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by EricaThurman of EricaThurman.com
I was watching the Love and Hip Hop reunion last week and something occurred to me. Somewhere between Olivia Pope and Amina Pankey by way of Mary Jane Paul and K Michelle, Black women are having, and talking about, abortions on TV.
Round about last fall, near the intersection of reality tv and Shondaland, we saw a Black woman get on a table, have an abortion and then go back to her job and life without seeming to miss a beat (Olivia Pope). We saw a Black woman reveal the abortion she had kept secret from her family for years (Mary Jane Paul). We watched a Black woman express regret about having an abortion (K Michelle). And we followed along as a Black woman made the decision to terminate a pregnancy while simultaneously declaring that she did have a desire to have more children (Amina Pankey).
by Mike Orie of www.theconscioustip.com
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by Mike Orie of www.theconscioustip.com
"You can’t confuse what you do for a living and what you do for money. You have to figure out how to sustain yourself. I realized that my PhD was no longer directly tied to my purpose and that I no longer had to find a job of that magnitude to feel okay.”
Tell me a little about yourself and your hair journey. (Name, where you’re from, etc)
My name is Nadieya Barco. I am from Raleigh, NC. I was born in the little town of Elizabeth City, NC. Also, I attend school at Elizabeth City State University and I am a junior.
How long have you been natural? Have you always embraced your curls?
I have been natural for a little over 3 years. When I was in high school I did not embrace my curls. I had a mohawk and kept it straight, “laid to the Gods”. This resulted in heat damage, but I just considered my pattern to have changed to wavy.
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This was a photoshoot with my daughters and I (ages 6, 22, 21 and my 19 year old stepdaughter). I love doing different themed shoots with them to showcase all of our natural hair looks. Not only is it a memorable bonding experience, but it's also an excellent way to celebrate naturalness.
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by GG of AllTheManyLayers.com
When you want what everyone else wants, without discretion, you do what you see everyone else doing. When you believe that what you see, what's presented to you, is all there is, you try to choose a mold to squeeze into, even if it hurts, even if you can't breathe, even if you have to cut off parts of yourself to make it fit.
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by GG of AllTheManyLayers.com
I was old enough to feel like a woman but young enough to be shy about it. I used to sit in my bedroom in front of the mirror pretending someone was watching me. Usually that someone was my crush of the moment or someone I wished would notice me.
by Yolanda Renee of Etcblogmag.com
Naturalistas, did you know there is a great debate going on about protective styling? What is a protective style to you? There is actually an argument out in the natural hair universe that if you wear weaves and wigs YOU ARE NOT NATURAL. Guess what, there is even an arguments that suggests, if you have color, use certain products, or straighten your hair YOU ARE NOT NATURAL. Before we move on let's dissect the meaning of a PROTECTIVE STYLE. We of course are going to use the definition from CurlyNikki's website:
"...protective styling is basically putting your hair into a style that involves tucking your ends away from the atmosphere to protect them from damage..."
More traditional protective styles include braids, twists, cornrows, roll, tuck & pin, buns (debatable also LOL); as well as low manipulation styles such as twist outs, braid outs, and wash n gos. Here recently naturalistas have also been rocking natural hair inspired protective styles such as poetic justice braids, box braid, marley twists, havana twists, faux locs, wigs, and weaves. Once these styles started trending is when the great debate really went full force.
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by GG of AllTheManyLayers.com
Do you know how it feels to want something so badly that you dread it?
I'm talking about pushing away the very thing you want most, the very life you want most. Because deep down you don't believe that you can have it. Because you've romanticized it and your expectations have gotten so high that you are afraid you'll mess it up. And what will you have to give up to get it? There's so much uncertainty, so many questions. It seems unattainable so you pretend you don't want it. You talk yourself out of it. You see it coming and you run. All of this is disguised in a common escape:
'I'm not ready.'
Sometimes what we say is 'I'm not ready' but what we whisper is 'I'm not worthy.'
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by GG of AllTheManyLayers
I think the sadness started with my first awareness that my mother was sick. It meant that everything safe and beautiful was also tragic and temporary. All of my life has been about coping with that.
Sadness lives underneath my skin. It sits in my stomach and my throat and right behind my eyes. It is one of my favorite things to write about, but I don't talk about it much because I find that most people aren't comfortable with the topic. We are all coping with something. I actually think it feels good to talk about it. Sadness is one of those intimate and inevitable things like sexuality. I mean, I don't care who you are, you get sad sometimes, but you might be shy about openly talking about it. I’m not. I think we should talk about it more. It's an important part of a vivid life.
Sadness is not the same thing as depression.
