Ep. 40: The Hair Doula

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The podcast where we sip and spill you are now listening to this episode of Tea With Kea. Hey, Hey, everyone. I have a very, very lovely lady with me today. Introduce yourself to

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the people

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out there. Hey y’all. My

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name is Dasha. I’m also known as the hair doula and I help women with their natural hair. I really love helping women become the best, most authentic version of themselves. And I feel like Rue their natural hair is through embracing your natural hair is a really great way

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to help most definitely, most definitely. That was that was probably the most perfect and show I’ve ever let them know. You know how we do own tea with key we let you know what we are sipping on and I see about your mug right now let us know what is in your cup. So

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I have acclimation tea is like a nuisance. Oftentimes I sip on loosely but I had a bag of tea Today I’m with it I’m with it. Wait is that by Yogi no this is not by Yogi This one’s actually by simply simple truth organic by usually do get Yogi. This is my first time trying this one.

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I feel it. I feel it. I Oh, I have some of that. In my collection today though, I wanted to switch it up a little tumeric low ginger, but I want some honey too. Cuz Yeah, it’s just you you feel good. You know, you get a hot cup the day is over. We’re not we’re gonna run it. I know, you said that you were running errands earlier today we not working like we just had to be adulting Today, the

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break up. I never had to transfer a title I had to get my title of my car was in my name and my stepdads name and we were just transferring it to my name and I had to go do it myself. And I have what I needed. But I was like, I don’t know how to do this.

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How do I do I have the right documentation? What?

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That lady was looking at me like yeah, this is correct.

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Okay, that’s real adulting right there cuz Real Talk. I’m like listening to you. But at the same time, I don’t know cuz in my mind, I’m like, it’s going from two people to one of those two people. So like we

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did you know, it’s weird. It was it’s weird, but it’s done now. But I had to get I have to get the insurance changed over to Alabama insurance before I can get my tags. There’s a whole bunch of stuff. I guess I’m I have asked him a license plates. Now. I don’t know how I feel about that. But it’s

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okay. And that’s the thing too, which I was gonna ask cuz, okay, obviously. And this kind of like goes into you know, when I have my guests on the show. I always say how we met so of course, you know, we went to southeast, you know, back in Greenbelt? No. cackalacky. I went to college out of state you went to UNC. Yeah. Did you stay in North Carolina after you graduated? Or what? Because you’re about Alabama now, but you said that, like you’ve only been there for a few months.

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Yeah. So I’ve moved a lot since graduating actually. So I graduated from UNC. I stayed in Providence, Rhode Island just for the summer for training for my fellowship, and I’m a venture for America fellow and I moved to Birmingham was the first place that I lived after college, Birmingham, Alabama. Then from Birmingham, I moved to South Carolina for like a couple of months, but then I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, from Charlotte, North Carolina and moved to Atlanta, Georgia. And wow, so you

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really have been like, all over the place. I remember hearing about venture for America, but I was like, I think I was like an info session. And I just it just like skipped my brain but like so they place you in different cities, right? And that’s when that’s

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okay, you choose which city you go to. So basically once it’s like a really rigorous process to get into the fellowship, like I had to fly to New York to, to even do my final interview. My final is a whole day selection day, but um, you pick the company that you want to work for within the BFA umbrella, that’s a partner company with BFA. So after you get into BFA and then have to apply to jobs within the BFA comes to me, I still have to apply to job and go and interview and all that stuff. And I picked an education nonprofit in Birmingham very small. Less than 10 people there when I got there.

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Oh goodness. Wow. So that’s literally Oh, so everybody knew everybody like hey, we asked him in this room like how you doing? Yeah, cuz it was mostly work

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from home mostly was working from home. Nothing, nobody except for during our weekly meetings. Yeah, yeah. No, that makes sense. Yeah, I was very much kind of on my own. Big stuff out, which is kind of the nature of VA companies, oftentimes, you know, you

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you’ve, you’ve been in the midst of it, would you, you know, like, say to people who were, you know, in undergrad right now looking at options like, you know, would you say, hey, like, this is something that you know, people would consider? Yeah,

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I would, especially if you’re interested in business and entrepreneurship, I feel like there’s no better segue or middle ground like before just jumping straight into entrepreneurship yourself, because there’s so many different options, and so many different partner companies, and even the training that we went through the summer before. So while when I was a fellow we trained at Brown University, we’re like taking classes at Brown, if that’s just the location that happened to be at, but you got to hear from so many dope people. And we have challenges. It was like, entrepreneurship one on one, like, we were learning about entrepreneurship in a very hands on way, like working with companies. My first challenge was to build a website. Like, I started learning graphic design while I was there, just because of some people that I connected with and projects we were working on. Like, it’s a great environment to kind of like to see if entrepreneurship is for you without fully committing to be an entrepreneur.

