True African/Black Hair Acceptance & Hairstyling

Me wearing Divine curls is very, very practical one. My name is Foe and in today's video we're going to talk about me doing a for Real Deal like wash and go like I literally like washed my hair and went so. Let'S talk about it so today I shampooed my hair. I conditioned and detangled my hair. I rinsed the conditioner out. I didn't brush my hair comb, it pick it. I didn't do any of that. I just let my soaking sopping wet hair air dry. I didn't towel dry it or anything like that, and so, and so this is the result. This is my hair there's no product in my hair right now at all no product in my hair at all, and also wanted to provide a comparison of what my picked out. Afro is still patted down, but picked out. Afro looks like in comparison to My Shrunken down hair, so my picked out hair is on the left and My Shrunken down hair is on the right. Well um. I love the health of my hair and health. Health can't always be determined by her. How hair looks, but I know how my hair used to look and I'm very, very happy with how my hair looks now. It just looks. It looks good like I love my hair um. I love the density of my hair, which is uh. That'S a genetic quality. Um and I'll be honest, I'll be honest, like I have no idea how long my hair is gon na grow with me practicing healthy hair care habits, um growing up, I didn't have long hair, even when my mom, my mom, would shampoo my hair condition. My hair and then set my hair into twists and plaits, and so I wasn't manipulating my hair and then I also was getting good exercise and I was eating great meals and as a kid and my hair never got super long, it never did. But my hair was always thick and I remember visiting my grandmother recently and she's in her 70s on my mom's side and her hair is thick like thickety, sick and I'm, like you know, if there's one thing I can count on is my identity. So I'm really proud of my density when I think about just my hair and then my family's hair, so I'm I'm, I love my hair um. I love my hair in a undefined State as much as I love it in a defined State and something that's really standing out to me right now is the shape of my hair. So I get my hair done in curly Cuts. I do not get my hair cut blown out. I don't get my hair cut. Silk pressed! I get my hair cut um after I Define my curls with gels and mousse to hold my curls. I get my hair cut after I Define My Curls and they go in and they cut my hair and it's curly State. My my curl artist, tysiana of just Divine curls, and the fact that she cut my hair in Divine curls and my cut, is still showing up yes and my cut. My shape of my hair is still showing up in my undefined hair. I that just says a lot about her skill: do not play with Tyson of just Divine curls, like that says. Oh y'all see that, and this was not no picking baby, no picking um so yeah. My curl artist is great. My shape is amazing, and so me saying that my curl artist is great, is not me saying that every curl artist that cuts on tight curls is at the same level of skill. No, I believe that everyone should screen um curl artist, hair stylist thoroughly before they go to them for any service. I have a video on screening, hair, stylist I'll leave that down below in the comments but yeah my car artist, my type curl artist is bomb.com, she's, mom.com um, so yeah there's that. But I'm really really happy with my hair. It'S really really beautiful and if now you're probably wondering why, wouldn't you wear your hair like this every single day? No, no, my hair needs to be organized. Unless I want a bunch of knots and Tangles, my hair needs to be organized different ways. I can organize my hair: are braids twists, um or and keep it, and it's like, I guess you know naturally curly State braids twist or I could do uh wash and goes, which is my primary way of organizing my hair so the way that I've been taught To do wash and goes by my type Core artists and By Thai curl artists in general um, I don't get a bunch of Tangles and Knots. I set my hair in defined curls and those Define curls with the holding product. I put on keep my hair from tangling up and knotting a bunch and that's how I organize my hair. That'S how I organize my hair, so I don't have to deal with a bunch of knots and Tangles, because I want to retain length and if I get a bunch of knots and Tangles, there's a possibility that this could lead to breakage or me having to cut The knots and tangles out so that takes away from me retaining hairline, so there's a very practical reason why I love wearing defined curls and for me, the types of twist and braids that I like are too time consuming um. For me, how often I like to wash my hair to keep my scalp fresh and free and clear and not itchy, I wash my hair every five days so with me, washing my hair every five days, the quickest hairstyle for me that I enjoy the way it Looks is me defining My Curls and doing the Define wash and go so I hear this conversation right now about people need to accept their hair and it's undefined State and people of African descent. They need to accept their hair in this undefined State and find that to be just as beautiful as their hair in a defined state in a straightened State and a twist out and a braid out and a wash and go wash and goes setting the curls and Define curls, I hear this conversation and I agree with it completely. I agree with it completely. I believe that people should see their hair that doesn't align with the white supremacist ideal that doesn't align with uh uh uh ideas that Center uh White qualities Associated white hairs. Being more beautiful and more valid, I understand that we need to see our hair as people of African descent, as just as beautiful just as valid nothing wrong with it. Nothing inherently terrible about it. I understand that, and that is very very true and me and me accepting my hair me accepting my hair and thinking that my hair is beautiful. That is something that had to happen for me mentally. It'S something that's happening in my mind and me wearing defined curls. Does not suggest that I don't love my hair when it's undefined. It doesn't suggest that I think that this hair that you're seeing right now is inferior. It doesn't suggest any of those things for me how I decided to wear. My hair is a matter of practicality, and I know for a lot of people, because we've been we've been through through media, we're in a fishbowl. Many of us are in a fishbowl toxicity that suggests any traits that aren't associated with whiteness and when we think of whiteness, we think of smoother hair straighter, hair, looser hair, silkier hair. The connection that smoother hair, straighter, hair silkier hair has to Define curls is, I think, a lot of us erroneously believe that, in order to have defined curls, a black person or person of African descent must have smoother silkier Luther curled hair. When that's simply not the case from what I've experienced and also it's not the case for me, witnessing my many peers with a variation of textures and having tight curls and a variation of backgrounds. African African-American afro-caribbean afro-latinx I've seen them able to Define their curls with certain types of hair care techniques and all the definition that looks different, but they're