Ever on Words

“Kafka once wrote, “We ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book we are reading doesn’t shake us awake like a blow to the skull, why bother reading it?” I think it’s true that the very best works of literature, several of which were written by Kafka himself, leave us wrecked and, at the same time, more alive.”

Victoria Schwab Tweets:

“This just in: you can love writing and also find it hard.

“I was once on a panel and another author essentially said, ‘if you don't enjoy every moment, then why are you here?’ and I was...exasperated. Creativity is a complicated beast. You don't have to love every second to be a valid participant.

“I love the ideas. I love brainstorming, and problem-solving, and I love making this better, fine-tuning language.

“I also hate drafting, claw my way through self-doubt, crawl on my hands and knees through the frustration of the unrealized.

“I'm not here because I love every second.

Or, as I call it, causing ~drama~

The key that keeps readers interested in your story is conflict. If nothing is at stake, then there is not much to see. So, here are a few general tips to cause some ripples in the ponds of your characters’ lives.

“Prioritizing”: Your character has two main motives that they have been working towards, but they end up in a situation where they have to sacrifice one to save the other. Depending on how easy or hard the choice is, this range from “disappointing” to “devastating” in the sacrifice. 

Character Flaws: As I talked about in my cornerstones post, every character should have a flaw. Flaws are flaws and not strengths for a reason- they get in the way. Have your character have a moment of weakness, where they lose their values and give in to temptation or get carried away.

 In addition: Even without their key flaws, characters can sometimes just… be wrong. Maybe they miscalculated. Maybe they misunderstood. Maybe they made the wrong guess. They did what everyone does: They Done Messed Up, and now they have to deal with the result.

Liar, Liar: Someone is lying, or even keeping secrets, and now, it’s causing problems. They can’t go forward without the truth, or worse, they are making mistakes due to a warped perception of the situation.

Draw backs: Let the good things come at a cost. One key rule for worlds with magic or superpowers is that all power should come at cost- equal to or greater than the power itself. 

“Because I Said So”: Don’t forget, there are other characters in your story, and even if they are on the protagonist’s own side, they are not always going to just merrily go along with whatever the protagonist said. Maybe they disagree. Maybe they are powerful enough to get in the protagonist’s way, and maybe it’s that important to them that they try. If fighting an enemy is hard, fighting a friend is harder.

Take It Back: Your character makes a decision that seems right at the time. Maybe it was the obvious choice, or maybe it was taking a risk. But uh-oh…now there are unforeseen consequences. 

Or, the opposite…

Decisions, Decisions: Maybe your character has to make a decision where there is not an immediately obvious choice. Make sure that both/all the options have both positive and negative possible or certain outcomes. There is no obvious right or wrong choice. Bonus, it’s funny to watch the fandom debate it later. 

Strip Them Down: Remove your character’s greatest strength. For whatever reason, your character’s most valuable asset is not available, and now, they have to live without it. Bonus mode- it would be really, really helpful if they had it right now!

Or, do the opposite…

Boss Fight: Maybe, instead of your protagonist getting weaker, it’s your antagonist that gets stronger. Strengthen the opposition and see if your characters can adapt to survive, or if they lack what it takes. 

Change of Plan: The rules of the game have changed. This can mean different things depending on your story. They could be literal rules, or more general. Think Hunger Games- did I say two tributes? I meant one, after all. Fight to the death now, please.

Amplify the Emotions: … And the results that come with. People do crazy things in the heat of the moment. You can’t think straight when all you can do is feel. Blinded by anger, sadness, or even joy, your character makes a bad choice. 

*Pile It On: You know what a full plate needs? Even more stuff. Your character is already juggling, trying to balance a variety of responsibilities. So add one more ball. Do they crash and burn immediately? Does it take a while? Do they succeed?  Any which way, the stress is high.

*Note: this one can be difficult on the author, too. Make sure that with all these plot lines, you’re not losing track, yourself.

“Murphy’s Law”: Simply stated, this is a plot tool that says, “whatever can go wrong, will.” I’m just going to say right away… be careful with this one. It’s really frustrating for your audience to watch the characters fail or lose or face misfortune over and over and over again. It makes it feel like nothing will ever come out of rooting for them, so you may as well give up now. Murphy’s Law can be great in the proper proportions, please, let your characters have some victories, or there’s no point to it.

And hey, don’t forget about your inner conflicts. You never know when those are going to have the opportunity to cause trouble. 

