By Teri Mendes

Funke Leila Fowler

One of the biggest myths about black hair is that it doesn’t grow or grow as quickly as other types of hair. All hair grows an average of ½ inch per month, but it’s how you treat your hair that determines how much you’ll retain. Some women swear by vitamin regimens that call for popping pills all day long, while others cut their hair according to the phases of the moon. There’s no mumbo-jumbo involved in hair growth. All that’s required is your commitment to healthy hair practices and treating your hair with TLC.

This is a special edition to commemorate the 5 year anniversary of my page. Today with me I have Funke Fowler not only is she beautiful and successful she has amazing long hair. Funke shares with me her tips and tricks to having gorgeous full and thick hair and also about her women empowerment initiative Dressed in Love Program. An initiative set up to promote confidence in disadvantaged women one outfit at a time.

•   Tell Me About Your Hair Routine?
I have had the same hair dresser for about 9 years now; we’ve been through ups and downs on my hair journey. Over time we have figured out what works for my hair and what does not. The only way we have found is to put moisture into my hair. How we do this is to wash and deep condition it regularly. Thankfully my hair dresser makes house calls so we are able to wash and steam my hair at least once a week. We deep condition my hair with natural coconut oil, natural honey and a moisturizing deep conditioner.

•   Do You Relax Your Hair? If Yes, How Often?
My hair has a relaxer in it and to avoid over processing we try to stretch out the amount of time between relaxers. The minimum amount of time we wait in between relaxers is 8 weeks. When getting a relaxer, my hair stylist adds conditioner to the mixture and also applies coconut oil to the tips of my hair to protect it. A relaxer should not be kept on your hair longer than a couple of minutes. If you need to keep the relaxer on your hair longer than a few minutes to straighten your hair you should consider switching relaxers to one stronger.

•   What Is Your Take On Heat, Braids And Weaves?
Heat is something we try to keep as minimal as possible. When it is possible I roller set my hair rather than use a blow dryer. My take on braids and weaves/wigs – I think one of the fun aspects of being a woman is being able to change our looks to reflect our style and feelings at the moment. I think protective styles are great as long as they are not at the expense of your natural hair.

We should try as much as possible not to compromise the health of our natural hair while trying to experiment with change. We should be careful to not have braids done too tightly especially around our hairline where the hair there is the most fragile. One should also try not to keep these styles on for too long.

•   What is your night time routine? And any tips on preventing the frontal hairline from getting wet when we shower?
The ultimate night time routine is: wrapping your hair. This not only keeps the moisture locked in overnight but it will keep your hair style looking nicer longer and as a result you will use less heat on it. I cannot lie and say that I wrap my hair every night but if you are like me and you get lazy when it comes to this beauty secret either wear a silk scarf to protect your hair from your cotton pillow cases which can be drying to your hair or cover your pillows with silk pillow cases or a silk scarf.
When it comes to my hairline and face washing, I use a wash cloth/ face cloth to wash my face over the sink rather than splashing water on my face. This trick also helps with my skin as the wash cloth acts as a light exfoliator.

•   Do you play any sports? If yes, how does your hair manage this?
Yes I do. A couple months ago I decided to take up swimming for exercise. My hair was however not very excited about my decision especially because of the chlorine. I tried using swimming caps and even though it helped a little, my hair still would get wet, my stylist advised me to apply coconut oil to my hair before swimming and try and as much as possible to schedule my swimming days around the days I did my hair. It worked! Not only did the coconut oil protect my hair from the chlorine it also acted as an overnight conditioner for my hair.