Happy Mother's Day!!!

Me and my granny Willie Mae Brodie.

Natural Beauty's

She said she does not like to smile because she "does not have any teeth." LOL!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's from the present and future!

How should I wear my hair for the Music City Naturals Hair Event? Hmmmmm....

I have a few ideas in mind. I will more than likely do my favorite hair style that always gets tons of compliments and is super super easy to do. If you have been a follower of the blog it should be of no surprise to you.

Hint: It is a roll, tuck, pin hairstyle. I will reveal it tomorrow!

I am very excited about this event. I plan on meeting a few people there. There is a natural chica named Amber of Nashville Natty's who is doing a documentary about natural hair so we will meet up tomorrow. On Facebook it says this lady whose kids I used to babysit will be there so maybe I will see her. The day is sure to be full of surprises!

Check out Amber's blog here. She was also recently featured on Black Girl Long Hair.

If you are natural in Nashville and would like to be a part of her film then check out the film's  website and contact her.

For more info on the Music City Naturals Hair Event click here.

Let's have an honest, frank discussion about using coochie cream on you scalp.

I was at work the other day and this lady comes in and shares with me her natural hair story. I love that women frequently come up to me and start talking about hair. She revels that she is a new natural and is enjoying the process of discovering her natural hair.  As we continue to converse I ask her what products she is using. She proceeds to tell me that she uses vaginal cream in her hair.

I was very taken aback by this. Now when I say vaginal cream I mean the cream that you use to clear up fungal infections in your vagina. So something like a Monistat. She then proceeds to tell me that there are a ton of ladies who swear by it and the she has experienced tremendous hair growth because of it. I did a Google search and there are indeed quite a bit of people who use coochie cream in their hair on a regular basis. In fact this lady has a whole blog dedicated to the subject.

Now I consider myself a very open person, however I am NOT putting coochie cream in my hair. Actually, I probably would not even put coochie cream in my vagina without trying other methods first. It is a drug and drug have many side effects. I am gonna breakdown why this drug may work for some ladies and also why I will not be using it.

Anti-fungal vaginal cream is miconazole nitrate. This molecule is made of the drug miconazole and a nitrate. Miconazole is an anti-fungal which is pretty harmless when applied topically. It is not absorbed through the skin that much, however if you apply it everyday like some of the women do then the small amount of drug absorption will add up over time. Topically miconazole is NOT supposed be used long term. The side effects are are mainly application irritation and maybe an allergic reaction. If you have fungus issues on your scalp that impede hair growth, they may be relieved by applying this drug. However, I would also like to add that proper pH balance of scalp and good hygiene practices will also eliminate fungus on your scalp. Additionally there are other more natural treatment options for scalp fungus such as tea tree oil.

  

Now let's talk about the other part of this molecule: the nitrate. I called my pharmacist friend Eejay and she say that nitrates in drugs are usually used to balance the drug out, whatever that means (it was a lot of confusing nerdy drug talk lol). Some of the ladies on the websites say that this ingredient has a vasodialation effect. In other words, it expands your blood vessels. It is a known fact that nitroglycerin is used to expand blood vessels. When people have had a heart attack they are usually given nitroglycerin tablets to expand blood vessels which get more blood and oxygen to the heart muscle. If the nitrate in this drug has this effect, then yes, it will cause an increase in hair growth. When more blood gets to the scalp there is more blood, oxygen, nutrients, vitamins, and minerals which are good for hair growth.

  

HOWEVER it should be noted that blood flow to the scalp can also be increased by simple non pharmaceutical means such as scalp massage, exercise, and eating right. furthermore a rapid increase in blood vessels diameter can cause unintended side effects such as headaches (a reported side effects of using coochie cream on your scalp), low blood pressure, feeling faint and dizzy, and tingling. If the nitrate in this drug is indeed a vasodilator then the user will also develop a tolerance to it and the effects will

go away and users may even experience withdrawal symptoms if they quit using it.

Another thing...miconazole nitrate is NOT to be used while pregnant, especially in the first trimester. So if you are trying to get pregnant you should stay away.

Really? Ladies let's have a chat. Come have a seat.