Give ‘em hell, kids!*

***disclaimer: you do not have to be a kid to give them hell.

Some genres shy away from antagonists that take the form of a person or physical being. Adult contemporary especially tends to focus on internal antagonism. Side antagonists can be found in all types of stories, though, and they don’t all have to be a person. It’s good to mix it up and keep it interesting!

Here are examples of metaphorical antagonists:

Self-doubt

Mental illness

Grief

Impulsive/risky behavior

Nature/Weather/Natural disasters

Physical illness

Poverty, Bills, and Debt

Insecurity

Family legacy

Laws, Rules, and Protocol

Monotony 

Soul-crushing job

School

Loveless relationship

Aloneness/Isolation

Lack of resources

Night time (or day time)

Day One

List ten words you’d consider using in the title. Even if you’ve already decided on a title, try new options. Then, maybe make some title options!

Day Two 

Write three possible first sentences for this story. Try to make them as different as possible.

Day Three

What’s the most exciting part of writing this story for you?

Day Four

Write a prologue for the story (that won’t be a part of the final draft). If you already have a prologue, try writing it from a different perspective.

Day Five

What are your fears for this project?

Day Six

What’s your logline for this project?  (Tips on a killer logline here.)

Day Seven 

Describe your favorite side character in-depth.

Day Eight

Pick a very specific location within the story and describe it using only 1 of the 5 senses.

Day Nine

Create a letter your MC would send to you after finding out you’re going to write about their life (as if they were a real person and you were a biographer).

Day Ten

Write ten pieces of dialogue that could be a part of your story without context.

Day Eleven

Assign a theme song to each important character. 

Day Twelve

Write a review you’d want to receive for this book in the future, highlighting all the unique and interesting aspects. 

Day Thirteen

What’s the worst thing that could happen to one of the side characters?

Day Fourteen

What kind of entertainment (theater, TV, books, music, etc) does your MC enjoy?

Day Fifteen

What steps have become obstacles for you so far in the writing process?

Day Sixteen 

Write new titles for your WIP as if it were other genres. One for horror, one for autobiography, one for fantasy, etc etc.

Day Seventeen

Why did the MC’s parents (or whomever) name the MC what they did? Is there meaning behind it, is it cultural, are they named after someone important or a relative, who came up with the name, is it a nickname/how’d they get it?

Day Eighteen

What is one writing goal you’d like to accomplish within the next week?

Day Nineteen

How far are you in the writing process?

Day Twenty

Write a short bio for each important character as if they had written it themselves.

Day Twenty-One

I don’t mean flaws in character design, even though they possibly do. I mean the problems your characters SHOULD have. The problems they face in your story ie. villains, conflict, war, homophobic parents, not having a date to the big dance. Y’know…like a plot.

Here are 3 ways to improve your plot

1. Your Characters Need to Make Decisions

This may sound obvious, but it isn’t always. The Problem™ isn’t just something your character has to go through that sucks—they should be faced with options, and have to make Active Decisions™ that affect the outcome of the story. This gives your characters agency—if they don’t have agency, if they don’t make decisions, your characters will be read as passive. Passive characters aren’t interesting.

2. These Choices Need To Be Hard

Give your characters inner conflict.

Hard, tough decisions to make. How to face their big problem. In figuring out what options your characters will choose, remember their

Motivations

Background

They way they were raised

Moral/Ethical/Spiritual beliefs

Fears

Loyalties

3. Figure Out The Stakes

Based on what kind of story you have, the stakes for your protagonist are going to be different.

SciFi novel about how the world is going to get obliterated by an evil force in 2 days? High stakes.

Romance novella about 29-year old Tequila Sheila who can’t seem to find a date to her brother’s wedding? Lower stakes.

Hate of pigeons didn’t start until the 20th Century. Before that was about 9,900 years of loving them. The rock pigeon was domesticated 10,000 years ago and not only that, we took them freaking everywhere. Pigeons were the first domesticated bird and they were an all-around animal even though they were later bred into more specialised varieties. They were small but had a high feed conversion rate, in other words it didn’t cost a whole lot of money or space to keep and they provided a steady and reliable source of protein as eggs or meat. They home, so you could take them with you and then release them from wherever you were and they’d pretty reliably make their way back. Pigeons are actually among the fastest flyers and they can home over some incredible distances (what fantastic navigators!). They were an incredibly important line of communication for multiple civilisations in human history. You know the first ever Olympics? Pigeons were delivering that news around the Known World at the time. Also, their ability to breed any time of year regardless of temperature or photoperiod? That was us, we did that to them, back when people who couldn’t afford fancier animals could keep a pair or two for meat/eggs. 

