September 26, 2012

A Mane Discovery

Sooo, last month I made the most interesting, and maybe the most exciting, discovery in my natural journey. What is that discovery you ask?
MY HAIR IS NOT FALLING OUT!!!!
Now, this may sound a little ridiculous, so let me give you some background.  I have stated in previous posts about my decision to go natural that I had a lot of breakage and shedding when I was processed. To the point where it seemed like my hair was being cut when, in fact, not a single shear had touched it.  This is something that was a part of my hair life for years.  So long that I thought it was something that everybody went through.
I remember talking to people while at work and, those who were friends with me & not just coworkers, would swipe the hair off my back for me that was just laying there. Mind you, I would shake and use a lint remover to get the hair off the back of my shirt before I left the house…and I didn’t do my hair after leaving home. Very rarely did I have a need to comb through my hair after initially curling it or unwrapping it in the morning.  I had gotten so used to my hair being swiped off by friends and family during conversations that I stopped thinking about it.  After all, it was a normal occurrence for me.
But it was not normal for my friends and family.
I didn’t realize that until this past weekend, when talking to a friend of mine & her husband and she was telling her husband about how bad my hair used to break off when I was processed. I had no idea that anyone else was paying attention to that!  I wasn’t the least bit offended by it, but it made me realize that, even though I was working to ignore the issue at that time, probably the majority of the people in my circle of friends and beyond knew what the deal was.
Now, cut to later in the day, after we went to the movies (saw ParaNorman…totally enjoyed it), I went to an event held by my friend at her salon All Tressed Up (alltressedup.net), called Sassy Saturday.  During that event most of the women there shared info and learned info from Kenyada and the two of the sisters (biological sisters) of Epic Curls Boutique (epiccurls.com) about how to care for your hair based on what your hair needs due to its texture, porosity, elasticity and so on. One of the exercises we did during the event was a porosity test. For this test, you needed a strand of hair.  Well, me being someone who doesn’t like scissors, Lord knows I didn’t want to pull out a piece of hair from my scalp, so I figured I’d run my fingers through my hair to get a shed strand or two to do the test. That way, I wouldn't have been losing anything other that what was due to come out anyway.
It took almost 3 min for me to get a shed hair that was thick enough (not baby hair) to use for the test.  And even in that 3 min time frame, the ONE baby hair that came out of the back was the only ONE that would separate from my scalp.  I was AMAZED! To go from having hair shed without anyone touching my hair, to running my hands through my mane, shaking my strands, massaging my scalp for, what seemed like, FOREVER to get a single strand of hair to appear on my hand is a major, phenomenal development from just over 2 years ago!
Just another experience to let me know that I did the right thing for my hair in going natural. I love when I make the RIGHT decision for me!
TTFN!!!

September 17, 2012

OMG! Its been a year!

Hey you there hair!!!!
   

This past year has been a blast! Not only have I learned a lot about hair care in general and how to care for my hair specifically, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.  The changes in mindset that have occurred from being processed to being natural are so shocking to me. Two and a half years ago, I never would have thought that I could literally spend an entire day talking about hair. Seriously! Sometimes I have to catch myself when talking to people or when people ask me questions because I realize that they were not intending to have an in depth conversation about hair…they just asked me how I did my twists, or how I got my twist out to look so big, or what I used to keep my ends from frizzing.  I have to make myself SHUT UP…because they are not looking for all the information that I, for some reason, can’t help but dole out.

I have graduated from not liking a fro at all to LOVING my curly fro and my puff…which is just a fro with ledge, let’s be real folks.

I dare say that 99% of my internet usage is focused on natural hair or hair care products that would work well with natural hair.  I look at my YouTube history and I see such a decline in my viewing diversity and my Facebook “likes” have gone totally hair-crazy. Even my Google searches are mostly related to hair.

It’s really sad…but, unfortunately, I can’t help myself.

All in all, it’s been a very good year. I’m not going to do a barrage of pictures because there are plenty of pictures in my previous posts, but I’m excited to continue my journey and continue to share it.

September 11, 2012

A Day of Rememberance

I remember exactly where I was. In my dorm room, fully dressed & making preparation to head out of the door for class.

I was watching Live! With Regis and Kelly and I stepped away from the TV for 2 seconds to get something out of my bathroom & when I returned to the TV, it was showing the 1st tower, upper floors in smoke and they reporters were saying that a plane had crashed into one of the WTC buildings and that they thought it was an accident.

I remember being totally surprised that such a mistake could have been made…In New York. At the time I had no family in NY, but, as is usually the case when something big, good or bad, happens, I called my mom.  She wasn’t available so I did the next thing I would typically do…I call my aunt, her best friend.  We talked for a couple of minutes & basically shared what we each had heard about how the crash happened at that point, I stated that the possibilities of those circumstances is why I hated flying, & we hung up

Then the second plane hit and I sat on my bed and said something to the effect of “that ain’t no accident.”

