bottles from Dischem. Some people even add a little bit of glycerine and/or coconut oil to the water to make a mixture. Remember how we all grew up with ‘glycerine’ being applied to our hair? Well, it seems our mothers were on the right track

Glycerine is a known humectant, which means it serves to draw moisture from the air into your hair. Oils are also good for moisture, but only those oils that our scalp and hair can absorb. The oils to best avoid are PETROLATUM and MINERAL OIL. If you see those two on the list of ingredients…ruuun! These are found in a lot of hair moisturisers meant for black hair. In fact, what these two oils end up doing is clogging up the pores in our scalp and coating our hair so that it’s not easy for moisture to penetrate to the hair shaft. Instead all that will happen is that our hair will look oily and shiny, but it will still feel very dry. However, the ‘good oils’ to look out for are the following: Olive oil, Coconut oil, Jojoba oil and Carrot oil. These oils can be found at your local stores, like Clicks or even at your local supermarket & hair product shops like RAF and Charlie Parker. Many of the Organic Root Stimulator (ORS) products contain a lot of these ‘good oils’. But a word of caution, everyone has different hair textures and what works for someone might not work for the next person. We want to encourage that you try out the different products, but stick to what works for YOUR hair.

Hair treatments like ORS’ Hair Mayonnaise are also good for conditioning your hair. But hair conditioning treatments are best done only once a week or once every two weeks depending on your hair type. Washing your hair too often can also dry it out!

NB: Don’t be lazy/ discouraged to read that list of ingredients at the shop before purchasing your products. Your hair will thank you for that….And last and most important, remember to drink lots of water!

Wanna get in touch with us…

If you’d like to be profiled on frochic, please drop us a mail at frochic@gmail.com. We’ll respond as soon as we can.

Nangamso’s natural hair story…

Now where do I start?…The beginning, I guess, lol.

So as Matlhodi and I mentioned in our first post, that as far back as we could remember, black natural hair has always been seen as something we needed to ‘fix’…From the time that I was a little girl growing up in Sebokeng, my mom has always been up-to-date with was new and stylish when it came to hair. So needless to say, I was also soon subjected to having my hair relaxed and given a ‘blow-out’ from a tender age. Of course, my hair looked beautiful and long…and so that is how I kept it for the rest of my growing up years.

I even went through a phase throughout high school whereby I will cut my hair short, get nice compliments, but very soon after I will grow tired of it, then move on to having an ‘S-curl’ so that my hair could be more manageable and silkier. However, not too long after that, I will go back to plaiting my hair so that I could have enough   ‘new growth’ in order to relax my hair again. And so went the cycle.

Then weaves were the next big thing to try – oh yes, I also wanted to try weaves…I mean you instantly got wavy (or straight), silky and LONG hair – really now, who wouldn’t want that? And all you needed to do is just purchase some hair from your local store, pay R300 at the salon for the weave to be sown in and there you go – you instantly get ‘beautiful’ and ‘good’ hair for a month….wow! Or…so I thought…

My hair, on the other hand, kept growing underneath all that chemically straightened hair, but I wouldn’t dare wear it out, oh no, I wouldn’t want the world to see this natural, dry looking hair…

And so I went through a phase whereby experimented with different types of weaves –  from straight to wavy weaves, and I loved it!…until I started noticing other natural-haired sisters rocking their own ‘fros proudly. Others wore theirs short and others’ just reached to the sky, and everywhere I looked I started seeing natural hair in a different light – guess I saw just how versatile natural hair can be since many sisters were styling it in so many different ways; and not just in dreadlocks, braids or cornrows only. Plus, I also received inspiration from my fellow blogger friend, Matlhodi, and saw just how beautiful her dreadlocks were and I thought to myself, enough of applying relaxer to my hair and for what…? It was time for change.

So I started my natural hair journey about 6 months ago…I let my hair grow out and cut the few straight strands at the top of my hair (all courtesy to my ‘s-curl’ J), and just starting wearing my hair out in its natural glory. It seemed like forever that my hair was short and it frustrated me so much that at times I was tempted just to cut it very short again  (a.k.a low maintenance) or just go back to my weaves. But as I saw it grow and take its own natural shape, I then started to realize and appreciate just how beautiful it was…and to top it all off, it was all mine…J

So join me as I go through the high and lows of wearing out my hair with pride, and on this journey of discovering what different hairstyles I can achieve with my own natural hair…By the way, did you know that we can also straighten our hair without using a relaxer? Well if you didn’t, then you have come to the right blog ‘cause you are sure going to learn that and a whole lot of other things about your hair…

"Brush" cut

One of the weaves I wore...

My hair blow-dried

My wash and go!

Afro puff...my natural hair, 6 months later

Keep watching this space…for more tips and ideas on taking care of your natural hair.

Peace and love,

Nangi

Matlhodi’s Natural Hair Journey….

Ok I’ve always been crazy about natural hair since my high school days….well let me rephrase that; from the 1^st day I laid my eyes on a chick called Lauryn Hill. From her blow-dried fro on ‘Killing me softly video’ to her beautiful locks, she always left my jaw on the floor & confirmed to me that black natural hair is really beautiful. Did I mention her headgear and whoop earrings? Boy oh boy…dear miss Hill.

