Don’t Be Ashamed To Admit To A Silkener

As you all know we follow hundreds of blogs Afrobella being one of our favorites. A while back she did an interview with Titi Branch, one half of the Miss Jessie empire. We really enjoyed it because for the first time, for me personally I saw where Titi admitted to using a silkner on her hair to get her curls to look the way they do.

If you do not know what a silkener is, it is simply a chemical process that stretches your curls making them more manageable. If you go to the Miss Jessie salon and get a silkener, it involves using sodium hydroxide commonly known as lye to stretch your hair.

This is a mild texturizer, and it can be a life saver for a lot of women who find it difficult to care for there own kinky* texture or want a different look from what their texture would give them. Here is a snippet of what Titi had to say:

“The silkener is a chemical process. We use sodium hydroxide, which is commonly known as lye, and we put it in typically natural hair in order to stretch it out. There has been a lot of controversy about silkeners and chemical processing in the natural hair community. But I think the reason it remains such a popular service is because it really helps people to get what they want, that curly hair sass,” Titi explained.

Titi was very forthcoming making the point that if you have a kinky* texture and you want to have your hair look like Tracee Ross you will have to do something a bit different. When you go to a salon, a great stylist will try her best to give you what you want, they will look at your little magazine clipping and tell you what you will need to achieve that look, chemicals or not.

When Titi was asked why she has a silkener she said:

Because I don’t have time to do my hair, to spend the time that it would take to do it natural. It’s just a personal decision.  I want to just be able to wash it, condition it, rinse it out, put product in it, and let it dry and get curly. That’s how I like to do my hair,” she said.

Silkeners are growing in popularity and we thought is there such a thing as a ‘closet silkener’. Would you be ashamed to admit that you used one on your hair for whatever reason? If you do find yourself in the closet we are here to let you know you don’t have to be.

 Here are our thoughts:

1. How you care for your hair is your right – At the end of the day what you do with your hair is entirely up to you, if you think using a silkener will make your life easier and give you your desired look then go for it.

If you are an all natural sistah and you want nothing to do with chemicals then a silkener might not be for you.

2. Do you still have natural hair if you have a silkener – No, natural hair is hair that is not chemically altered, that is our rule of thumb, so the hair that is growing from your root is natural, the rest is chemically altered. Somehow as human beings we like to belong to a group or box, so we are forced to try to fit in and this causes a few technical arguments that are sometimes way too unnecessary.

If you have a silkener, say so, if you have a relaxer, say that too. To be honest this whole movement is a lot about hair, but its more about sisterhood and healthy hair.

3. Does using a silkener mean you hate your natural texture – That is a matter of opinion and something you should ask yourself why you are doing it. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks the only thing that matters is what you think.

Some women are not phased by the whole being wholeheartedly natural thing, some women see their hair as an accessory and treat it like that. That means, they might color it, wear a weave*, get a texturizer, get a hair cut, wear a wig*, go bald, they have fun without the biases, interpretations or even anyone else’s opinion.

Now that we are at the point in the movement where we have explored all aspects of natural hair, we have had fun, had parties and most of all learned how our hair works it is time for us to come to terms with all levels of acceptance.

This means not everyone is going to have hair like yours or even ‘do’ there hair like you do. If you sell products be completely honest about your product and process so that the entire community can make an informed decision and be ok with it.

Phew, that was a mouthful, in other news did you hear that Miss Jessie is partnering with weave* company Indique for a summer campaign? We cant wait to see what they come up with and how this can revolutionize protective styling if at all possible. We say good luck!

Would you use a silkner? Speak your truth below.