In the midst of a storm

Checking in real quick.
My brother had surgery and is in the recovery process now finally.  Quite a scare he gave us.  He's generally super active and healthy so this came out of left field.  He had a spontaneous lung collapse that was not healing on its own.  3 chest tubes, a surgery and a full week later he went home.  sigh.  dangerous stuff.

So I got back to home after spending almost a week with him and my family, only to be hit with the passing of my grandfather.  I had just gotten in contact with that branch of my family in 2004 (in ATL) and was enjoying the process of getting to know them.  He picked me up for a drive a few years ago, and took me to meet some of my family down south.  Then his health tanked and I didn't really get to see him again.  But I went to the funeral and just got back yesterday.  My family has deep southern roots :-) It was nice to see his actual home town (and my grandmother's), Monticello GA, and the tin roof houses and eat some real home cooking amidst the real purpose for my quick visit.

My grandfather and one of my uncles, me and my homegirls - on a trip to ATL in 2004.

Grandad and two of my uncles, (RIP Addison- not pictured)

The day after I got the news about my grandfather, the house next door to my house burned down, and I saw it on the news while at work...  my house in the immediate back ground. I later learned that the news crews were assembled in my driveway! The circumstances surrounding the fire are suspicious to say the least, and now I have a boarded up, condemned house directly outside my BR windows. It was an absentee owner/landlord, renting out individual rooms to people who were mostly down on their luck (for lack of a better term).  They are all displaced and the Redcross was helping them briefly- but pray for them in the meantime.  I do, however, hope the owner looses the house and that the residents that were there will be replaced by a more traditional family or owner, fitting the rest of the neighborhood. Most of my neighbors are older empty nesters, families, or middle aged couples.



SOOOOOOOoooooo um. my hair....is on my head.
That's about it lol.
And my bottom teeth hurt with the new braces.  They are definitely moving far and fast.

When this storm passes I will post more on our regularly scheduled content!

Multi Purpose Products

I was talking (chatting) with Nuri the other day and I realized that I do quite a bit of non-hair related things with my hair things.

I often find myself in the possession of one too many bottle of conditioner, or a full bottle of shampoo that I just don't like, or won't possibly use up before it has collected some dust.  I like to try my products in multiple ways in my hair before I write them off, but sometimes it can't be helped- it's a fail.

First, I do try mixing conditioners I don't like together, or using one weak one to dilute a thicker or more expensive one.  If it's a gel I will try mixing it with oil, and most leave ins I'll try on wet and dry hair.  So what if the results are fail, fail, fail?

Sometimes, depending on where you got the product you can bring it back for a refund.  If not, you can try swapping it locally or with your friends (I got 2 almost full jars of KCCC that way!) But if you don't feel right giving someone a dirty, (don't judge!) half full bottle with a torn label, here are some other ways I use my products to get my money's worth.

Conditioner:

• Particularly V05 yummy smelling variety (blackberry/sage - .88cent nom nom) - I use conditioner mixed with water in a spray bottle as wrinkle releaser.  About 10:1 or so is usually diluted enough to smell good and work well without feeling like more than a mist.  Spray it on wrinkled clothes (except silk and polyester) shake or smooth them out and skip the iron.
•  Shaving lotion.  I have not purchased shaving lotion in years and years.  This works with almost any conditioner, and even shampoo if your skin is not sensitive.  I like to use shampoo to shave my armpits because even after soap- sometimes you get a deoderant deposit that clogs the razor blades.  Shampoo does well to cut through, and conditioner melts the texture of any hair, much like it does the hair on your head.
• In the summer if you swim, a rich slathering of conditioner before you hit the pool can help your hair stave off some of the drying chlorine and salt.  I rinse most of it out (cloudy pool halo is not cool!) but the softening and preparing to be wet WITH conditioner seems to work for my hair far better than just plain ole water.  And because this is a conditioner you will apply liberally- and not long enough for a deep condition, it doesn't really matter what it is.
• Pedicures- yes I do my own.  conditioner and a pumice stone get my feet soft and smooth and I don't need to put lotion on afterwards.  Plus most conditioner smells great and I find less irritating to my skin than heavily scented gels and lotions.
• If you have a peppermint or mentholated conditioner the smell can help tremendously if you have allergies or a cold. I once paid a grip for a mentholated body wash that my skin didn't even like.  I got Suave's rosemary/mint conditioner and my hair was like meh.... but my allergy prone sinuses opened right up.  That bottle went quickly squirted and spread haphazardly about the shower lol

At less than a buck a bottle, the suave and V05 conditioners live in my cabinet for co washing and all the uses above.  Sometimes I just grab them when I see them on sale or in the scents I love (did I say V05 blackberry/sage?) 

