Wet Line Xtreme Gel, KMF gel changes formula!!

I'm not sure what I was doing exactly, but I ran across this video by Healthy Hair Zone about Wetline Xtreme gel.  I was intrigued and went down the rabbit hole of reviews and, like her, found that everyone seems to love it.  It's the number one gel in Mexico apparently and has a strong hold with no flakes.  I saw somewhere that it re-constitutes when wet too, like Kinky Curly custard, and I just had to try it.  My neighborhood "bestway" (latino grocery store) had it in abundance- different sizes, colors, containers... and it's like $3 for a huge, Huge tub or tube. 32-35 ounces!

I don't understand the ingredients to be natural at all, but I looked up the "chemicall-y" sounding ones and none had a hazard rating above a 4 or 5.  I was game.

So this stuff will freeze your curls exactly as they are wet.  It drys hard and shiny, does not flake and mixes with every leave in I've tried it with. I'm a fan of gel in general, but if you are not a fan of a gel "feel", this will be the worst gel ever lol.  For me gel works well because if I can get my curls to hold in my fine hair, I can avoid tangling, de-tangling and manipulating, even in a wash and go, for several days.  I don't mind a bit of crunch!

Here are a few picts of my curls using this gel.  It's very heavy and coating so this is definitely "small hair."  I took these on the day I got my Braces off :-D

 I took these weeks later ~ day 6 of a similar wash & go.  With a little water the gel re-gooes itself so that you can easily create updo's.

I have also been notified on instagram, and since verified that my old favorite, Kiss My Face Upper managment gel has changed their formula.  Most notably, they added Glycerine as the SECOND ingredient. That is a humectant... fine sometimes, but I don't see how it could possibly have the hold I so love.  I do want to get my hands on a new bottle just to see if my fears are unfounded.  Has anyone else tried it yet?

Meantime, if you are a fan of gel, def try the Wetline Xtreme gel.  As far as gel goes, it does the MOST. 5 out of 5.

Hey, I used to blog here!

Right, the blog. That I have not posted in since APRIL.
MIA is not even the right term. Where have I been?

The last post here was about stress, and overcoming it.  Well the sudden stress at the time came from my decision to go back into the job market after a tumultuous few months at work, and a very sudden and wonderful job offer.  Good news right?  BUT what killed me is that I liked my job, mostly.  I just wanted a bargaining chip and a plan B after some dramatic changes at work which required me to step up into an interim management position for 8 months. I'd literally signed up with one agency, and in less than 2 weeks I got a senior level position offer for over 20% more than I was making.  I felt like the universe was playing a joke on me. I was reeling in disbelief, and then anxiety, and then a bit of bitterness that I'd been selling myself short.  Perhaps, as my uncle, dad, boyfriend and freinds has assured me, I was undervaluing myself. It had been 8 months with no assurances and no new compensation.

So I had a week of number crunching, and tough conversations where I asked for a counter offer without spilling the beans.  I wanted to gauge my worth to make sure I was making the right decision.  And I was.  And I did.  I accepted the new job and gave them 12 days notice.  My first day on the new job was in New York.  On a Tuesday, after working my last day on Monday.  It was crazy.  But I am happier.  More empowered, more secure.  phewww.

BUT, I am also more busy.  I am working about the same amount of hours, but traveling at times, and also keeping my skill-set top notch in my spare time to live up to my new title.  Ya'll, I'm a VP :-)

I'm also enjoying the heck out of a fairly new relationship (since March).  It's stable and fun and kinda wild how it came to be, but it's good.  And, I live in DC ya'll... so ya know.
Its like I found a handsome unicorn, with wings and a pot of gold.

Also.  I got my braces taken off!! 

So then some horrible things happened as well.  My uncle was in a critical motorcycle accident at the very beginning of June.  Against all odds, he hung on for a month in ICU, but the doctors and the family were just keeping him alive.  He wasn't living, and the type of traumatic brain injury he had, accompanied with massive/multiple body damage as well, meant that the chances of him ever coming back to us were nil.  We left him in God's hands and on the 4th of July he stopped suffering. 

I went home to CT 3 times in July.  And I can tell you this. Flying on a buddy pass is not worth it.  Especially not when you are sad, and exhausted.  It's much less expensive, sure, but you still pay good money for not-a-seat.  And you are the lowliest low of travelers.  Everybody bumps you.  Long story short = it took me 12 hours to get home from a place only a 6 hour drive away.  The last 3 hours of that trip, which was the same day as the funeral, was spent on a Bolt bus after taking a cab with a total stranger (also stranded in Philly on a buddy pass). And this after running TOP SPEED, several times, with a bag, trying to make impossible and improbable connections out of desperation. NEVER again.  shin splints, achilles strained. THIS is what money is for.  To buy your way out of bad situations.  I will pay for a full price actual seat, gladly, going forward.

