By Janet Adeyemo

Hair is a pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.

Hair is very important to most women. To many, it defines beauty. Others may define wealth by the prize worth on a hair style.

In our world today, the African hair is gaining more appreciation than ever. In recent times, there have be campaigns for African women to go natural with their hair. In as much as going natural is the beauty of an African women, it is important to note that it is not as easy as it appears on the screen. Behind the pictures out there, is an African woman trying to understand her hair, in pain of the toughness of hair, worried about her front

lines falling off and trying new self-made recipe to ensure that she retains the beauty in her hair.

A beautiful African hair is defined by how black, thick and full it is. Having a long hair, with clean scalp, is an advantage. This doesn’t undermine the fact that there are African females with slightly brown hair, red hair etc., just to mention that in Africa, we have various grades of hair color.

It will be preferable to stress that the standard of beauty for the African hair, should be an African realizing her hair type and working on showcasing it in its beauty. A really black and full hair, a slightly brown and long hair, a red hair, a white or very light blonde hair, whichever type.

African natural hair advocates are very serious about their hair and will not want to use chemicals to alter the hair texture. It is a beauty to behold.

Here are essentials you need to note about the African hair.

1) Black hair is completely different from all other hair.

Have you seen an African hair? It doesn’t grow down in a straight, wavy or curly strands. Black hair grows up and are not straight.

2) We do not wash our hair every day.

You see, aside from the fact that most Africa females style their hairs in such a way that hinders the hair from being washed while the style is on the head, washing of black hair every day is really not a thing in Africa.

The key is an amazingly nice, shinning and healthy hair, balanced with the natural oil we produce. Focusing on the scalp on wash day is very important since the hair grows from the scalp and the black, curly and kinky hair makes it harder for oil to seem excessive and messy. The hair is thick, this makes it easy for retaining of the oil in such a way that it keeps the hair, healthy and shinning without looking messy.

Non-Black hair may wash theirs a lot to avoid excess oil. If a Black hair is washed every day, it may be dry and unhealthy. The shrinkage of the hair may be quite annoying too.

3) We can change our styles a lot because we can.

Have you see an African maintaining the beauty of the natural hair? Oh my! You will just wonder at the beauty in God’s creation. The use of protective styles, weave, threaded, afro (This is one unique style of a black hair that is not with a straight hair) etc., is just a unique feature of the African hair.

4) Going natural is a big deal.

It is a pity that some Africans and blacks in general, have been pressured by the society to go on straight hair, tagging such

such as the standard for beauty.

Are you an African woman on naturals, have you noticed the way fellow Africans who may have straightened their hair, admire yours with so much admiration? If only they had known.

The big thing today is going natural. The beauty that comes with it is magnifying, it speaks so much. The main stress will be maintaining such beauty which some consider as stressful. Well, today there are various Do It Yourself (DIY) recipe for making your hair’s food. Team Natural!

5) We don’t want you to touch our hair.

I hate when people admire my hair to the point of using their hands to touch it.

This is Africa. Even if you ask nicely, we don’t want you to touch our hair. That is the much pride we have in our hair, you can’t buy such quality in the market.

I am not your pet, admire my hair from afar. In some way, it sounds dehumanizing, seeing an African at an event and coming with “Oh! Your hair is beautiful”, in a twinkling of an eye your hands are diving through the hair strands, it is not respecting. Please, stop it. We don’t like. Africans don’t do such to your sister.