Food for thought

22nd of April, 2012.

I've had a bit of a lazy morning browsing and watching YT videos. When you've been natural for a while you sometimes feel like you've seen it all as you've probably watched or read several versions of the same story.

This was one video I clearly hadn't watched. It really made me think long and hard about the value we place on hair.

I often say it's just hair but when I look at the effect it has on young girls and the teasing they go through in school and how it affects their self esteem; I sometimes beg to differ.

When I read about slavery and how the slaves were dehumanized and had all sorts of nasty things said to them about their appearance so much so that the first black millionaire was the lady who invented the relaxer to help straighten the kinks that made us, a color in God's artistic palate, unique, all I see is the  uncovering of the shame and low self esteem of the black women.

When I look at our society and notice how we copy anything western from our music, to the way we dress, speak and style our hair and how this reforms the standard of how we look at ourselves, so much so that we judge one another and give credit on how westernized one is, it really makes me think.

We see women bleaching their skin because they believe white is right;  we see our hair as something that needs to be fixed and so we relax it so much that its fried, dyed and laid to the side. When I see our parents, friends, co-workers and onlookers in the salon spew out very derogatory remarks about natural hair or its preconceived stereotypes as to how it will affect our professional and personal lives it makes me wonder.

And so we natural sisters go around preaching this gospel of self acceptance and trying to open peoples eyes to the lies they have been told about their kind; to reclaim our beauty that has been washed with the 'eurocentric' standard. We sometimes feel we are swimming against the tide, and in an effort to stay afloat we become defensive about our cause. 

But do we take it too far? Does it ever get to a point where we unintentionally start to look down at people who are relaxed; seeing ourselves as a wiser chosen few?

If one of ours relaxes their natural hair, do we attack them or feel sorry for them? Does it make us treat or think about them differently despite the fact that if doesn't change them from being the amazing artist, singer, writer, lawyer that they are? Isn't it just hair??

We need to find a balance; where we can be a source of encouragement and help those who are struggling with self acceptance as well as show love and acceptance to our brothers and sisters, whatever their preferences. Let me know what you think.

Peace and Love,

Miss Jay

Derm corner- How it all began

I don't know about you but I love knowing the genesis of every story. It makes life so much easier knowing how things started because it helps to understand why things work the way they do. In high school I loved biology of all the sciences simply because it made sense. You could often see the cells your teacher spoke about using a microscope in sharp contrast to physics where you could only imagine these electrons, positrons and what not (and that's even if they really existed).

Today we are going to discuss how the hair we see on our skin came about. So sit back and tantalize your brain cells :)

I think it's fair to state before I start that our skin is made up of two layers, the epidermis and the dermis.

*   *   *

As a fetus in your mother's womb you were hairless...like completely bald all over. Your skin was plain and smooth with no tiny black dots on it. Weird huh? Well I have good news. All that changed when you hit 9 weeks of age....9 weeks??....Yes, 9 weeks. I'm gonna get a lil detailed here so hang on.

A cylinder of cells from the surface of your skin grows obliquely downwards from the epidermis into the dermis...kind of like a badger burrowing into the soil. This hollow path created through the thickness of your skin is the famed hair follicle.

                                     

Upon getting to the dermis, the follicle is met by another cluster of cells, the placode,  which bulge into the lower part of the hair follicle forming the papilla (the pink stuff). The roof of the papilla and the adjacent concave part of the hair follicle is called the hair matrix.

This papilla would eventually contain blood vessels which bring nutrients to the hair matrix. Since the matrix receives all the goodies that is where mitosis (the rapid division of cells) takes place to form the hair shaft/strand/fibre....whatever you want to call it.

the 'real' deal :)

So basically, the hair you see on your head is as a result of hair fibres, formed by the matrix, being pushed up through the pathway called the follicle.

MYTH BUSTER: So if there is any myth we can debunk with knowing this fact, it is that shaving does NOT make your hair grow faster because all you're doing is just cutting the ends of the hair shaft. It does not affect the matrix in any way and as we have seen, hair growth starts from the matrix in the dermis and not just merely the scalp.

I hope y'all enjoyed the 'pilot'.

Take care and keep watching this space.

Xoxo
Miss Jay

Introducing 'DERM CORNER'

........ YOUR HAIR!!!!!!!!

So I've been wanting to get my 'geek' on but have been procrastinating for a while now. I figured that since I'm 2 years old, I should grow up and talk about hair more in-depth.

