My Journey as a Black Male to Natural Hair and my Afro Hairstyle
I would like to dedicate this page to my natural hair updates here at Natural Hair Men. These updates can range from any new natural hairstyles I may try (currently at a teenie weenie afro) to any new African haircuts or black mens haircuts to basically any progress on my natural hair. I will just add each update below each other from here on as I think it is better if I keep my natural hair updates in one place alone aside from the natural hair post and kinky curly hair and afro advice and pictures!
Natural Hair Men update 1
My natural hair is going fine and even great at this point! My teenie weenie afro is doing fine but as usual, it is taking so long to grow it's almost unbelievable and sometimes frustrating but this was expected anyway. I have been looking at some of the pictures of the growth of my kinks and you can tell how it is growing for sure. I will try to post some pictures at some point as I am getting more comfortable with blogging and having a presence online (not that my blog is super famous but I have always kept much to myself until I discovered blogging LOL).So one of the new natural hair care tips I have been trying is a method called sebum coating where you work with the oils of your scalp and hair to get your hair healthier. This method is from hair care expert Rogelio who initially described the hair grooming method in his male hair grooming and lifestyle site which is a site dedicated to mens hair and natural hair among other male lifestyle topics and which has eye grabbing name of "Manly Curls"! now for the life of me I never thought I would read a site with that name but it really fits the theme of his site and there is a lot of really interesting content for those of us who want to learn the ropes of hair care. Rogelio mentions that the follicles in your scalp "secrete oils known as sebum" which their purpose is to "enhance" the hair and make it stronger.
I have been following the sebum coating method for about a month now and the results have been awesome. Since natural hair is my ultimate goal, nothing like my own oils to "grease" my hair can really beat that. I have mentioned before that I am mixing coconut butter, shea butter and some other butters and oils to try and come with the perfect blend but the journey has not always been satisfactory. In the month I have been doing the sebum coating method plus a little coconut butter my hair has looked much better. I really wasn't sure whether to blog about this earlier because I thought the first couple of days would be my hair getting used to it and also maybe placebo effect. But after a month the results are stable and great, not to mention that lots of guys follow his method and there is a lot of good feedback about his method.
The sebum coating method of Rogelio from Manly Curls
If you go to manlycurls.com you can search for Rogelio's sebum coating method. I did however email him to see if he was cool with me posting a summary of the method and giving him deserved credit for his method and he was really cool about it, so here it goes:- Inside the shower wet your hair. Ideally you will have washed your hair the day before so you don't have hair product residue.
- Massage the scalp lightly for 30 seconds or so.
- Run your fingers through your hair to spread the sebum. Group the hairs so you are spread the sebum across a curl unit.
- Run the fingers starting at the scalp to the tips. Do it fast but do not pull your hair!
- Done!
Well there is much more to it and he dedicates several articles to the method in his site as you need to pair the sebum coating method with your use of shampoo (if at all) and what kind of hair products you use. So the above is just a very brief summary of the steps involved and putting everything together is missing but if you head to his Manly Curls blog you can read about the whole hair care method.
I am actually reading one of Rogelio's hair care books which has a long name but which he just calls it The Curly Hair Book. Because of my work load with assignments and study time I have only been able to browse the book lightly but it is a great book from the looks of it as it goes in depth into everything that even a hardcore natural hair male like myself would need. Rogelio also covers the sebum coating method in The Curly Hair Book and if I remember right he wrote something like 40 pages on the whole concept in the book while the book is 240 pages! I plan on doing a proper review of the book once I can read most of it if not all but the reading of the book is very easy and flows really well. Rogelio uses the same tone of writing he uses in his site Manly Curls and which has got him a lot of followers already combined with the really helpful information found in the site.
My natural hair and afro growth results for the 1st update
After following the sebum coating method of Rogelio I have found my natural kinks looking more defined (big change on this actually) more shaped (as if like the afro volume is more carved, perhaps? not sure what word describes it), has more sheen and is easier to style although I am not styling it much other than using a pick. Because the change has been so big I have also noticed some modest icnrease in hair growth for my afro and I think it has sped its growth, not a huge change like with my defined kinks but nonetheless it is noticeable. I emailed my sister the results and she now wants to give the method a try too so we will see how that goes.
Unlike what some people would think from using my scalp sebum, my hair hasn't become greasy whatsoever. It just has the right texture right now which I love. My teenie weenie afro doesn't look dry but it also doesn't look greasy or wet. I would say using my own sebum with the sebum coating method compared to using natural oils has done my natural hair a good favour but like I have said in this post I still need to find the right blend of butters and oils and also manage to get it working with the sebum coating method too.
So that's it. I have written this first update over the course of 4 days (including weekend) because I am finding it hard to sit down for any good amount of time to do no more than check and answer emails or keep in touch with my family abroad. I do want to keep posting about natural hair for men and all the hairstyles but also more about my natural hair journey. I have also received some good comments about this blog Natural Hair Men so that always helps my motivation to keep posting and to keep my teenie weenie afro growing into a big afro which is the my ultimate goal of a natural hairstyle!
Hendrick
