TWA BLOOOZE

What do i do with this little bit of short hair?
Im bored of the same old hairstyles!
I feel like im gonna have a twa forever!!!!!
This twa is such a snooze

Yup, i got the TWA blues....

Lately, every hairstyle i try, i hate. I feel like a baby with a clip in the front or flat twists in the front and little afroey curls in the back. Headbands usually hurt and squeeze my head so i don't wear 'em often (also cuz of my 5-head!) and i'm tired of just wearing it curly in wash n go's, little afros or little 2 strand twists...  i need some more options!!!!

Exhibit A =====>
An attempt @ a frohawk (Gone wrong, and definitely did not wear this out of the house!)
The curls in the middle/top couldn't figure out what they wanted to do, hang or fro it out, and im not a fan of the mini box of hair in the middle that seems to happen when u do a frohawk on a twa and it  shrinks up... guess i'll just wait until my hair gets a little longer.....WOMP, WOMP.

Until then, it looks like this is my only other option in TWA styling, either my afro or flat twists (besides just wearing it curly of course).
I can't wait to see how my style options change as i gain more and more length!

Henna

I made a decision to start using Body Art Quality Henna for my hair after reading about it for the past 6 months (yes, that's how long I was researching it!). I wanted to find a way to add some color to my hair without it being damaging. I have colored  my  hair with box dyes mostly with browns and reds but I even had gold and orange hi-lights. The colors were nice and weren't tacky (as outrageous as some  of it may sound) but my hair wasn't being taken care of so it dried out and broke off. (I'm not against using commercial dyes, fyi.) So I started reading about pure henna. Some facts about it:

- Henna is a plant that grows to about 6 meters high. Found to grow in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

- the leaves have red-orange dye (lawsone). There is no such thing as pure "black" henna or "Blonde" henna, they are probably mixed with other compounds that can even be harmful

- Body Art Quality henna comes in a powder, mix it with a slightly acidic liquid (lemon juice, tea, ect) to release the dye 

- Safer to use then commercial dyes. Can also be used over commercial dyes, chemically processed hair (relaxers etc) and natural hair

- doesn't lighten dark hair; rather it gives a shine. Best explanation is CurlyNikki's when she said it's like coloring with an orange crayon on black paper.

-Strengthens and conditions hair.

So since I am a little addicted to color and want to have healthy hair, I gave it a try. I'll write about my experiences with it in an upcoming post, so stay tuned. In the mean time, you can read more information about it here, and check out the results from bloggers who use henna (CurlyNikki, The Feisty House, or Tia )

"It's Not For Me!"

A few weeks ago, SP and I were at Duane Reade. We of course wondered into the hair aisle and browsed hair conditioners, pointing out our favorite drugstore brands like Herbal Essence. I confessed to her that even though I was natural my whole life, I was under the assumption that the only products I could use for my hair were ones that had the happy, smiling faces of black people. And it didn't help that all the "black people" products were always lumped together as "ethnic" hair. We laughed at the notion and made jokes about what we used to think (there's a black girl on that conditioner, must be for me!).

But all jokes aside, it's pretty sad. First of all, most of the "black" products I grew up on like hair grease and the shampoos didn't do much for my hair. My family, and then later myself, probably thought that this was what we were supposed to use and didn't bother using other hair products. I remember in my freshman year of high school I wanted to dye my hair red, so I bought a box of red dye from L'Oreal or something (you know, one of those products with smiling white women on the cover) and my mom frowned. It's not gonna work for your hair, she said. But I didn't see any red colors with brown women on it and I desparately wanted my hair red. Low and behold, the color barely showed up, because I had so much hair and we didn't have enough (in retrospect, I should've bought two boxes). From that experience I realized that there perhaps weren't much hair products out there for me. But I went back to my comfort zone of picking up products with brown faces...

And I'm thinking, is this what I am going to be limited to? Basically, the marketing folks aren't thinking of people like me. They contribute to the standards society sets for who is supposed to use what products. Before I experimented and figured this out for myself, I would've continued to only shop in the "ethnic" section of the drugstores (which usually do not have products that are even owned by people of color) and completely ignore other products. What would have happened if L'Oreal would've shown a brown woman on their products? If we're supposed to be all post-racial, why are we still segragated when it comes to beauty products?

Big Hair Days

I have a lot of hair and I like to wear it big, out and free but not neccessarily in an afro (as it takes a lot of coaxing to get it that way). For me, this is achieved doing twist outs, braid outs, or even just leaving my hair alone with minimal product.

This past week, I had been stumped as to what to do with my hair but then I ended up just flat twisting all of my hair like they were cornrows...

I actually had pulled this back into a ponytail and wore it to work like that for the week. I moisturized it everyday with this spritz I ordered from Oyin called Greg Juice and their whipped pudding (both which I will review later). Then I took it out and wore my hair both out and pulled back with a banana clip.

And this was me yesterday heading to the Yankee/Met game. I saw someone spill beer onto someone's head, so I was really hoping the same wouldn't happen to me...

By the end of the night, my hair was huge! I thought it would end up a real mess, but it turns out it stayed put, just got bigger. I didn't get a picture of that because I was tired after my first Yankee game (they lost -__-) but overall, I think I rocked it quite nicely.

When did we stop Loving our Natural hair?

I have always been a lover of the 70's, with their big beautiful afros and expressive, ethnic style.

I know black people, and all people of color faced  a lot of racial injustices, as we still are, but i really would like to know when our hair stopped being good enough?

When did we go from wanting to keep the perfect fro to feeling like we "need" a relaxer? Don't be ashamed girl, let Your Africa Show!