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That makes sense. That makes sense. Well, okay, this kind of makes me think so. So okay, so your name the hair doula, that’s, that’s like your brand. Like you’re, you’re basically an entrepreneur, right? Like, I kind of want to know how it came to be like, you know, obviously, um, you know, when you talk about what you’re doing right now, your goal is to basically help us embrace like our natural hair journey, but I kind of want to know the beginnings. What When did you start your brand? And when did this tagline come into effect? Like, how long? Like, Have you always been natural? Because honestly, I feel like when we were in school, cuz I know you was a cheerleader, and your hair was straight up all the time with those little ribbons. And then I was like, wait, this is dacha Look at her natural hair just flourishing and growing right now, like, hold on, I need to hit her up. It’s been too long, like

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I’ve been I have not always been natural. Um, so I went natural December 19 of 2012. It was the winter break after my first semester, my first year of college, and I chopped all my hair off, I had less than an inch appear on my head, I just chopped it all off, because I’ve just gotten a relaxer three months prior. So I didn’t have a lot of like new growth. But I knew I wanted to go natural. So I talked about and I it was a very freeing experience for me. And I realized that it was about a lot more than just hair. Like, I had been on a self love journey. And I realized that I couldn’t fully love myself when I couldn’t fully love my hair. I didn’t even know what what my hair looks like,

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I had no clue what my crop pattern was, like, I didn’t know how much it like, I didn’t know anything about my natural hair here. You

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I was like, I guess I’ll be figuring that out as it’s growing out of my head cuz I have no clue. And, um, and so I feel like for me, it was about really learning how to embrace myself and love myself. And there’s so much that goes with natural hair, like it’s not going to look the exact same way you want it to look, you could do the same thing to it every single day. And every single day can look different fans, like when when you’re trying to make your hair be something it’s not, that can be frustrating. But when you learn how to embrace it and roll with it and work with it. I feel like it gives you a level of just like flexibility, like you are able to handle a lot of different things when it comes to your hair. And you start getting that outlook on life as well. So, but when I went natural, I realized that a lot of women started asking me questions and a lot of times their questions had to do yes with the care but also about the acceptance of it from both themselves and from others. And I just noticed with myself and with other people that as we embraced our here, we embrace ourselves more our confidence grew and our self loving ourselves grew. So I was like, Huh, okay, this is interesting, um, the I’ve been helping women with their natural hair for years, but the business itself, so I was like, Who’s gonna, like, pay me to do stuff with natural hair and like what, um, so but the business itself did not come about until last year, January is when it officially became a business and the name came from, I was just actually someone gave me that name. I didn’t come up with that name by myself. Someone that I spent a lot of time around was a mentor to me, um, who is kind of like one of my spiritual teachers. She was like, I would you know, tell them about my journey with my business what I was doing with what would become the hair doula and one of her gratitudes for me one day And thank you for being the hair doula and I was like, I like that. Because a doula you know people think about first. And a doula helps you before you birth your baby during the birth of your baby. And after the birthing of your baby. Yeah, they help you not just with the actual ask like part of not not just with the birth itself, not just with the physicality of it, but with the mentality with the spirituality with all of that. And so I feel like what I want to do for women and women that have natural here, naturally curly hair is to be the doula but the hair version, so help you to birth your hair and your experience of your hair. And not just focusing on just the taking care of that physically, but also the mental aspects, the spiritual aspects of it, everything goes and works together to be the greatest authentic version of yourself like for you to accept that and love that and be able to go out in the world and show that to everybody.

