I’m looking for people who are familiar with Natural Hairstyles, especially of the 4-category. My MC has been wearing her hair in a protective style for the story so far (specifically Long Braided), but I want to write her taking it out, but I want to do it correctly and respectfully. I’ve found guides for how to do it and how to take care of hair while doing it, but I wanted to also get insight from people in the know. Her hair will end up going toward Natural Afro. But I’d like if I were able to have transitional steps as well. Are there any other Episode hairstyles I can use to show her hair along the path between these two styles, or am I kind of doomed to having to do my own overlays?
To be clear, I’ll do my own overlays if that’s the better choice. I just want to make sure that it feels authentic to the average experience. If anyone is willing to help me out with this, I’d very much appreciate it.
Other questions I have: Where on the MC’s head would the stylist start to take the braids out? Starting at the back/bottom of her head and working up? Or from one side to the other?
For the stylist question: The stylist would start at the back of the hair and work her way up, or that’s at least what I do when I take my braids down. I think the ‘Natural Afro’ is the best way to go as far as transitional steps, then after her hair is washed or whatever routine you plan to code, you can change it to ‘Afro puffs’ or a curl hair type.
When I take my braids out, it doesn’t matter what part I start at. Also, a transitional style to show them taking it out, You could change their hair from the Long braided to the Medium braided because before taking my braids out, I cut them to wear the length of my hair is.
If their hair is gonna be 4c, you have a limited amount of options. But, if you would want to use the looser curl types, sometimes I’ll bantu knot my hair, which is a style they have on Episode as well. And then, when your character takes the bantu knots out in the morning, it’ll give a medium curly look.
I was planning to follow this guide. Is this pretty accurate?
So, this is the MC (Khadija) and her Mom (Naomi).
As you can see, her mom is definitely not a Natural Hair girl. In the first chapter, we learn that MC has only been allowed to keep her hair in braids while she was at school, but her father (an American politician) has an important event coming up and her mom fully expects MC to get her hair chemically processed for it. But, some other stuff happens along the way where MC is separated from her family for most of a week and is with a more comfortable and loving household. The reader’s ability to take the braids out is actually a choice I’m giving them, but I want to represent it right. What will her mom do when she sees her hair out in full Natural Afro? Well, that remains to be seen.
What I usually do is cut the braids down more so it won’t take so long to take out and the I just start from the bottom and work my way up then I was my hair and grease it and put it up.
This is pretty accurate. Most usually cut the ends of the braids right after the hair stops and use the long hand of the rat tail comb to take it down. Some use their hands to take them down but be easy so they don’t cause tension on the hair.
