Gorgeous singer songwriter Rachel Marete is a former Miss Universe Kenya
2005 who currently resides in Beverly Hills, California. I saw photos of her
gorgeous natural hair on her facebook page and an entertainment blog and
decided to reach out to her with a “natural hair feature” request and she was more
than happy to oblige me. She has such an endearing smile that drew me to her,
the kind of smile that tells you someone is a nice person and I knew deep down
that she would say yes and she did:). Her niceness shone through in her messages
to me she is such a lovely lady with a big heart! So without further ado here
is all you need to know about Rachel’s natural hair;
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| Red carpet fabulous! |
How long have
you been natural?
I've been natural for two years now but I only took the leap into
wearing only my natural hair out, sans extensions, about 3 months ago and I am
loving it.
Why did you
decide to go natural?
My hair was thinning from relaxers and I also started becoming
painfully aware of the fact that something was wrong somewhere if I was not
proudly wearing my natural hair out of the comfort of my home. I couldn't help
but feel as if I was selling out somehow by constantly having weaves and
feeling as if, to be seen as beautiful and acceptable here in Hollywood, I had
to have costly weaves on all the time. I was spending so much to have someone
else's DNA on my head! Why was I doing it? I also missed my strong natural hair
and it was sort of a symbol of me taking a journey back to myself. Who I truly
am at my core and embracing myself wholly. I think when we black girls go
natural there's a lot more to it than simply changing a hair style. It's deeper
and a sort of rebellion against societal standards that make us believe that we
are better off trying to be as less authentically African as possible to be
seen as progressive or "civilized". Somewhere along the line,
westernization of the African became the new black and we lost ourselves to it
more and more without realizing it. I think diversity makes the world beautiful
and each race should express itself without feeling the need to conform to
standards of another.
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| Love this style! |
What is your
current regimen like?
I wash my hair once a week with paraben, silicon and sulfate free
shampoo and conditioner, use olive oil for shine and softness and also do a
Brazilian keratin treatment once every 4 to 6 months to make my hair stronger
and easier to manage. I have also started to trim my split ends every 8 weeks.
What products
are your must haves?
I am honestly still exploring so I can't say I've found products
that are strictly my go tos. However, I think a must have is certainly
conditioner mixed with water that I use daily as a leave- in for manageability
when combing to enhance softness and avoid breakage. I also only use a wide
toothed comb for the same reason.
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| Straightened look |
Current
length and do you have an ultimate length goal?
I honestly don't know my length. I've never measured it. While I
hope to see great length over time, it's never occurred to me to actually keep
track of it by measuring constantly. I like to braid it in protective styling
for about 4 to 6 months total a year and be surprised by noticing it appears
longer than I last remember whenever I comb it out or straighten it. I'm more
focused on having a full, healthy head of hair.
Do you have
any challenges in your natural hair journey so far?
The challenge is relearning my natural hair and its ups and downs.
Sometimes it's great and it behaves just like I want it to and other times it
feels almost impossible to control the frizzing. It's like it sometimes has a
mind of its own! However, lately I've learned that our hair is meant to be wild
and not controlled to make sure every strand is in place because those are
standards that were set based on Caucasian hair while ours tends to grow
upwards and outwards. It's wild and it's beautiful. So nowadays, even when I
hold it back in a bun or pony tail, I first off don't expect it to be a pony
tail but a puffy rounded tail unless it's straightened and I also don't stress
over it not laying flat on my head for instance. When I leave it out and it
gets frizzy, I have learned to embrace that too and I will actually tease it
outwards to make it even crazier because that's how our natural African hair
wants to be and it's beautiful too. It's a sort of reprogramming of the mind
and changing views of what we've been conditioned to accept as beautiful when
it comes to our hair and just letting it be.
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| Wash day |
What's the
best part about being natural for you?
The beauty that comes with simplicity. I feel more confident, more
beautiful and even sexier because I am accepting of myself and I'm no longer fazed
by whether or not, when I walk out the door, society will find me beautiful.
It's a sort of "I'm fabulous hunty and I don't care what you, or you or
you think!" type of attitude and ironically, I think people around you
sense it and admire it and see beauty as well when in my weave wearing days, I
wouldn't have necessarily thought I could be considered striking in my natural
hair. I know. That sounds awful. To begin my journey however, I had to accept
that I was a bit brainwashed when it came to my hair and how it should look. We
all are, I think. In school we are forced to hold it back and make it lie as
flat as possible and what's considered decent even in adulthood and work environments
is having it pressed and straight. We were sort of raised to do everything but
embrace our natural hair texture thanks to colonialism standards that we've
kept. I'm glad to see many of us start to take back our power by going natural
and being bold about it. I also love the versatility of my African hair. I love
how it shrinks into tight coils when washed and how a little heat suddenly
makes it straight and 3 times as long. I also love how our texture allows us to
do so many fun things from twist outs to Bantu knots, etc. The fullness of my
hair is also something I'm happy to have back.
How did your
family/friends/colleagues react to your going natural?
Most were very supportive. I realized many of us African girls are
actually constantly battling with whether or not to ditch the relaxers and go
natural and therefore I was met with a lot of applause and support.
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| Gorgeous hair! |
Any advice
for ladies wanting to go natural but not too sure?
Yes. Just do it! Your hair is beautiful and it's begging you to
show it some TLC and just let it be! If you think about it, we are being so
mean to ourselves and our hair when we put harsh chemicals on it, tons of heat
constantly, tag at it and destroy our edges with heavy weaves and altogether
cover it up completely with non- African textured extensions just to achieve a
look that's not natural to us. It's time to be kinder to ourselves and our
hair. The freeing feeling you will get from it will be exhilarating and totally
worth it! It will edge you a lot closer than you know towards embracing your
inner goddess.
Where can we
find you on the web? (Facebook, twitter etc)
Thank you Rachel you
are awesome!!!
All photos are from Rachel's facebook page.
Links
I loved the interview. She seems so nice.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tomes! She is lovely!
Deleteloved the interview..keep the good work..
ReplyDeleteThanks Winny! And thanks too for stopping by:)
Delete