Rooftop pigeon keeping isn’t new, it’s been around for centuries and is/was important to a whole variety of cultures. Pigeons live with us in cities because we put them there, we made them into city birds. I get that there are problems with bird droppings and there’s implications for too-large flocks. By all means those are things we should look to control, but you don’t need to hate pigeons with every fibre of your being. You don’t need to despise them or brush them off as stupid (they have been intelligence tested extensively as laboratory animals because guess what other setting they’re pretty well-adapted to? LABORATORIES!) because they aren’t stupid. They’re soft intelligent creatures and I don’t have time to list everything I love about pigeons again. You don’t need to aggressively fight them or have a deep desire to kill them at all. It’s so unnecessary, especially if you realise that the majority of reasons pigeons are so ubiquitous is a direct result of human interference.

We haven’t always hated pigeons though, Darwin’s pigeon chapter in The Origin of Species took so much of the spotlight that publishers at the time wanted him to make the book ONLY about pigeons and to hell with the rest because Victorian’s were obsessed with pigeons (as much as I would enjoy a book solely on pigeons, it’s probably best that he didn’t listen).  My point is, for millenia, we loved pigeons. We loved them so much we took them everywhere with us and shaped them into a bird very well adapted for living alongside us.

It’s only been very recently that we decided we hated them, that we decided to blame them for ruining our cities. The language we use to describe pigeons is pretty awful. But it wasn’t always, and I wish we remembered that. I wish we would stop blaming them for being what we made them, what they are, and spent more time actually tackling the problems our cities face.  

And also pigeon poop was a very valuable fertilizer before we had other options, people would hire guards to stop thieves from stealing their flock’s poop.

We never intended to train her for educational programs. It was a job reserved for our raptors. It was our pigeon who decided she would be a part of what we were doing. One day, when we entered her enclosure to change water and food, she decided to fly to my hand and perch like our raptors do. 

No training, no treats, just the reward of being with us. 

What we hadn’t noticed for the couple months prior was her watching us. This brilliant little bird had been watching us every day as we trained and worked with our raptors. Finally she decided she didn’t want to be left out any longer. She made her place on our hands.

This occurred several times before we finally put her on a glove and brought her into the public. Needless to say, she was right at home. She fluffed up and preened the entire evening while people gawked and asked us why we had a pigeon on one glove and a hawk on another. 

Since then, we’ve added 5 more rescued pigeons to our growing flock. And our pigeon (Tybalt) has become a mainstay ambassador for our programs. Each of our pigeons are incredibly fun to watch and interact with. Pigeons simply don’t get enough love. They are marvelous creatures incredibly suited to life alongside people both physically and mentally. 

Photo by .jocelyn.

They have a complex and fascinating social structure, both within a flock and with other individuals:

Photo by Ingrid Taylar

AND THEY ARE JUST SUPER CUTE, HONESTLY:

Most wild animals all look alike within a species, with TINY, RARE individual variations in terms of rare color morphs, unusually big or small animals, different facial markings and other subtleties. But there is no evolutionary benefit to having species where everyone looks slightly different, and in fact, it’s beneficial for species to be similar and consistent, with a distinctive aesthetic. Especially if you’re trying to blend into the environment - a black wolf is all very well, but it looks positively silly in the summer tundra, where its grey/brown/brindley cousins blend in. A white deer has a great aesthetic - and a very short lifespan in the forest. Distinctive Protagonist looks are rare in the wild, simply because natural selection usually comes down heavily on them.

To humans, most wild animals are visually indistinguishable from each other.

As a result, most wild animals are like

“Oh it’s obvious - you can tell the twins apart because Kara has a big nose.”

Wild animals usually have a pretty consistent aesthetic within their species. It’s important to them!

SO WHAT IS GOING ON WITH PIGEONS?

Look, in one small picture you’ve got a red color morph in the center, several melanistic dark morphs, a few solid black birds, a few variations on the wildtype wing pattern, a PIEBALD, a piebald copper color morph…

Like, there are LAYERS UPON LAYERS of pigeon diversity in most flocks you see. Pure white ones with black wingtips. Solid brown ones with pink iridescent patches. Pale pinkish pigeons.

