Recently, I had the privilege of interviewing a young woman I first met early in my natural hair journey. An undergraduate university student at the time, Carol Milambo impressed me with how comfortable she was with her natural hair.

I was inspired and motivated to also learn how to style and manage my own hair, effortlessly. Or rather, with some level of skill and expertise. So, I was excited that she would end up being our very first ZedHair interview — and my first attempt at a photo shoot.

When did you first go natural?
At first, I was natural at school. I was reluctant to relax my hair because I liked it natural and it was really healthy and nice. Then, I reached a point where it wasn’t growing as much as before, so my friends influenced me to relax it. I finished high school in 2003. I relaxed it in 2004. I had a fear of relaxing because people had all these bad hair stories. Initially, my hair was beautiful. I had just relaxed it and for the first few years, it was still fresh and healthy.

What has been your experience having natural hair this time around?

How did you achieve the hairstyle in these pictures?
This is one of my favourite hairstyles and I always get a lot of compliments when I do it. Basically, when I take out my weave, I undo the cornrows, then wash my hair, but I don’t comb it. I just leave it like this for a few days. Then, later I wash and comb it as usual and do another style.

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