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Oh, my goodness, I literally could not agree with you more like this, like like this, like yes, like, I want to just if there were more people right here, we’d be like standing up and like applauding right now. Because literally so so like, as you were like talking so much of that, like resonated with me too. Because like you I mean, when I was younger, I also had a relaxer. I didn’t know what my natural hair I was like, and it wasn’t until it was summer of 2018 that I said, You know what, I want to start this journey. So also like you chopped it and I was like, Okay, this is, you know, this, I looked in the mirror and I was like, This is me, this is me, you know, and it’s interesting, too, because, you know, like you said, there’s our hair so versatile from jump. Okay. And that was one of the things that I mean, for me as an individual. I was thinking about when Okay, where do I want to take this? So at first I was like, okay, you know, grow it out, get braised and I was like, let me chop it dyed different colors. And, you know, be like you said, it’s really a part of that self love being able to be like, this is me, like, genuinely, authentically. And it’s like, when you’re going through that journey, like with your hair. It’s like also, like internally mentally, like what journey you are like going through too as a person. So you know, that I could not agree with you more on on that note about really, it’s not it’s not just hair, okay, it’s not just here. And I think it’s really admirable that you’re helping other women to when they’re also going through their journey as well. It’s like, we’re all going through this together. You know, like, we’re all on that self acceptance self love growth, internal growth, you know, train together.

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Yeah, absolutely. I love it. I just, it brings a lot of joy to me like to be able to see someone who wants didn’t feel comfortable wearing their natural hair, like have so much here and just be flourishing. Like girl.

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Yeah, I think you got more hair than me now.

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Wow. So I love it. She’s just like

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she brought me her ball. She brought me her baby. She’s like it’s play time. Right? She’s playing and eating at the same time. I don’t know what that job is doing.

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That is multitasking right there. Oh my goodness gracious. Yeah, no, first off, your curls are popping a f All right, every time like you’re posting I’m like, Oh my gosh, double tap. Okay, look at her. She is just like out here doing the dang thing. And it’s just like you you radiate joy. I mean, even when we were like in middle school in high school, like you were always like a shining present. And like, even to this day like you, you like radiate, you radiate optimism. And that’s the only reason why I wanted to have you on the show, too. Because your energy is just like, like, I feel it you know, it’s infectious.

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It’s so funny, because I was so shy in middle school in high school, especially Middle School was so high. And it’s, it’s funny to me to think that people like even notice me or knew who I was then because I feel like I was just kind of Am I just like, your smile.

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Your smile was like there, you know. And the thing is, I mean, I guess so like back then I was friends with shanaya. And she was friends with diamond and they also cheer. So it’s just like, I’d see them and I’d see you and I was just like, Doc, nice smile. You’re like, that’s what stuck out to me.

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Yeah, cheerleading is part of what brought me out of my show. Honestly. I started cheerleading in middle school. I don’t know if you remember Anissa. The name sounds familiar,

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but like for some reason, I’m not getting like a mental picture. But anyways, she was a cheerleader

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in middle school. And she was also a cheerleader freshman my freshman year. Um, and she was like my best friend. And she’s the reason that I started cheerleading. And she’s just like that to me. She the light, like, she’s like bubbly and fun and smiley, and I feel like she helps to bring that out of me. And then cheering with her helps to bring that me for sure.

