My hair is who I am. I sometimes want a more defined curly hair but I have to deal with who I am. It’s on my head. Everyone sees me, sees my hair, it is a part of my whole image. It can determine if I’m wild or mild. It can also determine if I am truly in love with myself or not and it seems that I’m not in love with me. I do not take care of my mane, I let it go wild in a manner that may attract but it keeps my self-esteem lowww. It keeps me in the pits, it keeps me wanting to heal, wanting to love my skin but I can never put enough effort to pamper this skin this hair.
I want to say I love me, I want to say I love this body, but where does the love begin when I’m hurting every day where are the vitamins, where are the minerals, where are the fruits and ve-ge-tables? I am going to try better next time, I’m gonna pamper myself like no other, I’m gonna love this body, from the inside out, no self-defeating lies, no feeling of unworthiness cause I am worthy of l-o-v-e. I am worthy!
I would love to know what I would look like with dreadlocks. I’ve always wanted long hair but with I don’t really take good care of my natural hair. There are synthetic dreadlocks which can last up to several weeks. It wouldn’t damage my natural hair. It would give my natural hair a break from my twists.
I don’t know where one can get dreadlock extensions but one can make them using synthetic hair or human hair.
Synthetic hair:
Silky Braid Kanekalon: Coarse yet fluffy texture
Jumbo Braid Kanekalon: Commonly used for temporary/disposable extensions
Pre-Rolled Dreads: Commonly used for repairing natural locks
100% Human Hair: Fine texture with a good look and feel.
50% Human Hair: Coarser than the other two types, but is still quite natural looking. It is also the least expensive of the three.
To me finding a hairdresser that does dreadlock extensions would amount to a lot of phone calls and possibly cost a lot of money if I decided to get it done. Besides, I’m lazy and it’s just a thought. I could possibly do it myself but again, I’m lazy and lazy and don’t really have the time since I’m in college right now and moving to a new dorm since my roommate sucks.
I love Usher and I don't usually read gossip about stars but just recently I found out he was engaged and then was expecting a baby and then later on he canceled the wedding. Everything was a surprise to me. I like it when the stars I like stay single, mainly singers that are in the public eye a lot, but I was happy when he was with Chilli. I also like it when my guy friends are single but I shouldn't b/c they have to live and be happy. I realize that Usher's a human being and not just entertainment for my eyes. He needs to get to know himself better and in the future he will choose the right person for himself. I really hope he loves and accepts himself and doesn't have to put up a front when he's with different females or friends. Loving yourself is not about getting facials, manicures or getting the best clothes it's about looking deep within and figuring out what is great about you and developing confidence to show that to yourself and to others. Doing nice things for yourself once in a while does help you feel good, but it shouldn't overshadow your personality, or your soul. Back to Usher- I really hope that positivity radiates into his life.
Glycerin is a colorless, thick liquid which absorbs water from the air and comes from a animal or vegetable fats. Because it attracts moisture to the hair and skin it is found in most hair and skin care products. Why is glycerin so important? It helps feed our curls the moisture it so deserves. Glycerin helps reduce frizz and provides flexibility to the curls. Use glycerin in shampoos to add moisture to them, you can also use it in a spray bottle with water as the other component. I recently bought Africare 100% Glycerin. I used it before I washed my hair, in conjunction with lavender water in a spray bottle, my hair was really soft, it still is. You don't need to throw away the products that didn't work for you (as long as they don't have petroleum/mineral oil in them) you can add a bit of glycerin and see if it works for you then. Try it!
Today, some friends and I were talking about one of their baby daughter's (hair) beautiful curls. She has good hair they said and I really took offense to that and the mother said her daughter doesn't have nappy hair and how she has somewhat nappy hair. This really pissed me off. I don't understand people and their misconceptions or why they don't delve deep into what's real. As long as hair is healthy it will be beautiful, you don't need to label hair as good or bad. Just like you can't call someone evil, you can only call their actions or words hurtful or evil not her/him. I guess we are conditioned to give things and people one word feelings/emotions but that helps no one better themselves. And it's hard to go from saying "oh, you're clumsy" to saying "you're acting clumsy", because we are for the most part not taught to speak like that. I think when we better the way we talk to ourselves and to others then we can change who we are and what we are. Learning to let go of the every day words we say to ourselves and to others can help us realize that we don't have to stay the same, that change is possible even though at times it's scary. I'm scared of change sometimes, but it's a normal process, every day the weather is different and so should we be.
