Blog link of the Day - Why Some Men Despise Natural Hair

Check out this interesting blog post on Confessions of a Blog Vixen.

A Conversation Between Brothers: Why Some Black Men Despise Natural Hair

by West Parsons
March 8, 2015

by Ebrahim Aseem

“I love my thick nappy curls,” Eden confessed. “But I noticed when my hair is all laid & straight, I get approached way more by guys. Otherwise, black men treat me like my natural hair makes me instantly ugly. That’s kinda why I approached you first.”

She removed her headband & ran her fingers through her huge, natural curls, as her brown skin glistened in the daylight. I marveled at her beauty before replying.

“Some males who are hesitant to approach women with natural hair are intimidated by the confidence you’re displaying by wearing your natural hair & he cowers at the possibility of you rejecting him,” I explained.

“This is the same reason the corporate world does not fully embrace or always endorse women who wear their natural hair. You are seen as a threat. Too militant. Rebellious. Non-submissive.

An overly-macho, mentally fragile male can NOT handle a free thinking, conscious woman with her own mind. She does not even arouse him sexually. He needs a submissive woman.

A woman’s beautiful natural hair is a repellant for....  {See full article here.}

T.S.O.B.H. Talks Hair Color

Great article on The Science of Black Hair about things to consider when thinking about coloring your hair.

Color Smart: 4 Things You Should Consider Before You Color Your Natural Hair
By The Science of Black Hair

"Taking your hair to the next level with color can be a really exciting experience. Color can jazz up a boring puff, add dimension to locs and twist outs or really turn heads as a simple statement piece on TWAs. While going darker, adding lowlights or coloring within your natural color range won’t cause you too many problems—the drastic color leaps upward (more than 3 shades beyond your natural color) can really take a toll on your hair. Before you engage in any hair altering experience, first understand and weigh the risks. Never ever color your hair on a whim or without a gameplan for aftercare. Finally, decide if you trust yourself enough to do it yourself. Be honest with yourself and say, Self— do you really know what you are doing? What if this color is unsuccessful? Am I prepared for breakage? Am I prepared for a weird color result? Before you take the color plunge, here are some things to consider. You May Experience:

1.Curl pattern changes. Yes, coloring textured hair can sometimes result in temporary, unpredictable changes in your hair’s curl pattern. Sometimes, the changes are permanent. Whenever you alter or manipulate the hair’s protein bonding arrangement a slight relaxing effect can occur. These curl pattern changes are less likely to occur in coarse hair textures (coarse refers to the diameter of the hair fiber, not the feel of the fiber), and are more likely to occur in those with fine to medium hair textures. Prior damage may also influence whether or not you experience changes in your curl pattern. Using a protein reconstructor after coloring may help some lost curls find their way again.

2.Increases in hair porosity. Products that lighten the hair always require direct access to the hair’s cortical layers. When the hair’s cuticle is breached in this manner, the hair’s natural porosity increases leading to a dryness that hardly ever lets up. When porosity increases, dryness becomes a major complaint because moisture is next to impossible to hold securely within the fiber. Your hair

The Fight for Braiding Freedom

Is your stylist an outlaw? Probably not, but if she braids hair for a living without first obtaining acostly and time consuming cosmetology license, she may be running afoul of a troubling policy trend requiring licenses for professions that are perfectly safe.

No one should have to go to work with the fear that they could be fined or arrested. Unfortunately, for thousands of natural hair braiders, that fear is very real. That's because twenty-four states regulate hair braiders as cosmetologists, despite the fact that they do not use dyes, caustic chemicals or dangerous tools. In fact, the only tools they *do* use are their hands, which these laws effectively regulated as dangerous weapons.

 Today, that fear ends. The Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that has represented hair braiders for more than two decades, is launching a national legal and online initiative to defend natural hair braiders' right to work free from over-zelious licensing laws. Those laws require that braiders take upwards of 1,500 or more hours of course work and take two exams—neither of which test their braiding ability—before they can accept their first paying client.

You can read more about the initiative at http://www.braidingfreedom.com." - J. Justin Wilson, Director of Communications, Institute for Justice. To support this cause, hashtag #braidingfreedom on your social media pages. Check out the video below for more information.

My First Written Magazine Article

I am excited to be a contributing writer for Naturally Happy Hair Magazine.  Check out my first article, titled "Fabulocs" published in the magazines 2014 Winter issue.  The model featured in the magazine article is Ebony Lunsford.