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Yeah, um, that’s what’s up. Yeah. It’s interesting, looking back on you like our childhood and really just like those people that, you know, really made a difference. And you know, where we are today. Cuz I mean, you know, you said that cheering helps bring you out of your shell, when you go to college, when you go natural. And you’re also like, hey, yeah, I’m liking my, my natural curls out here, you know? So, it’s like, I like being able to talk to people and, you know, talk with them about what, what changes in their lives really kind of helped them, like, shape them into the person that they are today. Like, you can look back on and be like, I’m so happy I did that. Yeah. So that’s how, how have your natural hair journey been for you? And what impact has it had on you? Yeah. So in the beginning, I was really like, Okay, first of all, I don’t know what this is going to look like. I don’t know what this journey is going to be. But I am ready for it. Because my mother loved her. So so so so much, she told me. So. So my mother and her mother, they have a different grade of hair. I kind of got my hair from my father. And so when she was raising me, um, she basically said that at age three is when I started getting a relaxer because it was Yeah, it was, it was just, it was time consuming to tame. Okay, and she just didn’t have the time. So, yeah, since age three. So basically, when I was a baby, Yes, I know. But the crazy thing is, when I was growing up, I was just like, this is the thing. This is like what you’re supposed to do. Like the whole returning to natural. I honestly didn’t really understand that until I went to college. Okay, I didn’t even like consider it until I went to college. And the problem I had is, I didn’t really know where to start. Because when I was in college, I thought, Oh, I’m gonna transition. But then I was like, well, do I want to do this right now? And then I was like, No, like, I’m just gonna, like, go back to what I’m used to. Because you know, how when, when you’re used to when you’re used to your whole life, it’s just like, you know, it’s, it’s a force of habit. So then after I graduated college, I said, You know what, no, I’m just, I’m gonna, I’m gonna start from square runs square one. So literally, that’s when I did you know, the big chop. And it was, it was like, weird in a cool way, I felt lighter. And I was just like, I just, I felt different in a good way. And I felt really happy, you know, and when I started growing my hair out, I started getting braids, experimenting with protective styles. And also I could that’s kind of like when I got into the colors, because I would like get braids that were different colors. And I it really felt like I was truly expressing my personality, which I really, really liked. Which is also why I thought to myself, okay, when I like look in the mirror, and I see like my true self, like, what does that look like? And I was like, I want to experiment with different colors. So literally, every six weeks, I would go get a hair cut. And then I would either bleach it and leave it blonde, or I would die like pink or blue or purple. And it’s interesting too, because people will be like, Oh, you’ve done every coloring book. It always looks so good. But what they don’t know is that there was some times where I didn’t execute it. And I just like, you know, was like, Okay, I need to redo this before I leave the house because you know how sometimes if you try like different brands, like different colors, it doesn’t always doesn’t always work out perfectly. But um, yeah, I was. I was doing that for a hot minute. And then most recently, I thought to myself, and I was like, okay, from where I was summer 2018 up to now what what styles that I really really, really like. And when I was thinking to myself, I was like, you know, I really did, like when I was rocking my braids and I know that braided wigs like our thing. Honestly, what I really enjoyed was just getting crochet braids and just being able to pick whatever color then just rocking it and just, you know, doing what I do. So I am I actually dyed it back like a almost black color. And I’m going back to growing it out right now. So um, yeah, versatility.

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Oh, much versatility

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like and that’s the thing. I remember when I was a little bit younger when I was a newer natural and there was debates around like if she wears wigs and weaves is she natural and if she does tend to do whatever especially whatever they’re trying to keep their hair natural or healthy, or they have different looks that they want. And I love what you said about about, like, basically finding what fits you like what felt best, what felt most authentic to you and who you are. Because I feel like that’s a journey that we don’t really talk about a lot like with hair, with clothes with makeup, like with everything shoes, it’s like, how do I want to present myself to the world? Like, what do I look like when I walk out in the world but for real, I went through a whole when I went natural, I explored so many different kinds of clothes. One day, I might look like a rocker chick The next day, I was like a flower child like people never could. I did. Is that Dasha? I can’t even recognize you have to tell me Good girl. I’m switching it up, get used to it. Okay. Um, but that’s when I started playing around with style and stuff, too. I was just like,

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I’ve got no hairs.

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With these clothes, I got the guts to do that. And that’s what I did. And

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I had a lot of fun. And I feel like I’m just

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now as a 27 year old starting to figure out like, Okay, cool. This is my style. Like in terms of my hair. I got to make hair cut recently, like, my hair was tailbone length, it’s back there again. But I got it shaped because people couldn’t even tell how much hair I had. Because I’m always having to tucked away because it was so long that it was like flat. So I couldn’t I never worked out until I got to ship because I like big hair. That’s my personality. I like wearing my hair big. But I’ve had people on my YouTube channel like, Oh, your hair looks frizzy and dry. Like my hair’s not dry. It’s very moist, dry. I like wearing a big, I’m sorry, don’t I’m actually not sorry. I don’t like definite No, I don’t like but like,

21:56
I prefer big hair. Like,

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you know, they can have a definition. But I want it to be big. My hair grows to the sun. And I like that about my hair. I embrace that about my hair. I want it to

22:09
keep thriving like we’re all do you Yeah.

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Do what you want to do, you know?

