question for the internet brain

[kaigou]

someone on my flist has got to know this one: what's the average amount/type of care if you've got thick, v. coarse, curly-to-kinky hair and want it to look like this or this? (Pam Spalding is the first; Rep. Cynthia McKinney is the second.) I know that thick, v. coarse, and straight is the usual for Asian hair, and I've been told that historically Asian women used an oil (kind of like a pomade, I'm guessing) to condition their hair, sometimes nightly, to keep it healthy. Would something similar be done for thick, coarse, kinky African hair?

Not requiring anyone to give me a dissertation (though I wouldn't complain if you can/would), but even a website that has basic facts about how to get the look(s), how to take care of them, what kind of upkeep is required -- that would be really awesome. There's got to be something out there, I'm sure, but my google-fu seems to be lacking on this. (Mostly because the top 300 hits on any search are all blog posts about Michelle Obama. Not that I'm complaining, but I know her style requires chemical processing, and I'd like to find info on styles that do not require processing.)

Any ideas, advice, sites with reliable info?

Comments

[ladyjax]

Not all African hair is thick, coarse and kinky. Just an FYI.

You might find some ideas here:

African Wonders
Treasured Locks
Nappturality

(which you can find via Google if you look up Black women and natural hair).

As far as Pam's hair goes, the style of her locks could be from how she started them - did she start from virgin hair or from a perm? her hair pattern and the texture of her hair. Locks can be hard to start because not all Black women have the same texture of hair (not necessarily very coarse). They don't look like Sisterlocks but definitely palm rolled. She might be using a product like Sister Kayla's Natty Locks or she could have started them with braids as a base, straight aloe vera gel (like I did mine way back in the day) or any number of ways.

Cynthia McKinney could be rocking a texturizer, which loosens the curl structure or it could be blown out and supplemented with a product like Mixed Chicks, or something from Miss Jessie's

There are different oils and pomades that many different Black women use up in their hair. Some use none at all. But scalp care is important - that will make or break any hairstyle.

[kaigou]

I think what I was missing when I first googled was including the word 'natural' -- I guess going on the idea that if it grows out of your head, it's natural (as opposed to a wig, or when you braid in long pieces of real or synth hair, which was what my HS friend did). Not used to 'natural' meaning 'not permed', but now I know! ...and amazing, my google-fu suddenly starts producing results. Heh.

(sometimes googling is like being a kid again: how do you look up the spelling of a word you don't know how to spell? or in this case, how do you google for terms when you don't know the right terms?)

But scalp care is important - that will make or break any hairstyle.

That seems to be the major underlying factor, and the detail that would get the most attention in the character's -- oh, what an old-fashioned word, but what else to call it? -- toilette. And since the story isn't modern but is set in a loose analogue of the past, I figured obviously modern methods might be too anachronistic, but the Sister Kayla's Natty Locks sounds like something that'd be believable as non-modern (that is, doesn't require stuff like petrolatum, advanced chemistry degree, etc). That, and anything that's a mix of shea butter, lanolin and lavender probably smells heavenly and is way good for scalp and hair.

Plus, informative links! Awesome! thank you!

[ladyjax]

Shea butter, though a very good idea, can be heavy for some people. You might be better off with a hair oil.

Before there were relaxers, there was the hot comb, so it depends on how loose an analogue of the past you're considering.

[kaigou]

Well, there is the question of trade, though the tree that produces shea butter does grow in a pretty wide swath across the northwestern middle part of Africa. And from what I can tell of the historical trade routes, it seems like it wouldn't be too far-fetched to have trade between, say, Nigeria and Tanzania -- except I'm still piecing together whether this would've been possible in the early 1920s, or if trade would've been barred/interrupted by protectorates of the Mozambique Company ilk. Elsewhere those tended to control all trade in/out, also I'm not sure whether the Germans or Brits did similar while they held Tanzania... Other questions to answer, but in general, you've given me a good place to start digging deeper. Thanks!

Which I'll get back to, right after I'm done being sidetracked with fascination about the (shea butter) tree itself, because a fire-resistant tree sounds like the most amazing evolutionary adaptation. Why, yes, I am a green-thing kind of geek.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

I think what I was missing when I first googled was including the word 'natural' -- I guess going on the idea that if it grows out of your head, it's natural (as opposed to a wig, or when you braid in long pieces of real or synth hair, which was what my HS friend did).

Hair that is not chemically processed is still treated differently from hair that is, even if something else is braided into it.

Also, while shea butter is wildly popular now, it pretty much didnt exist in Black hair care in America until approximately 20 years ago. West African women popularized it among African Americans. There's a certian amount of historical perspective that seems to not be understood by many outsiders performing research on black hair.

I would also suggest that sites like nappturality are very much intended for people of african descent and their members do not lend themselves kindly to providing learning experiences or educational material.

[kaigou]

it pretty much didnt exist in Black hair care in America until approximately 20 years ago

Good thing the story's not set in the US, then. (Heh.)

There's a certian amount of historical perspective that seems to not be understood by many outsiders performing research on black hair.

Which would kinda be the point of asking questions. That, and I really like this character. I don't want her looking like an idiot because I wrote her inaccurately, so I guess I just consider it my responsibility to ask for help when there's a detail I think I'm missing or might have wrong.

I would also suggest that sites like nappturality are very much intended for people of african descent and their members do not lend themselves kindly to providing learning experiences or educational material.

I think the only answer I can manage to that is, 'well, duh.'

Okay, yes, slightly facetious, but cripes. It's one thing to ask my flist -- who I presume are here because they want to be -- for help when my research falls short. But basically tromping into someone's home/website uninvited and asking personal questions without so much as a hello, man, that's just rude. I don't like it when it's done to me, so I figure no doing it to others because they probably dislike it as much as I do, eh.