“Well I think first of all, people have the wrong misconceptions of what natural hair is….” – Myriam

I met this young beautiful lady last month at my mummy’s birthday party now as ladies we naturally started talking but it wasn’t till a couple of weeks after I found out she is a fab naturalle!! Yes! So knowing this I decided to interview for my blog and this is what she had to say….
Her name is Myriam Osei, a French born Ghanaian ( yaay just coz I am as well lol) who lives in the UK ( but sometimes runs off to France lool) and is a student. Her decision to go natural came after watching Chris Rock’s Good Hair film( and I must say I recently watched this and boy does it give you a lot of information! Oh and we both watched this film out of curiosity too lool). Now this girl is brave. She Bced!! For all of you who don’t know BC( big Chop is when you cut off all your relaxed ends to leave your natural hair underneath. She describes her transitioning journey as ‘not intention’ as she describes in her own words….
“I did not transition, well actually I did technically but not intentionally (laughs), okay, okay I will explain. So basically what happened is, one day I was watching “Good hair “featuring Chris Rock out of curiosity really, it was around midnight, something, it was late.( I had braids in actually).So as I was watching that, I got more and more interested, we got to see where certain weaves comes from, we also got to see interviews from celebs who wore weaves and were pretty confident admitting it, which made me think if they’re that confident, why are they not bold enough to show and wear their natural hair, it looked as if what black people imagined as natural hair was nappy, incredibly thick, ugly hair. But I personally did not think that. So, after watching that, I made my decision to go natural. When I took off my braids, a month after, I was still firm on being natural, but my hair it did not look natural yet, it was still a little bit relaxed. Then, I did not know what transition, big chop whatever meant, I had just made my decision of being natural and that was it, so I did not relaxed my hair, just shampooed it, and braided my hair again, 2 months after I took the braids off ,shampooed it and did another hairstyle, this one was with pick n’ drops and weave in the middle, so while I had this hairstyle I went in YouTube watching videos of people who are natural or just started being natural Etc. And that’s when I got to learn about transitioning, BC (big chop) and all these wonderful words, so a month after I took my weave/pick n’drops style out and actually realized that my hair was getting thicker, more natural now while I was touching it, which I found nice and weird at the same time, it’s as if I’ve forgotten that I hadn’t had a relaxer for five months, which made me realized that I actually transitioned technically for five months without knowing it. Basically, when I was touching the inside of my hair it was thick, felt heavy and then when I was touching the ends or seeing the ends of my hair in the mirror, it looked straight, like my hair had actually 2 different textures.
So all night I was thinking “should I cut off the relaxed perms of my hair or not??” Then I came to the conclusion, that I actually should because otherwise this thought “what could’ve been if I had actually big chopped my hair” would keep coming and plus it wasn’t as if I will get bold, because I had transitioned for five months without knowing, I thought my hair wouldn’t be very short anyway, so the next morning, I got up more exciting than ever, took the scissors and cut,cut,cut!! until I had a TWA(another word I learnt from YouTube which means tweeny weeny afro) it took me about 2 hours to cut, because when you do the Big chop by yourself, you never know if you’ve done it alright, or if the shape look even, so it’s a bit nerve-racking. But it’s worth it. I got my last relaxer in November 2010 and did the Big Chop the 10th April 2011, and how long it’s been? You lot can do the calculation yourselves hah”. ( yh so do the math for yourselves. ok incase you cant do it its been 5 months)
Hair products
Not having to relax her hair anymore meant she had to change her hair routines and hair products. The number one place she went for research on hair products? Youtube( I must admit me too!!!!) but she found Pure African Shea butter to do the trick1( I must say I have heard good reviews about this and it seems to me that in the natural world shea butter is really good! Ok. Noted). She mixes this with her usual moisturizer cream which is hazel oil and nut oil( never heard of these but noted!) her shampoo? Olive oil shampoo and leave in conditioner

