What Do You Do After You've Washed Your Hair? by Ayesha Casely-Hayford

Episode 9: “What Do You Do After You’ve Washed Your Hair?”

About Afro Archives

Afro Archives explores heritage and identity within UK society. It investigates images of black women through promotion of self-expression and confidence to be who we naturally are. This project seeks to promote and celebrate afro hair by having inclusive discussions about hair and hair-related experiences with people of all ages, backgrounds, cultures and creeds.

“A Performer’s World”

“A Performer’s World” showcases with comparison the experience of women with afro-textured hair through the eyes of the acting industry, where what we look like, matters. By asking to a diverse group of actors questions like: “Would You Shave Off All Your Hair for a Film?” and “Your Hair Represents Who You Are”, True or False?” we uniquely examine the responsibility of media, and curators of culture, as well as how we see ourselves and how society sees and portrays us. “A Performer’s World” could not have been made without the time, generosity, and collaboration of the featured artists, and co-creatives. Thank you to all involved.

Big Thanks to our host filming location, The Black Cultural Archives, in Brixton.

Creatives: Africa Fashion Plus (Afro Archives Blog Host), Robbie Spotswood (Photography), Chris Lovell (DOP), Imogen Mackay Dall (on-location Director), Loreen Brown (Photography), Livvy BakerMendoza (Music) Ayesha Casely-Hayford (Editor, Producer).

Main Creative Team Creator & Producer Ayesha Casely-Hayford is an actress, award-winning voice artist and employment lawyer of Ghanian descent, born in London and raised in Kent. With her roots in law, specialising in employment law and discrimination, and as former chair of the board of trustees for The Act For Change Project, a charity campaigning for greater diversity in the arts, she is uniquely positioned to see the social, performative and legal issues facing black women in the UK today.

Photo credit: Helen Murray Photography

Director Imogen Mackay Dall is a Sydney-born writer, director and ‘ginger ninja’ raised in Tokyo, Washington D.C. and London. She wrote and directed the award-winning conservation documentar y Mystery of the Gnaraloo Turtles (2017) and is writing features for Pinewood Studios and Same Name productions. Keen to advance social issues in her work, Imogen is also writing Creative Breakdown Insurance, a book to help artists and freelancers manage their mental health.

Photo credit: Helen Murray Photography

Featuring in this Episode and With Thanks To

Alexandra Conlon

Alice Fofana

Verona Rose

Tania Rodrigues

Ketorah Williams

Simone McIntyre

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

Ayesha Casely-Hayford

India Ria Amarteifio

ÂŠ 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

Peter Warnock

Amrou Al-Khadi

Tobias Deacon

Linden Walcott-Burton

Holly McFarlane

Syreeta Kumar

Anwen Ashworth

Judith Quinn

Annabelle Brown

Ann Akin

Anni Domingo

Nicky Goldie

Martina Laird

Andrew Macbean

Jasmeen James

This is a verbatim transcript of our interviews

“What Do You Do After You’ve Washed Your Hair?” Part 1 Featuring actors Alice Fofana and Verona Rose with Andrew Macbean, Ann Akin, Holly McFarlane, Jasmeen James, Linden Walcott-Burton, Martina Laird, and Tania Rodrigues VERONA: After I wash my hair…nightmare. ALICE: No, no, no. I love it because it’s so soft and you can actually see the nice little curls come out. It’s really nice. I love it when I wash my hair, And it’s just when it dries out. Yeah, you’re a pro though, at looking after your hair. Yeah, and then I put my Shea moisture in my hair and I sort of leave it be. Yeah I love washing my hair. I love it but it’s hard. Now, I just go to the hairdressers to get it done. Lazy. Seriously, it’s a nightmare. It was the blow-dryer. It wasn’t the straighteners. © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

It was the blow-dryer, I was like “oh wow, it’s going really straight”, then all of a sudden I saw loads of smoke and everything and the hair dryer made all this krkrkrkr Oh my God! I put the picture on Instagram, And this whole bit of my hair was just thin and everything had just singed off. [laughing] And that’s what happens when you don’t listen to people telling you to not put too much heat on your hair. I love my hair after I wash it. I never used to when I was younger actually, because I’d always get a braid, get it braided by my family. Every Sunday was take-your-hair-out-of-braids-day, wash it and then, get it all dealt with. I hated it, I hated it when I was younger because it was so painful. And then I got to secondary school. I think I was in year 9 and I was just like, “you know what, I am done with you guys pulling back my hair” so I taught myself I was in my room one day, I looked in the mirror, I started just practicing how to braid stuff and yeah I taught myself how to braid and stuff, yeah I taught myself how to braid my own hair And I told everyone, my cousins and everyone that did my hair that they didn’t have to do it no more because I could do it myself so No more pain No more pain And then I started to love washing my hair without any pain And someone pulling my hair this side and someone pulling my hair that side and someone hitting me with a comb because I moved this direction they didn’t want me to move, or I got distracted by my cousin here or that cousin there talking “leave your head there I didn’t tell you to move your head!”. It is hard work though isn’t it. When I was younger it was hard work. MARTINA: After I wash my hair I do as little as possible. © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

