He recently made headlines with a super smooth cover of Tame Impala’s Borderline and now it’s the turn of Muroki’s own works to be the spotlight.
This weekend, three years after his breakout hit Wavy went platinum, Muroki releases his seven track EP Timezones on Olive, Benee’s own record label (she sought out and signed him after falling in love with his song For Better or Worse).
Like his sound more generally, the style of Timezones has been described as a beautiful and soulful hybrid, mixing influences picked up skating pavements and surfing breaks in Raglan with inspiration from his Kenyan heritage. “My aim was to pull together an array of my favourite genres – everything from rhythm & blues and hip hop, to indie and funk - all tied together with a cheeky, sexy, soulful vocal,” he says.
His approach to his haircare and styling though, is less amalgam. “Do what works for you,” he says directly.
Below the Coromandel-born artist sets out his affordable, and fairly low maintenance hair routine.
How would you describe your hair? What is it like naturally and how does it respond to being styled?
Thick, extreme curly and sun bleached.
Is your hair high maintenance?
Not really to be honest, I feel like it’s probably the same in terms of maintenance as your average straight haired caucasian. It's quite easy to style, because I have so much hair.
Tell us about your journey with dreadlocks. How long have you had them, do you experiment withstyles? Was there a learning curve involved?
I’ve been growing this generation of dreadlocks for six years now. I started them with a dread sponge and then for the next three years or so, they were just natural free form dreads. Over the last couple of years though I have been getting my roots tightened professionally with a crochet hook.
What do you do to take care of it? What products do you use?
Once a week I wash my hair with Hask Argan oil shampoo ($14) and then leave argan oil conditioner in my hair until the next time I shower to keep it moisturised.
Also every 6-8 months I do a deep clean with water, baking soda, vinegar and lemon juice. Followed by an argan oil conditioner and that cleans out any remaining dust, but it isn’t amazing for your scalp, so I don't do it often.
Who ‘does’ your hair?
What do you tend to do with your hair for gigs, is the approach here different versus your day to day?
Honestly, it’s kinda the same. I just tie it up.
I've noticed you incorporate beads into your hairstyles often. Can you tell us about that?
To be honest I can’t really take all the credit for that, haha. I have an amazing hairstylist at Kunaka Hair x Beauty who is responsible for all the cool hairstyles in my shoots.
How would you describe your relationship with your hair - today, and in the past?
I definitely look after it more nowadays. When I was younger I didn’t really care much for how I looked. I was definitely a scraggly kid.
How do cultural influences play into your approach to hair?
When you have African hair, there’s only really three affordable and fairly low maintenance hairstyles: bald, afro or dreads. I picked dreads haha.
Who else do you think has great hair?
A$AP Rocky, Lenny Kravitz, Little Simz, Olivia Dean.
Any other good hair tips?
Do what works for you.
