Natural hair beauty campaign in Kenya gathers momentum
Ms Kariuki and Ms Mogoi who are behind the blog. Mwikali Lati
African women have been told to “relax your hair, that way it is more manageable.” Kurlykichana.com, a local blog on natural hair, is working towards changing that perception by spreading word that natural African hair is indeed manageable without necessarily having to treat it with chemicals.
The natural hair campaign was started about five years ago in the US. African American women converts stopped relaxing, weaving, and extending their hair.
The movement is seen as freedom from Eurocentric ideals of beauty — like keeping long, straight hair that leads to damage and loss in the long term. Fuelled by blogs, and now social media, women of African descent share the triumphs, frustrations and guidelines on how to manage hair without using chemicals to straighten it.
More popular
African-American celebrities like musician Jill Scott have also helped the movement to become more popular.
The blog, kurlykichana.com — The Natural Girl’s Guide to Beauty, pasted its first post in January last year. Nyachomba Kariuki and Mary Mogoi are the two young women behind the blog.
“It offers guidelines on how to manage and style natural hair,” says Ms Mogoi.
The two say women keen on natural hair have more options of styling than the famed dreadlocks. They have been friends for long and have never relaxed their hair like most Kenyan women do, they said. As they struggled to manage their hair, they gained knowledge and insight that became of benefit to family members and friends alike.
“I have a passion for natural hair,” says Ms Mogoi. She once worked on a friend’s hair way after mid-night and still went to work in the morning. “I was very tired, but I enjoyed making her hair,” she says.
With requests for their advice and skills growing, the two decided to create a forum for women to ask questions as well as give advice on managing natural hair. The blog got more popular, says Ms Kariuki, as it was build on the idea of not pushing products or ideas but offering recommendations.
Latest trends
The two pick on the latest trends of natural hair, try them on themselves before recommending them to others via their blog. A word of caution though, African hair is not uniform in texture, one has to know their hair type to decide what do with it. Comparing one’s hair type to another person’s just won’t do.
Nevertheless, there are common dos and don’ts to managing natural hair. Always moisturise to prevent dryness, which leads to breakage. Also, use sulphur-free shampoos as they do not remove natural oil.
“One of the reasons we started this blog is because we wanted to prove that natural African hair can grow all the way to the waist,” says Ms Mogoi. On May 28, kurlykichana.com organised its first meeting where women came together to share tips on their hair. The next meeting is slated for the first week of August.
“The most prominent issues discussed at the meeting were the perceptions people have of natural hair and frustrations of styling it,” says Ms Mogoi.
Generation Y, those under the age of 32, are at the centre of this movement. Many are cutting their “relaxed” hair and cultivating Afros and other African hair styles instead. This is not sitting well with their superiors, predominately of Generation X – those born between 1963 and 1979.
Unfortunately, local hairdressing schools have no curriculum on natural hair except dreadlocks.
This means that majority of salons do not have staff trained to handle natural hair, and the few that do are too expensive.
As a result, women with natural hair have to learn how to manage it themselves. Since there are few natural hair products in local cosmetic retail shops, women have to read labels carefully to avoid buying products with harsh chemicals such as those that contain sulphur — or make their own.
“We want to end the myth that relaxed hair is easier to maintain than natural hair,” says Ms Mogoi.
The two say they are not opposed to people who want to relax their hair.
