Posted October 14, 2022
I love wearing my hair in braids. It’s what makes me feel beautiful, confident and keeps up with all my activities for up to three months at a time. Growing up in Blaine, Washington for most of my life, I had border privilege. Meaning I was able to live on the border of one of the most international countries in the world. Canada has a great number of Africans settling and living there making it always easy to find someone who knows how to braid. I know my teachers in high school thought I had superpowers because I could spend a Sunday getting my hair braided by Kenyan women in Vancouver and magically show up to class with a new hairstyle on a Monday morning. The best part of all, the currency exchange rate almost always benefited Americans, so this service was significantly cheaper than anything you could find in the US.
How I Got My Hair Braided In West Germany
When I arrived in the west of Germany during my CBYX year, I landed in a city called Köln. Similar to Vancouver, BC, it was very international, making finding a braider not hard to come by. I remember sitting in the plaza one day eating a Berliner with my friend when I saw a woman with beautiful braids. I stopped her and asked who did her hair and she passed me the contact of a woman named Gaëlle. I scheduled my appointment in the upcoming weeks and spent the weekend taking out the braids that were past due their time.
You can read as many articles as you want about intercultural experiences with your host family – no one talks about how you might have to take out your braids in front of them. Nonetheless, it had to be done.
When I’m in between braid appointments, I wear my hair in its naturally curly state. Being half Black and half Italian creates for some sink-clogging hair. I was able to bring some curly hair products from the US so I didn’t have to find a shop that sold the products I needed. Loving my curly hair has been a journey. I never felt as confident with my hair natural compared to it being in braids. It wasn’t until the end of my time in Germany did I fall in love with my curls and that is something I will have to talk about in another blog post.
The Braiding
I arrived at Gaëlle’s apartment where I was greeted by her mother. Their family was from West Africa and her mom spoke French, German and their native language but not English. This was during my language school phase so my German was genuinely terrible but I mustered through it to speak with her as best I could. We were waiting for Gaëlle to come home from work so her mom and I pieced together words in each other’s languages to talk about our lives. We let our assumptions of what the other was trying to say, fill in the gaps. She told me it was lunch time and she began to cook. She pulled out a pot for frying fish from the market she picked up that day, along with quinoa, a type of beef stew she made the day before, an okra dish and fufu. She handed me a plate right before Gaëlle arrived home and we all ate together. It was so incredibly good, I forget how much I love African food until I go to my hair braiding appointments.
Besides being a talented braider with her own business, Gaëlle goes to school, works another job and helps her family. She’s a very smart, beautiful woman, and I do not doubt that she will accomplish all the dreams she was telling me that day.
The braiding took hours, roughly 12. It was the longest session I’ve ever had. Normally this process takes about 6-8. During this time, I met aunties and uncles who stopped by, cousins and sisters. Africans have big families that live near each other so you’ll always be meeting the family during your braiding session. Her mom served me a second meal during this time and we watched an African Telenovela type of show. By midnight, the braiding was finished and while it was the longest session I ever had, it was the best braiding I had ever had.
I told them I was going to call an Uber to drop me off at home and she told me no and had her and her cousin drive me home. I was so grateful how kind this family was that I went back the next day with a big tip as a thank you. Her mom wouldn’t let me leave that day without another meal.
To schedule an appointment with Gaëlle you can reach out to her on Instagram: @gaellesgoldenhands
How I Got My Hair Braided In East Germany
When I was placed in Leipzig for the second phase of my program, the story was different. Leipzig was significantly less international so I knew it was going to be tough finding a braider in this city. I rarely saw any Black women so it wasn’t as easy as asking for a contact this time. I realized my chances of finding a braider in Berlin were going to be my best bet as it was just an hour train ride away and filled with people from all over the world. The process for finding a braider in Berlin went like this: I opened the app, TikTok, put in the hashtag, “Berlin” and swiped on videos until I came across content creators who were black girls with pretty braids. It took about 10 minutes. I found a girl, asked who did her hair, got the braider’s contact and that’s how I met my next braider, Nyallay.
Nyallay was from Sierra Leone and she was so beautiful, I was taken aback. She worked for a fitness company and did hair as a side gig. She told me that the girl I asked on TikTok was actually her best friend. I arrived at her apartment in Berlin at 11am and scheduled my train to leave at 10pm. We had to hit the ground running to make sure I could catch my train in time.
The Braiding
We put on the popular Netflix show, “Emily in Paris”, and watched the entire two seasons for the duration of this braiding session. It’s the kind of show you have to watch with someone because the jokes are so stupid that it’s funnier that way. When we finished the braiding session, it was also amazing work. We took a couple of photos for her portfolio but not many since I was rushing to get to the train station with less than an hour to spare. Here is what my hair looked like afterward, I was so happy!
To schedule an appointment with Nyallay you can reach out to her on Instagram: @nyallay.hairstyles
Soon I hope to talk about caring for my curly hair and the journey of loving it. Till next time!