Since lockdown enforced everyone to have lots and lots and lots of time at home, it was perhaps predictable that there would be several new hair trends that I would want to try. Chebe was definitely one of them, and actually something that I had been aware of for a few years. I’d seen the pictures of long black locks and heard the rumour that this could help my hair grow so I was sold. And now with the extra time on my hands, and the increasing acceptance by women of food shopping in a headscarf has meant that I was in a position to give this north-central African hair treatment a proper go.
What is it
If you Google image ‘Chadian women hair’ you’ll be presented with pictures of really long hair; Chadian hair is famed and it seems their secret is chebe! Chebe powder is a traditional hair treatment from Chad, and first slid into my consciousness when a good friend mentioned they had scored some ‘proper powder’ from one of their friends (and straight from Chad I should hasten to add). Unfortunately they weren’t gifted with enough to share. I completely understood because if you try a treatment you want to try it with enough product to see if it really works on your type of hair, so definitely no hard feelings. Fast forward back to lockdown and I saw Chebe mentioned in an article. This led me to read more into it and was re-convinced that it was something I wanted to try. The big pharmaceutical companies no doubt spend millions on research and development for their super-duper shiny products and I’m sure there are some great things on our shop shelves, but a traditional treatment from Africa will always be something that holds more interest for me.
Chebe powder is a semi-coarse ground powder made from lavender croton (a small african tree), seeds from a local type of cherry, and cloves amongst other things. My research led me to believe that chebe should have quite a dark brown colour and smell a little smokey, and I managed to buy some online that matched this description. Its application requires a base oil to make it into a mask, so a lot of the products you find online are premixed into a cream or treatment but I managed to get powder as I wanted the control over exactly what I was putting into my afro.
How to use
I have an oil treatment that over time I have tweaked to work with my hair, and I used this as the base for my chebe hair mask; I mixed a generous amount (about 2 tablespoons of powder, but this will vary depending on how much hair you have) of the two together until it made a paste that would coat all my strands and not drip off. I prepped the treatment then did a normal hair wash. I gently removed as much of the excess water as possible, sectioned my head/hair into 6 parts then generously smoothed the chebe paste along the length of the strands. I twisted my hair and then covered it with a scarf. I had planned to leave it in overnight, but changed my mind after seeing how much mess I made when applying it to my head - and didn't want the mess in my bed too! It took quite a lot of rinsing for it to feel fully out of my hair, but afterwards my afro felt super soft and bouncy. It’s quite hard to explain but my strands felt replenished, like how I imagine they would feel if they had just freshly sprouted from my follicles. The first time I used it I ended up rinsing it out after about 6 hours, and then left it in for an hour the second time. There wasn’t a lot of difference, and the more you use it the more you’ll be able to judge how much chebe time your hair needs. I’ve settled on a 2hr treatment once a month, but you’ll need to figure out your schedule for yourself.
More on how the women in Chad uses it (oh and I love the music!)
Conclusion
A lot of the initial buzz around chebe described its miracle hair growing properties, but I don’t feel that it has increased the rate at which my afro grows. And actually, the newer articles I’ve seen seem to agree, instead pointing to chebe’s moisturising and rejuvenating qualities. Since starting on my chebe journey my afro feels more robust and the strands feel stronger and in healthier-looking. I have also noticed less shedding and breakage; so whilst chebe doesn't grow hair, it acts as a shield against hair breakage and damage, which helps with retaining hair length.
My hair is quite porous, which seems to be ideal for the chebe treatment I concocted, however, if you have lower hair porosity chebe may cause build up and could lead to increased strand breakage if used too often. Chebe powder can also cause a bit of skin irritation, so it is a good idea (as always) to do a patch test with some chebe before you slather it all over your afro. If you feel your afro is a little dry and in need of some tlc, give chebe a chance!
Fro stay strong.x