WHY IS THAT? When other wild animals consider “being slightly fluffier than my brother” to be dangerously distinctive in most circumstances? BECAUSE CITY PIGEONS AREN’T TRULY WILD.

MANY OF THEM (POSSIBLY MOST OR ALL) ARE FERAL MIXES.

THEY WERE ONCE BELOVED PETS, SPECIAL MESSENGERS, EXQUISITE SHOW-WINNERS, AND PRIZED LIVESTOCK.

THEIR PRETTY COLORS WERE DELIBERATELY INTRODUCED BY HUMANS.

AND NOW THEIR HUMANS DON’T LOVE THEM ANY MORE.

See, pigeon fanciers bred (and still breed!) a huge array of pigeons. And the resulting swarms of released/discarded/escaped/phased out “fancy” pigeons stayed around humans. What else were they going to do? They interbred with wildtype pigeons.

Lots of the pigeons you see in public are feral. They’re not wild animals. They’re citizen animals. They’re genetically engineered. And now that’s what “city” pigeons are.

These “wild” horses are all different colors because they’re actually feral. Mustangs in the American West are the descendants of imported European horses - they’re an invasive domestic species that colonized an ecological niche, but they are domestic animals. Their distinctive patterns were deliberately bred by humans. A few generations of running around on the prairie isn’t going to erase that and turn them back into wildtypes. If you catch an adult mustang and train it for a short period, you can ride it and have it do tricks and make it love you. It’s a domestic animal. You can’t really do that with an adult zebra.

No matter how many generations these dogs stay on the street and interbreed with one another, they won’t turn back into wolves. They can’t. They’re deliberately genetically engineered. If you catch one (even after generations of rough living, even as an adult) you can make it stare at your face, care about your body language, and love you.

City pigeons? Well, you don’t have to like them, but they’re in the same boat. They’re tamed animals, bred on purpose, living in a human community. Their very bodies are marked with their former ownership and allegiance; they cannot really return to what they once were; if you caught one, you could make it love you (in a limited pigeon-y way.) They have gone to “the wild,” but not very far from us, and they’d be happy to come back.

So next time you see a flock of city pigeons, spare a moment to note their diversity. The wing patterns. The pied, mottled and brindled. The color types.

All of it was once meant to please you.

^^ it me! Basically, considers this one part costume/LARP makeup tutorial and one part archaeological study via performance art. (Photo Credit)

(*LARP stands for “Live Action Role Playing” aka, Dungeons and Dragons but you run around in the woods in full costume as your character and yes that means you stay in-character for hours and have to perform all the combat yourself.)

- If you ever see a character with complex war paint on their body, back, or dominant arm that is at all graceful and not just slapped on pigment, then they must have had a friend do it for them. So any surly loner type figure that ALSO has elaborate warpaint is a fucking joke. You literally can’t have warpaint be symmetrical or pretty in places you can’t reach without having an available group of companions and, better yet, artistically inclined friends to put it on for you. War paint would have, by necessity, been a communal activity with group members putting on war paint for one another before going into battle, especially before the invention of easily accessible, high quality mirrors.

Addendum: war paint takes quite a lot of time to apply if you want it to be pretty or symmetrical. I regularly have to clean it all off and start over if I want symmetry and that’s with a mirror and a high-quality paint brush. A warrior that wears elaborate war paint but “doesn’t care about his/her appearance” is a goddamn liar. Unless you are with a group of warriors who are putting your makeup on for you, you do care about your appearance and you are very delicately applying makeup for just as long as a YouTube makeup star, at minimum. It’s a very ego-driven look with a lot of artistic skill required either by you or someone else. Even just making the appearance of a simple straight line on your face can be quite hard since your face has curves and bumps all over it. To do delicate lines takes forever. I chose bold strokes to make it easier and even those take a long time to apply if you’re in a hurry. A warrior who is wearing detailed war paint must have had at least an hour putting their face on to look pretty for the big fight, and don’t let them tell you otherwise.

(Sorry, Kassandra, your warpaint doesn’t make any f-ing sense unless a member of your crew put it on for you.)

