Not too Shébé! Achieve Healthy Full Hydrated Hair With Less Products

THE GOOD NEWS: This method is suitable for all hair types (natural, relaxed, tex-lax) Although if you are relaxed and really desire fuller, healthier hair, try relaxing less often (quarterly or less) while employing this method in-between relaxes.

Hellooo. Have you heard about the Chadian Long Hair Secret documentary by YouTuber Miss Sahel? It tells us about the intriguing hair growth practice in a rural part of African country, Chad.

The women of this ethnic group are known to have hair that grows all the way to their thighs. They are able to attain such lengths by quoting their strands with ingredients that keep the hair very hydrated and moist, plaiting it into protective braids, and  then re-applying the mix after 5 days.

The key ingredient in this ‘magic’ mix/masque is the Chébé powder which, at some point, sent the natural hair community into a frenzy. Many attributed these women’s extraordinary hair lengths to genes, but genes played little to no role in this, as was verified in the documentary (see link at end of post to watch).

Africans generally believe that long hair is almost unattainable and those that manage to have it are either just plain lucky or have ‘good genes’. Miss Sahel’s docu however teaches us otherwise, that as long as you are able to master the art of hydration, moisture retention and breakage prevention, you can attain stronger, healthier & longer hair.

Learning about the Chébé method and stumbling on the above finding caused me to re-evaluate and reform my haircare methods. Leave-ins, styling creams, gels and the likes can make your hair look amazing but what about the potential health risks frequent/prolonged use of these products might pose? Besides, piling up too much of these products can cause clogged pores and also cause breakage.

In essence, the  fewer the products – especially the not so natural ones – the healthier the hair and the less the risk.

It was with this mind-set that I came up with the hydration technique that adopts the Chébé concept but uses a different key product….holy grail, SHEA BUTTER!
I’d asked myself…what natural product is effective, affordable, easily accessible and readily available in my country? Well, you guessed right!

Shea butter is 100% natural, would quote your hydrated strands nicely while protecting them from breaking, keep your hair soft and moist while allowing you to style in between! Notice some similarities between this and the Chébé method? Read on to understand better…

My Shea Butter Hydration Procedure + What you’ll need

PROCEDURE
This technique spans through a month for me, but you could do it for less, if that works best for you. Note that day one is the only day within the whole month that I use anything other than shea butter/oil and water on my hair.

Day 1 – Wash & Hydrate

Regular washday: here, I pre-poo, cleanse with moisturising shampoo, do an intense deep condition.

Hydration step (key step):  I start with moisturising my hair via LCO (I use a leave-in & cream first), then I seal by quoting my strands with a GENEROUS amount of my whipped shea butter. I usually do this step in sections and then leave the hair in protective twists/flat twists.

Lastly, I massage oil into scalp.

Day 1 to Day 5 – Rest days
After hydrating, I let the hair flourish. It stays really moisturised because of the thick shea butter quote from the first step and since shea butter melts and absorbs nicely into the strands, my hair feels neither greasy nor too oily.

Day 5 – Re-Hydrate
This is another KEY step. Here, I literally saturate my strands (in sections) with water and then fully quote it again, with a GENEROUS amount of shea butter. You could choose to seal with an oil…or not.

And that’s that! I repeat the re-hydration step for a month. And at the end of the month, I restart with the wash & hydrate step. Pretty easy isn’t it?

Similarities between the Chébé method, the LCO (Liquid-Cream-Oil) & my hydration technique

Chébé
1⇒ Saturate hair with water
2⇒ Quote strands with Chébé mix (the powder, hair cream or butter of your choice)
3⇒ Apply oil
4 ⇒ Repeat 1-3, spritz strands with some more water and braid to finish
5 ⇒ Repeat steps after 5 days

LCO
1⇒ Wet hair with liquid (could be water, rose water, aloe-vera juice, leave-in conditioner, or a mix of one or more of these)
2⇒ Apply cream for additional moisture
3⇒ Seal with butter or/and oil
4 ⇒ Repeat steps 1 – 3 when needed

My Method (shea butter hydration technique)
1⇒ Saturate hair with water
2⇒ Quote strands generously with shea butter (or butter of your choice)
3⇒ Apply oil to scalp and/or strands and twist or braid to finish
4 ⇒ Repeat steps 1 – 4 after 5 days

Results + What to expect
I started this technique slightly over 2 months ago and I’ve noticed significant growth, darker, fuller, more textured hair that loses moisture less quickly and stays hydrated longer.

What some may see as a downside though, is that my hair is slightly frizzier than usual (which makes sense because no creams or gels are used to tame the frizz) but I personally do not mind a bit of frizz so…it’s still all good 🙂

Would love to hear from you guys, what do you think about this method and is this something you would try? Feel free to leave a comment below 🙂 

❀ L O V E & L I G H T ❀

xXo Amal.

1. LONG HAIR SECRET FROM CHAD AFRICA 

2. HARMFUL BLACK HAIRCARE PRODUCTS