If you've been following my tweeter feed, you'll know that yesterday (evening), I got a text and in it I was asked to make a presentation on hair care and maintenance today. So, I just got home from it a few minutes ago. It was pretty good, actually. I demonstrated stuff on my hair right there without even looking at my hair while doing them. I talked about a whole lot of stuff, but didn't go that in depth to like pH values and all that because of my audience. I actually had to try and really simplify it and use synonyms and stuff. It was all good.
I started off by saying, "good morning, everybody," and my voice sounded so nervous that everyone started laughing and I joined in. Lightened the mood a bit. I put up pics of my hair in 2007, 2009 and 2011 and showed that my hair didn't seem to grow longer (it was nape length in all pics and relaxed) and explained that that was because of my improper hair care back then. At the end, I showed two picture from my first month in my hair journey, one from my first year natural and four pictures from my second year (ending with a picture from the fundraiser I performed at). The pics showed some pretty obvious hair growth.
I was told that I might need to come back for a Q&A and to practicalise what I talked about, but I doubt that's going to happen. It's going to be on a Sunday and next Sunday is my last Sunday here in Africa and I haven't been asked to do it next Sunday.
Okay! So, the audience loved my presentation and a guy came to me after it to ask about his hair and how he could fix something (and other guys were nodding and getting tips for their wives during it). One thing that annoyed me was that the guy who asked me to make the presentation (I'll call him the host) came out after it and was like, "that didn't make any sense to me," all the ladies and the rest of the audience said that it did make sense. He then was like, maybe it's 'cause he's more or less bald. He then went on to say that each time he's seen me, he thought I looked rather unkempt. I was like, "what the heck?" but didn't say it out loud. I never leave my house without my hair being styled or held up neatly, 99% of the times he's seen me, my hair has been in a puff and I never wear messy puffs. I'm thee kind of person who spends about a half hour making sure my puff is perfect, I also do not leave my house without being dressed presentably. *sigh* All, but three of the peoplee in the audience knew me (they see me about once a week or so) and they've always thought I looked good. Once, they saw my mum with a scarf over her hair and they were like, "why didn't you style your mum's hair the way you styled yours today?" Some people try messing in my hair or try to figure out how I styled it and see if they can imitate it. Then he turned to my mum, mic still in hand and said that when he noticed my mum was doing something with her hair (that is, going natural), he was wondering if she was becoming more spiritual or what. Back here, there is a church called, "DeeperLife," the people there are said to act very spiritual. Here's how: they don't wear ear rings, don't wear nail varnish/polish, don't chemiccally alter their hair's texture, don'y wear trousers, et cetera. Anyways, so I was glad when my mum voiced out, right there, that she wasn't going natural for spiritual reasons. The guy was laughing thinking he was so funny, but he was the only one laughing. No one else found what he was saying funny. My mum, wore her hair in an absolutely beautiful twist out today! I put her hair in twists last week and she took them down this morning and styled her twist-out in such a nice way.
Anyways, so I was pissed, real pissed with the host, but he is just one man and what matters is what the audience thinks and what God thinks, not what just one man does.
It annoyed me that I put so much effort into this anad he just laughs it off and says such things. If you follow my twitter feed, you'll know that I had been working on this and a graphic representation yesterday evening, when he sent the text till about 5:40am. I have been battling with some pretty bad insomnia so, I went to bed once I was done and 6am passed and I was still awake, 7am came and I was asked to get ready and head out so I could get there on time (no sleep). I was worn out, tired, my back hurt from standing while doing the graphic representation (hooked it up on a wall while working on it) and.....gaaah, he was so ungrateful. Even after giving me such short notice.
Anyways, I forgive him.
By the way, I was asked to speak there today because he heard that I got an award for my bkog and that award is, The Awesome Blogger Award :) So, once again, thank you, Tia, for giving me that award. It's opening doors for me :)
