Thursday, January 27, 2011

A long hair story

Well actually a short story about long hair.

When I was in elementary school I had a music teacher with loooooong, super straight, very blonde hair.  Like waist length, stick straight, flowing blond hair.  I haven't seen hair like hers since.  I think she was a nice teacher, I even remember the songs she taught us, like the Laurel school anthem and the choral key practice runs.

Even though I wasn't in chorus.

In fact, I remember all of my classmates being smitten with her.  But you know how when you're little, really complicated social concepts are really hard to grasp?  Like a gay male teacher was just "weird" or adults who were flirting with each other were "creapy"...  Well I had a vibe wayyyy back then that something wasn't "normal".  See, I went to a school comprised mostly of non-white (nor Asian) children and Mrs. Lacount had something many of us had never seen up close.  Loooooong straight hair.  And she was pretty if my memory serves me.

 Half of our school picture in like 1988-89! I'm in here in 4th grade.

I recalled all this recently and have been mulling it over ever since. I was freaked out by a huge spiderweb encountered a long shed hair in my daily shuffling about and I was transported back to Mrs Lacount's last day before she left to have surgery on her wrist (carpel from playing piano).  All the kids were sad and asking questions about when she would be back and what the surgery was for. My child mind wandered and the next thing I remember was her pulling shed hairs off her shirt and giving them away as gifts to my classmates.  (!) NO I did not want one and I was looked at with disdain from my peers when I didn't clamor for my little piece of the prize.  I think I may have gone home and told my mom, unable to figure out why my 8 or 9 year old self was so disturbed by what happened. I don't think anything ever came of it, and I never saw her again to my recollection.  But I felt some kinda way and have never forgotten it.

I think I had begun to put together that they were kinda worshiping her and her hair, and I didn't like it.  I think that feeling stuck with me and embedded itself in my psyche.  I have an aversion to unattached human hair, particularly when it is of the straight variety. I have never had a loose weave, or human hair extensions and I actually freak out a little when I find hairs that aren't mine on my chair and such.  (One time I found one in an ex's hat and had a fit! lol) Now don't get me wrong, I had braid extensions and can actually put them in my hair and other people's hair with the best of em.  As long as it's kanekalon lol. I had all that going on at that same time in my life and adopted beads and tin foiled ends and burnt stinky plastic ends all to be a part of normal black life.  But the loose, long, straight hair was alien and not to be embraced by me.

Even more so, my best friend was my white neighbor and we used to do each others hair (there was once a bad mousse incident in my hair- that's for another post) but her hair was kinda curly, not that long, and more of the brown variety.  Her mom confronted my mom once to say- "Your daughter gets to do mine's hair all the time but she won't ever let my daughter touch hers."  LOL. You all know why- and my mom had trained me well. Those braids and blow outs and ponytails were weekly masterpieces of natural haired patience.

But anyway... I think it's funny how you can watch things like "good hair" and see so many women who live and die by Indian hair weave, but then you can still meet black women who have never ever worn fake hair or sometimes ever had a relaxer.  Our upbringing, and random impressions of beauty and blackness can start and end anywhere.  You know, I would love to have like a dope bob with a bang and put my hair away for a while, but I've never had a weave, so now I just feel like I can't lol.  And if I see a pile of human hair.... arrrgggg I dunno. I think I'd be outta there.

PS- I did wear a phony pony for a wedding and took it out that night.  It was a bridal mandate though! and it was fake. I had a fake wig once too- a layered, cute one my same #4 hair color.  I had styles for days in my house, in my mirror.  But it never saw the light of day, and now it's gone.  oh well.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Missing my Grandma. A Style on Pause.

This has been a very tumultuous week.  I got wonderful news about a new baby coming into our lives from a close friend, and the very next morning I got news that my grandmother passed away.

I quickly packed up and headed up north to be with my family.  Before this all happened however, I had just created a style that was to last a week and give me lots of transformation options. Though I didn't get to really wear it out and play with it I did take a few shots to share.  Hope you like!

I cornrowed the front and double-strand twisted the back.  Two of the cornrows go forward and connect at the base of two cornrows that go backwards, creating a loop that looks like a bang.  I used only Palmers coconut oil formula replenishing hair milk, which I have used before and love for braid sets.  I used a little rosemary oil on my scalp.



 



I took the twists out on the morning I went to the airport.  It had been 3 and a half days. Sorry these were the only flicks I got :-/

Then when I got back home I took the cornrows out that were facing forward.  I would have worn them out for a few more days like this. The braid out was very defined and soft.


