104 Things I Could Do With 104 Dollars

today, i went window shopping -- okay it was supposed to be window shopping but it turned into just plain oh shopping.  i drove to aventura to go to best buy ONLY to buy a new charger for my laptop (don't ask why just follow). so i get the guy to show me to the chargers and guess how much the charger was?  yea, i was thinking 30.00 no more than 50.00.  I guess this was a recession.  The damn charger was $104.99.  Yes $104.99! 

Ya'll know what i did.  TURNED AROUND and left the damn store.  Yo, I have 104 things I can do with $104 and buying a charger aint it. 

Braiding Daughter's Hair a Labor of Love

Read the story here. 

Honey For The Soul: Sisters, your natural hair is beautiful to me

An open letter to African-American women:

It's about the need to be beautiful, I know.

As goals go, that one is neither extraordinary nor gender-specific. But it's different for women, isn't it? A man's sense of self worth is seldom endangered by crow's feet. On him people will say they convey ``character.'' On a woman, they convey wear.

And if it's different for women, it's different and then some for women like you, saddled not just with the need to be beautiful, but also with 400 years of racial baggage, 400 years of ginormous Jemimahs, shrill Sapphires, ugly Aunt Esthers and angry Angelas seared into the public mind, 400 years which say you cannot be beautiful if your lips are too proud, or your skin too dark or you don't take that nappy hair God gave you and make it look like the hair he gave somebody else.

Do You Pre-Poo?

I hate SHAMPOO.  I have always had a distaste for the way it left my hair.  But I continued to use shampoo because I thought that the way it left my hair was normal.  In my head a wash should strip everything (dirt, oils, etc.) from your hair. Right? Wrong.Your hair does not have to feel like that.  Thank God for research!  Yes, I am a little late to the game but I have learned that this harsh shampooing process can be rectified.  For years I thought that the ONLY first step to cleaning your hair was the shampoo process.  It wasn't until quite recently that I was introduced to the concept of a pre-poo (pre-shampoo). 

Gentlemen's Choice

ESSENCE.com hit the streets of New York City to find out what black men really thought about our hair. Check out their responses:

My hair is not nappy its THICK

My response to this youtube video.

At the 4:10 mark you say,

"People are really ignorant on natural hair, people look at natural hair as
being nappy. My hair is not nappy. It may look -- it's thick as heck but it is
not nappy!"

Let me premise this by saying that I am writing this in love. I don't know how old you are (as wisdom should come with age) but I do have a concern with this statement. The above quoted statement reflects your own ignorance. My question to you is what's wrong with black hair being nappy? Why did you feel the need to separate your hair texture from nappy hair? We all have our own complexes -- it's expected considering the world we live in and the images of beauty that are displayed but I hoped that you would be more conscious since you are on a natural journey (maybe I am assuming too much).

I absolutely love your hair. Before I clicked play and saw your still I was like she is rocking it. I felt quite a bit of sadness when you spoke about your experiences with others. But when you spoke these words,

"People are really ignorant on natural hair, people look at natural hair as
being nappy. My hair is not nappy. It may look -- it's thick as heck but it is
not nappy!"

It really disturbed me (to the fact that I had to call someone 2:30 in the morning to see if I was going overboard or reading into it too much). My hope is that we all become more responsible for not only ourselves but our community. And I don't want another black woman or child to be humiliated for the hair that God has given us. Think about what I've said. Maybe we can have some good conversation about it (iamkamilah@gmail.com )

Take Care.

"Girl, let me grease your scalp"

Every black girl raised by a black mom has heard these words before. In fact, even in we are old enough to do our own hair, we feel that our hair cannot thrive without the thickest pomade on the market. We part our hair and we slick that pomade on. We think that the grease/pomade hydrates our hair and allows it to grow. I am sorry to inform you that these products contain petroleum. I'm serious, look at the list ingredients on your bottle.

PA-Trol-E-Um

told ya so.....