Here are a few other things I re-purpose:
Shampoo- degrease your tub after co-washing, remove grease spots from clothes, clean hair brushes or spot clean upholstery, clean sneakers or shoe insoles (by hand-doesn't irritate skin very quickly), wash hair curlers and other accessories that build up products.
Oils- Lotion, oil cleansing, mild sunscreen, cooking, insect repellent.

And we all know about aloe vera gel and the butters right?

A few things I love

I am at a transition point with my hair.  It's almost summer, but it's still biting cold on most mornings.  I know I am cutting my hair soon.  In fact, I trimmed about 1.5 inches off already myself lol.  BUT I will be shaping it somehow for the summer.  I just saw this pic by Brianna McCarthy this morning, and I really like the shape of the hair.  I don't have enough in back, but in a few more moths I can approximate it.  It's a long version of my second BC.  I'm pondering.

But meanwhile I have needed to distract from my desire to change my hair, by changing some other things.
Make-up and accessory things.

• My number one thing this season is- Pearls.  I have a pearl necklace from a wedding I was in years ago and wore it recently on a whim.  It's not white/cream pearl, but more like rose and amber pearls (or this).  I think it contrasted nicely with my hair, and picked up tones from my skin and eyes.  I got compliments and a few glances. I feel it added a subtle "something" lol.  I will be adding more of these pieces to my spring shopping haul.  I always thought the texture of kinky/curly hair to be similar to lace, and we all know that lace and pearls are sexy together :-) 
• Second, I am still digging lip stains.  Cover girl lip stain to be exact, which I already posed about. With the weather warming it's great to be able to set it and go- throw some gloss on top...  done for 12 hrs.  I want an orange color though- and they don't quite have it.  I'm looking for a similar stain that has what I want.  
• And then- Green eye liner.  I have hazelish eyes.  Mostly brownish grey, but sometimes they can be a little greenish.  I always used a complementing color (Purple or Orange) to bring out that hue, but I discovered that when I use green I can play up the grayish color pretty well. I want to cut down to two color palates with my makeup- so an orange lip and green eye as my primary day look and then alternate with my purple eye and brown lip.  I usually carry much more than that, and I have a bad habit of not doing my makeup at home but rather at work- if at all.

So what are you ladies looking forward to for spring?

Eye brows are hair. Can we talk eyebrows?

You guys- I don't get my eyebrows done.  I have NEVER had my eyebrows done.

I will pluck a few hairs here and there, and have even lightened them a tad with bleach before when I had highlights, but I have never gone to town and really had them shaped. When I do pluck hairs, it's like 4 from each side.  and then I forget.  And I will go months without looking at my brows, or thinking about them. 

So for all the things I complain about, acne, scarring, sensitive skin... I am really lucky I got my dad's eyebrows.  They are kinda sparse and kinda arched and they mostly just chill out. Except for the fact that my skin is so light and my hair is so dark, they are pretty plain.

BUT every once in a while, when my hair is off my face, or I have a particularly unkempt looking style going on, combined with no make-up and some nice allergy bags under my eyes- I "see" my eyebrows enthusiastically jumping into the chaos and wonder if I'm doing myself a disservice.

You can look at virtually any picture I have posted in the past to see my brows, but hold up- I'm about to take a picture of an eye brow- lol. BRB.

>
>
>
>
>
>
>


OK.
So here is my right eyebrow. (and my freckles)

Is it horrible?  Look crazy? I don't know. I can't tell.  lol
These past few weeks though I keep looking at them like I need to clean those up, or something.  Alas I am afraid that if I really mess with em that they will plauge me with bumps or grow more, or expand and become a part of my life in a way I don't want them to.

Going natural never included my eyebrows.  But are they tagging along? 

Like- I am also not a girl who gets mani's and pedi's.  I have gotten a manicure on my natural nails once and I was like- what did I just pay you for?  Plus I am extremely ticklish.  And wait- so here are my nails today.  I just throw a coat of nude or clear on usually and keep it moving.  it usually just wears off or grows out and I put some more on.  I rarely even use nail polish remover.  Toes too, just clear.  Little pumicing for the heals and keep it moving.  They aren't ugly or gnarly but they aren't "done" either. 

