Anyone Who Speaks French Who Can Translate This Video

lindseyerinc

Well-Known Member
Poached this from the other site
Ingredients
Words in quotes are spelled phonetically because they sound Arabic

  • Chébé seeds (the only one listed in the description)
  • "Mahellaba soubiane" seeds
  • "Missic" stone to scent
  • Cloves
  • "Samour" resin
  • Hair oil or pomade; the woman says they used to use beurre de boeuf but le boeuf smelled too strong. I don't know if she means ordinary churned butter or does she mean beef tallow or fat? I've never heard of beurre de boeuf.
She doesn't say at what point the "missic", resin, and cloves are used. Are they pounded into the powder or added to the oil?

Directions
They grill the seeds, then pound and sieve to obtain a powder.

They wet the hair with water, then apply the powder, followed by the oil or pomade. Braid it up. Repeat every five days.

No reason is given for why they don't do this at the hairline, just that they don't.

About the People
More info on the Baggara Arabs (Arabes bassara) on Wikipedia
 

BeaLady

Well-Known Member
Thank you so much! I wonder if the Chebe seeds are available in the U.S. I will do a google search.

Poached this from the other site
Ingredients
Words in quotes are spelled phonetically because they sound Arabic

  • Chébé seeds (the only one listed in the description)
  • "Mahellaba soubiane" seeds
  • "Missic" stone to scent
  • Cloves
  • "Samour" resin
  • Hair oil or pomade; the woman says they used to use beurre de boeuf but le boeuf smelled too strong. I don't know if she means ordinary churned butter or does she mean beef tallow or fat? I've never heard of beurre de boeuf.
She doesn't say at what point the "missic", resin, and cloves are used. Are they pounded into the powder or added to the oil?

Directions
They grill the seeds, then pound and sieve to obtain a powder.

They wet the hair with water, then apply the powder, followed by the oil or pomade. Braid it up. Repeat every five days.

No reason is given for why they don't do this at the hairline, just that they don't.

About the People
More info on the Baggara Arabs (Arabes bassara) on Wikipedia
 

King of Sorrow

Well-Known Member
What?! Chad/Tchad stand up! Not my peoples but it seems we're neighbors.

No reason is given for why they don't do this at the hairline, just that they don't.

Yeah. She also said she asked them if they thought their long hair was due to genetics and they said no. They said the proof is that they don't put the oil/powder on their bangs and that's why it's shorter.

Um, anyone pondering what I'm pondering? :look:

At any rate, this is making me think that I'm on the right track having gone back to shingling my hair with a glycerine based gel. The lubrication I get from it is great and lets me go 4 or 5 days without refreshing, unlike a wash and go. Wash and goes with glycerine gives me tangles and the products I end up using for that don't last more than a day before my hair gets dry.
 

cravoecanela

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the video, I'm always happy to learn about long hair practices from around the world.

I don't think the secret to the length is in the ingredients, but rather in them oiling their hair til saturation, alternating it with the powder (which must harden and function as a type of protective covering) and them putting it in braids. It's a kind of extreme protective styling. They have beautiful hair!!
 

BeaLady

Well-Known Member
It
Thanks for the video, I'm always happy to learn about long hair practices from around the world.

I don't think the secret to the length is in the ingredients, but rather in them oiling their hair til saturation, alternating it with the powder (which must harden and function as a type of protective covering) and them putting it in braids. It's a kind of extreme protective styling. They have beautiful hair!!

It looks like they don't rinse it out. I keep my hair braided and I was thinking of coating my ends to protect them.
 

VictoriousBrownFlower

Well-Known Member
Even though I didn't know what they were saying I found the vid to be beautiful. The way they painstakingly go through every part of the process as it was passed down to them from generation to generation. It really gave me a different perspective of hair care.

I can tell to them their hair truly is their crown and glory. It's part of their culture.

Thanx for the post.
 

BeaLady

Well-Known Member
Thanks again. Would you mind sharing what site you got it from?