When I got to my 1st class I discovered that a few of my commuting classmates had been told by their parents not to come to campus for fear that an attack would happen at the naval base down the road from us. I hadn’t even thought about that as a possibility. I was still wrapping my head around “terrorist attack” and the fact that the WTC, that I had just seen the year before & had visited just about every time I went to NY, was no longer there. Then to hear about the Pentagon & the PA crash too…it was a lot for one day, and a big dose of the kind of reality I don’t even try to fake interest in.

Those who know me, are aware that I don’t like watching the news, I don’t like dealing with politics and I hate war. Period. I don’t want to hear war stories or anything of the like. I don’t mind listening to the “this funny thing happened while I was in service” stories, but other than that, I don’t care to hear or no.  It’s not that I don’t respect it, or understand it…I just don’t like it. Plain & simple. I don’t care who doesn’t like it, you don’t want to deal w/it, don’t talk to me. You want me out of your hair? Talk about politics & war…I go bye-bye.

So this whole attack situation was a major change in my lifestyle for that day & the many days that followed, because basically, TV was all news, all day long. For the time that I wasn’t in my dorm and able to close myself off from the discussions of 9/11, it was a major topic of discussion. For everyone. I found out that a friend of mine on campus had a father who worked in the Pentagon. It took all day for her to hear from him. For an entire day she didn’t know if her father was alive or dead. Then I had friends who had family in NY & couldn’t get in contact with them because of down/jammed cell towers. So as much as I didn’t want to talk about it, or think about it, and as much as I would have preferred that the victims remained name and faceless for me like the OKC bombing years before, that couldn’t be the case. I wasn’t a kid, I wasn’t in an unaffected area and I wasn’t around people who were not focused on the attacks and the events that occurred afterward.  Needless to say, a lot about me changed as a result of that day. And while I still hate war and don’t like politics, I’ll talk about them for a little while.  Only a little while.

So, as today is a day of remembrance, I think about the lives lost, families destroyed, people wounded and those who sacrificed everything they had to try and save the lives of as many as they could, even at that cost of their own lives. I remember that, when the shit hits the fan, folks who don't care, do.

What were you doing on 9/11/2001?

September 10, 2012

Products All Over the Place!

Products here, products there
I've got products everywhere

Product, product, product galore
I don't think I need anymore

That pretty much says it all. After putting away my product haul from the Return of the Curls Hair Expo I came to the realization that I have a LOT of hair products. Especially considering I walked into the natural lifestyle determined not to succumb to the life of a product junkie. Who knows when I'm going to get to use them all?! I sure don't know HOW I'm going to use them all. Then, add to that the fact that I've started experimenting with making my own products. While I like experimenting with other brands from the truth is, they pretty much all work the same, or serve the same purpose, some with better results than others.

Since getting into the natural hair game, I have started making some of my own styling products, thanks to the gurus on YouTube.  And after examining the financial output to continue to purchase products for styling, I realize that it would be much cheaper for me to simple invest in making my own on a permanent basis.  That isn't to say that I won't use what I have purchased.  And, since I lost an entire container of my shea butter mix to the 100+ degree heat in July while packing for a brief journey, I don't think I'll be traveling with my homemade concoctions. Plus, when doing protective styles, I like to use the purchased products for the initial styling and use my mixes as moisturizers throughout.

So check it, here's the difference. With ordering the ivory/white shea butter online, using the oils I always have on hand at home & typically have to replenish once or twice a year, not to mention the essential oils & fragrance oils I have plenty of (even though I'm going to buy a stock of fruity scents very soon), it would really work better for me, cost wise, to make my own and have that be my primary source of styling products, at least at home. When I first started making my own shea butter mix, I didn't think it would really work for my hair as a styling agent and I didn't expect what seemed like so little, to last so long. I've bought 2 of the yellow shea butter bins that are available at my local BSS and I have still have just under 1.5 of it left..and that's after 1/2 of it melted in my car!! Truly, a little goes a long way.

Yep...I think I'm done buying styling products, and I am sure that, in the long run, my pocketbook will thank me and, possibly, in the short run, some of my natural friends might appreciate some free product....if I choose to give some of my stylers away.

TTFN!!!

September 6, 2012

The Hunger Games Book vs Movie vs Tee (that's me)

OK, I waited and waited to do a post about this book because I first wanted to see the movie and include my take on that as well.  Now that I have read the book & seen the movie, I’m ready. Let me say before you go any further that this post is full of spoilers. If you haven’t read the book &/or seen the movie yet, and you want to do so without any knowledge beforehand, STOP READING NOW!!!!!

