Why it's best to go all organic/natural with you skin and hair products.

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Hello,

Let me tell you a little thing about myself. I come from a family where on side is allergic to nada and the other is allergic to practically everything. I ended getting the allergies from the side that has it. Most people on that side of the family (including me) have super sensitive skin. Like regular things can burn our skin, make us break out, et cetera (I'm only going to talk about topical things here, not things we eat). Almost five years ago, I tried something I got with some birthday presents and reacted to it terribly. I ended up being at a hospital, getting a surgery, which failed (left me with even more problems), thank God, I'm finally getting my healing (my miracle). I used to have super super clear skin, like people were envious then I tried a body lotion on my face and just like that, I broke out terribly. I tried inhaling some menthol stuff on a napkin once when I had a cold (and a really stuffy nose). The napkin touched my nose and the next thing I knew, my nose felt like it was on fire (other people have tried it and haven't felt anything close to what I felt). I was an arts student back in high school and there was a day paint went on my hand and the next thing I knew, I was so itchy, my skin went red, I was reacting to it, et cetera. I'll stop listing there. 

One thing all those things listed above had in common was that they had chemicals in them. I stopped using them (and stopped with the paints once I was done with high school, but tried to make sure they never went on direct skin) and the irritations calmed down. I use all natural things on my skin (and pray, of course (for the one that had a surgery)) and they're all clearing out.

Did you know that we absorb more toxins through our skin than through what we eat? So, eating healthy doesn't really do much if we're just going to be slathering out bodies with chemicals. It's not just about being health conscious on the outside, but on the inside too.

Let me tell you something that happened to Diana (founder of Terressentials), she was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma in the 1980s. I'm pretty sure the name of what she was diagnosed with doesn't make much sense to you so, I'll break it down. It's cancer of the lymph system due to chemical exposure (synthetic substances). She nearly died from this. Thank God she's still alive and she's okay now.

You may be fine now, but it's best not to take the risk of getting diagnosed with something that could almost take your life or reacting to things that could make you end up in a hospital getting a surgery or just feel uncomfortable. It's not worth it.

Many synthetic substances, especially the ones used on the hair, give the image of a healthier, more radiant you and yes, you may get that image, but underneath it all, you won't have it. It's like many synthetic substances. They coat the hair to make it appear healthy when it actually isn't. It's like getting a washed up, wrinkled cardboard box and sticking some wrapping paper over it to make it look good. Underneath that wrapping paper, the box is still not in a very good state and could give way. It's like getting a dying plant and painting all the brown leaves green to make the plant look healthy, but underneath that paint, the plant is still in a terrible condition and those leaves can and most likely will fall out and before they do, the unhealthiness might show through.

Every now and then, I wonder, how did our grandparents and ancestors survive? I see pictures of my grandmothers and I'm like, look at that beautiful, gorgeous, healthy head of hair and they have such good skin! Shampoos and a whole lot of the things we buy and use on ourselves didn't exist back then. Now that they do, and my grandmothers have purchased some of them, it's obvious that their skin and hair aren't like they used to be. My mum's mum and my dad's mum both use products with synthetic ingredients on their hair, but my mum's mum only manipulates her hair every 9 months (believe it or not) so, here hair only gets exposed to these things every nine months, but my dad's mum's hair gets exposed to these practically every week. I took down my mum's mum's weave in November and her hair (once detangled and spritzed a bit) looked, pretty good. Whenever I see my dad's  mum's hair, it doesn't look half as healthy. My mum's mum's skin, looks healthier than my dad's mum's (and my mum's side of the family is the one with the sensitive skin). My mum's mum uses more natural things on her skin than my dad's mum. Still, none of them have the skin and hair I saw in those pictures anymore. Why?

BACK IN THE DAYS, when synthetic skin and hair products didn't exist, people used all natural things on their skin and hair and they looked so good!

Indians, most of them are into ayurveda and look how healthy and super long their hair is!

I believe God gave us these natural things for a purpose - health and wellbeing. They're a gift to us.

I am switching up my hair products again not just because some were discontinued, but because I noticed one chemical in them and I also noticed that my hair felt much better just using amla to cleanse it than using a sulfate-free shampoo. Amla's all natural and the shampoo had a chemical in it. I'm switching up my skin care products too because....well, all I basically use on my skin nowadays is a shower/bath gel and deodorants only when I have to leave the house and I'll be out for long (I'm currently in a hot country and I rarely leave my house). Deo's rarely 'cause I react to them (Sure, Dove, Nivea, you name it). 

I have found an online store (there are physical stores of it too, but they're in America and I don't live there) that sells hair and skin products with only natural ingredients (I've checked out their ingredients lists). I won't mention their name so you don't think I'm being paid to advertise them, but if you contact me, I can tell you. I have read reviews of their products, deodorants, hair washes.... all good.