Poached this from the other site
Ingredients
Words in quotes are spelled phonetically because they sound Arabic

  • Chébé seeds (the only one listed in the description)
  • "Mahellaba soubiane" seeds
  • "Missic" stone to scent
  • Cloves
  • "Samour" resin
  • Hair oil or pomade; the woman says they used to use beurre de boeuf but le boeuf smelled too strong. I don't know if she means ordinary churned butter or does she mean beef tallow or fat? I've never heard of beurre de boeuf.
She doesn't say at what point the "missic", resin, and cloves are used. Are they pounded into the powder or added to the oil?

Directions
They grill the seeds, then pound and sieve to obtain a powder.

They wet the hair with water, then apply the powder, followed by the oil or pomade. Braid it up. Repeat every five days.

No reason is given for why they don't do this at the hairline, just that they don't.

About the People
More info on the Baggara Arabs (Arabes bassara) on Wikipedia
 

Alma Petra

Well-Known Member
My French is very poor so I understood very little. But at least I understood the songs in the background because they are in Arabic lol

I have a few comments:

1. Genetics might play a role in this. As Baggara Arabs are a mix between African and Arab ancestors, many of them have thick, silky, wavy/curly rather than coily strands, the thing that should make length retention somehow easier than it is for us who have hair that is breakage-prone, tangle-prone and more difficult to moisturize.

2. Extensive oiling and protective styling also seems to play a big role in this because the substances used are probably not specifically nutritious for hair or anything. Other than the oil, these are almost all perfume substances. Together and after that special preparation they smell amazing!

3. Mahlab is an Arabic word. This is the aromatic seeds of some cherry plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahleb It is widely used in our culture to produce traditional perfumes specially bridal and married women perfumes. The good news is that I think the seeds are available in the western world as well.

4. Misic is the Arabic word for musk. The one that you see in the video is the one that is widely used in our culture for the same purposes as above. It's called musk xylol which is synthetic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musk_xylene

5. Cloves are traditionally also used for their scent.

6. Samour/Samough is the arabic word for glue/gum. The substance in the video is the Gum Arabic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gum_arabic Sudan is responsible for about 50% of the total production of this substance.

7. beurre de boeuf is indeed beef fat. In our local Arabic we call this "wadak". I don't know if that word is heard in the video or not. And yes it doesn't smell good and that is why for the preparation of traditional hair oil (karkar) people have moved away from it to the use of other okay-smelling oils. I don't now remember which one exactly my mom used to use. Might be sesame or cotton or peanut oil, the usual cooking oils. Some people use bees wax instead of wadak to make the oil thick. My mom used that as well at a point in time.

8. You can now understand why traditionally these people used all these perfume substances in their hair oil. The "wadak" smelled awful lol. I bet the oil now without it smells straight from heaven.

9. For the life of me, I can't figure out what the chebe sticks are. I might have to find a way to ask my mom about it.

10. I just came across this website of a Sudanese lady who sells (or used to sell) some of these substances. She has the musk, the gum, and the mahleb https://www.sitanaonline.com/collections/sudanese-collection?page=1 The baggara are natives of Sudan as you can see from the wikipedia link in the second post. But practically the whole of Sudan uses these substances. The hair paste/preparation (oil+powder) in the video is very special to them though it seems. I haven't seen it before. We (my people do come from Kordofan too) use similarly perfumed hair oils but not pastes.
 

BeaLady

Well-Known Member
Thank you so much for all this information. It is extremely helpful.

I've been looking up chebe seeds and the only thing I've been able to find is chebe bread mix kits. I haven't been able to find the seeds. One of them comoments on the YouTube video said that hemp seeds can be substituted for the Chebe seeds.

My French is very poor so I understood very little. But at least I understood the songs in the background because they are in Arabic lol

I have a few comments:

1. Genetics might play a role in this. As Baggara Arabs are a mix between African and Arab ancestors, many of them have thick, silky, wavy/curly rather than coily strands, the thing that should make length retention somehow easier than it is for us who have hair that is breakage-prone, tangle-prone and more difficult to moisturize.

2. Extensive oiling and protective styling also seems to play a big role in this because the substances used are probably not specifically nutritious for hair or anything. Other than the oil, these are almost all perfume substances. Together and after that special preparation they smell amazing!