So in terms of this blog...

I don't know what to do.  Of course I still do a million things with my hair.  My job is more formal and corporate so I have pulled out a few new tricks, a few new products.  But I don't think I can continue to micro-focus on hair. The spirit hasn't moved me to post in all these months amidst a bit of personal change.  I feel like the blog lost the race to like 4 other contenders. 

So I have two ideas:

1. Keep the blog alive! But augment it with auto posts from Instagram and Facebook so that I don't have to write a post when I have a new style or product to mention. Shorter, sweeter posts and pictures, That leaves me open to write more when I want to, make vids when I want to etc. And keeps the focus on hair and its politics.
2. Change the blog.  Open it up to more topics so I have the range to talk about what is really going on with me.  I garden, I'm into holistic healthcare, web development, cooking, fashion, etc. I could go to Wordpress and expand my topics.  Wrap it into the work on my career and my more general interests.

What do you guys think? Option 1 or 2?

Here I am in my new office :-) 

And wow is my hair growing :-) I'm going to let it grow and I plan to press it in November. It's heavily layered, but the longest parts are as long as it's ever been.

Meanwhile, please follow me on instagram and on FB. I'm still posting pretty regularly over there!
http://instagram.com/justhairblog
https://www.facebook.com/itsjusthairblog

A "Touchy" Subject

To quote the messenger from 300, “THIS IS MADNESS!”

Don’t kick me down an abyss y’all. This needs to be said. Or, at least, I need to get this off my chest. It disheartens, sickens, frustrates and angers me that in 2013, not only do a group of Black women feel the need to put themselves on display to satisfy the curiosity of others and to create a conversation about our differences, but that b/vloggers and other members of the “natural hair community” are co-signing this behavior like it’s revolutionary! Yeahhhh, no boo.  The revolution will not be in a “petting zoo.” #sorrynotsorry

Image from Afrobella.com

Clearly, it is important to create more of a personal and a public dialogue about racial and ethnic differences. It is vital that we understand each other and celebrate the glorious variety of human appearance. That is not being debated here. What I am challenging is the method that was used in the case of the “You Can Touch My Hair” experiment in order to spark this dialogue. Given the history of people of African origin in the United States, I’m pretty sure that there are tons of better ways to create a multi-ethnic conversation around Black hair without conjuring up images of auction blocks, or the vicious exploitation of Sarah Baartman.Tracy Clayton wrote a great response on theroot.com addressing this:

"...this exhibit bothers me because it does absolutely nothing to battle the dehumanizing fascination with black hair and black bodies that has persisted in this country since its inception. We were once science experiments, put on display for nonblacks to point and gawk at how different we are. Now it's not enough that the fascination with our hair and requests to touch it makes us feel like exhibits -- we are exhibits. Literally."

Frankly, I would have been really interested in an attempt to employ the opposite approach to that which was used in the “You Can Touch My Hair” experiment. What would have happened if a group of Black women had instead held up signs, or asked strangers on the street, “can I touch YOUR hair?” This is actually my tactic in real life. Like many women who sport a large afro, random strangers (of all races/ethnicities) approach me in public and sometimes ask first, other times just jam their (filthy? germy? unwelcome!) hands into my curls. When people do ask me first if they can touch my hair, I typically respond by asking them, “can I touch yours?” 99.9% of the time, they are taken aback and are forced to think about why they would even ask me such a question. It usually points them in the direction of their own lack of exposure. I have had quite a few really great conversations about racism, ignorance, prejudice and what it will take to create real race unity as a result of using this approach. I’m sure there other women out there who have also employed unique tactics in this kind of situation. Please share your stories in the comments! I’d love to hear about how you handle things.

Let’s address the elephant in the room, though. It’s 2013, yo. Why are there still SO many people (of all races/ethnicities) who look at naturally textured Black hair as if it were alien? It seems to me that the real problem is that despite all of the progress we have made since the days of auction blocks and public exhibitions of Black women’s bodies, people of different races and ethnicities don’t interact with each other enough in consistent and meaningful ways and Black people still need to unlearn a lot of old miseducation (our conditioning has been conditioned). This needs to be addressed. This is the conversation I am interested in sparking. There are also a whole host of issues we Black women need address amongst ourselves regarding our hair issues, but let’s save that discussion for another day. 