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In the latest episode of my digital series, Get Your Life, the lead character finds herself at an audition with a number of other black women. Stuck in the waiting room together, due to a scheduling error, things get heated when they start bickering about everything from who’s being “extra black”, what is considered “attractive”, and of course, hair. Barbs are thrown and the catty convo culminates in a church sequence where the lead character poses the questions to her fellow blacktresses:
How many times have you wondered what wig will I give em today?! I give em kinky, will the think Kunta?! If I give em bone straight will they say, ‘Well, them edges is too laid to lead a revolution!’In the episode, it’s hilarious and meant to be over the top, but the question it’s based on, is rooted in reality. I had an audition the other day and the role was described as “Upscale, fit and over- achieving. Mean, never pulls any punches. Attractive, wealthy, sharp tongued.” When I read this, I immediately started putting a timetable together to straighten my hair. Then I caught myself and realized there was something more to explore. What in that description made me immediately feel like I needed to straighten my hair? I won’t front, it wasn’t about her being mean, or attractive. It was, ‘upscale and wealthy’ that took me there. In that moment I realized, dammit Amanda, you been brainwashed too!
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We all have hair crushes myself included and there is nothing wrong with that. Trust me, I LOVE clicking that little heart on Instagram, leaving comments, sharing videos and so on. However, I think there is a fine line between admiring someone’s beautiful mane and wanting/longing/striving to have that mane by copying everything your hair crush does.
When I started my hair journey I didn’t know what I was doing but every time I came across a natural with thick, big, bouncy curls my first few thoughts were: I need to do what she does, why does her hair always look that good, what products does she use and how can I get them. I think when we start to cross that line into hair envy, wanting to change what we have or chasing a dream that will simply not come to fruition is where the harm starts.
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I hope that you're having a great holiday season! I just uploaded a video about my natural hair journey. It shows how I started from the bottom with my hair struggles that I faced while I had chemical and heat damage, as well as my transformation 6 years later!
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by GG of AllTheManyLayers
Appreciate every single season of your life. Whether the season is hard and you wish it would hurry up and pass, or the season is amazing and you're terrified that it will end. No matter what it is, give yourself to it, and trust that you are experiencing exactly what you need when you need it.
If you had to give a name to the season you are going through right now, what would it be?
**Updates**
**Response from SheaMoisture after the jump**
**Response from SheaMoisture after the jump**
CN Says:
CN commenter, Tinycurls, straight up #Matlocked the situation, so I headed over to BootsUK to check it out. I grabbed the only SheaMoisture product in my arsenal (Coconut Hibiscus Curl and Style Milk) and compared the ingredients on my bottle to the ingredients on the site (click image to enlarge):
top: ingredient list on BootsUK for Curl and Style Milk
Bottom: ingredient label on my bottle of Curl and Style Milk
This appears to be a completely different product?
*in my Katt Williams voice* If I should just so happen to put GLYCERIN in my hurr, uh... there will be some effects. I clicked through a few other products and all of them had glycerin listed in the top five ingredients. #ICannot
Of course I'll withhold judgement until I hear from a SheaMoisture rep (maybe this is how they roll in the UK? Are these throwback ingredients, or nah?).
Check back for updates,
Nik
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Original Article-- 11/24/2015
Original Article-- 11/24/2015
by Cree Brown
SheaMoisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie
vs
SheaMoisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie?
vs
SheaMoisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie?
So, when I heard that SheaMoisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie was now being sold in a family size jar, I knew that was the size I needed-because my hair loves it. I went to Walmart and purchased the family size and immediately knew something was amiss when I opened it. It had the consistency of the Curl and Style Milk (Huh!? What!?), it was runny, not thick and creamy. I assumed something was wrong with it and no way was I putting it on my hair. I took it back to the store because I was sure it was a bad batch-I mean it just had to be. To my surprise and chagrin all of the family sizes on Walmart’s shelf had the same consistency when I shook the jar.
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by Michelle Thames of HappilyEverNatural.com
Have you reached a point where you are ready to give up on your natural hair journey? Has it been more of a struggle than a journey? Are you frustrated that your hair is not growing at the rate that you expected? Are you upset that your twist-out is a fail? I totally understand your frustration, but stop right there ladies! I am here to tell you that you can do it! Here are some reasons why!
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via LuxuriousBlog
by Keora Bernard
At the beginning of my natural hair care journey, I was envisioning what my natural hair would look like once it began to grow out. I began thinking about all of the naturals I had seen with long, thick, and healthy hair. Not to mention, I was more than giddy about the boundless styling options that were available for the looks I wanted to achieve. However, I didn’t understand that having longer natural hair came with a whole new set of challenges. Below are the things I have discovered while having long natural hair:
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by GG of AllTheManyLayers.com
My youngest daughter always says, "Mommy move your hair so I can kiss your spots." What has been a source of insecurity for me is something my daughter loves unconditionally.
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Why I Big Chopped
It started with an image. One picture of Vivian Green in all her short, cropped, curly hair glory. I stared at the image wishing that I could be as beautiful as her. I wanted to feel effervescent while being bare. What if I could look like that? What if I could feel that way?
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