22:15
So I love what you were saying about just like finding what fits you because that’s different for everyone. And that’s kind of part of what I help people do is figure out like, okay, what’s your lifestyle? What what kind of hair Do you want to wear for your lifestyle? Like how do we help make sure that your routine fits into your lifestyle? Because everyone’s on here life is gonna look different. Some women are fine spending eight hours a week on their hair. I don’t got time for that. Just do it. Like one two hours tops. That’s it for the week. I’m not spending longer than that on my hair. I have a whole business to run. Like huh. And even if I did it, I would prefer to relax. I want to chill watch Netflix or something as opposed to sit here twisting my hair for five hours. Are you kidding me like 12 hours to twist my hair and the twist aren’t even that small. It was just too much to

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have to have cramping. Like oh my goodness, I need to take a break. shriveled and everything like that. I’ve been in the pool, no. Labor love. Oh my goodness gracious. My mom called me the other day

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after she had twisted her hair. She thought it was gonna be short, but her hair has grown so long. I have like eight hours.

23:28
See the way in which there are only but so many hours in the day. And like you said, I would like to spend them doing other things. Oh,

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wow. Sustainability and efficiency. Okay, when it comes to here in life, that’s it. Yes. And

23:51
I wonder so like, okay, so do do do people come to you, like who are already natural, who like thinking about returning to natural? Or I guess like when people come to you know, consult you? Are they already in the process? Or I guess what, what do most of the people where are they at in their stage when they come to you?

24:11
It depends. So I won’t say all of those, I would say the most that I get people who have already been natural for a while and still haven’t figured it out. And I feel like the reason is because there’s a lot of misinformation out on YouTube. Unfortunately, when it comes to going to professionals, a lot of them are just so far behind. And they’re they don’t actually know the correct methods to use to take care of natural hair in a curly state. Like if you’re going there to get a blowout they got you. But if you’re going there to figure out and learn how to take care of your pearls and where your curls, that’s where there’s a disconnect. And so people are then going to YouTube hoping to get that information. But most of YouTube is misinformation and that’s why When people work to get the correct information out there, they’re getting. They’re getting blundered, like people are really coming for me with with some of the information that I’m putting out there because it goes against what they’ve been used to hearing. And so that’s why the people I get coming to me are usually, you know, professionals that don’t even really have time to deal with the YouTube and sort through what’s real and what’s not, and just need someone to help them get something that is simple, and that works for them, and that they feel confident

25:34
executing on their own. Interesting, interesting. Oh, okay, so I kind of wondering now, like, so. Okay, so you’re saying that there are people who have like made comments on content, you have put out saying that information you’re providing is like, contradictory? I’m assuming you take that as like a learning point for them? Or I guess the I guess my question is, how do you engage with people who are who are I guess, commenting, or, you know, sending messages that are saying, actually, I think the opposite. How do you approach that?

26:09
That’s a great, that’s awesome. You know, it’s not my job to tell you anything. It’s I’m putting information out here and it’s here for people who want it. Because there’s lots of other people who go oh my gosh, I was wondering what was going on with my hair? Oh, yeah. Other people? Yes, I stopped using good one. And so one of the things my most controversial video that I have out right now is about why butters and oils are killing natural hair. And you know anything about the natural community. Wait, hold on. Wait, wait, hold on. Okay. Wait, okay, sorry.

26:42
Sorry. I didn’t know you’re okay. I’m listening. I’m listening. So here’s the thing. And again, common misconceptions. There’s this is obviously a

26:52
big one. In the natural hair community. We use a lot of raw butters and oil you go on YouTube, they’re gonna tell you go to the kitchen section gives you some olive oil gives you some coconut oil, avocado oil, some grapeseed oil, don’t do it. I’m not saying that oils and butters in general are bad for your hair when they’re properly formulated into clean products, botanical based products, that’s fine, but even then they don’t need to be in the first five to seven ingredients. And the reason being is because healthy hair is hydrated hair, right? I duration. How do you hydrate your body Water, water. Hydration comes from water and oil and water don’t mix oil repels water. So if you’re constantly putting oil on your hair, especially if you’re not washing it out properly, what you’re essentially doing is making your hair waterproof, which means it cannot be properly hydrated, which means it looks shiny, and it’s dying because it’s dry and brittle. On the inside. It’s just slathered with oil. Which is why people don’t understand why their hairs breaking off even though they’re moisturizing it Wow.