3. Mahlab is an Arabic word. This is the aromatic seeds of some cherry plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahleb It is widely used in our culture to produce traditional perfumes specially bridal and married women perfumes. The good news is that I think the seeds are available in the western world as well.

4. Misic is the Arabic word for musk. The one that you see in the video is the one that is widely used in our culture for the same purposes as above. It's called musk xylol which is synthetic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musk_xylene

5. Cloves are traditionally also used for their scent.

6. Samour/Samough is the arabic word for glue/gum. The substance in the video is the Gum Arabic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gum_arabic Sudan is responsible for about 50% of the total production of this substance.

7. beurre de boeuf is indeed beef fat. In our local Arabic we call this "wadak". I don't know if that word is heard in the video or not. And yes it doesn't smell good and that is why for the preparation of traditional hair oil (karkar) people have moved away from it to the use of other okay-smelling oils. I don't now remember which one exactly my mom used to use. Might be sesame or cotton or peanut oil, the usual cooking oils. Some people use bees wax instead of wadak to make the oil thick. My mom used that as well at a point in time.

8. You can now understand why traditionally these people used all these perfume substances in their hair oil. The "wadak" smelled awful lol. I bet the oil now without it smells straight from heaven.

9. For the life of me, I can't figure out what the chebe sticks are. I might have to find a way to ask my mom about it.

10. I just came across this website of a Sudanese lady who sells (or used to sell) some of these substances. She has the musk, the gum, and the mahleb https://www.sitanaonline.com/collections/sudanese-collection?page=1 The baggara are natives of Sudan as you can see from the wikipedia link in the second post. But practically the whole of Sudan uses these substances. The hair paste/preparation (oil+powder) in the video is very special to them though it seems. I haven't seen it before. We (my people do come from Kordofan too) use similarly perfumed hair oils but not pastes.
 

King of Sorrow

Well-Known Member
Genetics might play a role in this. As Baggara Arabs are a mix between African and Arab ancestors, many of them have thick, silky, wavy/curly rather than coily strands, the thing that should make length retention somehow easier than it is for us who have hair that is breakage-prone, tangle-prone and more difficult to moisturize.

A lot of the YouTube responses attribute their length to genetics, but I don't agree.

While I would definately put money on the ingredients not being the reason why their hair is so long, I'm reluctant to attribute it to Arab ancestry. Their facial features and skin tones seem to go from visibly mixed to phenotypically black African. I assume their hair similarly runs the gamut. Yet, they choose to attribute the length to their technique and not hair texture. I don't think we can ignore that. Also, their hair practices conforms to what has been proven on this board through trial and error to grow afro hair long. These women live in the village. How many have left to go live in the city only to disregard or not be able to follow the regimen and come back to visit with shorter, broken hair?

Contrast that with African Americans, another mixed group, who attribute hair length to racial mixture (métissage) and ancestry but are not known for long hair. Outside of these hair boards, people fully believe in "good" and "bad" hair and hair "grade" and use them to explain hair length. Yet, they do not, as a group, observe hair practices known to grow long afro hair.

You would also have to explain why the bangs of the Baggara are comparatively shorter than the rest of their hair and is not longer than what other African groups grow without issue. They do not appear to cut their hair.

Crépus
is french for nappy/kinky hair, what most here would describe as 4a/b/c and even some 3c hair. Unless she was going for clicks, the narator would have described their hair as bouclé if it was curly and of a silky texture. She describes her own hair as crépus and I would put her in the 3c/4a camp. Maybe she saw other women with 4a/b/c hair but that woman was the only one getting her hair done while she was visiting or willing to be filmed? Seeing other women's hair would have been helpful, but I understand this is her first documentary style video.

Finally, that woman's hair is thin and fine -- nothing thick about it. My hair is thin and fine (and I'm tempted to say it looks just like hers) and it breaks and splits very easily and no matter what I do. Sometimes I think only babies and people with health issues/vitamin deficiencies have weaker hair. If anything, I think they have very delicate, breakage and tangle prone hair which is why they developed this technique.

I have more thoughts about this video but I'm gonna stop here for now.
 