I put in some leave-in conditioner and that’s it. Then I let it dry because I am one of those people, I can’t do, I just can’t do all the preparation and all the what have you And also when I was growing up I used to swim a lot so it’s not really in my nature to have high maintenance hair. TANIA: I dry my hair, which actually doesn’t take as long as erm, It just doesn’t take that long! LINDEN: After I wash my hair, nothing changes. When it’s like this. I can get away with doing whatever I want. I can get away with not washing it for a week and it’s fine. I can tell the difference, I can tell it’s greasy, erm and I get dandruff, so I do wash it. But directly after I wash my hair, nothing really happens. When I had an afro, when I washed it then, erm, it would droop, so it would get 3 times as heavy and it kind of grows like this [indicates flat across his head] and then backwards, hanging down, And kind of like a dog if you swish it round, all the hair, all the water goes everywhere. To me that’s different cause I’m not used to having an afro but I can imagine if you have naturally long hair then it’s a regular thing for you. ANN: You know it’s really interesting because I find it really interesting when I talk to people they’re like “Oh my God, it’s my hair day, it’s wash day” And I don’t really have a strong relationship with what that means, “wash day”. I’m really lucky maybe, and I say that really loosely because again the connotations of what it means to have afro hair And I have really easy hair and I can be really lucky in one sense But I don’t mean that to connote it negatively to people who have tougher hair But I guess I’m really lucky in relation to learning because my hair’s really easy And it’s really soft and it’s really curly, So after I wash my hair I just go, you know, wash and go, put a bit of oil in it, And it’s nice and curly and bouncy, and I go, © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

So after I wash my hair, I have a lovely time really. ANDREW: I always wash my hair in the shower. I never use any shampoo and I just dry it with a towel, and then I put some product on it. HOLLY: I sometimes put a leave-in conditioner in. After I wash my hair I find that I can’t, normally when it’s greasy Like it is now - I can tie it up without any hairbands or anything, which I often find quite satisfying. Like I can literally tie it in a knot. But after I wash my hair I can’t do that because it’s too clean. And it’s too slippy. So, after I wash my hair it feels very different from the day after I’ve washed my hair. But that’s good because it’s going on a journey So, after I’ve washed my hair I like running my fingers through it because it feels so soft. After I wash my hair I have to decide what to do with it because sometimes when it’s wet I can, erm, curl it or straighten it. So it’s decision time after I wash my hair, [for] how I want to wear it for the next few days. JASMEEN: It shrinks like a ball. I don’t know why afro hair does that, It gets really tight and coily and erm, it’s like a sponge it basically just absorbs everything, Erm. Like I don’t know if this is because of how I’ve been conditioned growing up but I dunno, It’s something about when my hair is freshly washed, even now, when I wear my hair natural, I’m happy for people to see it like this, I dunno, it sounds, stupid but even now, after I wash my hair, like I feel a bit funny, I don’t know if it’s just that it’s so tight and coily, like I’ll wash my hair at a friend’s houses, Or I’ll be out in the rain

And it will get wet and I’ll still feel a little bit like “ah, I don’t want people to see” I don’t know but, yeah after I wash my hair it’s normally tight and coily and it feels fresh, it feels bouncy.

Part 2 Featuring actors Ketorah Williams and Simone McIntyre with Alexandra Conlon, Amrou Al-Khadi, Anni Domingo, Judith Quin, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, and Syreeta Kumar KETORAH: After I wash my hair. Now with me, I do have weaves in a lot, I do have braids in a lot so in between that, when I’m taking my weave out, I do get really excited, like “Oh my God, I’m gonna see my hair!” And I do get quite excited and it’s a really good time for me. I really take my time, I do like a pre-poo and everything, erm SIMONE: You do what? You know they call it a pre-poo So what that is when I take out my extensions my hair is obviously just natural. So I don’t put any water on it I just put conditioner straight on it, then I’ll leave the conditioner for about 20 minutes, half an hour. Then I’ll put water on it, then the shampoo, Then I’ll put a deep conditioner back on it. Then I’ll wash that out then I’ll do a hot oil treatment and then I’ll wash that out and then I’ll always dry it with the hot comb, always always always because my hair will otherwise just be too tough. I will do it with the hot comb, and then da-daa! Then I’ll see my hair. Wow, that’s a process. It’s definitely a process. I’ll do that as well, I feel I have to do that as well, because underneath my weaves and everything else I am on a natural hair journey. So I’m really tying to grow my own natural hair. But I’m transitioning. © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

So I’m growing out the relaxer. So yeah that’s probably why I do put all that effort in. Sounds like a ritual. Yeah, it kind of is, but it’s worth it. It’s like a celebration. Yeah, 6 months, a year from now, Then I’ll have my natural hair, it will be a decent length, a decent quality, The relaxer will be gone and that’s the dream. That’s the aim [laughs]. How do you feel when you wash your hair? It’s nice, I suppose. I just put in a leave-in treatment or conditioner. Then that’s it. It’s not really a big deal and I have to wash it a lot because I’m always in the gym. It kind of screws up some of the hairstyles. ALEXANDRA: After I wash my hair, I’m actually just, I’ve just started like doing the blowdrying thing. I used to just leave it and let it dry the way it would And I never really bothered with it because I’ve always been lucky with how it fell. But now I’m starting to take a little bit more care, and trying to blow dry it. But I like letting to be as free and as natural as possible actually. SYREETA: After I wash my hair, I always dry it into this kind of position. KOBNA: After I wash my hair I pat it down with a towel, get all the moisture out of it, then I put in a wax, quite a heavy wax - it’s Dax, the red tin because that’s thick and I dunno, maybe it coats it. I don’t know what it does but it’s the one I’ve been using for 20 years. JUDITH: After I wash my hair, I generally leave it to dry but now that it’s short it needs blow-drying more often than if it’s not.

