Happy Birthday!

Dear Natural In London,

You are four years old today. Happy Birthday.

With Love,

Rella x

My Naked 4C Hair

Hey Guys!

So my Social Media break is over and I'm back to weekly videos and biweekly blog posts. To start everything off I finally made a video that I've been meaning to make for the past two years- My Naked 4c Hair! Let me know what your hair looks like naked, and i'll see you in the next post!





Rella x

Mango and Cocoa Butter, the 411

IG: @naturalinlondon

Before I get into today's post I'm going to apologise for missing last week's. I promised a couple of months ago that I'll put something up at least once a fortnight, and I didn't last Friday. See the thing is, I was kidnapped (not really). I was held against my will (completely in line with my will) by a New Girl marathon that I had no desire to watch and in fact, it was torture (I LOVED IT!). Sorry guys! <3

Anywhoosies, on to today's post. About a year an a half ago I formulated this awesome hair cream detangler thing that was based on Shea butter and Okra. I loved that ish. My hair loved that ish. After a few months of making and using the aforementioned awesomeness, I became curious about other popular butters and decided to do some tests to see what they did to my hair. So I came up with three new creams with the shea butter substituted for either the exact amount of mango butter, the exact amount of cocoa butter, or a half and half mix of the two.

After using the creams here's what I found:

• Mango butter definitely made my hair majorly soft, the softest of all the butters. However it also made my hair extremely frizzy. Like a frizziness I haven't experienced in like 2 1/2 years, ever since I started formulating pH controlled products.
• Cocoa butter had the least softening properties. It also made my hair the least frizzy, in fact it had a slight 'slickening' effect. 
• The half/half mix wasn't memorable (lol) 
• The shea butter version was definitely my favourite, it softened my hair without causing extreme frizz.

For the record, I have no problem with frizz. My hair is naturally frizzy and I don't try to change that. But I wouldn't use a product that made my hair frizzier. 

So that's all folks. What are your experiences with Cocoa and Mango butter, or even other butters? Do you even like using butters or butter based products?

Hope this post finds you well,

Rella x

How I Use Shea Butter

IG: @naturalinlondon

When I first started my natural hair journey err'body spoke about the miracles of Shea butter. It seemed like every blogger and every YouTuber that had anything to do with natural hair was also a member of Sheanity. And so of course, newbie that I was, I wanted in. So I scoured the Nigerian markets of east London until an ori source was found and proceeded to baptise my strands with shea as if application alone will get me to hair heaven.

Now, I was disappointed because this thing that had been touted as divine nectar did not transform my chronically dry coils into silky moisturised curls,  nor did it 'seal' in moisture for any longer than anything else did. In fact, it just seemed to make my hair look duller. So after about a year of trying to use it in 25 different ways I threw up a deuces sign and two stepped away from my shea jar.

A year after my two step, prodigal son that I was, I returned to shea to see if we could work things out. See at this point, I was completely disillusioned of all things pertaining to natural hair and more specifically; my natural hair. I no longer looked at my hair type as a symptom of a problem and now understood that my hair will always look and feel and behave the way it does because that is how it is suppossed to. So this time when I approched the shea throne my bathroom cabinet I wasn't expecting extracts of the inside of a unicorn horn that had been steeped in the tears of a leprechaun for a thousand years. I understood that by definition, a butter cannot moisturise. However, I also understood what emolliants were, and that shea butter can have a softening effect. So armed with this knowledge I carried out informed experiments with shea butter.

So now, years later, this is what I use shea butter for. If I'm doing any kind of long term style, like my annual mini twist set. I will braid or twist with my shea butter mix. During the time when my hair is braided or twisted (nornally two months)  I do not mositurise. At most I might reapply some butter mix to my ends every fortnight. When it's time to take down the style, my hair is at it's softest and I feel like my head is covered in lambs wool. Seriously.

If at any point I want to stretch my hair for something, I will apply my shea butter mix to dry hair and braid. Nothing (heatless) stretches my hair like shea butter. If I want maximum stretch I will do this every night for like four days. By the end of it, my hair looks almost like a blow out. If I wanted really stretched hair I would use thread instead of braids.

So that's it. Now instead of being disappointed by myths and folklore, I am able to truly appreciate Shea butter for what it can actually do for my hair. Do you use shea butter? If so how do you use it and have you always used it that way?

I hope this post finds you well!

Rella x

Naked As The Day I Was Born by Rella J

Hey Guys,



So after a two year hiatus I'm back to posting videos on my YouTube music channel. Here's my latest video if any of you were interested. P.S a vid for that braidout will be up at some point :)

Musings: Fro-age, Fro-ness and Fro-ability

Instagram: @naturalinlondon

Guys,

My fro is getting big... I've got some serious fro-age going on. I'm fro-ness galore over in these here hair streets lol. You know it's funny because after what felt like set back 3000 and 1, I was so despondent. I was disheartened, discouraged, and a whole host of other dis-emotions. If the word was prefixed with dis-, best believe I felt it. It seemed like after my hair fell out, it would never recover and I was the most tempted I've ever been to just cut it all off and start again. But thank God I didn't.

I'm so grateful that I never make rash decisions. Seriously, never. About anything. Sometimes I get a strong urge to shop, like proper SPLURGE. I go to the website of my usual clothing stores, fill my baskets with everything I want and then once I'm done, I think about it. For like three days. LOL. Over that time that basket gets whittled down to a fraction of what it was, and then I pay. That's the kind of person that I am. So when I was all in my feelings last year about the hair loss and cutting was looking like a real good option and the urge was strong, you know what I did? I thought about it for three days. Over that time that huge urge was whittled down and the reality of my hair situation became much clearer: cutting won't make my hair grow back faster, it will just make me feel more in control. But that sense of control will only last for like a minute, and then afterwards, I'm just left with shorter hair.

So I'm happy that I never cut off my hair, because now I get to enjoy all of this fro-ability lol.

Hope this post finds you well.

Rella x