It is coarse and sometimes it breaks combs. It is fun to undo and wash. Combing it is one of the things that make it hard to manage. This blog piece will be about my coarse, dark brown, African hair!

As I said before, my hair is very coarse and curly, and that makes it very hard to comb. It has broken several combs when my mom was combing it. My mom helps me to wash it. I wish it did not have to wash it. Why do I say so?

My Once it is washed, it becomes more curly and tangled around. We have to use detangle shampoo and conditioner to untangle it. Combing it is the painful part of my beautiful African hair. After it has dried a bit, we need to put the some hair lotion to make it a bit easier to comb. I call it painful because whenever my mom starts combing my hair, I will be there saying “OW!!! MOMMY, OW!!! MOMMY, OW!!! MOMMY!” Only I hear is sorry, but we still have to comb it. Some years ago, I used to cry a lot during the process of combing it. I have stopped crying as I realized it did not help….we still needed to comb..comb…and comb it.

You may ask me how often I make my hair. Every two weeks I wash and make my hair. You might think that I should wash more often but if you knew how long it takes to undo, wash, and make you would agree why I only make my hair once in two weeks. It is important to wash my hair because when you don’t wash coarse hair is gets more coarse.

I sometimes go to an African lady who does hair at home and she does braids on my hair. I like doing braids as I can stay for long time with it sometimes up to two months and I don’t have to remove them every two weeks. I still have to wash it, which again is okay as there is no combing. So there will not be a lot of “OW!!! MOMMY”. The only thing I do not like about doing braids is it takes too long to make it and remove it. Making it takes minimum five hours, removing it can even take more time…and is kind of painful combing the hair. Good thing about removing my hair, my dad knows how to do it, and he is a bit easy with me….maybe because he does not like doing the task anyway …..so we will be taking our sweet time between watching TV and removing it.

Most of the times, my mom makes my hair for me. She does what she calls big vitunguu (onions) or mistari (cornrows). She also used yarn (the interlocked fibres for knitting) to make my hair by twists it around my hair. I like this style as once again it doesn’t pull my hair and when making it, so no a lot of “OW!!! MOMMY”. Also, when the yarn is wrapped around my hair it doesn’t make a tangle like it does make when I use braids, so combing it is so easy. Sometimes my mom does the Matuta which is like a twisted. I don’t like this type of hair style as it does not stay for a long time.

Taking care of my hair after is made is easy. I wear sleeping hat on my head when I go to sleep so my hair doesn’t lose its beautifulness. The hat I use is not like a normal hat you would wear. Sometimes my mom would buy some sleeping hats from the African hair product store or cut the top of old leggings. I also make sure I wear a shower cap when I am taking a shower and during my swimming classes, I wear a swimming cap to keep my hair dry.

My African hair may sometimes hard and coarse but I still love it! Thank-you Mom for taking the time to make my hair, it is always stunning. ..And guess what, I now know how to undo my hair…what a relieve….

Angela-Acaye