Aevin Dugas - Holds record for the biggest Afro

A link to this story was just shared with me today. It is about Aevin Dugas who has the world record for the largest Afro.

"Aevin Dugas of New Orleans, Louisiana holds the Guinness World Record for largest natural afro entering the book with an astounding 4 foot 4 inch circumference. Ms. Dugas’ afro is larger than a disco ball and Guinness says that it’s so sizable that she could fit the world’s shortest man inside her hairstyle. The 38-year-old social worker has grown her hair for over 14 years and credits her mother as her first inspiration to go natural saying, “My mom has this picture of her with an afro before I was born, and I thought it was such a cute picture. I was like, ‘Ooh, when I go natural, I want to wear my hair like my mom.’”

But at one time Aevin wished for bone straight hair and got perms which resulted in chemical burns on her scalp. After that she swore off chemicals and went natural sporting the style she wears today. Aevin told the Daily Mail, “I don’t know why, but there’s something very important to me about little girls appreciating my hair and then wanting to wear their hair the same.” As proud as Aevin is of her luscious locks, she also concedes to the downsides of her crowing glory like difficulty with peripheral vision while driving, getting hooked in trees she passes, and getting caught in people’s drinks at clubs. The record holder explained, “I don’t wear it like this on an airplane because people would probably slap me, because it touches people. I’ve had somebody want to beat me up at a concert,” adding, “So it can be kind of problematic, but I still wouldn't change a thing about it.””

To learn more about Aevin, check her out on The Bragg Group. 

~ Sources: Aevin on Facebook 

Bad Hair by Erickka Savane

This story was originally posted on the B. Brew blog. Erickka wrote in and asked that I share this with my Naturally Beautiful Hair Blog readers.

 Bad Hair 

by Erickka Sy Savane

"N. A. P. P. Y.” said my grandmother to her friend, as she struggled to get a comb through my hair. The woman, who like my grandmother was so light that she could almost pass for white, chuckled and nodded in agreement. Sensing that something was fishy, six-year-old me spelled the letters back. N. A. P. P. Y. Wait a minute! She just called my hair nappy! And that is how I discovered I had BAD HAIR.

 I couldn’t wait to tell my mother who tried her best to assure me that my hair wasn’t that bad, and not to worry because in a couple of years we would relax it. I waited on that relaxer like kids wait for Christmas. When the day finally came at ten years old life changed overnight. Free of naps, I felt beautiful, alive, ready for the world! However, a few weeks later I realized that one relaxer did not a whole life make. I would have to get it done again, and again, and again. Whenever my new growth would come in. New growth being a fancy way of saying, my nappy ass edges! Man how I HATED those edges. The first time I knew they were different was when I was hanging with my cousins who had beautiful edges or ‘baby hair’ as it was called. When they told me all they used was Crisco grease to get them to look so pretty I ran home like my ass was on fire! But man, I must have used half a can of grease with no result. It wasn’t until later that I found out that they had good hair, of course. Their dad had Indian in him and, well, you know the rest…

 By high school I started doing my own relaxers and decided it was time to finally deal with those edges. If I could just get them to chill… So I relaxed them three times in one week. Now once every 5-6 weeks was the rule, so this was akin to MURDER, which is exactly what happened. Instead of beautifully straight edges they became overprocessed and I was left with a patch of burned up weeds. Damn. So I took a razor and shaved them to the middle of my head and everything was fine. Until a few days later when that nappy hair started growing back and I was faced with another problem: INGROWN HAIRS! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! I had no choice but to keep shaving them,

Fashion Forward Paper Dolls - Danielle Meder

Check out this fashion forward paper doll designs by Artist Danielle Meder. She creates and shares her designs on Final Fashion.  I remember when I was younger, I use to love playing with paper dolls. But they never had fashions like these! Danielle is a fashion illustrator and a trend theorist. To learn more about this talent, go to her website DanielleMeder.com. 

N.B.H. Blog on Essence.com!

I would like to thank Essence.com and their Associate Beauty Editor, Nicole Melton, for correcting a misprint on the event coverage for the Textured Talk natural hair get together. The event was on March 25, 2012 - very fun and a huge success. The event was covered on Essence.com, but I was not listed as one of the two host, that hosted the event. So I would like to thank my good friends for pointing this out to me!! :-)  And I appreciate Essence for the correction. To see the article, check us out on Essence.com.

My Interview - The Birmingham News

I was interviewed for the The Birmingham News newspaper. To see the full Article, go to More black women are embracing their natural hair.