I mean, even back then we were relaxing and using things like the "blow out kit" but we still kept texture in our hair, we were not perming to the bone straight, lifeless looking hair i see girls walking around with today. As a professional hairstylist, i really had to think back and wonder why there are so many girls with broken off, lifeless, over processed, relaxed hair. Looking back at pictures from our parent's generations and just a few years before and after, women of color never had hair that was just falling out, breaking off, lifeless...


When we had short haircuts it was because we wanted short haircuts. I have never seen a picture of my mom or any of her friends with missing edges or uneven, thin, broken off hair and yes, they used to relax their hair. Every old picture i've seen in a "colored" person's house of their older family members, the women were always beautifully dressed and their hair was always beautiful, full, and well kept, whatever the style.

It's so sad now to hear stories of girls who want to go natural but their mother won't let them, or girls who have never even seen their natural hair because they have basically been relaxed from birth (i have 2 little cousins in this situation now), even girls who have been forced to perm their hair or had their hair permed against their will

I really commend mothers who chose to stay natural or at least keep their children natural, as it is truly a beautiful thing.

What's even more sad is how little they educate you in cosmetology school on "ethnic hair" types, unless you go to a more ethnic school, but even then, its rare that they would teach you about natural hair and hair care, as our hair in cosmetology textbooks is referred to as "Coarse, kinky, or overly curly"

WTF! (excuse my lingua) No one looks at an asian and says their hair is "overly straight"

I am in no way (as Curly Film Chick would put it) a natural hair nazzi, as i have been through every hair styling option imaginable, but i do believe in hair health and let's face it, hair is always healthiest when in it's most natural state. My point is, love the hair you were born with, and if you decide to alter it in anyway, do it for a change, not because you hate your hair or think it isn't good enough, and whatever you do, please take care of it :) 

 Our hair used to be an outward expression of our pride and beauty as a people, i hope these images help remind us of it.

Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Treat Shampoo

Product Description: Shampoo should clean hair.  Really good shampoo should make you tingle from head to toe.  With Tea Tree Triple Treat Shampoo, invigorating ingredients wash in rejuvenating while washing away the previous day.  You're left with something rich, something clean.  Something incredibly stimulating.... for hair and mind.  Think about it.


Invigorating Shampoo

• Enriched with certified organic botanicals
• No animal by-products
• Cruelty free
• Increases scalp circulation for a refreshed, renewed feeling
• Removes all traces of dirt, oil and build-up
• Alleviates dry, flaking scalp with organic peppermint botanicals
• Contains no laurel/laureth sulfate

My experience: So, I'm not really a fan of shampoo. Ever since I could remember it would just make my hair feel dry and tangled. I later learned that there were harsh ingredients such as sodium laurel sulfate that dries the hell out of the hair. So now we have all these shampoos that are sulfate free and even though I'm still meh to them and have alternate cleansing methods, I've decided to embark on a journey to find one I may like....


So I picked this shampoo because I heard good things about the Giovanni line and plus,  it was on sale. Also, it has tea tree oil as one of its first 5 ingredients which is good. You see, my scalp flakes and stuff fly out like you won't believe and tea tree oil does wonders for it. When using shampoo, I concentrate on my scalp anyway so I figured it'd be good.


Well, this shampoo really does make my scalp feel clean. As it starts running through my hair though,  my hair immediately started to feel funky so I wouldn't say it's a particularly moisturizing shampoo. It doesn't have a creamy consistency like other shampoos and it sorta looks like Castor oil. It doesn't sud much and it has a faint smell. Another thing I was questioning was what ingredients would it have to effectively clean my hair, and I saw it has Cocamidopropyl Betaine which is a milder and less skin-irritating cleansing agent (read more about it at The Natural Haven).


Overall, it does its  job but doesn't "wow" me, so I'll just finish the bottle and find something new.


Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Threat Shampoo


Ingredients: Aqua (Purifed) Water, Tea Tree (Melaleuca Alternifolia) Oil, Peppermint (Mentha Piperita) Oil, Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus Officinalis) Oil, Rosemary (Rosmarinus Officinalis) Extract, Nettle (Urtica Dioica) Oil, Thyme (Thymus Vulgaris) Oil, Birch Leaf (Butela Alba) Oil, Chamomilla (Anthemis Nobilus Flower), Clary (Salvia Sclarea), Lavender (Lavandula Angustifolia), Coltsfoot Leaf (Tussilago Fargara), Yarrow (Achillea Millefolium) Oil, Mallow (Malya Sylvestris), Horsetail (Equisetum Arvense) Oil, Soybean Protein (Glycine Soja), C12 14 Oleifin Sulfonate (Coconut Derived), Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Tocopherol (*Vitamin E), Trace Minerals, Citric Acid (Corn), Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate, Sodium Chloride (Sea Salt), Grapefruit Seed (Citrus Derived)

Happy birthday to me!

My birthday just passed, actually this past Tuesday on June 15th and i was so up in the air about what to do with my hair. I went online and ordered some curly weave last week, intending to install it and rock a cute curly bob for my b'day but decided not to because my man really loves when i wear my natural hair out. He's growing his natural hair out too and i know he wanted us to show off as a beautiful natural couple with our little twa's, lol. I currently am rocking a 2.5" to 3" TWA (teenyweenyafro!) and had no idea what to do with it.... help! 

I smoothed my curls in the shower with conditioner, rinsed my hair and shook out the excess water, so as not to manipulate my curls and make them frizzy. After air drying for about an hour, my hair looked like this ===>


What to do now?! 
I sectioned out the front part of my hair, divided the front section by a side part, added a little IC Fantasia Aloe Gel and got to making a two-strand flat twist head band across the front. Once i finished my headband, the rest of my curls were still a little damp, so for definition and frizz control, i used my trusty Kinky Curly Curling Custard and smoothed a little over my curls, section by section, and voila!

How's that for TWA birthday hair?!