Remember to spend time with your family and learn as much as you can from them while you can.  I talked to my Dad's mom a lot when I would see her and she told me wonderful stories about my family. I wish I had more time with her.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Perfect little random coil

I found this little guy while playing with a loosened 2 day old ponytail. Natural hair is so funny!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Hair on "The Game"

Even though I don't have picts I thought I'd talk real quick about the hair on the premiere of "season 4" of The Game on BET last night. 

Did ya'll see the natural girl that was supposed to be TT's girl?  Her hair was dope, and her cut kinda reminded me of mine, but it was even more exaggerated. She turned out to be a regular skank though, so as we all know- don't let the natural hair lead you into thinking a woman is enlightened. lol.

So almost everyone else was weaved out! BUT Megan Good's short cut (a la Keri Hilson) was VERY cute.  She actually looks better with short hair IMO.  I think a natural textured short cut on her would be fire!

I also thought Tasha's weave was well suited on her. Her bangs were cute, the dark color was sleek.  But Melanie...  The lighter color on her is not a good look, and her hairline looked pretty frazzled.  Over-processed maybe.  I was feeling the cute pixi-like cut from a few years ago, and the darker color hair on her complexion.  But I guess they are more "glamorous" this season on BET. smh.

SO then there was the issue of doubt about the baby, partly because of his hair.  Come on now.  I could make an argument for his complexion and hair paired together creating a question, particularly because of Jenea's trip to FL around the time she conceived him.  But I more genuinely feel sorry for her character.  She looked different with long hair too.  It was cute, and I don't know if it looked "better" than her shorter hair from before.  But back then her hair was VERY straight, shiny and looked to have a fine (as in thin strands) texture. If this were not TV, hair like that could easily be very curly naturally. So the hair argument alone was a bit BS.  And I mean, if you can so radically replace Brittany with a sassy little teenage tart, who no longer looked feasible as a child of either parent, I guess they are asking us to suspend our belief from jump.  Yet they still tapped into our "good hair" and light skin hang up in African America. Their conversations were not likely lost on any viewers.  Which is kinda sad.

Who else is a fan and what did you think?

Thursday, January 6, 2011

It's a new Year!

Happy new year!  Guess what?  I got my laptop!  :-D
I have to finish setting it up and I'll be ready to go!  I haven't had a laptop since the days of the black macbooks in undergrad.  Funny thing is that old Macbook still works but it's so old it doesn't have a CD dive, usb ports, wirless compatibility :-/ lol.
I had a budget of $500 (because I will be getting another desktop soon so I have to be prudent now) and scored an Acer with a blue ray player and a bunch of other bells and whistles that will do me just fine for a while.  Enough of that- You can probably tell how excited I am.  It means that I can post more often, write more for this blog and some other projects, write and post on the road... just... ahhhh.  I'm normal for once.

I'm not really prepared at the moment to write full post yet, but I last posted about how dry my hair was after putting something in it that blocked moisture from getting in. I got a good look at my ends then and had since decided to give myself a trim.  I did a dry trim like my hair dresser does, snipping my bangs back a month's worth of growth and I got rid of any rough and fuzzy ends.  I also decided to forgo gel for a while, and keep my hair extra moisturized. 

Here are a few picts of my trim:
Check out the different sized curlies and the beastly growth!  My red rinse is still hanging on strong too! Love it.
 
 
 


As for products, I have been enjoying Quidad's leave in conditioner, KC Knot Today leave in and Natural Oasis hair and scalp conditioner.  I had a big bottle of something called liquid grease, that I believe was by Natural Oasis too (It wasn't really liquid lol, and I "poured" it into another container to get it out of the bottle easier- it's like a very soft version of the hair and scalp conditioner), and was reformulated and packaged differently.  I've had both for about 4 years now and keep going back to them at times.  My hair loves this stuff, which consists mostly of cold pressed vegetable oil. It seems to keep it pliable and prone to curl, even if the curl pattern is disturbed.  It's weirdly moist, yet not quite greasy.  It reminds me of Carols Daughter Mimosa Hair Honey, and Natures Blessings Hair pomade.  I'll be sticking to those products, and plain Castor oil this year as my oil/sealants.   Trying to say goodbye to the PJ!

PS!  The truth is I'm also trying out Kiss My Face Upper management gel :-) and Safi hair care's Avocado Shea Butter.  I'm not a big fan of shea butter- never have been- but the addition of Avocado and the whipped texture have me intrigued :-) But I swear! That's it for the new! lol

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