Anyways, the key to a healthier you in a healthier lifestyle on the inside and on the out.

Hair Crush: Yara Shahidi

You know her, you love her, she's Yara Shahidi!

Oh my days, isn't she so cute!

She was in Imagine That and Salt, if you were wondering where you might've seen her.

I love her hair. It's so beautiful!

Okay! So, to achieve this look, ensure your hair is properly detangled and stretchedpart your hair making something like the top three blades of a fan or one of those kiddies wind mills (make sure the parts are curved), the third one being just beside the middle of your hair. Next, make random, but neat sections in the hair and make medium-sized box braids throughout your head of hair, but only braiding about an inch of your hair (make sure you don't cover up those three parts you made earlier). After that, work some shea butter, or a light gel into your hair (or just spritz your hair lightly with some water (don't spray enough to make your hair revert) and wrap the hair that was left out (the rest of the braided hair) round flex rods. Once your hair is dry or has fully set (about an hour or two), take down the flexi rods. Move your hair so it lies in a way that it flows downwards towards your back and at the front, hold the hair after the first and second blades you created and about one or two behind them in a small pony tail holder wrapping a thin piece of braided hair round it or just old it off with a piece of braided hair (forget the ponytail holder) and then hold off a few on the opposite side of your hair (after the third braid). Make sure your hair still flows down towards your back (and not your face).

Slick down your edges and.....

.....Voila! that's it! 

Hair Crush: Kerry Washington

Kerry in Django

She is popularly known as Kerry Washington, but now that she's married, she's Kerry Asomugha. Kerry, if you ever see this, CONGRATULATIONS ON YOU AND NNAMDI'S WEDDING! (I know this is coming really late :) )

She was in Django too! D'you recognise her from any other movie? Yup! that's right! She was in Save The Last Dance! Woohoo! Kerry!

I absolutely love her hair! It's long and healthy even with all the manipulation it gets due to her acting job (having to be straightened, curled, put in a weave.....). To not lose her natural curls due to all the heat, Kerry says that she deep conditions often.

Okay! now, to achieve this look, for some people, they could just do a wash 'n' go, moisturise and stretch and they're good to go! For others, try a flat-twist out on already stretched (and moisturised) hair. Make the twists in small sections and take them down moving in the opposite direction from the way you twisted your hair. You might want to curl the ends of the twists with thin perm rods for a better effect around the ends. Part your hair a few inches down the middle (from the front), take the hair on each side, turn them towards the back and pin in place or hold with a pretty barrette or ponytail holder.

Voila! You have the look! Or something similar to it 'cause no two natural curls are ever exactly the same :)

Hair Crush: Danièle Watts

Danièle in Django

I watched Django yesterday and like there was no way I could not have noticed Danièle's hair. It's amazing! Gorgeous! Looks great! Oh, my days!To achieve this look, for all you curlies who want to try it out:

• Ensure your hair is fully detangled, moisturised and stretched (with a (flat) twist out for best results).

• Comb and pick your hair out into a gorgeous, big afro then hold up in a puff. Use knee-high's to create the puff so you can control how tight your hair is held up.

• Smooth a butter (could be a shea butter mix) or a light gel (could be aloe vera gel) over the part of the hair that's held down to achieve the puff. Smooth it in an upward motion (moving up the puff) making sure you get your edges to lie flat.

• You could use the side-edge of denman brush or a comb to help give your edges that slicked-back look without creating tension on your hair.

• Get a big, simple bow and pin it right infront of your puff.

Voila! and there you have it! Danièle's gorgeous updo! :)

New things I've learnt during my journey

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Okay! so, during my journey, I've noticed that when I am trying to grow my hair out like I'm setting  my mind on that goal, I don't notice any hair growth. However, when I'm just working towards healthier hair and I don't really bother myself about my length, when I do, randomly hand-stretch my hair or style it, it is obviously longer (and looks better).

I believe everyone's goal should be healthy hair and not hair growth. The thing is, the health of your hair is essential when it comes to hair growth. Unhealthy hair will not prosper unless you have some miracle to keep that hair intact, but it still will not look that good. Close your eyes and picture these (okay! don't close your eyes, you can't possibly read this if your eyes are close!), BSL, stupidly unhealthy hair and BSL, amazingly healthy hair. Which would you prefer? The healthier hair, of course. If you manage to grow out your hair and it is very unhealthy, you could lose that hair to breakage as the hair goes because their would be more weight than the fragile, weak hair strands can hold. Also, if you keep  watching your hair for growth, you won't notice it. It's like looking at your sibling everyday or staring at a tree everyday. Would you notice it's growth? No.