I use Apple Cider Vinegar (found at health food store) to cleanse my body, I put 2 tablespoons in a glass of water and drink this almost every day (all throughout the day). I have lost some weight which I contribute to drinking apple cider vinegar and I feel better and look better. However, apple cider vinegar can also be used to clean the hair, and remove buildup in the scalp.
To find some vinegar hair recipes check out this site that is all about the uses of Apple Cider Vinegar. http://www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/natural-hair-care-product.html
An example of what this site has to offer:
Apple Cider Vinegar and Dandruff
The acids and enzymes in ACV kill the "bottle bacillus", a bacteria that is one of the causes for many scalp and hair conditions such as dandruff, itchy scalp, hair loss and often baldness.The bacteria clogs hair follicles allowing dry crusts to form that itch and flake.
For a simple home treatment for dandruff and itchy scalp, apply full strength ACV to the scalp, rub in, and leave on for a half hour to an hour before washing your hair.
For an extra strength natural hair care product, apple cider vinegar can be infused with herbs such as stinging nettle, southernwood, goosegrass, plantain and burdock root all of which help prevent dandruff on their own. Tea tree oil is another excellent natural anti-dandruff ingredient, which can be added. http://www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/natural-hair-care-product.html
Black women outspend other women by a factor of two to six times (depending on which source you believe) when it comes to hair care. While we represent less than 10% of the population, we spend most of the money spent on hair care in this country. A black woman will take care of her hair- no matter what the cost. Hair care is deeply embedded in our culture as India.Arie so eloquently described in “I Am Not My Hair”. This is tremendous spending power that is being spent largely outside of our community. The vast majority of the money spent by black women on their hair is going to large white-owned corporations, and to Asians who have effectively cornered the market on distribution and retail of black hair care products. As a black owned company servicing the black community, this is something we are obviously interested in and concerned about. How did things get this way? Is there anything we can do about it? Should we do something about it? Why should you even care? In this article, we will address all of these questions.
The first question we will address is "Why should you care?" If you're getting the products you need at a good price, should you be concerned with who you are buying them from? This needs to be considered from two perspectives. First, there is the cost/benefit to you of doing something different than what you are doing today. Secondly, there is your responsibility, if any, to the community.
We established Treasured Locks in April of 2002 because we simply could not find high quality products for African Americans in our neighborhood or city. Living in a largely white area, when we went to the local drug stores and grocery stores to find products, we found a huge variety of products for Caucasians, ranging from poor quality to pretty good and some even very good. But, when it came to African-American beauty products, we found an extremely limited selection and the products that were on the shelves were mostly full of cheap fillers. Even the local beauty supply store sent us to the "Asian beauty supply stores" located in the Black neighborhoods. When we ventured over to the Asian beauty supply stores, we found not much better quality (if any better) products and a lack of service. The people behind the counter knew nothing about our hair care needs and concerns. Wanting the best products for our hair and skin, we chose not to settle for the inferior products we were being offered and turned to an alternative source (the Internet) to get a greater selection. Today, after having had our business for a few years, we receive emails from women on a daily basis thanking us for providing them good information on their hair and skin care needs and for providing them with choices of products that are actually good for them. We also find that even with brands such as Black Opal that are distributed nationally, that many local stores don't carry the entire line or have dropped Black Opal entirely. Women write to us thanking us for making these products available to them again. Our customers have found that they can have choices not being offered in their local stores by shopping with us. They have also found that they can find experts to talk with who share their experiences and can give them advice.
If you can find the products you need (quality and selection) at your local Asian Beauty Supply store, should you go out of your way to buy them somewhere else? How far should you go? How much more should you pay? Only you can answer those questions. A running poll on BOBSA shows that most of the women who answer the poll say they will make at least some effort to buy from black owned companies. But, polls are often skewed simply by who the people are being polled. The women answering the poll on BOBSA's site are a.) on the Internet and b.) on a website all about trying to improve the situation of Black Suppliers in the beauty industry. We think that skews the results. Our intuition tells us the broader population buys from the source that is the least expensive and most convenient. And, more than ninety percent of the time that is going to be the Asian Beauty Supply store on the corner or the White-owned grocery or drug store.
