Sep 11, 2018

African Threading – Get Into It!

Hollllaaaa Guyssss!!!

I know I’ve been crazy inactive, so instead of me apologizing only to be inactive again, I’m just going to do better 🙂

So, topic of today is African Threading – A traditional method used for centuries across Africa to stretch afro hair without heat; it is also commonly referred to as Banding Method. African Threading is known to be a great way to retain length, stretch hair without heat, thus averting the chances of getting heat damage & breakage (we all know how heartbreaking that can be) & also can be worn as a protective style.

In Nigeria we use a specific elastic shinny thread:

However, you can also use brading hair extensions or sewing thread – some people have used yarn, it’s really your prerogative (that’s a Bobby Brown reference hahaha).

Quick story: I was at the salon last weekend & a little girl, no more than 7 yrs old had gotten her deep-conditioned & it was time to stretch her hair – using that hot ass, dragon breath ass dryer, that I even as an adult still dread greatly! Chiiillleee the way she was screaming & hollering, my heart could NOT take it, I just had to approach both the mom & the hair stylist to suggest threading that poor child’s hair. Lucky for her, her mom was very receptive to any help; it was clear as day she too was in complete distress! I stood in front of all three explaining for all of maybe 4 minutes but I’m sure all the mom heard was “Your child will stop screaming if you use this method” & she was like “YESSS!” Long story short, the baby stopped crying & was enjoying her little juice as she got her hair threaded. The stylist did it in a way that it was so clean that she ended up wearing it as a protective style. I thought the absolute cutest most rewarding part was when the baby came up to me to say thank you in the most genuine heartfelt way (I almost shed a thug tear). Meanwhile, her mom couldn’t stop thanking me, asking about other natural hair tips I may have, which I was more than happy to help of course. This also inspired this blog post. It’s just so funny to me how far we’ve come only to understand that some ancient methods still beat the technology we have now.

Anywho, my sister helped thread my hair a little while ago & I sent the pictures to my mom, and she said “It’s called the Sungas style back in her day 🖤 & it grows hair by the seconds!” Here is a picture of my insane shrinkage vs when it was stretched: