To be quite honest, haircare events tend to be spaces where you come smell new product, feel the texture and ask questions about whether your kind of 4c hair will work with the particular product.
It seems Jabu Stone wants to shift the narrative with conversations about our hair beyond the product. I particularly loved the approach by Jabu the founder – he wants to solve our hair woes as opposed to formulating products to sell.
When the discussion also shifted to children and identity at the event, they had me! You would’ve tried in vain to keep me out of that conversation. I personally struggled with hair identity and a personal identity due to the texture of my hair and the maintenance thereof because I was in a boarding school that was predominantly white and being one of two black girls in my grade at some point. So hair was a huge buzz kill as it was either taking too long to manage and when my mom and I decided it would be a great idea for me to return to school after midterm break with a twist out, I went by the name Medusa for a while.
Hair identity goes deep for me as I am now also a parent navigating questions that require me to answer to why my 7 year old’s hair does not look as cool as John’s – who is his caucasian
So, I’m a lazy natural. I don’t want to put in the work and the less fuss I have over my hair, the better. But here’s my biggest issue: an itchy scalp and products that over dry my hair and strip it of the goodness, leaving it feeling somewhat like steel wool. This is frustrating because no matter how much oils or moisturizing you do, there never seems to be enough good stuff going into the hair, it sort of just surfaces. So I was recently introduced to the Jabu Stone natural hair products. I was pleasantly surprised to here that the god father of the African locks has ventured into the world of natural hair (I mean he always has been, because locks are natural).
My mom having had locks in her previous life that were maintained by Jabu Stone products and salons, I didn’t hesitate with the trust aspect but more the ‘Will this be any different than all other products on the shelf’.
And to my surprise it is…
So here’s what my first time routine was a week prior to the #CurlConversation event:
- I started out by using the hot oil treatment on my hair and scalp; rubbing it into my scalp and then working it all through to my tips
- I put on my shower cap and allow the oil to sit (and sort of steam up) for about 30min
- Then I work the anti dandruff shampoo in, from root to tip and work to a lather massaging my scalp as I do so. Then head into the shower for a rinse out.
- I then apply the anti dandruff conditioner working that into a lather as well then rinse out.
- I the spray my hair using the multi use Jabu Stone hair spray and whilst hair is still wet, I start my twist out with the Twist out Gel.
- I generally keep the twist out for a 2/3 days before undoing, wearing my natural twist out for two or three days and then redo the process all over again.