I must confess though, there were 3 trains of thought holding me back.
1. There are a gazillion blogs that talk about hair, its science, products to use etc; so I was thinking, why bother and do whats already been done? After all I could always refer people to those blogs!!
2. I also realize that I'm one who likes to get the general gist of things as opposed to being bogged down with nitty-gritty details; Co-incidentally, I happen to be a perfectionist and know that if I started blogging on certain hair topics, I'd have to source out the in-depth information that I tend to scan through.
3. I personally like to look at pictures rather than texts when I look at a blog so I thought it would be boring having all this information.

But then I realized....
1. Teaching people what you've learnt not only solidifies your knowledge but also helps you learn more, as people are bound to ask questions.
2. There is such a huge lack of scientific knowledge about hair in our society; people often go on 'she said' 'he said'; and so I hope that people may be more willing to listen especially since it's coming from one of their own.
3. People like my sis who are so not into hair would be able to get info from my blog which they'd otherwise not seek out (and hopefully with that info I can sway them into becoming natural...mwahahahahaha!!!!)
 4. Also, giving that I have a science background, I may be in a good position to give factual information with the resources at my disposal. (I'm gonna have to put my research hat on....boy, this is gonna be hard work...lol). But you know what how cool would it be to be able to use the information gathered in both a professional and social setting??

My goal for this 'corner' is to talk about hair from both a dermatological and cosmetic view point.
For those who don't like to read so much text, I'll have a 'Did you know that...." section with short and sweet bullet points.
I'd also like to make this section as picture heavy as possible to make reading and understanding easier. (I don't know about you but I'm a visual learner).

Hope ye all enjoy it and learn loads....I'd be doing some learning too for y'all ;)

I'll be posting soon so watch this space !!!!!!.

XoXo
Miss Jay

-

My 2 year transiversary

Nappy birthday to me, nappy birthday to me :)

Wooohooo!!!! i'm 2 years old today. It's been a long but awesome journey...

A few Things I've learnt:
- Everyone's hair grows. I've grown about 2/3 of my relaxed hair length in 2 years.
- I retain the most length when my hair is least manipulated- e.g. braids.
- My hair texture is very fine and density quite low.
- Natural hair can look very neat.
- I LOVE my hair!!!!!!!!

Frustrations:
Ah yes its not always all that and a bag of chips.
- Detangling can take hours but it's always worth it.
- Straightening my hair myself is still something I prefer not to do cos of the time and EFFORT it takes.
- Ah yes and good ol shrinkage.

Birthday wish list ;)
- Tripod
- Microscope
- Heutiful hair steamer
- The Shea Moisture family

Updates on the BC:

I'm still not ready to BC :(  I was watching a YT video of a long term transitioner who bc'd and I was shocked at the shrinkage. Now her hair is pretty much the same length as mine and so I imagine i'll have the same amount of shrinkage and I know I'm being wimpy right now, but I just can't. Not now.

I also fear that I'd have to spend an awful lot of time on my hair doing twist outs and what not, and right now spending my time wisely is more of a priority.

So ya, I think I may just go another year and if the going get's tough, to braid it up and have some peace of mind.

So with that I say hair goal for BC- BSL

Right now i'm on APL when stretched out- relaxed bits inclusive.

That's all for now.

XOXO
Miss Jay

My hair straightening experience

As some of y'all may know I set out to get my hair straightened yesterday for two reasons:
1. My two year transiversary was coming up and so I wanted to see how much length I had retained
2. Also, I just wanted to give me a break from the daily styling.

Now I always get my hair straightened at a brazilian salon, but this time around I decided to try out a Nigerian salon after getting a great review from a friend. I was also a bit cost conscious and decided to go with the later cos it was cheaper.

Now the salon was very neat and the stylist was lovely. We had a good chat about hair, Nigeria and other issues. However, when it came to the styling process, a few sins were committed, e.g. combing natural hair when dry, of which I had to advice kindly against and secondly, combing wet/damp hair without the tension method. Now I really can't blame the stylist cos she doesn't deal with natural hair much but neither do the brazilians.

When it came to the blowdrying, she parted the hair into huge sections such that even though the ends were straight, the roots were exactly as before.
Now what's funny is that I told her that blowdrying and straightening my hair usually takes about 2 hours, but it took her about 30 mins if not less as she didn't do it the proper way- using tiny-small sections aka a brazilian/dominican blow-out; and I don't think she realized.
As she was the only stylist and had a few people waiting on her, I didn't try to teach her. I quietly got up, paid my money and called up the brazilian salon to get it re-done. Unfortunately they didn't have any more appointment places for the rest of the day and so I went home and re-did it myself wasting precious time that I could have spent on other things.

I realized that just because you use a round brush and a hand dryer doesn't mean you know how to do a proper blow-out. Needless to say, I wouldn't be returning there again, at least not to get my hair done.