To finish reading the rest of the article go to: http://www.treasuredlocks.com/black-hair-care-industry.html
Andre Walker, author of "Andre Talks Hair," came up with a hair classification system that is the most popular one used when referencing hair. He references four hair types as follows: Type 1: Straight hair that won't hold a curl. Type 1A is fine and thin, type 1B is medium textured, type 1C is coarse. Type 2: Wavy hair. Type 2A is fine and thin, type 2B is medium textured, type 2C is coarse. Type 3: Curly hair with soft smooth curls. Type 3A has loose curls, type 3B has a medium amount of curl. Type 4: Kinky or very tightly curled hair. This hair is very fragile. Type 4A is tightly coiled in a S pattern (like ringlets). Type 4B is in a Z pattern, and the hair bends at angles. To determine your hair type look at 1 inch or more of untreated hair (hair that has not been chemically processed or straightened) and see where it falls.
On many groups and fotki albums we hear about women who after one year of being napptural (natural) have had great hair growth, but some of us wait and wait for that to happen to us but it hasn't happened yet. What do we do? I have been natural for, I really don't know. I never counted, it wasn't really a big decision until after I started trying to style my natural hair. It's probably been about 3 years. I still don't even have shoulder length hair and I'm ok with that now because I realize where my problem lies.
1. I pull on my knots and rip them sometimes and I tug on my hair when I'm nervous (usually during class or a test). 2. I don't eat vegetables that much. I don't even eat the recommended servings for a day in a week. 3. I used to wash my hair with harsh products and/or use many different products week to week. 4. Washed my hair too infrequently. 5. Daily life was very stressful. 6. Don't ever get enough sleep. 7. Ate high in fat foods 8. Didn't moisturize hair as much in the week. 9. Trimmed it a lot in the beginning.
Wow, that's a lot. I take responsibility for my hair not growing enough and so should all of you out there who look up to those women who have beautiful, growing, natural hair because they take responsibility and do something about it.
I'm reading Curly Girl by Lorraine Massey and while I enjoy the tips and insight into how to properly care for curly hair and the different types, the chapter on African American curly hair was only 5 pages long excluding the Curly Girl Confessions while other chapters were a bit longer.
The book is very simple and the first step to being a curly girl is to throw out your shampoo! Which most of already do with the no-poo hair washing method. I love the way Lorraine Massey writes because it's very conversational, like a friend-to-friend conversation that most of us appreciate.
I have been using the lavender mist spray that Lorraine talks about in the chapter titled Lorraine's Lotions and potions. It's very simple to do, just get pure/essential lavender oil, a spray bottle and water and remember don't put all of the lavender oil in there.
I realized that I have to have patience with my hair. Reading Curly Girlby Lorraine Massey made me think about my detangling routine. Usually I get so aggravated/frustrated when I untwist my hair and start combing my hair. Everything hurts because I start tugging and pulling and eventually knots are gone but I'm left with split ends. This probably happens to those of us with lack of patience but that can deeply hinder our ability for hair growth.
I did a twist out today and my hair looked so good that people noticed. :) I also put a little bit of baking soda in the spray bottle. Today I sprayed my hair with my special concoction and used the tips of my fingers to massage my scalp. i purposefully scratched my scalp after doing this to see if there was any residue left over. There was none and it smelled nice!
I'm doing something different with my hair this month. Starting today, May 1st I will be leaving my twists in for 3 weeks. I have never done this before, but I read somewhere that Jill Scott does this, she, however gets her twists professionally done, but I do it myself. I will be using a spray bottle half filled with water with a quarter sized amount of Kemi MOYST No-soap shampoo for dry damaged hair with possibly a table spoon of witch hazel to clean my hair when it gets dirty or after sweating from playing tennis. Every day I will be using BB Moisturizing Growth Lotion. This is going to be hard. It's my ritual to wash my hair every Friday/Saturday and just thinking about not washing my hair makes me itchy.
This product produced by growth specifics and some people have witnessed growth in only one week. This product is called Boundless Tresses Growth Serum. It costs $12.
http://www.growthspecifics.com
Hope this helps.
I really want to buy this too, I stopped being a product junkie awhile ago but I really want this.