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snoop

Well-Known Member
A few things that I noticed:
  • They moistened their hair with water before attempting to use the pick
  • They didn't rake through the hair with the pick to get a thorough detangling. I saw a YouTuber who also mentioned that she doesn't aim for 100% detangled hair. Her hair is long, thick, and beautiful.
  • They put their hair up after (In a bun) which protects their ends. At least that one lady did.

I'd love to be able to use some of their techniques if they wouldn't cause setbacks to my hair and scalp... particularly oiling my ends.
 

King of Sorrow

Well-Known Member
so basically heavy sealing and protective styling?

Basically. It looks like the whole grease, water, and braids that many members say was done to their hair when they were little and had long hair.

Imagine keeping that up for 40 years, never once pressing, flat ironing, using a curling iron, perming, coloring, using a fine tooth comb, meeting a scissor happy stylist, trimming, cutting hair into a style,...
 
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Alma Petra

Well-Known Member
A lot of the YouTube responses attribute their length to genetics, but I don't agree.

While I would definately put money on the ingredients not being the reason why their hair is so long, I'm reluctant to attribute it to Arab ancestry. Their facial features and skin tones seem to go from visibly mixed to phenotypically black African. I assume their hair similarly runs the gamut. Yet, they choose to attribute the length to their technique and not hair texture. I don't think we can ignore that. Also, their hair practices conforms to what has been proven on this board through trial and error to grow afro hair long. These women live in the village. How many have left to go live in the city only to disregard or not be able to follow the regimen and come back to visit with shorter, broken hair?

Contrast that with African Americans, another mixed group, who attribute hair length to racial mixture (métissage) and ancestry but are not known for long hair. Outside of these hair boards, people fully believe in "good" and "bad" hair and hair "grade" and use them to explain hair length. Yet, they do not, as a group, observe hair practices known to grow long afro hair.

You would also have to explain why the bangs of the Baggara are comparatively shorter than the rest of their hair and is not longer than what other African groups grow without issue. They do not appear to cut their hair.

Crépus
is french for nappy/kinky hair, what most here would describe as 4a/b/c and even some 3c hair. Unless she was going for clicks, the narator would have described their hair as bouclé if it was curly and of a silky texture. She describes her own hair as crépus and I would put her in the 3c/4a camp. Maybe she saw other women with 4a/b/c hair but that woman was the only one getting her hair done while she was visiting or willing to be filmed? Seeing other women's hair would have been helpful, but I understand this is her first documentary style video.

Finally, that woman's hair is thin and fine -- nothing thick about it. My hair is thin and fine (and I'm tempted to say it looks just like hers) and it breaks and splits very easily and no matter what I do. Sometimes I think only babies and people with health issues/vitamin deficiencies have weaker hair. If anything, I think they have very delicate, breakage and tangle prone hair which is why they developed this technique.

I have more thoughts about this video but I'm gonna stop here for now.

I don't think that we disagree too much. If you re-read my post above I said that "Genetics might play a role in this" and said that "Extensive oiling and protective styling also seems to play a big role in this" while de-emphasizing the role of the ingredients. And I think it's the part of the protective styling and lubrication that plays the bigger part and that explains about the bangs not growing very long.

But to be honest the hair of the lady in the video did seem to me to be more on the silky side. Look at these plump waves that form once she gets water and oil in it! My hair does NOT do that sort of thing. Her hair does look dry (maybe parched) though before application which probably leads to the frizziness. I'm not sure about the thickness of the individual strand though. Might not be all that thick.

But as is the case with black people everywhere I'd say that it's not always possible to tell the person's hair type by looking at their skin color and facial features. Or maybe this phenomenon is more prominent in my people. Around here there are great variations in everything. There are just so many people with real dark complexions, darker than me who have the longest, silkiest hair which is generally considered to be Asian variety hair. So there isn't always a correlation between skin tone and hair type around here. The baggara arab people (there are also non-arab baggara) have this emphasis on "arab" because they do retain some "resemblance" to their arab ancestry, even though it might be mild. It's apparently a thing for them. If you read about the Darfur war, it is often said to take place between the Arab and the non-Arab tribes. But I digress. When it comes to hair, it varies for them from this:



To this:



and this:



That's why I said in my post that "many of them have thick, silky, wavy/curly ... strands". Of course many of them don't. I was just pointing out a fact that might be relevant.

