I’m a young money millionaire, tougher than Nigerian hair…” – Lil Wayne
it’s a common misconception that black people; those of african decent, and even more so africans, have very tough hair. some equate it to brillo pads or wire-type strands – hard, coarse and just downright rough and tough.
this is a something that has been passed down generation after generation and i’d argue that at the core of this unfortunate lie is the reason a lot of black women who do not know much about hair care struggle to achieve and retain length. we’ve been lead to believe that our hair is so tough that it can almost take anything which leads to many of us sitting in the salon chair as we wince in pain while our hair is braided too tight, our scalps are burned, our edges pulled and prodded and our heads giving slash a run for his money as plastic bristle brushes that rip through our roots sling our heads back and fourth against the resistance of our necks.
in reality kinky and kinky curly hair are the most [click to continue…]
Freelance make-up artist Sisi Nike is the blogger behind My Modest Mouth. Through her blog, Sisi takes us into a journey about her natural hair, beauty and style and how she feels about being an African woman with natural hair.
Why and when did you make the decision to go natural?
Well I originally did the big chop back in May of 2007 but I put a texturizer in my hair. I went back to perms after I ruined the texture of my hair by putting a hot comb to it a year later. I decided to start all over again in the summer of 2010 when I became sick and tired of maintaining my short “Rihanna/Halle Berry” cut while working out. It became far too annoying to maintain a style like that and sweating all the time, so I decided to grow out my hair. I wanted to [click to continue…]
“you need to shave them buckshots, beadie bead! them beadie beads is out of control girl!” – martin
this weekend i lived in my beanie. i was just too lazy to take my hair out so i went with comfort and ease which for me automatically equals a beanie or some form of a head wrap. while i was out this weekend, beanie’d up, i stopped by this cute little boutique in my neighborhood. that day, there was a new sales lady, who also happened to be a natural with a blonde twa. we talked about everything and i tried on clothes for over an hour. while i was there, i had to take off and put on my beanie repeatedly to get the different shirts over my head. on my last try, i must have half way pulled my beanie down in the back because my kitchen was partially exposed unbeknownst to me. when i got the the counter to pay, i could see my profile out of the corner of my eye in the over-sized mirror that graces the boutique’s wall. making their presence known were my little knots. since i was in need of a nape moisture session, my nape was presenting itself as knotty – or what was called when i was growing up, beady-bead or buckshot.
what is a beady bead? well, if you don’t know, [click to continue…]
my serious shrinkage face
shrinkage,
i hated you for a long time, and why shrinkage, why did i do that? i ask this rhetorically because i now realize that it was you who helped to keep my hair moisturized and you who helped me – less my desire to admit it – GROW my hair. there! i said it, now you can go gloat in your glory – your much deserved glory. you often get a bad rap from curly and kinky haired girls, and i wasn’t helping the situation because i was drinking the shrinkage haterade too – but now i realize the error in my shrinkage hater ways. shrinkage, i want to have [click to continue…]
(5/5)
don’t talk about me, but i just started using shea moisture curl enhancing smoothie back in november of last year. can you say late to the party?
i don’t live in the most diverse part of la so much to my dismay, shea moisture just came to my local target recently – as in this month. okay, yeah i could have ordered online, but i didn’t. instead, i used shea moisture curl enhancing smoothie for the first time when i went to visit my family at thanksgiving and took a scoop from my sister’s jar. it was love at first application and it’s back to being love again! AMAZING STUFF! [click to continue…]
i’ve often sat in interesting, long, hair-focused, conversations with transitioners or women thinking about going natural or even those who recently big chopped only to learn by the end of the conversation that they were heavily contemplating going back to being relaxed.
while i’m not 100% anti-relaxer or 100% pro-natural for everyone, i do know where i stand on the “too nappy” issue for myself.
my hair has been described as all kinds of things and for the most part it has been called bad hair. i often got good hair (not that i consider this anything close to a compliment at all, instead mostly a back handed slap in the face) after i learned how to moisturize my hair, but when i was subjected to unwarranted and unwelcomed comments about my hair during my relaxed days, the comments often were reflective of the ignorant thought patterns that still affect our community today.
i understand that [click to continue…]
