Lesson 2, 3 & 4

Lesson 2: Get creative with hairstyling. Learn to tuck away unruly bits and let the well defined ones do all the work. Hairstyling option are endless so familiarise yourself with a few looks and practice these till you perfect them.  

Lesson 3: Styling in sections will save your sanity.

Lesson 4: Don’t try and do a hairstyle two hours before an event, ever.

Drying time

Drying time from soaking wet to completely dry will vary based on your hair length and your choice of styling. I don’t like blow-drying my afro, I much prefer to air dry it. Drip drying shoulder length hair takes between 24-48 hours. Products increase drying time. So experiment with amounts of product versus drying time. Also, I have found that in coastal conditions my hair dries in half the time. Here on the highvelt I’m in for a solid 48hrs. I like the big bushy look and thus I have to plan my hair if I want to wear it out at a particular time. So, If I have an event in the evening I have to set my hair early in the morning to get maximum drying time and volume by nightfall. 

The shrink

Oh the shrink, on my hair is at about 50%. In full coils my hair looks half the length it actually is. When it was short I wanted it long. Now that its long I miss some of my short hairdo’s. Thats life. The shape of growth is sideways (often referred to as the mushroom) until the hair becomes heavy enough to weigh itself down. For this reason transitioning may actually be easier. For me the weighing down only happened at about 2.3-3 years of natural growth. Hairstyling the mushroom look can be a challenge as you may not be able to neatly pull all the hair into a single ponytail or bun. A possible option is to style your hair into separate sections instead of one uncomfortable teeny weeny pony. Or worse still a massive bunch of hair where the only option is a wrist size scrunchy over once to hold it in place.