Shrinkage, Stretching and Sexy Styling! (Plus my Curlformers FAIL!)

If I was asked to name the one thing that I love most about being natural, I'd have to say the versatility of the textures and the styles one can wear. I can go from tight curls to loose curls to straight hair in a matter of hours if I so choose!

As my hair has grown, my texture has evolved to the point where every time I wash my hair, I stare in fascination at the springy coils that just form of their own volition - and the shrinkage? I love it! Some people have a love hate relationship with their shrinkage but I definitely have a LURV relationship with mine :)

 I particularly enjoy it when people get confused as to whether I have extensions in my hair or worse still, if I cut my hair - one day  they see me with shrunken hair that looks like a short Afro and then a few days later,they see longer twists (or the other way round). All I say is - it's water baby!


Now because I love my curls so much, I am petrified of anything that will in anyway compromise my curls - particularly heat damage so I tend to stay as far away as possible from direct heat. This year, I've probably used direct heat (blow dryer) 4 or 5 times and even at that, it was with lashings of a heat protectant and I made sure not to stay in one section of hair for too long.

Having said that, sometimes I love to wear my hair in simple wash and go's which don't need any stretching but the flip side to that is the longer I leave my  hair un stretched, the more single strand knots I get and the more single strand knots I get, the harder it is to detangle, to the point where it is one part very annoying and two parts very painful!

I've therefore had to find a stretching middle ground where I'm not using heat but I'm still able to stretch my hair comfortably enough to manage it without having to stick a comb in my hair daily ( I only use a comb on wash days).

The typical stretching techniques are of course twists and braids but two things caught my eye during one of my internet hair reads: Curlformers (for stretched out sexy curls) and threading (for stretched out straight hair). Now the latter brought back memories of school days when we all believed that threading made your hair 'grow longer' but of course now we know all it did was stretch out the kinks in our hair!

I was determined to try both out! My first experiment was with my box of Curlformers  ( a pack of 40 at Sally's in the States for $69.99, only for me to enter Balogun Market months later to see the Chinese 'remix' at N800 for a pack of 10!) used on damp hair, set with the Jane Carter Solutions' Wrap and Roll.

So sitting in my favourite spot for my hair routines ( in front of my T.V) I watch Naptural85's Curl formers tutorial video again to get a clear step by step how - to (Naptural85 is my absolute Hair Crush by the way) then proceed to install the curlformers in my hair. About an hour and a half later I'm done, sleepy and faced with the dilemma of how I'm going to sleep with these things in my hair! After struggling to find some comfortable way to put them up on my head, I resign my self to a night sleeping on my tummy with my curlformers fanned out on my pillow.

In the middle of the night, I was startled awake by my friend (who was spending the night at mine) standing over me poking her fingers through my hair because she woke up to see some strange neon colored objects on my head and was scared I was having a bad reaction to something I'd put in my hair the night before! We still have a good laugh over that night!

Anyway, by the morning I try ignoring the crick in my neck from the awkward way I'd slept and look on the bright side of things - I'm about to unveil a head full of sexy curls! Alas, it was not meant to be! I think I had over twirled the hair at the bottom and ended up with a head full of weird shaped curls. There definitely wasn't anything sexy about them!

My second experiment the following week fared much better though - wanting to wear my  hair in a stretched out 'fro, I decided to thread my hair the night before on freshly washed, damp hair. Using my Shea Butter Mix, I sectioned my hair and threaded each section, making sure not to leave too much space in between. When I was done, I looked in the mirror and burst into laughter 'cause I looked exactly like the character 'Nkemjika' from the 80's T.V show 'Mirror in the Sun' ( remember 'Ragos is a fryover'?)

I tied everything back with more thread, wore my satin sleep can and had a much better night than when I had the curlformers in! In the morning, I took out the thread, lightly rubbed coconut oil all over, combed it out and had the softest, stretched out 'fro you can imagine! I was in love!

Seeing as I'm currently on a 'No Heat Diet' till the end of the year, threading will definitely be a go to for me in future when I want a stretched out style - the curlformers I may give another try if I can get past the sheer discomfort of sleeping with them in my hair but I won't be holding my breath for that moment to come by!