I consider these things time consuming, even with what little I do, and I can't imagine spending money regularly on maintenance like this when I can do what I do for very close to free.  I'm getting away with it.

But I have always been a tomboy.  I didn't carry a purse until sometime in college.  I used to carry a man's wallet in my back pocket, and even had one with a chain lol.  Speaking of- even for purses- I carry one purse every day and get a new one maybe once-twice a year.  My purse now is a deep mulberry color- purplish-blue with a grey tone to it.  It goes with pretty much anything.  Last year I had a mustard one, and before that a muddy burgundy.  But now I'm rambling.

Sometimes I just wonder if I would be really doing something nice for my face if I got my brows groomed- come what may after the fact.  Today with my hair out but my hairline frizzy + no makeup nor earrings = my brows popping off my face like "TOM BOY".

Now that I had my acne pictures all up on here, I feel comfortable sharing with other naturals these beauty conundrums.  So tell me- what do you do for your eye brows and do mine look bad?  Will they grow back all crazy if I mess with em?  And I guess also- who cares but me? lol

I'm a homeowner!

I have been MIA for good reason. I just closed on my first home today! It's an older home in a historic neighborhood slated for tons of new retail in a newly designated arts district. Perfect for me, the artist!

I wore my hair in a triple low buns for closing today and it was the least of my worries. I have a lot of product I don't plan on taking with me, and I will be giving anything that is more than half full, away to friends and any other takers. Funny thing is- the products that are more than half full were those that were total failures. I'm not sure I'd even mislead anyone into the bad ingredients or broken promises they offer. The other interesting divide amongst the products is their origins on the regular store shelves at a CVS vrs special orders from the natural and curly hair fortress. I definatly have favorites and as part of my new financial plan, will limit my future spending to the tried and true.

I'm posting from my iPhone (lol- love this thing!) so not many Picts today! But I'll get back to them.

However, I do have a random tangent that's tickling my sci-fi fancy (if only I had time to do some writing):
I was thinking the other day- watching the mrs America pagent- about how and when the most coveted hair became blonde and long... It's odd. It's like- usually lacking more pigment than the skin even has. 4 of the runner ups had blonde hair, styled similarly which melded them all, except for the winner, into a pack of pagent contestents. But what IF... What if one day the coveted hair became jet black, cottony masses of hair? Would a group of natural black women meld together into a mass of pretty women? I think not. But is that just because I don't fathom that we possibly all look alike?

Evidence A= all the coil review videos lol. Nah.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCjyLLK9U_8&feature=youtube_gdata

"Breakthrough", a soul-hop musical by Princess of Controversy

Hey Everyone- I want you to meet my homegirl Princess! She is one of the first women I met and befriended when I moved to DC. Let me tell you- a LOT has changed since then. I'll spare you the details, but I am sooooo happy and proud of her for everything she has accomplished. And, as you can see, she has a FABulous sense of style and always rocks the flyest natural hair styles! pshhhawww... You should have seen her wedding hair :-)
Your girl will switch it up on you though, don't sleep, lol.

But, if you are in the DC area, I implore you to check out her stage production "Breakthrough", a soul-hop musical." Here is an excerpt:

"After quitting her 9-5 for a chance to become "famous" by producing a mega-reality show called "Starving Artist To SuperStar", Princess struggles with daily life issues of an artist and past demons she thought she had locked away forever. Faced with the deadline fast approaching she is hit with the fate that she may not "make it" and contemplates what she will do if she doesn't succeed as an artist. Then she meets DJ, and he could possibly be everything she ever needed OR.... just a dream, like everything else in her life! Could this be the breakthrough she's been waiting for or will she be forced to join the 9-5'ers for the rest of her life and give up her artistic dreams of changing the world?...And on LOVE???"

Sound familiar? Oh, how we struggle with all such things. Let me know if you get tickets. I got mine already!

Valentines day- my Birthday. Ramblings

So Valentines day is also my birthday. It has always been a wretched curse until this year. My man pulled out all the stops and made sure I had a weekend to remember! We had a lovely, local vacation and had a wonderful time. I wore my dirty hair up in a Princess braid.

Though we were together this time last year as well- I was in a wedding... in NJ. I got a full tour of the armpitness that state can exhibit, as we got lost, starved most of the day, and found ourselves staying at a hotel in the midst of being renovated, which also had a club (taking up what was left of the parking) downstairs at night. Anyways...