I found cocoa butter, avocado butter, mango butter at http://www.africaimports.com. I couldn't get a picture because they wouldn't allow me to copy it, oh well. To find the hair butters go to categories on the homepage and click on health & beauty and then lotions and butters and finally natural butters. I can't wait to buy some products in this online store, hope you guys find something you like. Enjoy.
I have some terrible hair issues. I talked about Amla hair oil and how great it was for my hair because it made my hair softer and manageable, but the side effect I found is that my hair shrinks more and more because of it. When I wake up in the morning, one side of my twists is standing up or something and it's hard getting it to stay down. I get frustrated because I don't find myself attractive, and I look like I'm wearing a wig because it doesn't look like it's my hair, lol. I don't know what to do. I don't want my hair to be the way it was before but I have to feel attractive/look attractive to me so I can focus on more important things. I actually need to trim my hair because I have a lot of knots and split ends. I'm not gentle with my hair :-( . I'm going to tell you something. I don't feel girly in the least bit. My mom is not really a good example of a feminine woman. She is balding pretty badly and she wont stop perming her hair!! She never really knew how to do my hair, (she made me feel so ugly with her braiding styles). She bought my clothes as a child and I felt unattractive because she would buy unattractive adult clothes that children don't wear, it caused a lot of teasing among my peers and even friends. Anyways, I'm going to try to get a new fashion style and/or hair style.
I went to a website posted on a yahoo natural hair group and found something interesting.
The woman selling this pomade swears by it, and says that it really grew her hair a lot. I actually have this at home and all I could remember about it was that, yes it smelled good, but it made my hair smell after using it for a few days. And that might be my fault, because I might be one of those "lucky" ones who get product build up quickly and need to wash my hair more than just weekly. But I don't want to do that, lol. Anyways, the woman sells it for around $4.99 or more plus shipping I guess and that costs a lot. Mine only cost $2.99!!! Yay! So I bought another one just in case it becomes the miracle that everyone is looking for to grow their hair. I hope this helps, i will try to get the website as soon as possible. the ingredients are: Nettle, rosemary, sage, peppermint, alfalfa, pure virgin olive oil, pure coconut oil, sage oil, rosemary oil, bergamot oil, chlorophyll (from nettle and spinach), pure mineral jelly, natural fragrance and Good Intention
3.3.07
On the top, this is my hair after I have done my twists.
I made these scarves. I crochet and knit as a hobby, but I would love to create a crafts business. I really don't want a normal job, lol.
Right now, I'm making a tote bag and making a black and green scarf for a friend, all for free. One of my goals is to make a pillow. I'm a beginner crocheter and knitter and yet I want to create a business, lol, that's funny.
I haven't posted on the forum yet, but I find it very helpful and you can check out other people's beautiful hair on their fotki album, b/c they seem to like to post them.
Diane Da Costa's Recommended products: Aveda Carol's Daughter Clinique-sold at Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue Gentle Treatment-Sold at Target, walmart, and drug stores Goldwell Color system-goldwell.com Kiehl's - (212)-67-3171, sold at NYC Kera Care Products-Avlon/Affirm. Avlon.com Kerastase Shampoo and Conditioners-kerastase.com L'oreal Majarel Professional Colors and Salons-loreal.com Optimum Multimineral Relaxers-Lorealusa.com/softsheen-carson.com Pantene Pro-V Shampoos and Conditioners-Sold at Rite Aid, CVS and other drug stores. Neutrogena Shampoos & conditioners-sold at Rite Aid, CVS, and other drug stores. Matrix: Biolage Earth Tones Color Refreshing Conditioners-matrix.com mizani Relaxer System, shampoos, conditioners, and finishing products 1800-342-7661 Phytologie/Phytospecific-Sold at Barney's
Textured Tresses, has very detailed information about styles, products to use to have beautiful hair and also how to shape hair and uses the insights of a stylist. The only drawback is that I felt she spent too much time talking about the stars she worked for, like Blair Underwood, Lenny Kravitz, lauryn Hill, Roy Hargrove, a jazz trumpeter and Dee Dee Bridgewater. To some people, they might like to know more about celebrities, but I don't really care about celebrities and what they do. I felt like Diane Da Costa was bragging about her meeting these stars and I motly didn't care for it. In her book she shows how to style the hair after washing it with detailed pics. She also lists meditation, yoga or aerobics and healthy food as a way to develop a healthy lifestyle and beautiful hair.