Honestly ladies I just have to ask this question: Really? Are you serious? I mean, in an effort to grow hair we will resort to putting an unproven drug on our scalp? I guess that just speaks to people's desire to have things quick, fast, and in a hurry without putting in the work. We get liposuction/lap band surgery instead of putting in the work to lose weight. We fall prey to get rich quick schemes to make money quickly. WE PUT FREAKING VAGINAL CREAM IN OUR HAIR instead of using good hair practices like moisturizing, protective styling, careful detangling,  and limited heat use.

I have a laid back personality so I maybe I just don't feel passionate enough about my hair growing long  to understand why someone would do this. In general I try to stay away from pharmaceutical drugs and rely on more natural plant drugs to heal many ailments that I have. A lot of these drugs are made from plants anyways. They simply extract the active ingredient and concentrate it which then takes the drug out of it's natural balanced state and brings about all types of unintended side effects.

If you have fungus growth then you should take a step back, listen your body, and reflect on why fungus is growing. It means something is out of balance. This is true with any disease. I got hit with the flu this winter around my birthday and it was totally because I was doing too much partying, bad eating, and not resting So my body said, "Enough!" and forced me to stay in bed for 10 days to recover and rest. Fungus growth usually means you are consuming too much sugar and starches.

If you have fungus issues on your scalp you can do the following:

• Eat a diet full of fresh fruits and veggies. Good health ALWAYS starts from the inside out.
• Tea tree oil is a known very powerful anti-fungal.
• Raw papaya is an anti-fungal. Rub pieces over your scalp.
• Aloe vera gel on problem areas.
• Proper hair washing and hair drying.

 

If you want to increase blood flow to your scalp you can to the following:

• Again diet! Keep your blood vessels free and unclogged by eating lots of fruits and veggies!
• Exercise expands your blood vessles and increases blood flow all over your body.
• Scalp massage.
• Moving your head below the level of your heart. Simply bend over at the waist and let gravity help you. Do this for 10 secs and give yourself time to recover. Repeat if you want. Please do this sitting so you won't fall from being dizzy lol.
• Inverted yoga poses help for the same reasons as above.  

So there you have it folks. Using coochie cream on your scalp more than likely will not harm you but there are other more effective and proven ways to achieve hair growth. I would proceed with caution if you have sensitive skin, if you are prone to headaches, pregnant or trying to be,  if you have blood pressure problems, or if you have an allergy to any of the ingredients. Personally, I will not be using it.

Ladies (and men) have you used vaginal cream on your scalp? What were the results? Would you use it? Are you repulsed or saddened that women are doing this? Am I being harsh and over dramatic? Share your thoughts below!

Shout Out To My Blog Readers + Dark And Lovely Knot Out Product Review

Shout Out To My Readers!!!

First off I would like to say that my blog readership has grown a lot over the past 8-9 months. I think it is because I have been posting more. I check the stats of the blog everyday and I am always surprised to see what countries pop up. Of course I have readers from the US, Canada, and the UK, but I am always surprised by what other countries visit. There has been a country I had never even heard of called Suriname which is located in South America, there are quite a bit of readers from Ukraine, Russia and the Netherlands. Germany pops up every now and then (Hello Yori!). Of course there are lots of places in the Caribbean like Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and St. Lucia. And there are lots of African countries like Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa that are regular visitors. I have not had any Asian visitors though....lol.

So hello to all my blog readers and thanks for reading! Please leave a comment down below and post your website or blog!

Dark and Lovely Knot Out Product Review

Ingredients: AQUA / WATER / EAU, CETEARYL A L C O H O L , E L A E I S G U I N E E N S I S O I L / PA L M O I L , BEHENTRIMONIUM CHLORIDE, PARFUM / FRAGRANCE, GLYCERIN, PHENOXYETHANOL, ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL, STEARAMIDOPROPYL DIMETHYLAMINE, MANGIFERA INDICA S E E D O I L / M A N G O S E E D O I L , C A P RY L I C / C A P R I C , T R I G LY C E R I D E , C I T R I C A C I D , C H L O R H E X I D I N E DIHYDROCHLORIDE, BENZYL SALICYLATE, LINALOOL, BAMBUSA VULGARIS EXTRACT.

I have been spending a lot of time at my boo's house. I don't have my usual arsenal of coconut oil, shea butter, oils, essential oils, honey, and ACV at his place to make my hair products so in a pinch I went to Target and saw that Dark and Lovely has come out with a line for natural hair.