Okay! moving on! I've learnt that the roll, tuck and pin is like the best out-ish protective style ever. The last time I took down my hair, I did it. I took down my hair again this weekend and did it again and the thing is, I have a whole lot of versatility with this. Roll, tuck and pin with the hair looking like cornrows, roll, tuck and pin with the hair holding your hair up in a retro style, tuck, roll and pin giving yourself any classy and professional hairstyle, and you don't even have to comb your hair to do it! I've done it on twist-outs and I've done it on braid-outs and comb-outs and it always looks spot-on. Amazing. Majority of my ends are protected in this styles and if I decide to roll, tuck and pin, hiding my ends, all my ends are protected! Also, majority of your hair is protected in this hairstyle and it can last all day and you won't have to move hair out of your face or have much hair around that you could possible twirl between your fingers, embrace your hand-in-hair syndrome with, oh! and the best part! The amount of people who reach in and grab your hair falls drastically because your hair's not all-that out. People would still be curious about the texture, if the hair is real, but what are they going to get a hold of? This style is amazing with length retention. Oh! and I've slept with my hair in it, woken up and my hair was just fine! I just loosely twisted the bit of hair I left untucked and pinned in the style, loosely tied a satin scarf over my hair and secured it with a head band round my head (so the scarf doesn't slip off). Woke up, took down the scarf, untwisted, separated the hair that was in the twists and voila! Just as good, if not better, than before I slept.

I have decided to go easy on the sulfate-free shampoos. Like, I'm not going to purchase as many bottles this year, I'm going to opt for co-washing and amla, if I have build up and if I can't wait with the amla application process or something, then, I will use my sulfate-free shampoo. My conditioner has been discontinued (:() So, I'm going to try out Karen's Body Beautiful. However, if you could recommend a good conditioner for me, I'll be grateful. Just leave a comment with it's name below. Oh! and I prefer to use all natural/organic products.

I am back on my beloved Aloe Vera Gel and loving it! Because of its pH value, my cuticles lie flat, my hair holds moisture, looks good, holds styles and looks healthier in general and I do not get even the whiff of stiffness, crunchiness or dryness from it. I got the aloe vera gel from an aloe vera leaf from the aloe vera plant at my grandmother's house. I extracted the gel and mashed it up with a fork breaking it up, put in a few drops of my newly made, homemade rosemary oil (another thing I'm revisiting) and chucked it into the fridge (in a bowl, of course).

Oh! yeah, I learnt to be pH conscious! :) That covers the aloe.

Another thing I've learnt is that my mixtress days were good. I'm going back to making my hair products (apart from the shampoo and rinsing conditioner) and I'm making them now 'cause I don't want to be stressed out and not have time to do them when I move out.

Okay! so that's it!

Oh! and also, the longer I go without combing my hair (including finger combing), the better and if I do need to comb my hair, the longer I go without using a wide toothed comb or any other comb or brush, the better.

Save the strands!

Make the hair healthier!

And every big day is going to be a day with longer hair! (if you know, what I mean....umm....okay)

Bye, for now!

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My Hair Care and Maintenance Presentation

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 :)

Featured: CurlyHue - My Open Letter to Natural Hair Vloggers

You Tube has been an invaluable resource throughout my natural hair course. The ladies who take the time to make videos to share with us, all rock in their own special ways.

The only complaint that I have really, is that some don't seem to consider their D/deaf or Hard of Hearing audience.Vloggers, please do not forget your D/deaf audience. There is a massive amount of D/deaf & HOH people all throughout the country, and I am sure many of them are naturals...or wanna be, and can benefit from the information shared within those videos.

Imagine finding a natural hair video on You Tube, that you feel, just by looking at the title that your pressing question may finally be answered. So you click on the video, and once it starts, the Vlogger is speaking so fast you can't possibly rely on lip reading, and there is not a tap of captioning included, highlighting the main points. You're a little disheartened but not to worry, there is always the more info/description box, so you head there and its blank or gives you not a hint as to the break down of that video. 

I swear every time I find a video like that it feels like some D/deaf natural is somewhere relaxing her hair in frustration. 

Why is this important to me? Because I am a deaf natural & so are some of my friends. I can not tell you how many times I've been faced with the above mentioned scenario. Clear pronunciation, facing the camera when speaking,captions within the video or a detailed description box are treasures to me. Blogger/Vlogger Mae of Natural Chicis a wonderful exemplar of this! 

{Check out Caption Tube, and this helpful article on Mashable for video captioning help}


Another option could be that if you have a blog in addition to your You Tube channel, you can briefly summarize your video in a blog post. Nothing major, simply include the title of the video, ingredients & step order if it's a tutorial. If it's a review, tell us whether or not you'd use the product again, and if you'd like, a one or two sentence reasoning. Heck if you don't have a stand alone blog...send the info to me and I'll post it on Curly Hue(giving you full credit of course). Just do something... just don't leave us out.

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Okay! So, to the natural hair vloggers that follow my blog or just check it out now and then, please, please, summarise your vids in your blogs or in the description boxes below your videos, or simple add captions to your videos.

Thank you! :)


Check out Curly Hue's Blog!