Petroleum and Mineral Oil (usually found in baby oil) should be minimized or avoided. If you do use them I would say to not put it on the scalp because these substances tend to clog the pores which inhibits its ability to breathe and absorb moisture and nutrition. Also they are not easily absorbed into the hair and attract dust.

I would suggest that you use oils instead of pomades. If you use products with these oils, try to use the ones that have the least amount of petroleum or mineral oil. You can figure how much petroleum or mineral oil is in a product by where in the list the substance is located. The further down the substance is in the ingredient list, the less that amount of that substance is in that product. So, try to use products where petrolem and mineral oil are listed near the end.

Some natural oils to try are coconut oil, avocado oil, jojoba oil, olive oil, and sunflower oil. Oils are best applied to wet hair to help hold in the moisture already there. I suggest that you experiment to find the oil that works best for your hair type.

~still chasing honey

Traces of My Tresses

There has been a lot of talk about Black Hair these days. I'm not sure if it was all planned. I wonder did Tyra know about Chris Rock's Good Hair? Anywho, I think whether coincidence or not, these talks on Black Hair has been beneficial.

I wear my hair in locks, but I have had relaxers, weaves, braids, afros, mohawks, bonded hair on caps, sew ins, gel back ponytails, my hair colored -- plain and simple I have done it all. And I must admit that I truly love black hair because it is so versatile. We, black women are hella creative with our hair-- anything they can do we can do better.

Sway Magazine recently had an article entitled Crowing Glory where they interviewed 4 women about their hair. One woman had an TWA (teeny weeny afro), another has locks, another has an afro, and one wears her hair in long weaves. These women tell their hair story and speak about the politics of hair. Check out Kandyce's stories below.

White People and Weaves

OMG! Did you know that white people get their weaves sewed on? Stop It! I didn't know that. I thought they got it glued and fusion hair extensions. But a sew in -- I never knew.

I don't think sew ins were meant for white people's hair. lol. I am so serious though. Sew ins create a lot of stress and tension on the hair. Black people's hair is more stronger, thus the hair can take the stress of a sew in. But white folk hair is thiner and the roots are straighter, so a sew in causes damage (hait thinning). Kourtney Kardashian gets a sew in. Look at how thin her real hair is. Where they do dat at!? I thought the Kardashian girls had thick hair -- guess not anymore. More Pictures.

Nia Long recently had an interview with Chelsea Lately about Chris Rock's Good Hair. I love me some Nia. She will correct you in a minute. In this interview she blows up white women's faux hair game. Check out the interview here.

Bohemian Rhapshody with Joy Bryant -- The Tracks of My Weave

Joy Bryant has a blog over at Essence. Here is her blog about being a weave-a-holic.

As the threads of the grown-out tracks were being snipped, I broke out my laptop and began my ritualistic daily web search. I go from news of the day to articles/blogs about the news of the day, ending up on entertainment/gossip/fashion stuff. But that day, something caught my attention and trumped all of the glowing reviews of President Obama’s health care speech:

It was Tyra’s hair.National Real Hair Day?

I missed that one...In fact, on National Real Hair Day, I was calling Extensions Plus in L.A. to make sure they had enough of the 20” "relaxed roots" texture hair that I love oh so much (and that keeps selling out like crazy!), and making an appointment to get my hair, I mean, my weave, hooked up.

Reality Check: Sorry Tyra, Your Hair Aint Natural . . .

it's CHEMICALLY PROCESSED!

Hot Water Treatment for Locks

Maybe I'm paranoid but I feel like my locks aren't all the way clean. My scalp is always clean but my the locks sometimes feel dirty. This summer I was in the pool daily so I have clarified my hair several times just to get impurities out. But my hair still felt and looked unclean. I have attributed this to the product I use. I've been using Carol's Daughters Loc Butter. The product is pretty thick and when I read the ingredients it does have beeswax in it. A product that I hate and I told myself that I wouldn't use during my lock journey. Although it's not in its pure form it's one thing that I don't want in my hair. So I've been noticing that the tips of some of my hair looks gooky. And washing it repeatedly ain't getting the gook out. So I've been doing some research to see what I could do to take the product gook out.