Natural hair has blown up throughout the world recently, Cape Town and Johannesburg are at the heart of it all in South Africa. Coming from a small town in the Eastern Cape, makes it hard for most of us to join in on all the amazing events happening in and around those cities. Which creates some serious FOMO for me. OK FOMO alone was not the main reason I based my little venture on. I really also wanted to challenge myself, push my limits and see what I can do. And what better way for me, at the time, then through my own natural hair journey.

My natural hair journey started about two years ago. There have been so many times that I wanted to throw in the towel, but there have been oh so many beautiful stages. This entire experience has changed so much about me as an individual. I love my hair, I love the feel of my curls after a 3-hour deep condition, I love the smell of coconut and citrus upon a curl cream application. I even love the fact that not all the strands on my head curl the same. I love how bouncy and versatile my hair has become. The shrinkage really is real guys! I could go on about how amazing my hair is for hours, but I won’t bore you with any more of that.

When I started this, I did not know what my end goal was going to be. All I knew was that I wanted to do something different, I wanted to be different. As my vision and understanding regarding my concept grew and the knowledge (lots and lots of YouTube video’s) I gained, my end goal became more achievable. I wanted to share experiences, to offer support, to encourage, to admire. I’ve been natural for 2 years, but there is so much more one could learn from the next person.

I launched Just Chade in April with an intimate get together of like-minded natural hair enthusiasts. We had an afternoon of chat, great food at a stunning venue and amazing portrait photography, done by some of Grahamstown’s finest.

A bit of a back story about the event…

It’s one week before and obviously, my hair is not doing all the good things I have just been bragging about, I grow the biggest pimple on my nose, and the color I decided to dye my hair does not take at all, my speech sounds like a swallowed a bunch of big words but they make no sense at all. So, it’s as clear as daylight, that I am envisioning this entire launch to be a complete disaster and I will never be able to show my face in public again. (a bit dramatic I know, but who am I without some drama)

I’m not one that is excited about being proven wrong, but this day I was. God showed up with great weather, my pimple was gone and my hair didn’t look TOO BAD. Everyone arrived all dolled up in their natural gorgeousness and looked ready for the day. I opened up the floor, with my perfectly typed out Peppa Pig speech, I was two sentences in and lost my place (absolutely no shock there)

At that moment I could have done one of two things, excused myself and found my place again or I could wing it. I chose to wing it! And even if I had to pat myself on the back, I kicked that speeches butt. I guess all I needed to do from the start was speak from the heart. I told them all my story about how when we were younger, we were forced into the Western way of having to have straight hair. So, we would have our monthly chemically induced treatments, “relaxers”, then would follow the blowout – your hair needed to be silky smooth else people would literally laugh at you. OH, and don’t forget the “swrilkous”, you can’t have gone through all that chemical mess and not protect your crown at night. And this we did for years and years, UNTIL NOW. Now we say we are done, with all that. We don’t need all that, we are crowned with beautiful coils and curls, NATURALLY. And we don’t need hair straighteners and Brazilian blowouts for us to love our hair.

Abigail Witbooi, from Krulkop Society, blessed us with her presence and mentioned something that I found hilarious yet so perfectly apt. We do not have to wear shower caps anymore! I mean, those dreaded plastic things you had to scrunch your hair into before a shower, all just to prevent the hair from “mincing”. I’m just glad I am not the only excited about that part. One less tick off your nighttime routine. 

The group of women were all in different stages of their journeys which made for fantastic conversation. A tad nostalgic thinking back to when I started out.

I did have a small request from all of the ladies at the event though, I asked each of them to fill out a questionnaire which consisted of 5 questions, mostly just finding out their hair type, when they started this journey, etc. There was one question in particular, and its answer, that stood out for me though. “What is the best part of your overall hair experience”. Their answers really made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. With words and phrases like “confidence” “I feel beautiful” “learning new things about myself” “The growing” and my favorite “self-love”

This is why I have grown to love what I do and will continue to do so for as long as I possibly can. I feel exactly the same as these gorgeous women do. I might have said this before but I will say it again and again, embracing your natural hair is not just a hair experience. It is an overall personal journey that each individual undertakes to grow and to glow, all in their own unique and personal way. It takes a serious amount of courage to go on this journey, and I have the utmost respect for everyone who has undertaken it. It really is not easy. Especially in a society where embracing who we are is not easily accepted. 

 You will still get those people who will come up to you and ask you to please fix your hair, or assuming you are going through a phase. But I say to Hell with all that. If you have made that decision, this is YOUR normal, and who are they to prescribe to you. And if by hosting these small, but personal get-togethers we get to empower more people to just be content and happy with who they are, damn straight I’m going to continue doing it.

GLOSSARY:

FOMO – Fear of missing out

Mincing – hair that frizes when exposed to moisture

Relaxers – chemical cream or lotion used on thick hair to straighten it

Swirlkous – clean piece of stocking, placed on your head before bed. To keep hair straight and without frizz for the next day 

                                                                                 XXX

A special thank you needs to go out to all the sponsor and contributors of the event, without whom which none of this would have been possible:

Our venue and caterers for the day: Cibo Studio and Cibo, Feed your guests

The Unity picture tribe: Robyn Oosthuysen, Leeanne van der Merwe, Mary-ann Stewart, and Toni Butterworth, for their beautiful portraits of our ladies

Krulkop Society: Abigail Witbooi for your contribution, gifts, and presence

And to these wonderful contributors for their gift vouchers and products that filled the goodie bags each of our ladies received

The Perfect Hair, Crafts By Abbz, Grahamstown Pharmacy Beauty Salon, Natural Moisture, Intrinsicurly Me, Palmer’s, Beauty Room by Donne, Dorie’s Cakery, Kroes Rocks, Call me for Curls, Curl Chemistry, Blu Robin and My Natural Hair