Below are a few pictures to chronicle the experience. (used my phone camera for all but the last pic so sorry for the not so brilliant quality).

I immediately braided my hair to hide the mess

looking stringy and dull as hell

a brazilian blowout March 2011 to compare

To get it professionally re-done or not; that's the question.

That's all for now folks.

xoxo,
Miss Jay

Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus II Spoken Word

Wowwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!! that's all I can say. Just check it out.

xoxo
Miss J

Revised hair care regimen

So I read an article on curly nikki yesterday which inspired me to make some adjustments to my current regimen.

As I mentioned I DC'd yesterday after a long while and given the hiatus, I promised myself that I'd be disciplined and stick to doing it every week.

In the past, I almost always DC'd on dry hair as I felt it saved me getting into the shower twice but having read this article, I gather that it's important to shampoo before DCing because 'old product residue blocks the deep conditioner, as such more of the product (the protein and the conditioning ingredients) will end up going down the drain if you don't shampoo first'.  
Look at it this way-  shampoos help to lift the hair cuticles to help remove product buildup from the hair. In doing this, they also enable the keratin/proteins in the DC bind to your hair's keratin strand.


One other thing I  learnt was that even though 'it's super common to DC for an hour to overnight, there is usually no benefit in leaving the product on longer than it says on the bottle. The maximum time recommended will get you the maximum possible results'.

As a result I've tweaked my regimen a bit to include the following:
1. Pre-poo the night before with coconut or other oil or do a hot oil treatment on the morning of wash day (which will now probably be on the weekend, as I can't afford to be late during the week).
2. Shampoo once a week
3. Follow with a DC
4. Moisturize and seal after wash and whenever hair feels dry.

+/- co-wash mid week if hair utterly dry or in need of style change.

My staple products are as before, however, I did add a new product for my edges T444Z, which I got from a hair show.


That's all for now folks.


xoxo,
Miss Jay

Deep Conditioning to the rescue

You see in the last few weeks (and I'm ashamed to say how many) I have failed to DC. And I have an excuse (at least I think I do) - I ran out of deep conditioner *bows head in shame*.
Last sunday, it all became too much and I decided that I HAD to buy a DC at all costs.
Now I could have gone through the stress of looking for the closest 'ethnic' store but I was so desperate that I just went to the nearest boots store and purchased my DC and a few other bobs as there was a 3 for 2 offer. (I kno I'm supposed to have given up PJism but 3 for 2????, common now...I'm an ijebu girl;)

Anyways I bought the Tressemme thermal recovery treatment mask as it was cheaper than my regular ORS replenishing conditioner...Imagine the last time I checked they were selling it for 10 bucks...a whole 10 bucks..they must really have liver(guts). 

Moving on...lol..so the last time I used this DC, I mixed it with some Giovanni SAS conditioner as it was almost finished and the outcome I remember was real good. My concoction had soo much slip and detangled my hair pretty well. Now prior to this,I had used the tressemme on my relaxed hair and didn't like it much.

So much to my surprise there's this article on CN a day after buying this product and its about choosing the perfect DC. Talk about co-incidence ay. Boy was I happy when I read the recommended ingredient list and found that my new buy had passed the ingredient test.

This morning I decided to d/c at the expense of being late to work (well I was only 5 mins late so that's not too bad).I also wasn't feeling the whole sleeping on wet hair business last night.
So how did I like it?? It was amazingggg!!!!! As before, it had soooo much slip and detangling was much easier. I used quite a bit of product but the tub still looked pretty full.

Would I recommend it? Well I'm no expert but it sure did work well for me. I'd say to give it a shot if you live far from an 'ethnic' store and need an emergency DC. I'm pretty lax about ingredients and so will use commercially made products, provided they don't contain the real 'baddies' like mineral oil, petrolatum and the like. That said, the ORS replenishing conditioner is still my no 1 staple.

Here are pics of the other items I bought with the 3 for 2 deal:

I've heard so much abt this product and since
 I'm out of HE HH/BE, I decided to try this.

This is my 4th buy as they keep breaking

Thought I'd try a new accessory

That's all for now folks.


xoxo
Miss Jay

Going out + Natural hair

I'm in desperate need of funky quick transition hair styles for going out. My friend invited me to go salsa dancing and in the midst of my studying, I started planning vigorously. 'What shall I do to my hair and what outfit would match with it?' Mind you I had just over an hour to get home, take a shower, pick an outfit and do my hair.

I thought of a top knot bun but remembered past experiences and many failed attempts. As I couldn't come up with anything, I decided to do my 'one in town' bun using some kinky curly gel this time around. Whilst in the shower I did a quick co-wash with my HE BE. With water running down my hair, I put my hair in a low ponytail. (I find it's always sleeker making your ponytail when it's this saturated). After getting out of the shower, I applied my Giovanni Direct leave in conditioner, followed by the kinky curly curling custard. I brushed my hair using a soft boar brush and then sealed with some moroccan oil.

