Post 21: New Yorker Reyna & her hair

As mentioned in my previous post, I met Reyna at Natural Hair Week. Reyna has been natural for many years now.

I asked her to write a lil summin'summin for you guys so have a read! :)

"My name is Reyna Lauren. I'm originally from New York but have lived in London for nearly 20 years. 

Growing up in the states in the 80's, 90's 00's, relaxed hair was the only way. You never wanted to be compared to little rascals only black cast member 'Buckwheat'. He was the archetypal 'nappy', 'bad hair' stereotype and kids would call you that if you rocked an afro. Afro's and natural afro hair was also considered out of fashion-

something our parents wore in the 60's and 70's. I got my first relaxer when I was about 11 years old. I loved it! My hair was straight and I could pretend I was like those white girls, or black girls with 'good hair'. The only problem was, my thick 4C hair would always revert back soo quickly. My edges never seemed straight/slick enough. My hair would never flatten down enough. 

I had been living in London for about 4/5 years when a friend showed me a beautiful hairstyle she had. I was so impressed that she was natural and that her hair was so versatile. It took me a month or so to finally have the courage to do it. 

I didn't big chop though- at the time there weren't oodles of youtube videos as there are now. So I chopped off little by little; keeping my hair in braids and scarves. 

I have been about 12 years natural now. There are still things I'm getting the hang of. When I first started my natural hair journey I thought about getting a Texturizer. Some days I thought about going back to relaxers. It became a labour of love and I wouldn't change a thing about it. 

From fear and loathing to love and understanding. I love my 4C hair!"

Reyna's natural hair, lovely! I absolutely love her curls

These photos were at NHW, Even when Reyna's hair had shrunken due to London's typical rainy weather in the morning, it still looked good!

Learn and Love your hair! xo

Post 20: Natural Hair Week 2014 hosted by NaturalHairDaily

I attended Natural hair week  hosted by @NaturalHairDaily (Instagram). This year it was at Thistle Hotel, Marble arch. Natural Hair Week is a tour of various cities by Elle and Niecey, they went to Birmingham, Manchester and even Leeds before coming back to London. It was such an informative event filled with so much energy, it was really nice being in the presence of so many people just embracing their hair. Desmond Murray, a top hairdresser, did very different styles on his hair models in a matter of minutes and we even witnessed a big chop on a member of the audience by the man himself!

 He did their hair right before the show, here it isss:

There's no way I could style my hair like that by myself, there would be some serious struggle and sweat in the process.. Desmond sure did a great job

NHW introduced something called the Product Swap where you bring your new/nearly new products and swap it.. I picked up all of these, I might just have to do a few product reviews too because the Shea butter conditioner (green tub) is reallly working out for me!

At NHW I had the pleasure of meeting Reyna (right), who moved from New York 20 years ago. I loved her bubbly character and passion for her hair in its natural form. Whilst growing up as a young woman in New York, it was not always seen as acceptable or the norm for black females to wear their hair natural or without a relaxer but she has now grown to love and embrace it throughout the growth process. I will do a separate post on her hair journey!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Andre, I was drawn in by his locs aha. I spoke to him about haircare (which he sure knew a lot about)