Has there been a change in your hair routines? Like the number of times you wash your hair a week, how you protect your hair when you sleep? Protective styling? ( weaves, braids, ponytails)
Well, yes there are ,for example now, I braid (not tight braids) or twist my hair much more than before, before it was more weave than anything else, but now I rather like doing natural hairstyles than having weaves and things like that. I also condition, moisturize my hair more and I use a net for my hair at night..
A lot of women I have spoken to say they want to go natural but find there are hardly any products for them. Can you recommend good hair products and if possible where to get them?
I think it also depends on the texture of the hair, some products are easier to find than others depending on how the texture of the hair is in its natural state ,for me, I have an afro-like texture, so there were no point in going to the curly hair session in the shop, cos this is not how the texture of my hair is, so I think first of all that you have to really know what texture your hair is and be realistic in finding products that are good for your hair texture, there is also a lot of help you can find via the internet, YouTube videos etc.
Good hair products? I would recommend, for people who have an afro like texture, like for e.g. Lauryn Hill or Solange Knowles would be 100%Shea Butter, I mean this cream is good, and it is non-greasy, I think as a cream it works best for afro-textured hair, and it is best to mix it with a moisturizer to make it a bit smoother. You can also buy Shea butter as a shampoo, or mix it with other products, this one works for all types of natural hair texture .You can find them in your local hair shop, I’m sure, you can also buy olive oil shampoo and live-in conditioner, this is what I use and it works very well for the texture of my hair.
Would you advice any women to go natural? And why?
What I think first of all is, people have the wrong misconceptions of what natural hair is, some think that natural hair doesn’t grow, is hard to manage, nappy ,ugly all the negative. But there is not a lot of people talking about the benefits of wearing your hair natural for example, the Versatility ,when you wear your hair natural there is loads of different styles you can do like,-two-strand twists-bantu knots- -flat twist,-affro puffs Etc.
Going natural can also make your hair much healthier, whether you want it or not chemicals used after a while in your hair can damage your hair and scalp, therefore one can get a lot of breakage. And I got to say since I’ve been natural I havent had a lot of breakage at all, the amount of breakage I got in 3 months is the amount of breakage Id get in 10 days altogether with relaxed hair, no jokes. Having natural hair makes you unique and you get to be yourself, you dont have to be afraid having to pass through the rain and it also save up money hah.there is a lot of benefits being natural. But I also got to say though, that I think it is a personal choice and I also believe that as long as you DONT get a relaxer to hide your real hair texture or is ashamed of your hair texture but rather get relaxer simply cos u like how your hair looks relaxed and so on, then its okay ,but I firmly believe that everyone though, should try to at least once, not getting a relaxer for at least 3 months because this is how you would know that you are not ashamed of your real hair texture, and you would maybe get to like it- or not.
I tell you something there is a lot of people who dont know how their hair texture is until they went natural, there is a lot of girls who dont know what to expect when they go natural, I mean how their hair texture would be like and they get surprised when some see curls coming out theyre like “Oh my gosh, I never thought my natural hair would have curls in it” People shouldnt expect the worst to happen. So in overall, yeah I would advise women to go natural, I mean its wonderful, and also when you go natural, you get to notice women who are natural more in the street you are like “oh shes natural too” its as if you just want to make conversation with them, its a good feeling, it puts a smile in your face. So to sum up, yes I would advise any women to go natural but as I said it is only a personal choice.
And finally what the best piece of advice you would give to a woman who has just decided to go natural?
I’ve got 3-The three best advices I can give are :
1-Be sure that it is what you want to do and that there is no going back, and also you should not expect everybody to like it, I mean do not get into this expecting everybody to like it, because obviously they are some who are going to like and also some who would not, so you have to be sure it is what you want to do, what you like.
2-Secondly, I would also advise one who want to go natural to be confident in themselves first and not go natural to gain confidence or try to be unique,cos you are already unique in who you are, and the natural hair should just add to the uniqueness you already have.
3-.And, thirdly, embrace each part of your journey I mean enjoy every moment and do not get so caught up in wanted to see growth or get to your target length that you don’t enjoy the present of being natural, embrace each moment.
And Also, watch videos that keep inspire you you’re not alone there is a lot of women going natural too, or if you ve got friends, family that are going natural with you too, stay together and keep motivating, encouraging and enjoying this journey together, it helps.
Enjoy your Naptural Journey!
Ok folks, a young girl, blessed and ahead of her time she paves the way for other young girls( or even older like me) to take into consideration the decision to transition. She is a true inspiration to us all including the writer( me lool) and has showed me that your transitioning journey does not have to the the hard way as in sit down think about it do some serious soul searching( lool) but can come out of curiosity, be unintentional but totally love the results!!
She is fab and we are in total support of her!! #teamNatural!! Invading the UK…
For more information contact her on twitter- @AngelPeaceJoy
Thank you and Good night…xxx

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