Now let me just say that when I went natural back in the day the only thing we had was pretty much Carol's Daughter and Miss Jessies. That is it. These products were hard to purchase at local stores. They were always sold out or we had to order online. That is why a lot of old school naturals started making their own products. After that a few other independent lines started coming out with products for kinky hair. Then about 4-5 years ago it seems that the major hair companies such as Soft-Sheen Carson, Loreal and the others realized that they too could get black women's dollars and started creating natural hair care lines.

I am usually very, very suspicious of larger white owned corporations and their natural hair products. They usually use ingredients that are cheap and are not beneficial to the health of hair. I have nationalist roots (black power fist) so I really do believe in supporting black owned companies. If I do buy a hair product I try to use one without glycerin, alcohol, or silicones (explanations to come in a later post). With all that being said, I was in a pinch and needed to wash and detangle my hair. I chose this product because it said it had good "slip" and it was cheap. The ingredients are very questionable though. This has silicones and alcohol lol. So I will leave this at his house and only use when desperate.

As far as how it worked, it worked really well. It did have nice to it and a little went a long way. My hair detangled with ease and it was soft, though I can't attribute that to the detangle exclusively.  So an A for how it worked and an F on the ingredients.

So you may ask why did I not choose a black owned detangler. Because they are too darn expensive lol. I don't have $15 to spend on a bottle that will last a month. For me, it is not worth it. I will continue to make my own for much cheaper.

How do you all feel about the larger commercial companies making kinky haired products? Do you feel they are just jumping on the bandwagon?

Slightly Harder Roll Tuck Pin Hairstyle

            Continuing with my theme of roll, tuck, pin protective styles...this one was a little harder. It was harder because my hair was a little too short for this. At last check it was between 6.5 and 7 inches. I kinda had trouble getting it to roll properly in some areas. Maybe this would not have been a problem if my hair was properly stretched. At this point, I am in serious need of a wash. I put a bit of water and shea butter on it last night to combat dryness and this more than likely contributed to it shrinking some. Plus I like to do hairstyle with my hair curly textured so this also contributed to the shrinkage.

This hairstyle also took a bit longer to do. Most of the hairstyles can be achieved in 6-10 minutes. This one  took about 15 minutes. If I had not been late and in a rush this morning it would not have seen the light of day. The tutorial is listed below. I did a few things different from the tutorial. First off I don't really brush or manipulate my hair with styling tools that much. I feel this contributes to breakage. Plus my hair has not been detangled in about a week so brushing without detangling is a recipe for lots of unnecessary hair breakage. The tutorial calls for stretched hair. My hair was not really stretched that much.

Super Easy Roll Tuck Pin Protective Style

Continuing with my protective styling....YAWN!!! Protective styling sucks!

For those that have not been following, I am going to attempt to do protective styles at least 5 days out of the week. Protective styles are defined as styles in which none of the ends of your hair are showing. Protectives styles protect the ends of your hair which are the oldest and most fragile portions. When people say that their hair won't grow it is a matter of their hair breaking off, not of their hair not growing. In order to see hair growth you must retain the hair that is already on your head. Protective styling is a great way to help this process. Or at least that is what all the long haired ladies on YouTube say. For me, I love big afros so this has kinda been a challenge mentally for me. I am always trying to find new hairstyles that work on my short hair.

Today I have a roll, tuck, and pin hairstyle. Theses styles are good if you have streched out hair that needs to be washed and detangled but you have not had the time to do so just yet. They are really, really simple and work on my short 6.5 inch hair.



The hairsyle is cute, it is kinda retro which are styles that I like. Like I said it was super easy to do. The tutorial is below.

Ladies! I need help! What are some of your fave toll, tuck, and pin hairstyles? Post them in the comments section.  

For White People Who Adopt Black Babies

I was walking through the local farmer's market this past weekend and I spotted a white couple with the currently trendy black adopted child from Africa. Now, I have no problem with interracial adoption. A loving, caring parent of any race is better than no parent at all.

However, I do have a problem when white parents DO NOT take the time to learn about how to properly care for their child's kinky hair. This poor child's hair was matted, dry looking, had broken ends, and I am sure it has not ever been cared for properly since she left Africa. It took everything in me to NOT go over to the parents and beg them, "Please let me teach you how to do your child's hair." I hate when people give me unwanted advice about my hair, diet, and whatever else they see fit, so I just watched them from afar and prayed that one day they would be enlightened.

The child looked to be around age 5 or 6. I figured at that age kids are not really that cruel yet, however, pretty soon she would be getting older and if her hair continues to look a mess as it currently does, she has years of torment ahead of her.