- Brightly colored paint on your face will make your eyes look beady and small unless you cake dark eyeliner or pigment around your eyes to make them look bigger. It’s the main difference between good looking war woad pictures (usually on women) and bad looking woad pictures (usually on men) because they don’t remember to put eyeliner on so the colored paint doesn’t drown out their eyes. Even in video games, the best looking and most iconic war paint (like Senua or Kassandra) makes sure to cover the area around the eyes with paint, otherwise the eyes look beady and small. Case in point:

Not to call out real people, but this pic was on the internet. Notice how his blue eyes are drowned out by the pigment, making them look smaller, compared to when there’s pigment around the eyes so that doesn’t happen. By contrast:

^^^ Here, the black pigment around the eyes keeps her eye color from being drowned out by the bold blue. As a final example:

- Fun fact about war paint: that shit transfers everywhere and I mean everywhere without a binding agent of some kind. You’re not wearing war paint with your best silks. Wearing it naked into battle actually makes a lot of sense, as does permanent tattooing instead of temporary paint.

- War paint is actually intimidating as fuck. I’m quite a petite woman (5′4″, 130 lb) but I’m also a fight junky. I knew I was going toe-to-toe with guys twice my size and I wanted to be taken seriously as a warrior, not brushed off as small or cute. And boy howdy, did the warpaint work. And this is why:

- War paint disguises you. It basically works like extreme contouring in that it literally transforms your face. I’ve LARPed across from people for actual years who didn’t know who I was after when I took the paint off. It’s because the brain just registers the paint as my features to them, because most people don’t look at bone structure when recognizing others. It allowed me to build a myth around my character as an intimidating fighter that I could never have built around my normal features. It made my character a truly different person from me, one people only associated with who they see on the battlefield. 

It’s the first draft. Use the word “suddenly.” Put as many dialogue tags and adverbs as you want. Say “he saw” “she remembered” “she felt” “they wondered” as many times as you need to. Put the em dash there, put in too many commas, use semi-colons with reckless abandon. Type in [whatever] instead of thinking up a title for something. Just write it. If you worry too much about the particulars, about all the advice posts you’ve seen saying whatever you’re doing is wrong or not good enough, you won’t get anything done. It will slow you down as you go back and try to reword what you just wrote to make it better, proper. The first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be done. And when you get to the end, you’ll find that all those “mistakes” are just clues for your future self to put together to make it all better.

Embarrass your protagonist. Make them seem weak and vulnerable in some way.

Shoot someone. That always takes the reader by surprise. 

In relation, kidnap someone. Or, rather, make it seem to your protagonist like someone has been kidnapped. 

Have one of your side characters disappear or become unavailable for some reason. This will frustrate your protagonist.

Have someone kiss the wrong girl, boy, or person, especially if you’ve been setting up a romance angle. It’s annoying.

If this story involves parents, have them argue. Push the threat of divorce, even if you know it won’t ever happen. It’ll make your readers nervous.

Have someone frame your protagonist for a crime they didn’t commit. This could range from a dispute to a minor crime to a full-blown felony.

If this is a fantasy story involving magic or witchcraft, create a terrible accident that’s a direct result of their spell-casting. 

Injure your protagonist in some way, or push them into a treacherous scenario where they might not make it out alive. 

Have two side characters who are both close to the protagonist get into a literal fist-fight. This creates tension for the reader, especially if these characters are well-developed, because they won’t know who to root for.

Make your protagonist get lost somewhere (at night in the middle of town, in the woods, in someone else’s house, etc.) 

Involve a murder. It can be as in-depth and as important as you want it to be. 

Introduce a new character that seems to prey on your protagonist’s flaws and bring them out to light.

If it’s in-character, have one of your characters get drunk or take drugs. Show the fallout of that decision through your protagonist. 

Spread a rumor about your protagonist. 

If your protagonist is in high-school, create drama in the school atmosphere. A death of a student, even if your protagonist didn’t know them personally, changes the vibe. 

If your story involves children, have one of them do something dangerous (touch a hot stove, run out into the road, etc.) and show how the protagonist responds to this, even if the child isn’t related to them. 

In a fantasy story, toss out the idea of a rebellion or war between clans or villages (or whatever units you are working with). 

Add a scenario where your protagonist has to make a choice. We all have watched movies where we have screamed don’t go in there! at the top of our lungs at the main character. Make them go in there. 

Have your protagonist find something, even if they don’t understand the importance of it yet. A key, a document, an old stuffed animal, etc. 

Foreshadow later events in some way. (Need help? Ask me!)