Like you, I do not believe in good and bad hair. I believe that certain hair characteristics can make it easier or more difficult for one to retain length, and that the regimen and techniques that we follow have to take into consideration our hair characteristics to maximize retention. And while we all believe in our hair's potential to grow to impressive lengths, many of us may take too long to figure out the best hair practices that keep their hair moisturized and safe from breakage. Some of us unfortunately never figure that out despite trying to, and asking for others help. It's not entirely their fault though because as I said our hair needs extra TLC which might not be intuitive, and we love it and are proud of it and always eager to understand it no matter what.
 

snoop

Well-Known Member
I don't think that we disagree too much. If you re-read my post above I said that "Genetics might play a role in this" and said that "Extensive oiling and protective styling also seems to play a big role in this" while de-emphasizing the role of the ingredients. And I think it's the part of the protective styling and lubrication that plays the bigger part and that explains about the bangs not growing very long.

But to be honest the hair of the lady in the video did seem to me to be more on the silky side. Look at these plump waves that form once she gets water and oil in it! My hair does NOT do that sort of thing. Her hair does look dry (maybe parched) though before application which probably leads to the frizziness. I'm not sure about the thickness of the individual strand though. Might not be all that thick.

But as is the case with black people everywhere I'd say that it's not always possible to tell the person's hair type by looking at their skin color and facial features. Or maybe this phenomenon is more prominent in my people. Around here there are great variations in everything. There are just so many people with real dark complexions, darker than me who have the longest, silkiest hair which is generally considered to be Asian variety hair. So there isn't always a correlation between skin tone and hair type around here. The baggara arab people (there are also non-arab baggara) have this emphasis on "arab" because they do retain some "resemblance" to their arab ancestry, even though it might be mild. It's apparently a thing for them. If you read about the Darfur war, it is often said to take place between the Arab and the non-Arab tribes. But I digress. When it comes to hair, it varies for them from this:



To this:



and this:



That's why I said in my post that "many of them have thick, silky, wavy/curly ... strands". Of course many of them don't. I was just pointing out a fact that might be relevant.

Like you, I do not believe in good and bad hair. I believe that certain hair characteristics can make it easier or more difficult for one to retain length, and that the regimen and techniques that we follow have to take into consideration our hair characteristics to maximize retention. And while we all believe in our hair's potential to grow to impressive lengths, many of us may take too long to figure out the best hair practices that keep their hair moisturized and safe from breakage. Some of us unfortunately never figure that out despite trying to, and asking for others help. It's not entirely their fault though because as I said our hair needs extra TLC which might not be intuitive, and we love it and are proud of it and always eager to understand it no matter what.

Again, everyone in these examples haven their hair bound and tucked away.
 

King of Sorrow

Well-Known Member
@almaPetra, I think we're saying the same thing and I caught that you say it might be due to genetics. I suppose I went on a tangent based on YouTube comments and yours was the only post I saw considering genetics. I hope you didn't feel attacked. And I now see that we have different interpretations of the hair of the woman in the video.

It's just that no one I know would describe the hair of any of the women in the three pictures you posted as crépus (nappy). I can see why you'd think the woman in the video has silky hair. I assumed the wave in her hair was just the braid out. My hair doesn't revert as quickly when my hair has oil in it and it looked like only two spritz worth of water was put on her hair and the rest was oil and powder and I've seen 4a hair look one way when wet/weighed down and another when dry.

My thing is, when difference of care on the same head can result in such drastic length difference, why does genetics even need to be a consideration?

It's not the butt length-edness of her hair that is amazing people. She could have had BSL length hair and folks would have been writing it off as a gene thing even though we have so many examples of non-mixed, black African women growing their hair BSL or longer with proper care. It's not difficult to imagine if they adopted such extreme practices they could go oven longer.

