Here’s what she does day to day to keep those beautiful curls healthy and strong:
On Detangling Her Hair
“So, I just put conditioner on my hair, then detangle with the big paddle brush,” the 36-year-old singer admits. “The bristles or spines on the brush are very flexible so it may not get the knots out the first or even the second time…I spend a while detangling. If I’m brushing my hair out, I’ll watch TV, or go and sit in the garden… it takes me 45 minutes, but I’m patient. The key is to not get frustrated and know that all those tangles are going to come out eventually.”
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“I detangle from the ends up and I naturally divide it into sections as I go. Once it’s fully detangled, I’ll put a shower cap on my head and leave it for a couple of hours. When I take it off, my hair is really black and shiny, and it’s still soaking wet even though much of the conditioner is gone. But it’s still easy to comb through. And then I’ll just put it in the plaits. I do this styling process every 9 to 10 days.”
On Growing Her Hair
As she was letting her own hair grow out, the singer learned, “If you get the ends cut solid so they don’t split they’re not going to break and your hair’s going to grow. People who think their hair doesn’t grow…… it’s just not true, everyone’s hair grows. You are cutting your hair with your hair brush and comb if you’re not getting it cut regularly. The breakage at the end makes you think it’s not growing.”
On night time maintenance…
“I usually just leave it. I try to position it so that it’s up and over the pillow so that I don’t smoosh or flatten the curls. I don’t fuss too much with it and I’m not afraid of having wild hair. This is Rock & Roll… all of my hair idols, people like Yoko Ono, Grace Covington, and Janice Joplin, have this awesome big, messy hair. I love their hair! I’m not looking for it to be perfect, I like the cycle it goes through, from being wet and sort of polished looking and then it dries and gets bigger and bigger.”
“If there are sections that look a bit messy, I will section it out, put conditioner in it and put another plait there. So I think of it like a work in progress. But on most days, I just wake up and it just looks like it looks. You don’t have to to do it that day. I find that it’s quite low maintenance compared to relaxed hair because you don’t have to do it everyday.”
“Sometimes, at night, I do apply an oil to my dry ends, but I can’t remember the name of it. It nourishes and adds shine.”
“But you know what, I have stages where I just put Vaseline in my hair if it’s dry. I put the Vaseline in it and comb it through.”
During the work day
But when she’s working, she’s has different stylists, one in her home country of England and one in the United States. I’ll think really careful how it curls and how to cut it… making sure it’s not too wet, keeping shrinkage in mind. For the most part the two stylists do the same thing: puts it in the plaits and dries it. For the pieces that aren’t curled enough, they’ll wind them around the iron.