Have your protagonist get involved in some sort of verbal altercation with someone else, even if they weren’t the one who started it. 

Let your protagonist get sick. No, but really, this happens in real life all the time and it’s rarely ever talked about in literature, unless it’s at its extremes. It could range from a common cold to pneumonia. Maybe they end up in the hospital because of it. Maybe they are unable to do that one thing (whatever that may be) because of it.

Have someone unexpected knock on your protagonist’s door. 

Introduce a character that takes immediate interest in your protagonist’s past, which might trigger a flashback.

Have your protagonist try to hide something from someone else and fail.

Formulate some sort of argument or dispute between your protagonist and their love interest to push them apart. 

Have your protagonist lose something of great value in their house and show their struggle to find it. This will frustrate the reader just as much as the protagonist.

Create a situation where your protagonist needs to sneak out in the middle of the night for some reason.

Caring for natural (curly) hair in a setting with no access to modern hair products

So it’s the apocalypse. Your curly-haired character is on the run.They find themselves on a sudden adventure in a strange world.  It’s the whatever-eth century and they’re in an environment that doesn’t exactly accommodate curly, coily haired types. 

Either way, manufactured hair products are far and few between, or they’re simply not made for afro hair. Considering how your Black character handles their hair in this environment makes their circumstances more realistic and relatable.

Topics Featured in this Guide:

Hair Products found in Natural Environment

Hair Oils - Benefits and How To Extract

Protective Hair Techniques & Styles

Curly Hair Types & Hair Needs

Hair Routine Samples

Hair Straightening 

FAQ

There is a writing takeaway at the end of each topic. 

Brief descriptions provided after images. Contact me for fully accessible version.

Hair Products found in Natural Environment 

Consider the essential needs of afro hair: water and fat.

Water (or liquid) is essential for nourishing the hair. 

Fat (hair oils, creams, butters) is essential for both growth and protection.

Many curly-haired folks already use natural resources and plants to care for their hair - aka DIY hair-care. So characters concocting their own products should not be a strange concept. (I personally buy most of my natural hair products, and create my own hair masks, protein treatments, and oil blends.)

What they could use would depend on environment, time, and availability. 

Hair Healthy Produce 

Coconut - The all-purpose hair aid with multi forms, from oil to solid cream. Hardens in cold weather; best not to use when environment has freezing temps. Banana - Typically removed after use (hair masks, conditioners) Avocado -  Applied as hair products, masks, and oils. Strawberry - Mashed and applied directly to hair or mixed with oils.

Hair Healthy Proteins, Plants, Fats

Eggs - Hardens when dry. Strong odor. Removed after use. (protein masks) Honey - Pulls moisture from air into hair - avoid during the dry winter! Shea Nuts -  Made into shea butter. All-purpose hair and body care. Flaxseed - Gel made by boiling & straining flax seeds. Many DIY videos online.

Hair Healthy Herbs and Flora

Hibiscus - Sebaceous = oil-producing gland. Flowers crushed into paste or oil. Peppermint - Can rub out oil from leaves. Often used in oil form on scalp. Lavender - Often used as an oil directly applied to the scalp, or brewed as tea. Rosemary - Often combined with olive oil in use with hair; can be used alone. 

More Hair Healthy Herbs and Flora

Aloe Vera - Succulent. Can extract sap directly from leaf and apply like gel.  Burdock - Contains essential fatty acids and phytosterol compounds. Dandelion - Can use the roots, stems, leaves and sap for hair and skin. Rose - Common use is rose water: steep roses in boiling water to create.

Hair Healthy Products (rare or require effort to make/find)

Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) - Diluted before use and often washed out after. Bentonite Clay - Aged volcanic ash. Combined with ACV for best activation. Oils - Key component for sealing moisture. See the next discussion. Yogurt - Base of many DIY hair products like masks and deep conditioners.

Oils for Hair 

Oil is a key component to afro hair care. It nourishes and seals in moisture. Let’s discuss common hair oils and extraction methods that could, more likely, be done using homemade or historical equipment. 

Oil Extraction

If oils aren’t readily available to purchase, the person would need to find or create tools to either extract the oil via pressing or heat the nuts or seeds. Consider the basic tools that have been around since ancient times. For example, the mortar and pestle. What creative use can be made out of existing tools in the person’s environment? 

Hair Oils and Benefits  (by potential ease to extract.)