I'm part Chadian (but not arab), I definately know about the difference in look even within families. But from my experience, "Arab" is sometimes a catch-all term to describe an entire people that who don't have any physical resemblance to Arabs or who were mixed with Arab centuries ago but have been intermarrying with non-Arabs since. The Baggara Arab of Sudan may not look the same as the Baggara (Shuwa) Arab of Chad or of this specific village. When a people are spread across 3 or 4 different countries and into various subgroups, there are big variations of what they will look like.

Bringing it back to America, it's like the Freedmen of the Cherokee Nation, Blacks who were enslaved by Native Americans and are what we now call Black Native Americans. Some are visibly mixed and in others you can't see it and for others no mixing happened in their family. Some have married other freedmen, others haven't. But there are various expressions of hair texture. Can you imagine someone in that group saying my long hair is due to my hair technique, not genes?

Now, this could all be a scam to sell chébé seeds or to get clicks. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube is full of black folks around the world wanting to know how to get some of that "miracle" powder and she's directing them to someone in Chad but can't seem to be able to ship it out of the capital. I don't know what her relation is to that person, but they must be making bank!

I could be wrong. They could have silky hair. The title could be false. In either case, if you got connections to the ingredients you need to get on that quick! There's money to be made! Make henna a thing of the past and get you some of that chébé money!;)
 
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larry3344

Well-Known Member
@Kemmie also want to point out silkier texture have a retention advantage. But I have found nilotic people have retain traditional/simple hair practises compared to Bantu people. Who have similar hair practises as Black westerners (chemical treatments,weaves, wigs,etc...
). There are plenty of pictures of Bantu people on the Web who lived traditional lifestyle and they had beautiful long thick hair.
 

King of Sorrow

Well-Known Member
She's posted the video with an english narration. She has another video were she responds to questions and addresses the texture issue. It's in French and 13 mins long so it'll take me some time to translate. However, she does go a bit into it in the description for this video along with providing the instructions for the prepation so I'll copy it below.


If you want to order shébé mixture from Chad you can contact this email [email protected] -

Instagram : Miss Sahel
Snapchat : Miss-Sahel
Face : Miss Sahel
Twitter :Miss_Sahel_

I went to Chad to unveil the haircare secrets of an African ethnic group called the "Basara Arabs." The Basara Arab women are known to have very long naturally coarse hair that famously goes passed their rear ends. They cover their hair in a home made mixture that keeps their hair super moisturized and lubricated which is the reason given for why they say their hair never breaks; even from childhood.

Ingredients:
- Shébé seeds (Croton zambesicus/Croton du Zambèze)
- "Mahllaba soubiane" seeds
- "Missic" stone to scent
- Cloves
- "Samour" resin
- Scented oil (your choice)
- Hair Grease or pomade (your choice)

The ingredients are very specific to Chad and sudan. I'm not sure if the ingredients in the powders they use can be found anywhere in the West.

Preparation:
- The Shébé seeds, mahellaba soubianne, and cloves are individually grilled and separated. Then individually ground into a fine powder in a sort of mortar and pestle set up and those ground powders are also separated.
- The Hair Grease and scented oil are mixed together in a separate container and set aside
- The powders are then combined in the same mortar and mixed together, a few spoonfuls of the oil/grease mixture are added in and the container set aside, then that is all mixed together giving the once fine powder a texture closer to soil.
- The Missic and Resin are then ground together into a powder and added to the "soil-like" mixture..

Directions:
- The first step is to get the hair wet so they do so using regular water and alternate between the scented oil/hair grease mix and the chebe powder mix until the hair is fully saturated. They then re-braid the hair and once that braid is done they wet it again with water. They repeat that routine every 3 to 5 days.

Some people may initially think that their hair length is due to genetics, after inquiring on the subject the women said that it was most definitely NOT due to genetics since they do not apply shébé powder mixture to their bangs which, in turn, stay short. However the parts of the hair which they do use the powder mixture on in their routine doesn't break and grows very long and strong.

***Disclaimer*** This kind of routine would probably not work for someone who lives in the West, or even someone who lives in Africa with a different lifestyle. No one goes out on the daily with (what is basically) deep conditioner in their hair. It could be a great add to a weekly routine nonetheless.

