Until I had kids from Africa, I never thought about how kids of African descent might have very different kinds of hair types! Now I have learned, after having informed myself, that there are many different kinds of African hair, and there are even ways to categorize it, etc.
Now that I have Sylvia, I realize how relatively "easy" Esther's kind of African hair is, in terms of its coily texture and softness and springiness. Sylvia's is very difficult to manage because it is none of those. It naturally tends toward mattedness (the vernacular would be "nappy" I suppose).
So, it would have been better to loc Sylvia's hair instead of Esther's, but of course I didn't know that until we got Sylvia. Esther's hair would have been quite easy to do up in different African hair styles, but I just didn't know that. So now Esther's hair is in locs and that is, well, permanent - until we do something drastic. But I will wait until she is the one who comes up with the idea of doing something different. Right now it is EXTREMELY low maintenance, to be African hair.
But, I don't think I want both of my kids to go around in locs (for various reasons that I won't go into here), so I will have to figure out some other way to style Sylvia's hair, and that is NOT going to be easy.
My first attempt, now that her hair has gotten long enough after we took a hair trimmer to it last fall, was the easiest hairstyle for African hair: POOFS!
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2 kommentarer:
The puffs are adorable.
The hairstyling options are a conundrum. The only options I can think of are an afro, braids, cornrows, or dreadlocks. I've liked her hair in a short afro with the headbands that you've been doing, too.
Our little precious girl seems to have the same kind of hair as Sylvia. We cut it really short while still in SA in March, and we still can't do puffs... But we're are getting there ;)
Love your blog, and your children are adorable! :)
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