Why Your Natural Hair is ALL Occasion Hair

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Written By Black Girl Curls

Several days ago, we made a tweet about wearing your natural hair for every occasion, that to our surprise, went viral.

We received thousands of tweet responses that were very much divided in what natural hair styles people considered appropriate for different occasions. Naturalistas even shared gorgeous photos with us from their special occasions:

We had hundreds of beautiful photos shared with us that further proved our point that your natural hair can be worn out for any occasion that you desire. Viewing your natural hair as appropriate for all occasions is a huge mindset shift for a lot of people, and we acknowledge that. That being said, the idea of it being “a lot” can be rooted in a lot of misinformation shared on the Internet streets.

How many hours do you spend getting your hair washed, blown out and pressed? Or even if you decide to throw on a nice wig, how much time is spent manipulating and customizing that wig, braiding your hair down, touching up those edges, etc before you feel comfortable leaving the house? Your answer to both of those questions is probably “enough.” So if we’re willing to spend hours manipulating our hair in other ways, why not invest that same time into our natural hair?

“Wash day” doesn’t exist over here, only wash hour. Regardless of hair length or density, we’re strong believers that it should not take an entire day (or several hours) just to wash your hair. There was a Sunday back in 2015 soon after my husband and I (Aeleise) first moved in together. We were planning on going to brunch, because this is what we do in Atlanta. I told him I was going to take a shower, wash my hair, and then we could leave. Somehow this meant to him that we weren’t going anywhere because in his experience with black women who had natural hair the statement “I’m going to wash my hair” meant a 10 step, 8-hour process that he wouldn’t dare disrupt. 45 minutes later I emerged from the shower with a fresh wash and go ready to air dry in the scorching ATL sun. I threw on a sundress, some lipgloss + earrings, and was standing by the door waiting on him.

He was dumbfounded.

While Aeleise seems to have had it all together, I (Aishia) just got it together in 2016, nearly 6 months after starting the #30DayHairDetox. I was just like all the other naturals using YouTube and various blogs as resources to make sense out of my “wash day.” I’ve pre-pooed with oil and conditioner, shampooed my hair in sections, used nearly a half of a 64 oz bottle of super wack conditioner, I have done LOC and LCO. . .

In December of 2015 I became the first of 5,000 people to reclaim my time. Embarking on a curl changing experience, better known as the #30DayHairDetox, my life and curls have been forever changed. My 6+ hour “wash day” routine has been dramatically reduced to an hour. On a really good day pre-blonde, I could have my coarse + high density hair done in 30 minutes. UNBELIEVABLE, but so possible!

Wash day has always been something we’ve never understood as consumers, content creators, and hairstylists. Who are these people who have all this time to do such things? As moms and women who generally like to do things other than our hair, we knew there had to be an infinitely easier way to do things.

After taking stock of what we were doing to pretty much every client in the salon, we came up with the Wash Hour Process. Generally it should take most people in between 30-90 minutes to complete all 5-6 steps of this process depending on density, length and any treatments the hair needs. Welcome to the simple life!

Would you like to see more natural hair style inspiration for special events like weddings, baby showers, birthdays and more? Our For the Curls & Culture Digital Digest is your go-to source for natural hair inspiration, expert advice, professional hair tips and much more! Learn more.

Black Girl Curls
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