True Love Disappoints Our Readers

This week we got an email titled “Bad Natural Hair Feature: True Love March 2011″ from one of our loyal readers, Ajoa who was misled by the wording on the cover of the March copy of True Love Magazine. Here’s what she said:

Dear frochic ladies; Matlhodi and Nangamso,

I am emailing to ask if you ladies can please warn your natural-haired readers about the latest issue of  True Love Magazine, March 2011. I was so excited when I saw one of the cover headlines in the bottom right hand corner “To & ‘Fro Back to Natural Hair” I thought wow, finally a glossy with what I hope will be an interesting read on natural hair. Perhaps it would showcase some different hairstyles, show some effective products, and actually speak to some natural haired ladies about their routines, and maintenance of their hair. Boy was I in for shock and disappointment. This so-called section of natural hair only consisted of 2 hairstyles that could be considered natural. And both hairstyles were basically a ‘fro. One featured a lady with tighter curls, and the other featured a lady with looser curls.
The other 2 hairstyles in this natural hair feature, involved chemicals! One of them is an S-curl, and the other is an actual relaxed hairstyle, from which I quote “Relaxed Sister: Silky Straight natural hair is still hot. But don’t neglect it after you’ve relaxed it…”I was so shocked, they are implying relaxed hair is natural hair? I also felt cheated. After all, I bought the mag thinking it would be a real feature on natural hair. To make matters worse, they don’t even mention any products to use on the 2 natural hairstyles they feature. I actually wondered if this was a bad joke.
Anyway, just wanted to give you guys the heads up. Perhaps you could do a post on this on your blog 🙂 I have scanned the pages of the magazine and attached them to this email in a pdf. file. I will also be writing to the magazine expressing my feelings about this article. Thanks, and have a great day/evening.

Warm Regards,
Ajoa

She was even kind enough to send us the scanned pages of both the article and the cover. Have a look:

The Cover (see bottom right)

The article:

Next page:

and theeen:

oooh:

 

Thank you so much Ajoa for bringing this to us and FroChic readers’ attention.

Any thoughts?

Moratuoa

Origins and current location?

Born and bred in Dobsonville and still residing there (hopefully will not die and be buried there lol) – well I won’t because I will be moving in the next few weeks.

What are you currently up to?

 

I work as an administrator for a human rights NGO

 

How long have you been growing your locs? Briefly take us through your natural hair journey.

 

I am terrible with dates/years (that is why I failed history lol) I think this is my eighth year now. When I decided on natural, I decided on dreadlocks and that was it for me hey.

 

Why did you decide to go natural?

 

Needed something easy to handle and actually thought growing locks was “cheap”. Boy did I have a surprise when had to visit the salon at least every second week of the month as they were taking too long to lock. There was a time when I really wanted to cut them off and go back to my s-curl, a number of people I started locking with did away with them but today they envy my hair.

 

What do you love about them?

 

To be honest, people love them more than I do but they are easy to handle and I don’t have to wake up an hour early so I can have time to style my hair. I also don’t have to sleep in a certain position lest I wake up in the morning and the style is messed up.

 

What are some of the challenges and advantages you’ve experienced since you went natural?

 

I have had to leave one employer who asked me to either cut my locks or cover them with braids. Well, I was only about two weeks into the job when such was told to me and there were also other stupid challenges ,so it was not difficult to put in a resignation letter whilst I was on probation.

Advantage is that now that they are long and strong, I don’t need to visit the salon every month, I can stay for longer periods without visiting a salon.

  

What is your hair care regimen?

 

Le me think mmmhhh – eish, none hey lol. I do my hair when i feel like it. I am NOT into “hair” so I have to phone Happy, my hairstylist, to make an appointment (I don’t lift a finger to even twist a single lock lol).

 

What hair products do you use and where do you buy them?

 

Eish, there really isn’t a specific product I use: like I said, I’m not into “hair” so I put any “good” hair product I can get my hands on. That being said, my preference is Jabu Stone brands.

 

Do you struggle finding products that work for your hair or are you happy with the ones you’re currently using?

 

I am very comfortable with what i use at the moment, maybe I’m missing something I don’t know.

Mo with her boys

Do you have a favourite natural hair salon where you treat your hair?

 

I dont really have a favourite salon but a favourite hairstylist. I found myself having to follow his moves from one salon to the other. I just don’t like having different people treating my hair. His name is Happy; met him a few years ago at Mapawu hair salon and followed him to Brisson Hair salon at cnr De Beers and Stiemens Streets in Braamfontein.

 

Which type of natural hairstyle(s) do you like to rock?

 

I like my hair loose so I do semi-twists everytime I go to a salon and i have noticed that they actually stay “intact” longer as I do not have to scratch my head frequently for a hairstyle that is too tight.

  

 

 

 

 

 

Planning on chopping them off in the future?

In the lifetime of my dreads, I’ve cut (reducing length) twice – I think I will do so again in the near future but I don’t see myself adorning any other hairstyle (my mom is so in love with my dreads that everytime I tell her I wanna chop them, she offers me money to go to the salon)

A Few Reasons I’m Tempted To Lock again…

1.

 

http://www.essence.com

 

2.

http://www.essence.com

3.

http://www.essence.com

4.

 

http://www.essence.com

5.

 

going-natural.com

http://www.essence.com

6. (ok these look like extensions but I just couldn’t resist)

http://www.essence.com

 

*sigh* I’m in <3 bathong!

 

Your Favourite Natural Hair Salon

We received a very cool email from Karabo yesterday:

Hey guys,

I went through ever single entry on your blog, and I absolutely love it. I’ve kept my hair natural for over 10 years and I’ve been struggling with where to do it, how to wash it what products to use, how often, etc etc etc. SIGH! The salons I go to to wash, treat and cornrow are just so brutal! I’ve been trawling American sites for help and have gotten somewhere with that. It would be cool if you could ask your readers for contacts of good natural hair salons in South Africa. When I finally find one, I’ll definitely send the contacts to you.

 

ROCK ON!!!!

So we thought we should ask you guys what your favourite natural hair salons are…anywhere in South Africa.

Let’s Go!!