Back then I was in high school and natural hair was still frowned upon. Also the only way I thought  was possible for a black person to grow natural hair was through locking it. Dreadlocks were welcome; I remember my friend Tumi started hers while we were doing matric (Senior); while I still had my insecurities and kept relaxing my hair & cutting it into a cropped bob. Did I like the way I looked… the fact that I don’t have pictures to show should answer that question.

Then I went to tertiary after my matric…hello freedom!! When I got there (year 2002), I tried growing my hair long (with the creamy crack of course) until the following year when I said to myself… “That’s it, I’m done, goodbye to the lye”… and then started with the transitioning in January 2003. By June that year, I did the BC (Big Chop) started growing dreadlocks and never looked back. Four years later, this is what they looked like:

Ahhh… never felt so free, confident & HOT before!

Seven months after, after I had my 1^st baby in 2007… another big chop, which I still regret to this day. It must’ve been the baby blues…I loved those locks. My hairstylist ko Mapawu hair salon screamed at me when he saw me after the chop; not only for choppin them off but also for not selling them to him.lol. Talk about business-mindedness.

From there my hair was either in braids or plaits but I just knew that I’d never put the creamy crack on my hair again.

Then I fell preggies with my 2^nd angel last year (2008) and this time around, my hair started falling off. I was literally bald at the back of my head & knew that shavin it all off was not an option (funny head-shape.lol). So it was back to relaxers (a cropped bob). 😦

Everyone kept complementing on how fabulous I looked, but I thought otherwise. My hair was weak, thin & continued falling off until I decided to cut it short, but like I said, I don’t look that good with very short or no hair, so I opted for a weaaaaaaaave…

I still can’t believe I paid R650.00 for that. Never again…I hope.
Not too shabby at all though. I looked good…I think.lol

And then it was braids, braids and more braids right through my maternity period. When I took them out…aahh, you can imagine that feeling I felt back in my dreadlock days:

Even better, my little nunu had arrived. What a beautiful creature God blessed me with. Bonus, she had a head full of hurrrrrrrr!lol

This was taken 2 nights ago. I’ve come too far huh…

I just love da kink in my hair. It’s versatile, beautiful and most importantly, healthy. I love the attention I get wherever I go. My hubby lllloves it. I like it when he runs his fingers through it. That’s why I wanna start her young:

Isn’t she just nunus? I plan to let her know every single day how beautiful she is. I was reading Chris Rocks interview about his movie “Good hair” and there’s a part where he says he was driving his daughter & her white friend in his car & heard his daughter going on about what beautiful hair her friend had. So he assured her daughter that her hair was just as beautiful. That made me think. I wanna make sure that my daughter grows up knowing how beautiful her natural hair is. What if she asks me to relax her hair when she grows up? I’ll cross that bridge when I get there but seriously doubt we’ll ever get to that.

So here are some of the styles I play around with:

Twists

TWA

Blow dried (a li'l frohawk)

Bantu knots

wash 'n go

and my personal favourite (both my mom & mother-in-law’s least favourite), a wash ‘n go:

Love it. Every natural gym bunny’s best friend.lol

You gotta love our hair baby!! Stay tuned for more….

Feel free to comment & ask questions.

Comin right up… Nangi’s natural hair journey…

Love,
M

Our natural hair journey…

First things first, meet the faces behind Frochic.

(From L to R) Matlhodi & Nangamso

After we both decided to embark on a natural hair journey together, off we went on a long research on the beautiful natural hair that God blessed us with. Believe us when we say it wasn’t an easy decision to make. I mean from as far back as we can both remember we had the idea that beautiful hair or ‘good’ hair (as some might say), is hair that is silky straight and of course, soft to the touch. Even if one had to endure trips to the salon every single month, just to keep that unwanted ‘growth’ under wraps. One will even attempt to relax one’s own her hair at home (even though you ended up burning your scalp) just to make sure that when you went back to school, you were the envy of your peers. So, we thought to ourselves: black natural hair can’t be that hard to maintain, right? …right.

So as we embarked on this journey to discover this God-given ‘fro, we searched for hairstyles, hair care regimens and products that would make natural black hair as beautiful and easy-to-maintain as any other hair type. We even searched for other fellow black naturals on YouTube, in the hope of finding as many tips as possible. And boy did we find a lot of tips! Surprisingly, we also found a lot of useful information on the Internet, but then soon realised that out of all the sites we found, not even one represented us as Africans.

Yes, there were common products we’d come across but some of the information (hair salons, shops and products) were of no use to us. The hairstyles we found, on the other hand made us realise what beautiful, versatile hair we have as black people. So after long chats, phone calls and emails between the two of us; of which the main topic would be hair, hair & more hair…, we decided to start our own blog…frochic. In this blog, we’ll be documenting our hair; the struggles we come across, criticism from the society, different hairstyles and hair accessories, our hair care regimens, product review, how to take care of your little girls hair, and a bit of fashion and make-up tips here and there. We’ll also gooi in a few how-to videos at times. And that’s not all we plan to do….

We’ll also get you to email us your natural hair journey stories, together with pictures of yourselves and more.

Send us your natural hair journey stories & and let’s celebrate the kink in our hair. email: frochic@gmail.com and we’ll publish your strory and/or pictures on our blog.

Welcome To Frochic!!!

Welcome to Frochic – a blog for all sisters with beautiful natural black hair!Whether you hair is short, kinky, dreaded, an afro, you have come to the right place…

Watch this space for answers to all the questions you had about your natural beautiful black hair! Pics and more to follow soon…