How This Sustainable Designer Is Taking Care of Her Natural Hair in Quarantine

Texture Diaries is a space for Black women across industries to reflect on their journeys to self-love, and how accepting their hair, in all its glory, played a pivotal role in this process. Each week, these women share their favorite hair rituals, products, and the biggest lessons they’ve learned when it comes to affirming their beauty and owning their unique hair texture.

For Sade Mims, designer of sustainable accessories brand, EDAS, creativity doesn’t stop at her eye-catching designs or fierce style. Her ability to be a hair chameleon has always brought her a deep sense of catharsis; a feeling that’s only emphasized during a time like this, when so much else is out of our control. “I love being explorative and experimental with my hair,” the Brooklyn-based designer says. “I’ve always explored different colors, styles and lengths; from bald to a full fro,” she adds, noting that her transformations began at the tender age of 13 with a “blunt, very grown and mature” bob. She credits this to growing up “in a household where my mother wasn’t necessarily great at doing hair,” Mims says. “She would send us to the salon often, and I became very explorative with my styles because of it.”

With Mims’s salon culture came the pressure to get a perm. But around the age of 15, she started reading and researching black culture. “Around that time, I decided to go natural,” Mims says. “But my hair continued to be the thing that people would stop me for. Kids would always say ‘Oh, it’s Sade and the hair!’ It would really annoy me. I wanted to be known for being more than just my hair. That’s probably why I’ve cut it off so many times growing up,” she said.

Today, the designer finds comfort and confidence in her hair’s ability to shape-shift. Her go-to products include Moroccanoil’s Styling Gel for the days she wants a sleek look topped off with artful baby hairs (shaped by the Baby Tress baby hair brush). For upkeep, Mims uses Nexxus Scalp Scrub, Bond Maintenance Conditioner, Bond Smoother, and Hair Protector, all from Olaplex. The Oribe Styling Butter is perfect for defining her curls, while L’ANZA’s Healing Volume adds sheen and volume to any style. A silk pillowcase and hair net at night are key to preserving her styles throughout the week. “I also love to stretch out my fro at night by pineapple-ing the hair at the top of my head with a scrunchie,” Mims says of her shrinkage-proof pro tip. “This ensures I wake up with volume and that the fro doesn’t lose shape.”

In quarantine, Mims has been trying out new styles, drawing inspiration from icons ranging from Chaka Khan to Zoe Kravitz. A recent favorite is a blow-out that's set with flexi rods. “It doesn’t require a ton of heat or flexi rods,” she says. Using six or so, she focuses on the ends of the hair. “Even if it gets a little poofy, it still looks great, and gives off that faux-’70s look,” Mims says.

When stay-at-home orders eventually lift, Mims looks forward to returning to her go-to stylist, Mickiela Smith, to get reacquainted with her roots: “I want to go darker with my hair again.” Until then, she’s trying to find her own light at home in a dark time. “There’s so much power and beauty in simply getting ready and dressed for yourself. It feels so good. It’s a different feeling than constantly getting ready for others, or because you have somewhere to go.”

Below, Mims gives us an inside look at her quarantine hair journey.