The texture of the hair do not look kinky because the weight of the powder relaxes the hair and gives it a curly appearance and with this weight the hair does not shrink. On the other hand, their fringes have a kinky texture.

First song is Chadian Arabic and the two others are Sudanese Arabic.

Song 1 : Un chanteur tchadien pecos
Song 2 : منتصر هلالية & شكر الله عزالدين - معزورة
Song 3 : منتصر هلالية و شكرالله عزالدين - القمر ليلة تمامو
 

King of Sorrow

Well-Known Member
EDIT: She posted an english version of her answering FAQs on July 24th. There's some extra commentary that's not on the video in French but she doesn't aswer as many questions or go as detailed as the French one (after all, she isn't a native English speaker). I'd recommend watching the English version and reading the translation for the French.


_____________________

My Original Post For the Video in French:
The gist of her response is that yes their hair is nappy, no they are not mixed, it's not the chebe that is growing their hair but the fact that they keep it highly lubricated, braided, stretched and covered in a veil. She also shows a picture of a friend's sister who uses chebe and has grown her kinky hair long [5:31 mark in the video]. While she doesn't attribute the length to it, she seems to insinuate that the chebe prevents shrinkage and breakage.


Title: I respond to your questions about chebe

[Intro: She greets viewers and lets them know she will be responding to their questions. Apologizes that she wasn't able to respond to people individually but she's put together a list of the frequently asked questions.]

Question: Can we have an english translation of the video?
Answer
: A friend is working on it. [See post above]


Question: What is the chebe is called in French?
A
:Croton zambesicus/Croton du Zambèze. The only other ingredient I could find the French name for is the samour which is gum arabic [same in english].


Comment: These women's hair isn't nappy.
A
: I should have shown in the video that when they undo their front braids you can clearly see the nappy texture. The hair in the back is so weighed down by the chebe, oil, and water that it makes the texture look more relaxed and more curly than nappy.

To give an example, if I wash my hair and leave my hair to dry without product it's going to turn to an afro. However, if I wet my hair and saturate it with product my hair will be more relaxed and will look a bit more silkier and more curly. But that doesn't mean I have curly hair. Only that based on what I put on my hair my hair smooths out. It's the same for these women. When they undo their front braids you can see the afro texture that looks like mousse and their hair starts to puff up and floats in the air.


C: They have a sparse hairline.
A:
It's true that their braids in the front are so tight that it's receeding their hairline. I think that if they didn't make it so tight in the front they'd have more hair there, especially as they get older and they risk traction alopecia.


Q: Do they wash their hair?
A:
No, they do not. They only do what I showed every 3 to 5 days.


Q: Did you test the chebe on your hair?
A:
Not yet. I wanted to do braid extensions instead since I love braids. However, I plan on eventually filming and posting my using chebe on half of my head so you can see how it can change the appearance of your hair texture.


Q: Where to buy the ingredients?
A:
Unfortunately, I don't think you can find these ingredients in the west. I think they are only sold in Chad and Sudan. However, some European girls have placed bulk orders. When they receive it and are ready to sell it I will pass along their contact info on Instagram or on Snapchat. If you're in Cameroon there are buses between the two countries and the seller might be able to bring it to you. For the US or other African countries maybe if you too order it in bulk and eventually try to sell it.


Q: What are the songs in the video?
A:
[See the post above]


C: Those women are mixed. That's why they have long hair.
A:
Honestly, those women's parents are black. Their grandparents are black. Their great-grandparents are black. Their great-great-grandparents are also black.

Personally, my great-grandparents are white and I don't have the length they do. After a while we have to stop believing that being mixed explains everything. No. I'm more mixed than those women and don't have their length.

Why? Because it is their technique that allows them to reach their length and not their being mixed. I have a friend who's sister uses chebe and has very long hair [5:31 mark]. Same mother, same father, same genes and you can clearly see he has very nappy hair and in an afro and that she has hair that isn't shrunk and very stretched. Is that genes? No. Only that he doesn't use chebe and she does and her hair doesn't shrink and maintains a stretched texture.

