Africa's Best UK.

What Africa's Best covers

Africa's Best has been on shop shelves since the eighties and the packaging has barely changed, which tells you how steadily it sells. The range splits three ways: scalp and hair oils, wash day products, and the Kids Originals line. Prices are low, tub sizes are generous, and the textures are traditional rather than modern, which suits some hair and not others.

Hairdressings and oils

Super Gro, Herbal Gro Super and Triple Repair are hairdressings. They are thick, petrolatum based, and go on the scalp and roots in sections, a small amount at a time. The liquid oils, argan, coconut, Jamaican black castor and the Ultimate Herbal blend, are lighter and can go on the length as well. Use them to keep the scalp comfortable and the ends from splitting, and apply after washing while the hair still holds water.

A word on the names. Several products carry Gro or Growth on the label. Treat them as moisturising oils and hairdressings, which is what they are. Keeping length is a matter of reducing breakage over months, not something any single bottle delivers.

Wash day

Originals olive oil shampoo and the moisturising shampoo with conditioner cover the regular wash. Liquid hair mayonnaise is the deep conditioner: thick, protein leaning, and best used every few weeks rather than weekly. The rinse out and leave in deep conditioner does both jobs, and the instant detangling conditioner is the one for tangle heavy wash days.

Braid sheen spray with conditioner is the finishing product for braids and twists, and the honey and castor edge gel handles the hairline.

Kids Originals

The children's line is a proper sub range rather than a token product. Shea butter conditioning shampoo, protein enriched conditioner, the 2 in 1 natural conditioning detangler and the protein and vitamin hair and scalp remedy cover a child's wash day without the sting of adult formulas. There are also conditioning relaxer systems in regular and coarse strengths for families who use them, and those should be applied carefully and never on a scalp that is already sore or broken.

How it fits a UK routine

These are heavier products than most modern curl ranges, which works well through a British winter when indoor heating drops humidity to around 30% and hair goes brittle. In summer, lighten the load. Hard water in the south east combines with petrolatum based hairdressings and coats the hair, so a clarifying wash every three or four weeks keeps everything absorbing properly.