Okay, this is totally random, except that it is only a couple days after Halloween. But, these had me laughing so much, I had to share! Guess which one is my favorite;)?
(p.s. I got my bag of Autumn Mix candy corn and pumpkins for half price at Walmart yesterday ;).)
I was hoping to get a few more of these Now and Then pics, so that I could do a batch of five. But, it’s been awhile, so didn’t want to wait any longer to share these great flashbacks with all of you! Maybe it’ll prompt some more of you to submit your pics:)!!
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K e n d a l l
D r . B . N a t u r a l
THEN: I was near kindergarten age. My hair wasn’t considered thick, but has always been at least shoulder length (unfortunately, not always by choice). My mom always kept my hair ‘laid’. In fact, it wasn’t until age 11 that I received my first relaxer. I didn’t have to beg for it, but was elated to have that long flowing hair that I saw on television. No longer would I have to wrap a pillowcase or towel around my head to pretend I had luxurious Egyptian/European type tresses. Up until my first or second year in high school, I could depend on my mom to care for my hair and recreate the styles most girls my age had to go to the salon to achieve. Unfortunately, I was never taught how to care for my own hair. I was left only to unsuccessfully mimick what I thought was appropriate. Thus, after years of thinning, growing and breaking, going natural was my last option.
NOW: (As in January!? lol) I have a full head of AfroMerican locks. In this pic, only the front middle section of my hair is colored (faded actually, from a deeper copper-auburn color). Still in the early stages of my hair journey, I did not know how to treat colored hair. Therefore, the thinning process began again. Since then, I have grown at least five or six inches of thick black hair, while the color treated keeps getting thinner, weaker, and less manageable. Hence, I had to cut away all the color. Can you image how that looks? Not so hot!!
M a r s h a
I was recently checking out some old pictures of my pre-relaxer days and I found the least embarrassing ones to share. The first was actually a passport picture taken years ago when I was probably 5, I think. Clarification needed from Mommy of course. I was clearly wearing a protective hairstyle with added hair accessory for pizazz, lol. Who would have known that I would have begged my mom to relax my hair, after seeing the sleekness and bounce that was worn by other teenagers at my church and school back then?
So, Mom gave in when I was 13 years old and welcomed the idea of the relaxer, then later stating that I wasn’t allowed to get another. Yes, I was traumatized because I was brainwashed to believe that my hair would break off if it wasn’t relaxed again and it did. I later ended up getting a curly/jheri curl after going to the hairdresser who cut off (BC’d) the rest of my relaxer. I wore my hair in a curly perm until I was tired of it. Well the style was fading out in the early ’90′ too. I then got another relaxer. The picture below was taken a few months after i got my curly/jheri curl. Can you say drip drip drip?
So the years went by and my hair grew, and broke, and grew, and broke some more. Fast forward … I did another BC years later. At this point I was fed up with breakage from a bad relaxer and a botched dye job. Okay, so my hair grew back again and yes, I didn’t learn my lesson, I relaxed again and yes put more color.
It had been only 2 months since my last relaxer and I was in love with my hair. This was the longest my hair had ever been and although it looked healthy, it didn’t feel healthy. The crown of my head was suffering. This time I was determined to transition and to never look back to a relaxer, of course. But today I looked back, only looking back on where I once was in the hopes to learn from my past experiences and mistakes.
Missed the first round of Flashback photos and stories? Check them out here! And, let’s keep the fun going! Send your Now and Then pictures and stories to hairscapades@gmail.com to be featured in a future post!
LOL!! Get it? Hippity Hoppity onto the bandwagon;)? Okay, this is just a quick post to tell you that I hit ShopRite on Monday to re-up on my Biotin and the vitamins happen to be in the same aisle as the “ethnic” hair care section. My sister had just tweeted me that morning with, “I twisted w/Blue Magic Coconut Oil Hair Conditioner aka grease. Hair is def soft. Petrolatum. Coconut Oil. Fragrance.” Now, I still couldn’t get down with blue colored grease (I later found that the “blue” is in name only;). But, I remembered months ago reading a hair icon story on BGLH about a woman with gorgeous hair who used hemp grease on her scalp and hair (despite digging for an hour or more yesterday for that story, I couldn’t find it!!). Back then, I was intrigued, but never got around to looking any further into this. However, I did find a post on CurlyNikki about Hemp Seed Oil that I remember reading back in May.
