Coily Hair Manifesto: Not All Coils Are Thick!

I hated relaxer day! While many women looked forward to fixing their roots and having swinging’ hair, I hated my freshly done hair.

Why you ask? Because it had no life. It was long, jet black and perfectly straight, but it was thin. If placed in a ponytail, it looked bald from afar, and dropping it and having it fall lifelessly around my face was never an option. Add to the mix my disastrous encounter with a certain product line which won’t be named that broke and thinned out my hair some more, let’s just say that what the doctor prescribed was not the miracle for my hair. I was so fed up that I decided to go natural and have the thick gorgeous hair of which I had always dreamed.

I wanted disrespectfully big hair that blocked people in movie theaters and required people to walk around it on the sidewalk. I wanted to rock twists and big, yet defined, twist and braid outs. I wanted feel the wind blowing through my hair, not on my scalp.

Fast forward two years and I’m still waiting for the thickness, but tomorrow I’ll look like Chaka.

The truth is, not every natural has thick hair. More specifically, not every natural in the 4 category has thick hair. Because of my coils and waves when I wear my hair loose, it appears to be denser than it really is, but the moment I twist or braid my hair it becomes very apparent that I just wasn’t blessed with a lot of hair. If you are a fine haired natural, you can probably relate to a lot of my issues.

I know it’s wrong to be jealous, but I have to admit that I’m envious of thick haired people and all their hair. I know, I know, thick hair people want finer hair too. The grass is greener on the other side I guess. Either way, I have good reasons for wanting your thick mane!

Scalp-y Twists

When I was newly natural, I wanted to speed up my growth and thought I’d take a stab at some protective styling. After three plus hours I looked at the front of my hair and thought, “Not bad for my first try.”

I then left my house and thought I looked good, but once arriving home and looking at the back I was dismayed to find that I showed more scalp than twist. Unlike my thick or medium haired sisters, I simply don’t have enough hair to rock juicy twists, and I hate that. But I have found a few ways around this issue:

1. Blow drying my hair first then twisting it prevents shrinkage and “scalpiness.”
2. Doing smaller plaits, as small plaits equal thicker looking hair while bigger plaits show off my scalp more.
3. Parting the hair diagonally or in a brick like pattern.

Over Fluffing

As a fine haired natural, hiding my scalp is something I have become accustomed to. When I see videos with women simply unraveling and separating twists for fierce twist outs, I have to fight my inner jealous self. After releasing my twists, I have to do just about everything to hide my scalp. I have tried fluffing both upright and with my head upside down, separating twists until no end, massaging my scalp and combing out my roots. And don’t get me started on the yoga/gymnastic twists I have to do in front of the mirror with another one in my hand assessing the back of my head for peek-a-boo scalp. But, after many a trial and tribulation, I have figured out that if I style on already stretched hair I can get more volume. I’m going to give it to you straight, no chaser: you are going to have to sacrifice definition for bigness, because we thin haired girls will have to separate and fluff more than the average curly. Now that I’ve ranted and raved and doled out a little advice, I feel so much better. But it would be good to know that I’m not the only one, so let me know about your experiences with thin hair. As always, remember to have love, peace and curly haired bliss.