28:03
When you say it like that. It makes so much sense. So I thought girl, but people have come to me in the comments. For real So yeah, I don’t I don’t use oils and butters. What Okay, so alright, so when you moisturize your hair, what does that look like? Or like I guess, define moisturize?

28:27
Okay, so all right. When you wash your hair, like on wash day, what do you do right after you wash your hair after I wash my hair, I condition it. Okay, and like, I guess my question is the days after like what man I’m sitting here questioning.

28:45
Okay, so here’s what here’s the thing, right? One your hair holds on to more you know how big of a dry sponge right? You ever had a dry sponge that you’ve used before but all the waters dried out of it and it’s like, our like you can hate it and like you can hear it and then you can watch something up off the counter. You take the dry sponge and you try to wipe it and it doesn’t work right so dry hairs like that dry sponge. So if you haven’t been properly hydrating your hair and you’re just now starting to try to figure out how to properly hydrate your hair. It’s going to have a hard time holding on to moisture until it’s hydrated like the sponge under water that’s wrung out and now you can use it properly Your hair is the same way. So for me now that my hair is more properly hydrated, it holds on to that hydration longer. Your hair stays hydrated for like seven to 10 days max like after that your hair’s dry, it doesn’t matter how you spritz it, it doesn’t matter what you how you retwist it until it is submerged in water and properly washed and conditioned. Again. The hydration has left your hair after that many days and you’re working with dry here from then on. Um, and so for me, I wash it, I condition it. I detangle it while the conditioners in there and then I go straight to stylers. Leaving conditioner is essentially a style that I don’t always use a leave in conditioner, you can, but I go straight to my stylers after that, and I sit under the dryer, which is a major key because a lot of styles are really made to work with heat. And that helps to keep your hair stretched as well. Because it’s drying in that stretch state as opposed to slowly drying and shrinking up on itself, and causing all kinds of knots and tangles and stuff, then, I mean, I’m good. That’s it, I rock my hair for a week or until I need to change it again, for a photoshoot just because I like it or whatever. And I keep it I do it all over again next week. I feel it.

30:38
I feel it. Wow, speaking of photoshoots, because I kind of want to dive into that, oh, I saw you made a post and I wasn’t I was like you were on a yoga mat. And you were talking about how you love yoga. And I was like, like I see like you post about you know, different shoots and stuff like that, you know, you’re rocking your hair, you’re looking like all cute and whatnot, which I’m like, so happy about too, because I feel like you also play into that like representation of like us rocking on natural hair. Um, I guess my question is,

31:09
like,

31:10
what kind of what kind of endeavors have you know, I guess you’ve been a part of since you, you know, been rocking your voluptuous, curls.

31:23
All kinds of things. So I love being creative. If it’s creative, I probably do it in some way, shape, or form. And so I jumped into a lot of different creative projects. I’ve done like YouTube web series with friends who were doing them and I, um, I’ve done a bit of cardio pop groups, and I dance and done dance fitness with my natural hair. I’ve done all kinds of things. Currently I do model though, commercial model. So different businesses, I would need models for different things to help sell their products, essentially, then I’ll take pictures, you know, I get paid to do that I had modeling agency as well, in Nashville, Tennessee. So that is something that I do. And I my natural hair. Like someone asked me, someone asked me like, hey, so if someone page like X number of dollars, would you drain your hair, and I was like, they can pay me that much. And they can buy a very convincing wig. So no, that is a perfect response right there. I love it. That’s one thing I don’t I don’t shake my hair. I don’t I will. I just don’t. I here can’t take it one. And I don’t think it’s worth it. So it’s gonna be big hair for me some type of natural hair for me. And if you don’t want someone, that’s the thing is I get a lot of people reach out to me the other day, they and this is their words, there was a white woman and she was speaking to me. And she said, Yeah, you know, like, no offense to them. But like most of the people that women I shoot there, you know, like your average white girl.