Also, if you remember, I also often refer people to this article on NaturallyCurly.com, Mineral Oil Versus Coconut Oil: Which is Better? This article helped inform my choice in using coconut oil as a pre-poo. However, if you’ve ever read it, it also talks about the superior performance of mineral oil over coconut oil as a clumping agent and as an anti-humectant due to its ability to maintain “capillary adhesion,” (i.e. it makes the hairs stay stuck to each other!). Coconut oil is able to do this initially, but because of its ability to penetrate into the cortex, which is a great benefit for pre-pooing and moisturizing, it does not remain on the surface of the hair. Therefore, the hair separates from the clumps and water from the air (aka humidity) is able to penetrate the cuticle, which can result in frizz and fly away hair.
You may have noticed, I’m not one to vilify too many practices or products. I just try to tell you about what works for me or things that I’ve learned via my research or just from first hand experience. So, some of you may remember that I used grease for years in my WnGs. I would mix it with gel to provide softness and “moisture,” while the gel provided hold. I now realize that the water and gel were my moisture and the grease was my sealant. Now, I was never a Dax, Ultra Sheen or Blue Magic type of gal. TCB was my lube of choice. I started with the regular kind, but it would leave Soul Glo halos on my leather car headrest that would collect dust and dirt! So, I had to make certain to wipe it down so I wasn’t re-depositing muck in my fresh hair!
Eventually I came upon TCB lite, which had an almost jelly like consistency and was a lot lighter.
And I used that for a while too, but it still had that slightly greasy residue that came off on my hands when I touched my hair and lingered on any place that I rested my head. Then, my youngest sister e-mails me about this new product line, Carol’s Daughter. It’s all natural and created/owned by an African-American woman. So, I hit the world-wide web and try to find out if there are any local retailers. This was in 2002 as those old pics that I shared with you here are from the same summer that I found CD’s Healthy Hair Butter, Mimosa Hair Honey and Tui Hair Smoothie at a small, independent Black-owned boutique in Montclair, NJ named, “Dem Two Hands.” I remember I tried the Mimosa Hair Honey/gel mix first. Although I loved the smell of the Hair Honey, it still left me with the same “grease” problem, oily residue. But it was great for my scalp. So then, I moved on to the Healthy Hair Butter. BINGO!! Now THIS was just what I’d been seeking … a product that provided moisture for my WnG without being heavy, greasy or leaving its “mark” on everything it touched, including my hands and collar! And that was that. So grease fell into my past many years ago. However, it was not because of the mineral oil, petrolatum debate … those were “happy” coincidences … I’d just found a replacement that did what I needed and did it better.
So back to ShopRite (Wow, I said this was going to be a short post [guess that’s just against my nature], but I sure took the long way around to get here, didn’t I?). As I was standing in that aisle, I saw Swiss Jardin Indian Hemp hair dress & conditioner … and decided to give in to my PJ ways and pick it up. The list of ingredients is rather long and I can’t find them online, so I’ll just tell you the first few: Petrolatum, Mineral Oil, Lanolin, Coconut (Cocos Nucefera) Oil, Olive (Olea Europea) Oil, Fragrance, Apocynum Cannibinum Root Extract (Black Indian Hemp). It also has Nettle, Rosemary and Burdock extract. Not bad! The ingredients that I was seeking were definitely mineral oil and hemp and, so we were in business. I also remembered hemp based grease having the little flecks of “earth” in it and this product didn’t disappoint, though I doubt the “grit” is actual hemp! *lol*
Time to wrap this up. So, I tried a little of this last night on my edges before tying my hair down with a scarf. We’ll see if it will help keep my hairline relatively smooth. I definitely won’t be using this on a TnC, but may try a very little tiny bit on a four twist twist out some time soon. I’ll definitely keep you guys updated. For now, I just can’t wait to wash my hair as it’s hitting two weeks now. I’m going to be trying a new technique! It’s from Chicoro’s Grow It!, which I started reading over the weekend and I prepared my hair for the technique last night! I also made a style out of it, which tickles me pink! So, hopefully, I’ll be washing my hair tonight and I’ll have an update for you with my results in the next couple of days!
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Confession time ladies!! Who out there has been contemplating getting some grease and/or has already bought some or dug it out from under the sink since Nikki, “came out?” If you have, which brand is your “poison” of choice? If you’ve tried it already, what’s the verdict?!
hairscapades 