Coconut Oil, Castor Oil, Almond Oil, Olive Oil, Avocado and Grapeseed Oil. 

FYI: These aren’t the only methods or necessarily professional means of extraction. I also left off hair-healthy oils that seemed complicated to extract without high-grade equipment. So, this isn’t an all-inclusive list of oil or methods. 

Natural Hair Product Creation

So what exactly would your character create? Here’s some natural hair products and potential main ingredients. May be used alone or combined. 

Leave-in moisturizers: Plain water, coconut water, rose water

Leave-in creams: (protect/style) honey, shea, aloe vera, flaxseed, flora

Hair Cleansing Conditioner: plant water, coconut, honey, light oils

Hair Rinse/Co-wash: Apple cider vinegar, coconut, brewed tea water

Hair Masks: Mashed fruits, yogurt, proteins (eggs), clay, honey

DIY Recipe Search: Try keywords like “DIY natural hair” + “curly hair” “Afro hair” or search all natural hair products and read over the ingredient list. Try small home business and independent sellers (Like etsy)

More Sources:

15 DIY Hair Recipes for Almost Every Step in Your Regimen

14 Homemade Leave-in Conditioner Recipes

Best DIY Recipes for Naturally Curly Hair

Product Storage:

Most homemade products last everywhere from a few days - weeks

Extend the life of spoil-prone products via the cooling system in the work.

Honey does not spoil. Be mindful if it’s mixed with spoil-prone ingredients.

Oils can usually be kept at room temperature and last a long time.

Keeping a small bit of ready made supply may prove time-efficient. If impossible, they may opt to use products that don’t require much time and effort, and are worth their time to make in small batches or to potentially dispose of after.

Writing Takeaway - Natural Product/Oils Creation  

With just the above compounds, I can see creative naturals being able to create styling products and moisturizing leave-ins, shampoos, conditioners and hair masks.

Do consider the following:

How simple or complex can their regimen be?

Would they rely more on protective hair styles in their situation?

What is the natural environment: what products are accessible?

How will they store products or must they make a new batch each use?

Can items be purchased by craftsmen or found in abandoned locations?

Can they afford to use edible plants if food is scarce? Food scraps and non-edible plants (like the flora) might be what they rely on.

What are their specific hair care needs? -Discussion on this later-

Natural Hair and Styling 

LOC Method as base style

Moisture, sealing in the moisture, and protection are the basic needs for natural hair. The Liquid, Oil, and Cream (LOC) Method, or a variation of the steps, fulfills those basic needs. It can be treated as both a care routine and a style in itself. Personally, if my hair is not in a protective style, I use it every week.

Liquid - Liquid opens hair cuticles to allow moisture to enter hair strands.

Oil - Once cuticles are opened, the oil penetrates hair & seals in moisture.

Cream - Cream further locks in the moisture, and can be used as a styling agent as well to shape and define curls.

Should you use the “LOC method” by name in your work?  

A modern setting? Sure. But don’t assume readers know what it means.

A fantasy setting? Probably not, unless earth and its terms carry over. 

A historical setting? No. It is a newly coined term. 

Protective Hair Styles

Protective hairstyles protect the hair by tucking ends away from the elements. For example, heat, air, hand and fabric manipulation. While not forever solutions (except maybe locs which are a permanent style) there’s many benefits to your character’s wearing them.

Benefits:

Hair growth retention

Saves time styling hair

Helps prevent damage and keep hair healthy

Ideal for any natural (the best style itself may depend on hair type)

Lessens hair’s need and dependence on moisture and hair products

Eliminates some hair maintenance activities (such as detangling)

Considerations:

Hair more difficult to wash and dry thoroughly. 

Dryness (unable to access all tucked away hair to moisturize)

Styles kept in too long accumulates dead skin and product build up.

Uninstalling styles can be time consuming, and should be done gently.

Style gets frizzy from growth overtime and/or getting soaked in water.

Protective Styles Short-term (lasting days to weeks)

Afro puff(s) or bun(s)

Back Tuck or Roll and Tuck

Bantu knots

French roll  

Pompadour

Roller set

Two-strand twists

Wash and go (low manipulation style)

Protective Styles Long-term (lasting weeks to months+)

Braids (endless styles and patterns. Typically smaller braids last longer)

Cornrows

Dreadlocks/locs (permanent style, research the hair care)

Extensions

Flat Twists /Twists

Head wraps and hats (endless wrapping styles, colors and patterns!)