In the car the day before our weekend getaway, I pulled this mangled monstrosity from my hair:

I asked my BF what it was, at a loss of words myself. A split end? A knot?
He replied "it's a NAP". LOL. I thought to myself wow - this IS the "personification" of the negative connatation behind the word nap. I had to take a picture. I hope to never stumble upon one of THESE again.

On the Friday before the weekend I rinsed my hair and applied my wash and go products to get this stretched wash and go. I would have loved to keep rocking this for the weekend, but lacking a full wash or co-wash, my hair was just too dirty to keep it up. This produced that nap- can you believe it?

So at the Beautiful hotel this am I took advantage of the power shower and washed my hair- with their free shampoo (ghasp!) and used their conditioner and some carrot oil as my leave in. I got this fully shrunken, shiny, good smelling fro. Dense, dense, dense...



Well I hope everyone had a happy Valentines day!

Haiti's Beautiful People

The 7.0 magnitude Earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday afternoon is a thing made of nightmares. A thing I would expect to read about in one of my science fiction novels, apocalyptic fantasy taking place in 3010 on an island nation yet to be born. But it's on my TV now, it's in the pile of bodies on the cover of my morning newspaper, it's on the social networking statuses of my closest friends; a living nightmare. A grim reaper with long fingers which poke at the conscience of mothers who know where their children are, and couples snuggled under their pillow top California king comforters, and people like me, who blog about hair.

I want to cry. But I can't. I just keep thinking about how unfair it is, and how so many people don't even know any Haitians, and how those people will watch the news and read the paper and think this is a sort of science fiction. I feel anger and some form of a pulling guilt, that I can go about living my normal life too. Because I do read and consume so much science fiction, particularly apocalyptic sci fi, I have a vivid "mind's eye". I can see- perhaps a little girls legs sticking out from under a slab of concrete- right now. I can split off from myself here at the computer and go there to her. And I want to cry.

So back in my little world, our world of computers and social media, I have found a few bright spots during this tragedy in my close circle. Fellow blogger and natural DC diva "Noemi" has kept up her impeccable blog with the latest in news and resources for us here to help those in Haiti, or those playing a more active role in supporting the relief efforts.

She is one of the people I know who has family in Haiti and is doing all that she can to get general support and aid where it is needed most. Please, please, check out and subscribe to her blog, A Style Muse. FYI- She also recommended the awesome stylist who was able to cut my curls and has some of the most interesting posts on culture, style and Facebook :-)

When I went to college in Boston, I quickly surrounded myself with the other minority students, many Haitian, Cape verdian, Bajan, Trinidadian, and just- from every country I ever even heard of, (or hadn't heard of). Two of my very closest friends are Haitian, and I've befriended their friends. My roommate of four years, and friend for over 10 years now, introduced me to Haitian food, and music, and men lol. I even jumped at the chance to go on a cruise that stopped in Labadee, Haiti (only to find out we were in some fenced in area, blocked off from the rest of the country by mountains and even fences). I found my self learning a tiny bit of creole and cooking and respecting the work ethic and pride of the culture. Partaking in seasonings that take a day to prepare, and some of the most elaborate celebrations I've ever been to, and also some of the most strict parenting I've helped circumvent (:-P), allude to the resilient spirit of the nation- despite all else.

One of my friends has been educating her friends and peers about her culture and the History of Haiti on Facebook. She is helping me to get together a list of facts that we all should know about Haiti, which will be an upcoming post. She is also a beautiful woman, wearing her hair naturally. So stay tuned for more about what is good and beautiful in the world, and please do what you can to help restore a bare minimum functioning world to as many people in Haiti as you can reach.

My new favorite non-hair thing- CG

I love, love, love Covergirl Outlast Lipstain. It is my new favorite thing. I randomly got one from CVS because it was on sale and I like long wear lipstick when I can stand it. I picked up flirty Nude and have since picked up Cinnamon and Everbloom. I love all the shades and have worn them every day, all day, for like 5 days now. It's like coloring in your lips with a sweet tasting, slightly forgiving sharpie. It plays well with all of my glosses so far, which are just Maybelline or various inexpensive glosses. It doesn't crack or pill up, it doesn't gravitate towards creases, and it is sheer enough to be flattering no mater how many swipes I've gone over my mouth with. Where has this been?

I just hope we don't find out a few months from now that some deal with the devil was made and my lips will turn green. For now I'm hooked!