Shorter hair needs more styling so after I wash my hair, generally these days I have to blow dry it. AMROU: After I wash my hair I leave the shower And then I spend quite a bit of time deciding what I’m gonna wear for the day. I do like sort of giving my outfits a bit of a theme I know that sounds silly but I will really think about what I’m feeling that day and then decide to kind of channel that with what I’m wearing. I mean, I wash my hair quite quickly, I do wash it hair everyday, but it’s then choosing what to wear afterwards that’s the big decision. I mean not in the grand scheme of things but in respect of my hair. ANNI: My hair at the moment is much longer than it usually is. My hair is usually quite short because I don’t like all the faffing about with my hair. So in fact today I’m going to go to the barbers, I go to the barbers because they just use a number one - kweew - off it goes. I know my hair is too long, when I can put a pencil in my hair and it sticks. So usually after I wash my hair when it’s really really short all I have to do is just dry it, shake my head, and my hair is done. At the moment after I wash it, after it’s dry then I put some lotion in it then I gel it so goes really flat. I don’t like my hair sticking up. So That’s what I do after I’ve washed my hair.

Part 3 Featuring actors Ayesha Casely-Hayford and India Ria Amarteifio with Tobias Deacon, Nicky Goldie, Peter Warnock, Annabelle Brown, and Anwen Ashworth INDIA: After I wash my hair, I put what’s that thing, I put heat protection on it, Section it, comb it out and then blow dry it, and then go to bed. AYESHA: After I wash my hair. Yeah I normally do it towards the evening, and I, it’s wet, and I put some hair oil to trap the moisture, And then I’ll plait it and then go to bed. I can’t do that. Most people who have afro hair at my school, or people that I know do that, they do leave their hair wet, when they go to bed. But my hair shrinks when it gets wet so I couldn’t just leave it out and then actually go to bed with my hair wet. My hair will shrink, but if I plait it, it will stretch, it’s weird. Mine doesn’t. I’ve tried so many different things with my hair after I’ve washed my hair to keep it smooth and proper, like for the next day. But I feel that oil for my hair doesn’t work very well, like adding grease. It actually makes my hair, it shrinks it, It doesn’t make my hair like how it is now. Like when my hair is dry and hasn’t got anything on it that’s when it’s easier to put up and easier and it looks better, I feel anyway. TOBY: I dry it with a towel. Generally it sort of dries as I walk about. So I’m not very careful with it. No brushing or anything. NICKY: After I wash my hair, well I have a confession to make, I don’t actually shampoo my hair very often at all because I have found that it makes my hair really really frizzy, I mean it really does become an afro. © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

Every few weeks, when I notice that my hair is becoming particularly dry and matted, and starts to dread, I put this really bloody expensive conditioner on it, Aveda stuff, Which actually does the trick, and I sit in the bath for about half an hour and detangle it. Also if I want my hair to look particularly nice, I find myself conditioning it about two days before I want to look my best and I have to admit that the curls look particularly, what can I call them, different, shall we say or noticeable, When people say “oh God your hair is amazing” About, well erm a few weeks after I’ve actually conditioned it When it supposedly is probably quite dirty. PETER: Erm, hah! It drys very quickly, yeah I’m not one to erm, comb it brush it, style it, only if I’m working or doing something where I need to wear a suit will I even be interested in doing something like that. When I wake up it looks like this and that’s what you get. And that’s as much as I can say on that one. I’m not particularly interested in my hair. It’s never gonna grow much longer, it’s probably going to disappear, I’m looking forward to probably when it actually goes. And then I can just, polish my head and that’s it. So yeah I’m not a big hair person. ANNABELLE: I’ve blow-dried my hair I think perhaps twice in the last two years and that was both because I had an audition to get to. I generally wash my hair, towel dry it comb it and then instantly put it up, so my hair will generally be wet for sort of the first 6 hours of the day. I don’t like having to deal with my hair. And I quite like it when it’s wet because actually it behaves when it’s wet. Doing my hair when it’s wet and it’s great, and if I’ve done it secure enough, and stays up all day and most of the time it will dry quite nicely.

Most people if they happen to catch me with my hair out are shocked because of how long or short it is at various times just because within five minutes of getting out of the shower my hair will be up and neglected for the rest of the day. ANWEN: After I wash my hair I do absolutely nothing. I barely dry it with a towel, I use a hair dryer about once a year. I’ll run my fingers through it and that’s it, let it dry by itself. Very lazy.