I will do my best not to spoil the ending, but the beginning & middle are all up in here.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I debated about actually doing this post. I try not to do book reviews because, if I finish a book, I enjoyed it, and I hate to cloud people’s judgment about a book based on my own feelings.  I would hate to be the one who convinced someone not to read a book. But this book would not stop bugging me and folks have been raving about it so much that I had to post something. I’m hoping I’m not the only one who had some of these thoughts/feelings. I had many issues with this book.  Not to take anything from the work of the author because I do think this was a VERY good read, my issues are mine alone & related to my own ideas and experiences. First of all, I do not like war storylines. I don’t watch many movies that have to do with war, either before or after. I can appreciate the historical relevance and all, but war & post-apocalyptic stories always give me pause & little bit of the willies. I’ll read a war-era/war-based novel before I’ll see a movie of that nature. And even then, it may take me a while to open them after I buy them.

So on to the book. I believe it was marketed as a kid/teen book but, in my opinion it is not kid-friendly. While it does to touch on some ever-present issues, truth be told, those issues would be lost on many kid readers and they are completely skipped over in the movie.  For one, there’s the issue of classism, and that the districts are basically numbered by affluence. Considering that District 13 was obliterated in a war by The Capital that would make District 12, the district that the 2 main characters are from, the poorest district in the nation.  However, even inside that poor district, there were people who were rich, by district standards. This is explained very well in the book and glossed over greatly in the movie. In the movie, you don’t come to understand that Katniss was a great hunter because she had to learn how to support her family after her father’s death.  In the movie you don’t learn that Katniss and Gabe have over 30 entries in the lottery each because they basically had to barter their lives for food and supplies for their family.  Then there was the glossed over way the folks dressed in District one. I mean, in the movie it just looked like elaborate costumes, you don’t get that the folks there dressed like that every day because they were filthy rich.  Also, in the movie, the way Katniss gets the mocking jay pin is totally wrong. I was actually offended by how poorly that was done, but I’m trying not to spoil too much.

Then you have the runaway who gets picked up by the searching ship & gets her tongue cut out as punishment. She was totally omitted. And as small as she may have been in the book, she showed the wrath of The Capitol, and I do believe that is something that needed to be seen for the sake of the 2 sequels that are sure to come.

Another issue I had, but I understood to an extent, was the fascination that people had with the games, in spite of the fact that they were watching children massacre children. Brutally killing them for SPORT. Not survival, not in self defense…well, yes in self defense but only because they were in a game were murder was sport….FOR CHILDREN. Yet people watched the games every day. Everybody, not just parents with kids in the games. This was even lost on some of the folks in the theater. They were reasoning as adults would when the announcer for the games retracted a valuable ruling. Some of the adults in the theater responded with “well duh” & “you had to know that was coming.” Totally forgetting that the 2 main characters in the story were 16 years old.  No, they wouldn’t see deceit coming. They would see hope, and cling to it.

Haymitch’s inner conflict is totally ignored in the movie.  He’s portrayed as a horrible, crass drunk instead of someone who was cunning enough to win the games, the only person from District 12 to ever win the games, and the only person who was responsible for the training & preparation of every tribute, every year after his win…of which 0 came home. I mean, imagine training 12-18 year olds for 20 years to have to bury them all…I’d certainly be a drunk. And I’d be less & less invested with every passing year, too.

There were things that were added to and taken out of the movie, and while they were interesting and certainly had some relevance…they were not in the book.  There was no riot in District 11 after Rue’s death. Only a gift sent to Katniss from the district as a thank you to her for helping Rue. The beasts that appeared the last “night” in the book were created from the dead tributes…not in the movie. That is a detail that would have certainly shown the crassness and savagery of The Capital and the Game makers, because that created a conflict within Katniss of having to possibly kill Rue, after having grown so attached to her.  You also get side commentary & actions from people in the Capitol, while in the book, the only thing that exists once the games start, is the arena.  While I can understand why the writers of the screenplay felt they should add some more info to the movie, the detail in the book could have stood on its own, and maybe if they’d stuck to the book details, they could have gotten some other things right…like the damn mocking jay pin (I told you I was offended).

I was going to mention some inconsistencies in the ending of the book and the movie but now, I don’t think I’m going to. For one, this post is umber long and that was not my intent.  I’m going to, of course, finish the trilogy, but I don’t think this series is kid-appropriate. Unless said kid is very mature. I know of some 10 & 11 year olds who read the whole series and after reading book one, I was like…oh hell no!

Lastly…the superstar cast…wonderful! Some of my favorite actors were in the movie. That helped with my disappointment over the screenplay…for a little while.