Wigs (unless glued, hair maintained underneath or often put in braids)

Writing Takeaway - Protective Hairstyles

Protective styles are an amazing way to protect the character’s hair and would very likely be the go-to for any natural in an uncertain or fast-paced environment. Just in everyday life they’re highly worn so it would especially be the case! Just remember the character needs to eventually undo whatever protective style they have installed to do some hair maintenance (washing, detangling, etc) and give their strands a rest. Also, even hair in protective styles need some attention.

Curly Hair Type and Associated Needs

Determining your hair type is important to knowing its needs. Certain ingredients work best for certain hair types. However everyone is unique and there are more factors to consider than just curl pattern (Also, most curly folks cross into a mix of hair types). There is hair thickness (width & density) and how much moisture and product your hair absorbs (porosity) to consider as well. 

I will only cover curl pattern and the commonly associated needs here. To learn more about porosity, width, and density check out the FAQ under the read more.

naturallycurly.com is a great resource and is the source for the images, terms, and information provided below. 

Curly Twirly (3A) 

Defined loopy “S” pattern. Curls well defined and springy. Big, loose and shiny. Size: Sidewalk chalk size. Best Products:  Gels and creams with light moisture and curl definition.

Curly Spirally (3B) 

Well-defined, springy copious curls that range from bouncy ringlets to tight corkscrews. Size: Sharpie size. Best Products:  Gels and styling creams with extra moisture and frizz control.

Curly Kinky (3C) 

Voluminous, tight corkscrew curls. Either kinky or very tightly curled, with lots of strands densely packed together. The very tight curls are usually fine in texture. Size: Pencil. Best Products:  Styling creams, butters, and oils. Needs gentle care.

Coily Springy (4A) 

Well-defined “S” Pattern. Tight, coily, and the most fragile curls. Size: Crochet Needle or smaller.

4A Best Products & Tips: Styling creams, butters, and oils. 

Clarify scalp with tea tree or jojoba oil during washes

This hair needs extra moisture and tender care

Be gentle when handling and detangling hair to avoid stress & breakage

Use thick moisturizers like mango and shea butters to maximize styles

Coily Crimpy (4B)  

Less-defined “Z” Pattern. Tight, coily fragile curls. Hair bends at sharp angles.

4B Best Products & Tips:  Styling creams, butters, and oils.

Add moisturizing oils before washing (pre-poo/pre-shampoo) with coconut or castor oil to help retain the natural oils in scalp

Do heat-free styles on stretched hair for maximum definition and less frizz

Air-dry hair whenever possible, or use soft cloth to gently dry.

Terry cloth will strip hair’s natural moisture and cause tension on strands 

Coily Ziggly (4C) 

Tight, coily, fragile curls. Curl pattern won’t clump without styling. Little to no visible definition.

4C Best Products and Tips:  Styling creams, butters, and oils.

Use a cleansing conditioner with slippery elm or marshmallow root

Use a creamy humectant [like honey] as a leave-in to maximize protection

A curl defining custard or gel can stretch the coils safely for styled looks

Read the full guide here: Curly Hair Guide: What’s YOUR Curl Pattern?

Writing Takeaway - Hair type and needs

While hair type is just the start of all the intricacies of natural hair needs, it’s definitely a good start. There are other important parts to consider for real life naturals, but going off from hair type and the commonly associated needs should be enough for a story. (But read the FAQ under the read more to keep learning)

Do not get lost in the details, especially for a story that won’t need to cover tons of it. Learn enough to know what you’re talking about and can describe hair care accurately for situations that would affect hair.

Writing Takeaway - Overall:

You don’t have to be lavish in detail, but acknowledging how hair is handled here and there or in a dedicated section is thoughtful and satisfying to see included. It’s also a neutral way to show race without the use of micro-aggressions or racism. Finding the time and means for proper hair care would be a part of their life and potentially a stumbling block on the adventure, so mentioning how hair is handled during these circumstances is a fine idea. 

It’s also a great means for representation.

–Mod Colette

Additional Info:

The following information will be nestled under the read more:

Hair Routine Samples - One super simple and one complex hair routine 

Hair Straightening - Not ideal to maintain in survival situations, but also was a means of survival and daily living during some historical contexts

FAQ - Would any of this matter during the apocalypse? And what about natural products that attract bugs? Plus more.