Peace.
Nuri

P.S. I my need to buy a pair of these as a security precaution. 

P.P.S. For the security of others, I mean. ;)
#imnonviolentbutdontpushme

10 X 10 Challange

The stress has subsided a bit finally.  I'll let you guys in on a big decision I made last week as soon as the smoke clears. I'm still being all superstitious about it lol. Spring is a time for change!!

But during times of stress all things clutter, mess, and disorder encroach on what free space is left in my mind.  Unfortunately my old PJ ways still have my dresser and pantry looking like a fully stocked store shelf.  Even worse, I have enough clothes to fill two dressers and 1.5 good sized closets.  I just keep wearing them - more and more clothes - and laundry day sneaks back to 3 weeks instead of one.  Then clothes don't get put away. Then I have a dresser full of products and a chair, bed and hamper full of clothes in various states of having been worn.  Blegh!  Chaos!

I'd long been eying ideas regarding living small, such as tiny houses, wardrobe stripping, multifunctional furniture and housewares. This stems less from trying to be tidy then from my desire to be less of a mindless consumer.  But this past week I really wished I'd already implemented some of those ideas so I wouldn't have to look at clutter when I already have a cluttered mind. 

So I'm going to do something about it!

One of the challenges I saw that was most promising was the 333 challenge.  You have to knock your wardrobe down to 33 items you swap out 3 times a year.  It's not so much based on donating or throwing things away as it is about clearing your actual living space to something sustainable and manageable. 

Now... I don't think I could possibly get down to 33 things (and not even including shoes and accessories for me). nope. no way! lol. So I tried to wrap my privileged mind around a number that was feasible for me, and not likely to cause even more stress.  I got to 100.  10 of  10 things.

My list looks like:

10 jeans
10 pants
10 skirts
10 dresses
10 tanks
10 Ts
10 blouses
etc...

I am also going to go down to 10 hair products. 

1 shampoo/cleanser
1 oil - castor! 
2 gels
2 leave ins
2 conditioners
2 special products (I'm thinking a style putty and maybe a light shiny oil or a setting lotion)

These 10X10 items are the ones that will be allowed to live in my space with me.  In my closets, drawers, cabinets and on my dresser. The rest have to go into storage.  I can swap things out, but not add things or have things co-exist. 

I think what makes this sound fun and feasible is that rather than cull out the duds I have to cherry pick my favorites.  Then I take everything that didn't get picked and pack it up. and put the goodies back.

So far I bought the bins to store the clothes I won't be wearing.  They are purple :-) And going in the basement. womp womp lol.

I'm taking the week to do this after work and I'll keep you guys posted!

Does anyone want to join me? Spring cleaning?

Stress

STRESS.  This has been a stressful past two weeks for me.  I don't know why I stress out about things I can't control and things I am in complete control of alike.  I got out of the habit of journaling.  That used to help me a lot when I was younger.  handwriting on paper got me to put the thoughts and fears out physically and artistically.   Maybe it's all this technology? The pen to paper thing isn't so second nature as it once was.  Shame.

But I have been taking pictures, as usal, intending to expand on what I was doing with my hair etc.  Instead, these picts all read like a pictogram of worry itself.  Let's see if I can remember what I was even worried about...

This was over the weekend. The morning after I went to a concert with my BF I believe.  Had a great time at the show and I had the next day off.  I was worried about my income, and considering renting out a room in my house again. I had someone coming to look a room and was hoping she liked it, and hoping my BFs concerns about re-renting a room would be unfounded.

It was such a beautiful day though.  And my yard is covered with beautiful weeds like so.  These do not concern me, though my neighbors be like -_____- 

"you gonna cut that?" lol

SO here I am on my back patio. beautiful early spring day. finally.  But why does my face look like this in all the pictures I took?? I don't even remember...

 

So this is another weekend shot of me on the patio. trying to take a pic of my hair. but look at my PJs and socks lol. Imma need for myself to put some real clothes on and stop with the selfie crazyness.

This was the previous weekend. I did the whole big hair don't care thing and went to see one of my girls up the street.  I actually didn't go much of anywhere else.  I was worried about my ortho appt coming up on Tuesday.  It was my 19 month check in and I wanted them OFF, but was at least hoping for news of them coming off SOON.

Ortho waiting room. I may not look worried but I was sleep deprived from fretting all night, and the situation was indeed out of my control.

ALAS, I get the bottom brackets off in early may and the tops of probably in June. Say goodbye to the braces soon guys!