i was sitting in the back of the cab trying my best to not fidget so much in the car. my freshly shaven legs poked out of my black stretch mini skirt and stuck to the hot pleather seat. the ac, blasting at full force, and set on the lowest temperature, was straining to pump air to the back of the sedan and it seemed to be having an extremely hard time reaching me. i could feel the cool air abruptly stop right at the tip of my nose and prance around in a torturous tease. salty sweat beads eagerly gathered around at my hairline like bees to summer honey as i mumbled painstakingly under my breath that i didn’t want my twist out to start messing up – i had a date in a few hours and did not have the time to try to redo my hair.
my cabbie, who couldn’t help but glance at me and all my awkward dancing across the hot seat through his rear view mirror, took note of my frustration and started to strike up a conversation with me to get my mind off the heat that was only amplified every time he hit a pot hole at what felt like 90 miles an hour; every bump repeatedly knocked over my pink tote spilling all of it’s contents on the floor. being the southern belle that i am, i obliged his sincere attempts to make this 30 min ride as smooth as possible. we talked and laughed at times about everything from the [click to continue…]
“i can remember being in the bathtub asking my mom to put bleach in the water so that my skin could be lighter…”
in 2005, one of my favorite people in the entire world was born – my little niece joycelyn. a unique and wonderful piece of joy and happiness that God bestowed on our family. she is awesomely beautiful. she has beautiful dark eyes with envy evoking eyelashes and a blazing smile. she is also a beautiful dark brown complexion that rivals the finest dark chocolates.
I LOVE HER VERY MUCH. i know that she can grow up to be ANYTHING that she wants to be and that her life will not be defined by the fact that she was born a woman or the fact that she is black and NEVER by the fact that her blackness steers on the side of the deepest spectrum for many who quantify color.
as i type this, my heart is heavy [click to continue…]
| anonymous writes:
kurlybella, what do you think about all these girls walking around out here claiming type 4 but have curls and know that they are a type 3. i’m tired of these girls claiming to have the same hair problems i have. what would you do if you know someone is not a type 4 but really claims this, like kimmaytube for example? we all know that type 4 hair does not grow that long! let’s just keep it real!
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whoa, why all the us vs. them over hair typing? let me see if i can start from the top with this one. “all these girls walking around” – i don’t know about you, but i walk too – it’s my main, actually only way, of moving my body about to get to and fro. “claiming type 4 but have curls” – i’m over hair typing and have been for a while. yes, there is an old post here on the blog where i try to show the difference between type 4a and 4b, and even though i do believe there are differences in hair textures and sub-differences within categories as well, and that typing in some instances can help naturals find ways to address their particular hair concerns, that post is a couple years old and i no longer spend any time on thinking about hair textures AT ALL because it means little to nothing at the end of the day when it comes to hair care.
with that being said, [click to continue…]
by kinky girl, sonya mccoy
I did it! (again) “The Big Chop”, as we have come to know it, is a phenomenon in Black culture when African American women cut off their chemically straightened hair. This is the third time I have done the “big chop.” Once in 1993 and once in 1999, I cut off my my chemically straightened hair. This time, I cut off locked (dreadlocked) hair that I had been cultivating and growing for eight years.
Non-Black readers as well as Black ones may be asking: why is this hair thing so important in the Black community?
The discourse about Black folks’ hair is one that has less to do with hair and more to do with American identity. Some will argue this point to infinitude, but there really is no way to account for the persistence of the Black hair issue permeating cultural discourse since the transatlantic slave trade without concluding that we are talking about far more than hair.
Every decade or so since the end of the Civil Rights movement [click to continue…]
how sexy does your natural hair make you feel?
when i first went natural, i hated the way i looked with my natural hair – i had some type of ugly hair shock and after seeing myself for so long with long hair – weaves mostly – i couldn’t fathom that i’d be able to invoke my inner fierceness and as deeply as i used to because my hair in a straight state as well as the length was a part of that essence; the ability to flip it, twirl it and toss it over my shoulders. [click to continue…]
kelly is a kinky haired natural that holds no punches. her hair is kinky and her styling skills are off the charts. currently enrolled in aveda to take her natural hair skills up a notch, we talked for two hours for her type 4 feature about all kinds of random things including philly move members, naps and “fros on the fourth” – kelly was one of the inspirational naturals behind “fros on the fourth” and designed the logo that spread in the natural community like a virus. i can’t wait to see how her skills skyrocket after school and she shares with the world her professional natural hair game which i’m sure will be a force to be reckoned with.
what year did you start going natural? [click to continue…]
