African Beauty 

Now more than ever, Nigerian women are embracing natural hair and deviating from Eurocentric beauty standards; but not without resisting negative stereotypes and frequent derogatory remarks. This story is not just about hair but about African pride and heritage, resilience, passion and love. 

The first time YellowSisi, one of Nigeria’s foremost natural hair gurus, came into my consciousness was when I realized my natural hair could actually grow; immense growth wasn’t something only attainable by the African American influencers I gawked at on social media, for whom I had attributed it to something in the weather or their phenotypic makeup. It was 2016, I was in my second year of A Levels at my sixth form college in Lagos and one of my three new roommates, Amoni, had a mane of natural hair that could most accurately be described as a showstopper. I would watch Amoni stand in front of the mirror and go through her regimen, comprising the use of oils whose sweet aromas consumed the whole room. She would be gentle, meticulous, skilled, a huge contrast to the way I was with my own natural hair: harsh, brash and painfully unskilled.

I had transitioned from relaxed hair to natural hair for the second time over a year before. The first time was inspired by my immediate elder sister, who had suddenly come back from school in the UK with a gorgeous Afro. But I didn’t know how to care for my transitioning hair and the combined chaos of my two textures—relaxed and natural—made my eldest sister convince me to relax it back so that it could look presentable. Then, I decided to go again, convincing myself that I would take care of the hair better. And I did, but not nearly as much as Amoni, whom I would soon learn was the daughter of Kelechi Yibo-Koko, better known as YellowSisi, the owner of one of Lagos’s most prominent natural hair salons. I learned what I could from observing Amoni and, sometimes, running to ask her questions like my personal Natural Hair Google. Then I followed YellowSisi’s Instagram page and digested her regular doses of hair care nuggets. I always say that I went natural in 2015, but I didn’t start growing my hair till 2017, and that growth journey would not have been possible without YellowSisi and her daughter...