When she was 16, Diamond Walker ’17 stopped using relaxers— lotions used to chemically smooth or straighten very curly hair— and started looking for natural hair products. She found that products on the market were expensive and decided to make her own hair products with simple ingredients found at a grocery store. Now, years later, Walker has begun to share her discoveries in a series of hair care tutorials at Bowdoin.
The tutorials, which took place throughout the month of November, were split into three parts. Walker decided to break up the series according to the way she washes her own hair. She discussed oil treatments and herbal hair rinses in the first program, shampooing in the second week and deep conditioning in the third.
“Each session I would explain what the topic was, its benefits and how to carry it out,” Walker said.
In the first tutorial, Walker helped participants make herbal hair rinses.
“I had bought rosemary and thyme leaves. We boiled [the mixture], let it sit, put it in containers and made our own rinses. I explained how to use them, and people were able to take them home and use them,” she explained.
Walker said that she saw a specific need for this type of program at Bowdoin. Her intended audience was anyone interested in using non-commercial products.
“It was more so people whose hair wasn’t responding well to store-bought products and wanted to know more about the process,” Walker said. “Caring for natural hair isn’t something talked about growing up because lots of women get relaxers even though that is changing over generations. A lot of us grew up with straightened hair and had to learn to care for our hair all by ourselves,” she added.
She created the program to be helpful for people of all hair types and wanted the tutorials to be open to the whole campus.
She spread the word about her tutorials by placing cards in students’ mailboxes. This helped Walker reach a wider audience and led more students to come to the tutorials than she expected.
Walker intended the tutorials to be a one-time series, but she is open to continuing them if there is a high demand.
If she were to host more tutorials, she said she would want to gear them toward naturally kinky hair.
“At Bowdoin, the community is very white so we can’t find many of our products in stores here. [A tutorial] could just be really helpful,” she said.
Walker felt that the event was a success.
“The people who did come learned a lot and were really into it and that’s all I could ask for,” she said. “If someone was having a real problem with their hair, and I could offer advice that was helpful, it made me really happy knowing that I could possibly make them more confident. Hair is a very important part of everyone’s identity. Whether you shave it off or grow it long, we express ourselves through our hair.”
Walker hopes that the tutorials helped students learn more about natural hair care and inspired them to create natural products for themselves.
“Making your own products is very liberating and you know exactly what’s going into your hair and your scalp. For me it’s a really rewarding experience,” said Walker.