still able to Define their curls. And it's not a result of someone having to have white ancestry or someone having to have smoother straighter, looser or silkier, hair and quiet as a skip. All white people don't even have smooth silky hair uh, but when we think of white white hair qualities, we often think of those things, and so for many of us. We'Ve been taught that if our hair doesn't align with those things and my hair is ugly and her hair is bad and her hair and our hair is so difficult to manage. And all these different things and many of my peers on this platform that have been on this platform way before me have discussed the importance of self-acceptance, and so at this point. For me, things are about self-acceptance when it comes to us people of African descent when it comes to our hair and also in that self-acceptance being able to wear our hair. However, we choose. However, we choose - and it's important, that those styles that we choose not be because we are working towards trying to be a white ideal or white supremacist ideal or be because we are driven or forced in a sense to assimilate to a white supremacist ideal. When it comes to hair - and I know some people might also say so, why don't you just wear your stretched afros like what I'm gon na wear tomorrow? Why don't I wear them? More often, that's not practical! For me, that's very, very high maintenance from my understanding from my past down knowledge about what needs to happen with an afro for me to wear an afro daily. I would need to wear my Afro during the day and then every night I would need to plait my hair. I would need to detangle to reorganize the strands. I would need to detangle my hair and plait my hair. Now with how thick my hair is. I am not plaiting my hair every single night; it is not gon na happen, it's not gon na happen, but when I want to pull out something, that's going to make everybody's jaw drop, I'm doing my picked out afro. I'M doing my pick that afro, because this is absolutely gorgeous but regular maintenance. Oh no. We can hang that up, I'm not wearing an afro regularly, um um and so um. There'S that. But there's there's for me: there's nothing wrong with me wearing the fine, curls and listen. Let me tell you what defined curls mean to me organizes my hair is practical. The second thing that wash and goes or defined, curls super defined curls mean for me, is baby. Don'T play with me baby, don't don't don't play with me, that's what it means, and why do I say that? Why do I say that? Because it takes hair health, Optimum hair, health and it takes technique, it takes good technique for me to be able to take my coarse hair and be able to wear it in the fine curls, with good longevity, the fine curls with movement with longevity, so my hair. Naturally, has structure it's not. It naturally has some to it right, but even with, and also you know with me having coarse hair, I'm not going to just lay my hair down with any old product right. So I need to use product in such a way where I have enough hold to help maintain my my defined curls throughout the week, but also even with me, having enough hold. Whenever I wear my hair and Define wash and goes you still gon na see my hair mystery, my hair still be moving and still be shaking and still be doing this thing. Why? Because my hair is healthy, my hair is healthy. I don't need um some super stronghold plastic gel, like Eco, Styler or wet line, to fuse my strands together in order for me to have a defined wash and go no. I have worked with my hair so for context. I'M not someone that grew up with the fine, curls or hair that defined easily. I didn't have a bouncing shiny, defined curls or anything like that growing up. I actually found out in 2020 from the stylus I decided to follow that I had done irreparable damage to my hair, so I cut all of my hair off working towards healthy hair regroup, my hair from scratch, and throughout that time I was cleansing my hair. Every five days, with specific types of shampoos and conditioners and using specific types of stylers in a certain way, a type of technique that I was doing and with doing that technique, enhancing my technique and applying product and also enhancing my my hair health and my hair. Not being chronically dry, my definition began to pop a lot more and that's not to say that everyone's definition will look like mine, or even that everyone's hair will Shimmer like mine. My hair has the ability ability to have a bit of Shimmer and glimmer to it because of how dark it is. So when it's organized and smoothed and to twist outs, braid outs wash and goes is able to pick up more light and glimmer. Although it is coarse for the most part with a few smoother pieces mixed in, but my hair is coarse along the surface has a roughness to the surface texture as well as I have for the most part, coarse large hair strands. So, there's that, even with me having coarse hair, I have the ability to now Define My Curls really really well, I have the ability to Define My Curls really really well because of the health of my hair because of my technique and then also because of proper Product selection and the proper product selection means a lot to me because right now, I'm having to navigate different fragrance free products that might not have even been made with my textured hair in mind. But I'm proud of myself, because I've been able to read formulations. Think about what I need the product for and then properly use it. So I'm so proud of how my application and my understanding and even my understanding of ingredients just enough for me to be able to select products correctly. I'M proud of how far I've come in being able to take hold of my natural hair care, so that shows in my proper product selection, and so when I see my hair defined, I'm like don't play with me. You cannot tell me nothing everything that I had to go through to get my hair healthy, because my focus in getting my hair healthy, wasn't. I want super defined curls. It was. I want my hair, healthier and in me, working towards healthier hair. The super defined curls was a part of that was a result of that and, that's not to say that's, going to be everybody's story. I'M telling you all my story with my hair and for context, my hair, when it's wet now that it's got great integrity. It'S healthy and I've worked with it a certain way. My hair, when it's wet, has a propensity to have defined curls naturally, and I capture those defined curls with styling product. Whereas when my hair is dry, meaning it's not wet and it doesn't have product, it has a propensity to be an afro. So my hair has a propensity to either be defined curls when it's wet or a propensity to be an afro when it's dry, meaning it's not wet, not dry as and crispy, but dries and not wet. So there's that um but yeah curl definition. Nowhere in my brain does it say to me whiteness: this is whiteness. This has to do with whiteness. This is for white people. No! No! I I relish! Oh, I enjoy. I deeply enjoy a liberated perspective where I look at the hair. That'S attached to my body and it says to me phone so um yeah, if you all have any thoughts, if you all have any thoughts, please make sure to like comment, share this video And subscribe. Once again. My name is fo thanks for watching bye,