Photo shoot by KID Images & Sound. His only request . . . "wear your hair in an afro puff." |
Learning to Love Me Naturally
I meet a lot of women who say "I wish I could do that." You can! I would love to see more beautiful black women embrace their natural strands. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not an anti-straight strand sista, but I would love to see more women viewing straight hair as a styling option and not as a required beauty treatment. Personally, I haven't worn my hair straight in 5 years and I have no future plans of straightening it. I am . . . Learning to Love Me Naturally.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Turning Heads . . . and Changing Minds
Posted by
ChitownGirl
Monday, January 2, 2012
"Please Stay Natural!" - Challenges, Encouragement and Inspiration
Posted by
ChitownGirl
In St. Kitts, November 2011 |
I walked towards the ship after having a great time on the island of St. Kitts and as I walked by, a guy yelled "Please stay natural!!" My response was "I wouldn't have it any other way!" It was an amazing cruise - 6 islands in 7 days and the response was the same on the ship and on every island - People loved my hair! However, this was the first plea to stay natural, which made me think about some of the frustrations I encountered that could have caused me to run to the nearest beauty salon for a virgin relaxer. So I thought I would have a little fun and talk about 4 challenges that were the most difficult for me to handle and hopefully offer some encouragement if you're dealing with some of the same issues. Also, since I don't post very often, I thought i would share a collage of some of my favorite hair pics. Maybe they can be helpful for those who may be struggling with whether they want to stay natural.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
It's All About the Hair, but Don't Forget About the BODY
Posted by
ChitownGirl
I have been fortunate enough to have never struggled with weight. The problem with that is I never really concerned myself with what I ate because I associated diets and meal planning with the need to lose weight. I never thought of it as being something I needed to be conscious of for health reasons. I ate out a lot, but I tried to select healthy options . . . at least half of the time :-) I knew it was better to cook at home, but I had every excuse in the book why I couldn't do it.
Labels:
health,
natural hair
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The Tale of Two Grandmas & My Journey to Cultural Awareness
Posted by
ChitownGirl
Until recently, I never compared and contrasted my two grandmas. Each one was special and dearly loved so I never saw anything more or less than that. Now, with all the talk of "good" hair and "bad" hair and light complexion and dark complexion, I'm beginning to realize that my grandmothers were on opposite ends of each spectrum.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
"Fancy Naturally"
Posted by
ChitownGirl
Oh you fancy, huh? |
Thanks to Marsha J for being the inspiration behind this post!
During my early natural days, I would get really nervous when it was time for me to attend a formal event. I had to deal with my own apprehension of whether I could wear a fancy hairstyle without straightening my hair and I had to deal with people asking me, "what are you going to do with your hair?" So I guess I felt I had to do something really special for my hair to be presentable for the evening.
Labels:
formal hairstyles,
natural hair
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Our Brothers and Our Hair
Posted by
ChitownGirl
Stretched Fro for the party |
Labels:
Black Men and Natural Hair
Monday, April 25, 2011
Let's Talk About the "N" Word
Posted by
ChitownGirl
Taken in 2009 |
Are you offended when someone refers to your hair as "nappy" or are you one of those "happy to be nappy" folks?
Personally, I don't necessarily embrace the word although I love my "My Hair is Nappy My Life is Straight" t-shirt. I embrace that shirt primarily because of the message it sends. People tend to think that wearing your hair naturally is supposed to complicate your life, so I love the powerful message of the shirt, which plays on the word "nappy."
There's no doubting the power in the texture |
I also understand that many people do not intend to be offensive, but use the word to describe the 4 a/b/c texture. Some naturals who chose to avoid the word, use "kinky," "curly," or "coily" to describe this texture. However, I recognize that a lot of non-natural people would not recognize my texture as "curly" (they probably would laugh at the thought!) and coily is a word that was introduced to me by the natural hair community, so I'm sure they wouldn't use that word either. Additionally, "kinky" is often used to describe "kinky twists," which I'm not wearing, so what's left? Nappy. When my mother talks about nappy hair, she's referring to the texture and that's the only way she knows how to describe it. How can I get mad at that especially when that was how I used to describe my own hair? Now, I can give my mother a list of PC words to use in place of "nappy," but I don't feel the need. I understand what she means and I take that approach with others who use the word to describe the texture.
On the other hand, there are people who use the word in an offensive way and follow it up with a strong suggestion for you to straighten or relax it. I'm not a fan of combating ignorance with ignorance, so unless that person catches me at a bad time, then I try to be sophisticated and strong and let them know that I love my hair as is and have no intentions of changing it. With that said, I'm human, so if they catch me at a bad time, then they get what they get! LOL
What are your thoughts on the word "nappy"?
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