Zainab's Hair Stats

Why did you go natural?

It wasn’t really a conscious choice, I had a really short hair cut in summer 2011 and I went to a certain hairdressers to maintain the look. I remember being really offended when the stylist kept repeating, “You really need a relaxer” as he was doing my hair and it made me wonder if relaxers were really that necessary. I wore weaves throughout the winter months to protect my hair and when I took the weave out I had a lot of new growth and I didn’t have time to relax it!

At the same time I began watching YouTube videos of Naptural85. I used to come home everyday and watch them over and over again, I just couldn’t believe that black hair could grow! I began to consider that being relaxed wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be and I thought why not try and go natural?

When did you go fully natural?

I chopped off my relaxed ends in July 2012. I think my last relaxer before that was August 2011.

What is your hair type?

4b in the crown and 4c everywhere else! It is very kinky, coarse, dense (it takes me a while to find my scalp anyway) and highly porous.

What is your hair aim?

I want to be armpit length (APL) by graduation in two and half years.