Melanie Burke once told me that she gets goosebumps whenever she believes something needs to happen. That’s exactly what happened when Amy-Rae Rispel commented on a picture I posted on the South African Naturals Facebook page
I made contact with her in the hopes that she would be interested in doing a feature on the blog – she agreed.
How long have you been natural?
I’m a natural hair newbie; my all-natural hair will be two in October. But despite my relatively short experience with natural hair, I think I’ve done it all. I shaved all my hair off in October 2012 to start from scratch. Grew a fro (and rocked Bantu knots, twist-outs, corn-rows, braids in between) for just over a year until it started getting unmanageable for me as a young mom. I then decided to get dreadlocks in November/December last year. I tried the free-from way but the crochet method worked much better for me.
Maybe in some weird way I was trying to make up for lost time? Here I was 23 (I’m 25 now) with no idea on how to handle/maintain/nurture the hair I was born with. My hair had been relaxed since I was 6. That is more than two thirds of my life.
, I’m Amanda.