For black kids (and black adults) hair is a very important part of their self-esteem and self image. It is the dream of many little black girls today to have hair swinging down their backs either from a fresh press or from the little beads that go on the ends of cornrows.   I don't know how many hours me and my friends spent doing each other's hair back in the day. We went through A LOT of  weave, gel, hair clips, and hair mags.

I am not white so I really don't know how important hair is to them. However, I suspect that they don't understand the significance of hair to us. I also know they don't know the amount of effort, products, or techniques it takes to maintain our hair. And this really is not a problem that only white people have. I know there are many black parents who don't know how to take care of their child's natural hair either, so they slap a perm in at 5 or 6 and the child's hair follicles are destroyed for the rest of their life. I had to ask myself why was I so compelled to reach out to speak with this white parent when I see way more black parents with children with jacked up hair. Hmmmmmm.

At any rate, there are some resources for white parents on how to care for their black child's kinky hair. There is a website Chocolate Hair, Vanilla Hair which was created by a white woman, for white people, on how to care for their black child's hair. It has a lot of great pics, and her daughter is very very adorable. It is a great resource for parents of all races to get inspiration for their child's hair. many large cities offer hair care classes specifically for white people who have black children. A quick google search brought up a few in places such as Chicago, DC, and even Sun Prarie, WI (wherever that is). So if you search the information is out there!

I hope it trickles down into the hands of the little girl's parents I saw this past weekend.

Do you all feel that it is "rude" for a black person to offer unsolicited advice to a white parent whose black child hair looks a mess? Would you do the same to a black parent whose child had damaged broken off relaxed hair?

Music City Naturals Natural Hair Event 2013

So I am super super SUPER excited about this hair convention in Nashville! I actually don't think I will be able to go...my favorite kizomba dancer Mafalda is going to be in ATL this week. I am a total groupie for Mafalda. She lives in Portugual and she is rarely here in America. So I will be going to see her I think. But if I happen to be there I will see you all there!

Here is a breakdown of the speakers.

Schedule of Presenters (taken from the website)

We'll begin the speaker series at 1:45p with Kaneesha Martin of the Mahogany Suites Salon in Smyrna. Kaneesha will tackle the topic: "Do I still need a stylist, I'm NATURAL!?" She'll discuss the importance of having a professional eye walk you through the transition process and answer your questions on hair care.

At 2:30p the Design Essentials Style Team will do a haircare demonstration presenting their new line of natural care products. You'll see the team style a natural hair volunteer. The team will be available all day to answer questions about products and services.

3:45p Ashanti Pratt of Braids Ashanti will lead a discussion on Proper Protective Styling. You don't want to miss this discussion as Ashanti tells us how to protect our edges, prevent breakage, and maintain length through protective styling.

Natural haircare always leas to a more natural skin routine, Professional Make-up Artist and esthetician, Contrecia Tharpe of Eternite Day Spa will speak at 4:30. Contrecia will be on hand to answer you skincare questions and give some smart make-up tips.

5:00pm is for our Long-Term Naturals! Been living this natural life for 5 years our more? Well, Tekeisha Brooks of A Natural Affair Beauty Lounge & Salon in Memphis, TN will answer your questions for taking your natural hair to the NEXT LEVEL! Length retention questions? She'll be able to answer all those questions.

The last hour is for the kids! Chloe and Dominique-Alexis from Baby Big Hair will discuss all the ways to care for your little lady or gentleman's natural hair! The children's presentation begins at 5:45.

Do you all plan on going to the event? Have you ever been to a natural hair convention before?

Chunky Flat Twist Updo

This weekend I did a flat twist updo. I recently learned how to do flat twists so I am really excited about adding them to my styling regimen. I think they are cute, and they fall into the protective styling catergory.

On Friday I attempted to do something to my hair that I will not mention but long story short my hair ended up in a puff.

Here is the tutorial:

You all should try this hairstyle! It is really easy and lasts a while. 



Two Strand Twist Out Side rolls

I am continuing my protective styling routine. My twists started to look a little fuzzy. They actually did not look that bad, I just became really bored with my hair so I tooked them down. They were a little dry so I wet them in the shower and then rolled then into buns down the side.



I liked how it turned out. The texture was really nice. This protective styling is forcing me to get creative with my hair styles!

What are some ways you get creative with protective styling?