Therefore, it's only a matter of technique and saturating the hair, and not a matter of being mixed. No.

We don't need to be mixed to have long nappy hair. There are so many women in France, on and off YouTube who are not mixed and have been able to have long nappy hair. So we have to stop attributing everything to being mixed.


C: I'm Chadian and my grandparents used chebe and it stinks. I don't want to put it on my hair.
A:
The mixture that those women made smelled so good. They explained that it smelled good because they had changed the original recipe by replacing the butter -- because it goes rancid pretty quickly -- with pomade [hair grease] which doesn't smell.

I also noticed that inspite of all the flies in Africa and that they don't wash their hair, I didn't see any flies around their heads or near the chebe. So I think there might be some antibacterial properties in it...? Something to look into.


C: You only found one women like that. There's only one woman in the video.
A:
I showed three women [including the hairdresser]. Maybe you weren't paying attention to the faces. The women in the intro, middle, and end are different. I didn't understand the comments making it sound like there is only one woman in all of Chad like that.

So, no. That is one special ethnic group who all have hair like that. There are many other ethnic groups throughout Chad who use the same technique and have hair just as long. So it's not just one woman in all of Chad. There are many.


Q: Is chebe the same as sesame?
A:
Not it is not. It's a grain found in Sudan and Chad.


Q: Why don't they put chebe in the front?
A:
As you can imagine, the chebe has a powdery texture and mixed with water and oil can make the hair look dirty. Since they want to keep the front of their hair clean they don't use it there.

They also explained to me that you shouldn't put the chebe on your scalp otherwise you risk making your scalp itchy, needing to scratch it, and damaging your scalp. So they advised that it be used 2cm from the roots.


C: It's the chebe that grows the hair.
A:
Not at all. As I explained in the video, the chebe is only there to prevent breakage and keep your hair hydrates and lubricated to the max. It preserves your length. It's not a miracle product.


C: Those women look Sudanese.
A:
Chad and Sudan share a lot of the same ethnic groups, especially in the Darfur region. Same with the northern Cameroon and Nigeria. This ethnic group can be found in all four countries.


C: Of course these women have short bangs. Everyone has short bangs.
A:
I don't. The front of my hair is the same length as the rest of my hair. You can grow it long.


Q: Is it practical to walk around with so much powder in the hair if you live in a western country?
A:
This is a very valid question.

These women always have their hair covered under a veil, only showing it for celebrations, weddings, ceremonies, etc. That's the only time they show their hair length. Most of the time they hair is in one braid on each side of the head and two in the back. It's up to you to decide whether or not to incorporate this into or adapt this to fit your routine.

I know that if I were to use the chebe I couldn't not wash my hair for long periods of time. I would have to include a cowash or something else. I couldn't do exactly what they do since we have a different way of life.

I hope you liked this video. If you have more questions please leave them in the comments and I'll try to answer them. I apologize to anyone whose questions I wasn't able to get to. Don't forget to follow me on social media. Big kisses. And until the next video.
 
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mzteaze

Pilates and Yoga Kinda Gal
I've watched the English translation which I appreciate (and thanked the poster).

But, based on the process, this seems like a local (region based) variation of how others use a similar process for henna and or ayurvedic powders. Most western use of henna (or ayurveda) just doesn't include regular weekly applications. But, we could extract the techniques here to use with easily found products that act the same way - but with more free flowing water, scalp cleansing and *sigh* as always, protective styling.
 

King of Sorrow

Well-Known Member
I completely agree, @mzteaze ! It sounds like henna, low manipulation, protective styling, and the baggy method without the baggy. If someone wants to test chebe it's cool but there's absolutely no need to buy in bulk unless you're trying to make a business selling it. If it does get popularized however, I do hope black women can directly profit from its cultivation and distribution.

@larry3344 Yeah, she meant black girls in Europe are placing bulk orders.

It's great to be able to compare and contrast different African hair growing traditions and what we have been figuring out on our own. Great thread. Thanks for starting the post @BeaLady !

I'll let y'all know if she shares her friend's sister regimen or posts a video of using chebe on her own hair.
 
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