33:00
Well, I guess. She’s like, Yes, I’ve just been wanting a black woman with big, beautiful natural hair. And then we found you and I was like, cool. Like, like, you people don’t understand, like, people are looking for women with natural

33:17
hair right now. It’s like, Oh, yeah, all the way accepted. And people recognize how beautiful it is. Oh my god. So during my adulting today, this was very awkward, but still kind of in that same vein, it drives the point home, it was like older white men had to be like 60s or 70s. And you know, I was talking to my woman getting my my title taken care of and he was a tough woman getting whatever done that he was getting done. And he goes, I love your hair. I’m like, thank you. He was like it’s very attractive. Like,

33:51
thank you. Like, it was weird. But people love natural hair. They

33:57
love big natural hair. I get this like what’s going on? It’s usually fascination. You know what comes with the territory, it like bothers some people as long as you don’t touch it without passing it. Especially the answer. Like, you know, I feel like basketball in that way happy.

34:17
It’s like people looking in like terms of like admiration, you know?

34:22
Yeah, not sure. Sometimes there’s people who are looking like, whoa. But I mean, even if they were looking like that, in my mind, it’s still admiration. So I’m

34:34
like, I’m gonna keep walking. I’m gonna keep rocking this Okay, have a good day.

34:39
When you feel comfortable in yourself and who you are. I feel like that radiates like, I don’t so much attract people into my face. Who would think that natural hair is just like this a foreign thing. I don’t want those kinds of spaces and I don’t conduct myself in that way. I just be me. Believe as fully as I feel like I’m capable of, because there’s always levels to explore yourself, and if you love me and love me if you don’t

35:09
exactly exactly people in this world, but go check them out. Oh my gosh. And see, that kind of relates back to when you were saying, you know, this is really a part of self love, you know, it’s really part of like that journey right there. And it’s like, I love myself, I’m embracing myself. And that’s what matters, you know. So you give

35:32
people permission to do the same thing. When you do. Whether it is someone who looks like you or doesn’t look like you, like, you will be surprised how many people will be like, Oh my gosh, like, thank you for just literally being you. Right?

35:49
Yeah, it’s like you, you help other people also, you know, feel like they can express themselves, which is, you know, definitely something that, like I admire and seeing people because you do want to be able to feel comfortable in your own skin, you know, you want to be able to feel like you can generally be yourself. Yeah, I definitely like up to you on that shoot, you know, it’s like, you can be happy, comfortable being yourself. And people can be like, yeah, look at Dasha go, like, you know what this is, this is who I am to, like, I’m unapologetically myself, like,

36:28
literally why I do what I do not so we could look at me, but look at them and love themselves. Like it. And that’s why I like it just even increasingly more like so vulnerably on my social media is because like, I don’t want to present perfection, because I’m not perfect, my life is perfect. And if you look at me, and you see this is this image of who I am, well, this is what is associated with that as well. So the same way that I can be you know, whatever it is, you see me as if you see me as a light or whatever you can get to like you can be up to even everything that you have going on in your life, like what you have

37:10
going on in your life doesn’t

37:12
define, you choose who you want to be at the end of the day. So I just really want people to understand that who they are is good enough, who they are as great as the world needs it like we need people

37:24
to be then. That is so true. That’s so true. And I mean, real talk like this energy that we have right now we we do need this because, you know, it’s crazy times that we’re living in crazy times we’ve been living in and to be able to look at aspects of our life that actually make us happy, that make us feel comfortable, that make us feel like us is something that we should be able to embrace. And you You are a part of that. You know, and I definitely think that, like when people listen to this, they’ll be able to like really, like take that home and say what are the ways that I being my genuine self can also positively impact the next person, you know, whether it be when you’re going to get your title or whether you’re scrolling on, you know, Instagram looking at, you know, different like haircare products and different you know, hairstyles and stuff like that. It’s like we we want to create that space to where we’re having these conversations and people can really open up you know, well one of the things that I like to do in my episodes is because we covered a lot of things when people listened to your episode, what do you really want them to take home if they didn’t listen to anything else? You said? What do you really hope resonated with the listeners?

38:51
The world needs you to be you. And the more you be who you are, the more you’ll attract the kinds of people who will accept and love who you are.

38:58
I love it. That’s it.

39:00
Anything.

39:00
That’s perfect. That’s perfect. Well, I just want to thank you again so much for being on this episode. It’s been a long time coming. Of course, thanks for listening to this episode of Tea With Kea.

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