Hi people, what's been on?

So, I finally took down the faux locs last night. It was as easy as sliding it off...thank God! Applying a good dose of NappyGirl before wrapping up turned out to be a good idea. However my hair still got dry. I never moisturised during the one week plus I had the style, so that was expected.
For a moment, it seemed like my hair had loc'd for sho!


I had to gently fingerdetangle each section and loosely twist away.

Mehn....my ends were as dry as sticks!

That is to be expected with any long term protective style were your hair is left completely alone....and the perfect cure is to deep condition immediately!
After you take down your weave, braids, twists,fauxlocs......deep condition ASAP! I prefer to do it overnight on a Friday so it doesn't affect my week but since I didn't have an early day the following day, I deep conditioned yesterday.

My deep conditioner of choice was manshanu aka cow ghee. It doesn't fail to get my coils popping much like Aussie Moist 3 min deep conditioner but oilier.
I finally found a steady supply of fresh manshanu so I'll be using it often...yaayyy!



Manshanu is cow butter. It is made from fresh cows milk. When the milk is boiled and allowed to cool, the butter separates from the liquid milk. This is gently removed. The milk is sold as 'nono' with 'fura', the butter is then the 'man shanu' which translates literally as 'oil of cow'. From my discussion with the Fulani lady who sold me the butter, the cow usually belongs to the woman. Her husband helps her to take it to graze. She wakes up early to milk the cow and while her husband takes the cattle to graze, she carefully boils the milk and separate the butter. Well fed cows yield quality manshanu.
 It's important to know the difference between good manshanu and the bad one! I have complained earlier that the reason I kinda hesitate when using manshanu was because of the sour milk smell. Apparently, I wasn't getting fresh manshanu because the fresh one has a clean 'icecreamy' smell. My friend even had to ask me the following morning if I drank ice cream or yoghurt at night (yes, I'm a midnight snacker) and if there was any left over. It smelt that yummy!
The next thing to notice is the color. Fresh manshanu is creamy white in color and not creamy yellow type I usually got. The Fulani woman even went further to suggest that I use it to cook....I did use it to make Indomie and fry an egg and it tasted delicious. I haven't tried it yet with rice.

Anyhoo, I used the manshanu for my deepcondition to get the benefits of proteins, natural minerals & vitamins like calcium, vitamins A, D, E and creamy moisturising milk fat.
I melted it in my palms then applied straight to my hair in sections like I'd apply my henna or relaxer.


I didn't bother washing my hair since it was wrapped up and so wasn't really dirty.
I also massaged it into my roots.

Then I covered with a showercap, wrapped it up for like 5 hrs (sometimes I leave on overnight).


After the deep conditioning, I washed it out thoroughly with VO5 Tea therapy conditioner. I don't use a shampoo after I deep condition so I don't wash out all the goodness of deep conditioning.

Tip: Make sure to wash off well with conditioner o! The first time I used the manshanu, it smelled so good that I didn't have the heart to wash it out with conditioner. I simply rinsed out the excess with cold water. All was fine that day until a friend of mine pointed out that I was dripping oil. The scorching sun had melted the butter in my hair! I had to keep wiping and wiping it off!
Still no one even noticed I used manshanu. I just smelled sweet. However, I didn't fool a colleague of mine who grew up in Northern Nigeria too.....she was like 'manshanu, abi?!'

So here's the results of my deep conditioning with manshanu....that ish totally works and it's a good alternative to store bought moisture deep conditioners.



Final words, deep conditioning is an important step in natural hair care to keep coils soft, hydrated and full of life. It doesn't have to be anything fancy....you can simply mix your favorite conditioner with your favorite oil and cover up.
I've listed good deep conditioners for Nigerian natural hair with vendors if you don't have the time or energy to mix up yours.

Most times I prefer the one step approach to caring for my hair.

So have you tried deep conditioning? What are your personal faves?

Hadassah.