In Quarantine, I Finally Learned How to Take Care of My Natural Hair

One Sunday, I went to the shower in my Brooklyn apartment, and did something I had been avoiding since New Yorkers started self-quarantining in mid-March. Over the past few months, as black women have taken to social media to joke (at least partly), the time away from our salons has forced us to give up relaxers and go natural or, if we are already natural, resort to permanent headscarf-wearing. I had been putting off an intensive ritual of conditioning, applying a hydrating mask, and styling my hair because, after becoming reliant on seeing my hairstylist a few times a month, I was unconvinced I could do it as well as she could. I was nervous that I would discover irrevocable damage to my hair after waiting so long to do it myself. And I had also been considering permanent headscarf-wearing after deciding to bleach most of my hair blonde pre-lockdown; my hair was constantly dry and starting to break.

Instead, over a few concentrated hours, I washed and deep-conditioned my hair with a cocktail of the Jane Carter and The Mane Choice products my hairstylist had recommended, and then detangled it, strand by strand (I have exceedingly thick hair) before twisting it. When I finished, worn-out but proud, I gleefully texted my close friends who have also been spending more time than ever thinking about how to take care of their natural hair while salons remain closed.

“I’ve been loving on my hair during this lockdown,” one friend, Nike Lawrence, an executive at a tech company, told me. She is also taking this time to try new techniques on her hair, like plant-based, fortifying Ayurvedic masks, and new products from the black female-owned Melanin Haircare line—small indulgences her schedule never allowed in the past. Other friends have been less adventurous. “I will be stretching this overgrown style as long as possible,” Clarisse Baleja Saïdi, a Lisbon-based writer, tells me of the cornrows she got just before quarantine began, which she has been maintaining with coconut, jojoba, and other oils already in her house until she can return to the salon.

When, and how, we can return has been dominating natural hair chat threads and Zoom calls as New Yorkers watch other states navigate the reopening of non-essential businesses, and wait for the lights to come back on in our own neighborhood beauty shops. But in the interim, as natural-hair stylists, like many of their peers in the suffering salon industry, turn to providing their clients with virtual support, there has been a curious side effect: we’re re-learning how to take care of our afros and twists, our braids and locs, our varied textures, ourselves. Someone had to do it.

“I want everyone to be able to have the things they need while they’re at home, whether it’s food or a self-care hair kit that is going to help them feel better about themselves,” says Illeisha Lussiano, the hairstylist, better known as @TheHairArtiste on Instagram, where she posts photos of the intricate styles she does for clients. Lussiano was forced to close her salon, The Way, on the Lower East Side in March, less than a year after opening it. But not being able to see regular clients, including the singer Kelela, hasn’t stopped her business. Lussiano just launched an online store that stocks kits tailored to specific styles—braids, locs, afros, waves—and general upkeep, along with hair accessories. Lussiano includes instructions with the kits. TikTok and Instagram Stories have given her additional spaces to educate her loyal following: a recent video showed the revitalizing power of mousse, a paddle brush, and a diffuser. Even though I am spending most of my time at home, I am always looking for easy ways to refresh my curls between washes, and made a note of her technique for later use.

Nikki Nelms is going one step further. The editorial stylist, who has worked with Zoe Kravitz and Solange, is hosting a weekly Instagram Live show called “Walk-in Wednesdays” to take questions from followers and hopefully “alleviate some of the anxiety” they have around doing their hair at home, she says. “Women want to know a more natural way of handling their hair,” Nelms says of the questions she usually receives, “like getting multiple purposes out of aloe plants and olive oils, which eliminates a future trip to the store or the need to order unnecessary packages.”

Ursula Stephen, a stylist who has worked with Rihanna, Kerry Washington, and Mary J.Blige and has a salon in Fort Greene, has also been hosting an Instagram Live event called “#UrsiesChair” to answer haircare questions from followers. The event is cozy and casual, with music playing in the background; I recently watched her guide viewers as she did a roller-set on a mannequin and reminisced about how her client Zendaya loved the style. After consuming all these online tutorials, I realized some lessons must have stuck. While FaceTiming with a source last week, she admiringly asked how I had been keeping up my hair. Progress!

Lacy Redway, who has styled Lupita Nyong’o and Tessa Thompson, thinks that the lockdown could ultimately benefit our hair: “This is a beautiful time to give our hair a break; just even less heat-styling can really help the health of your hair. Give yourself a hair mask, give yourself a hot oil treatment, drink more water because the health of your hair starts within,” she said.

Maybe, my friends and I speculate as we continue to share at-home product and styling advice, we can learn to not dread wash day—or at least turn it into a ritual that makes quarantine a little easier to bear. As I experiment with my hair routine at home, with access to all of these virtual resources, I feel more capable of keeping my hair healthy. But I’m still fantasizing about the day salons in the city reopen; I can already feel the leather chair under my legs, and my stylist’s hands on my scalp.