I think it was the best idea in the end cos boy did I dance till my feet hurt. At the end of the night my hair was still looking immaculate. By the way I spotted another natural at the opposite side of salsa bar...go her...lol. I should have shuffled my way through to have some  hair talk (you know you're natural when........)


You know what was real funny, the next day I had to go to work for some teaching thing and a classmate approached me and was like were you in the Westin yesterday?? If I could blush i'm sure I would have been red all over and that's because I'm usually shy and reserved so it was as though my alter-ego had been exposed. But hey, there's nothing to be ashamed of; I love my dance and he loves his salsa too...and did I mention he's more reserved than I am??? So ya, that makes two of us.

Anyways, If any of you are ever in the area and want to check out a salsa club, I would thoroughly recommend the mint bar on Friday nights.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to take pics in my rush,  however, my friend did take a few group pics, so whenever i'm able to get them off her, i'll upload em. Below are the products I used.

oh and that's how much hair I lost in my rush..lol

I also happen to have an older pic from the last time we went salsa dancing. On that occasion, I did a poofy side part and used a flower to accessorize (I think I might do a style series on this later)

XoXo,

Miss J



.

Style Series 4

The 'dry' bun- Wahhhhhhh :'( i can't find the 'hash' / 'pound' key on my laptop keypad. Yes, call me 'bush' or uncivilized....but the truth remains that its not there staring up at me *wipes tear*
I guess the reason for this could be that this is an 'Aba' (meaning fake) style series; i'll explain.
You see, I didn't do too much with my hair over the lent period. I guess she too was fasting...lol.
One of the few things I did do was to perfect my bun. Unlike my previous post, this was done on 'dry', stretched out hair. 

I'd also like to apologize in advance for not having pics for each stage. As it stands i'm not an octopus yet ;) and until I get a tripod, please bear with me :)

Stretched out hair- I stretched out my hair by dividing my hair into 4 sections after washing it and making 2-4 twists per section. So in total I had between 8-16 twists. I tied my hair down in a ponytail and 'rocked' that hairstyle for about 2 days. On the third day, I took it out and.....

Step 1: Unravel the twists and mist each section of hair with water (or a water: glycerin mix- 60:40) using a spray bottle.

Step 2: Moisturize and seal each section using a moisturizer and oil of your choice. (I used Giovanni Direct Leave-in conditioner to moisturize and sealed with avocado oil.)


Step 3: Tie your hair into a low ponytail using an ouch less/ snag free ponytail holder

Step 4: Use your index finger to make a 'hole' in the middle of your ponytail and using that as your vantage point, distribute the hairs outwards (like a star)

Step 5: At 12 o'clock, divide the hair into two parts, and starting with the right section, gather and tuck the hair in as you move clockwise. As you approach 12 o'clock again, continue to roll and tuck in the section you left out together with the hairs in your hand.
(i hope this is not too confusing... I could do a video to demonstrate if need be)

Step 6: When you have your bun, use another ponytail holder to secure the bun in its place and voila!!!.

Step 7: Tie a satin scarf over your head for at least 10-15mins to allow the style to set.

front-top view

another view

and another

back view- z bun

and that's all for now folks.

xoxo,
Miss J

I am second

I had a lovely easter weekend and hope you did too. My sis was in town for the weekend and we had a nice time touring the city, taking loads of pics and meeting with friends. As easter Monday rolled in, I felt renewed and had this sense of 'new beginnings', which was probably coupled with the fact that I had turned a year older and the reminder that what Jesus did for us on the cross, which we celebrate during easter truly marks the start of a new life and a new relationship. I spent the most of Monday listening to stories of several men and women who had experienced this 'new beginning'. I believe now more than ever that one day in the near future, my story will be complete so that I too will be able to share it and encourage others.

The following video is the first one of the series of the 'I am second' videos that I watched that Monday morning. They are truly inspiring and life changing I must say. I kept bawling the whole time and for the first time I really felt 'changed' from the inside.  I'd like to encourage you to watch not just this one but the other videos in the series. I hope that by the end of it all you too will feel inspired and a new sense of hope, a new beginning, will be birthed from within. Stay blessed :)

Phewwwwww!!!!!!!!

Yayyyyyy!!!!!!! Lent is over and i can finally break my 'fast'. I'm sooo happy I made it through. I felt like giving up several times but glad I stuck it through. Just wanted to wish you all a happy Easter!!! Today also happens to be my birthday so yayyyyyy....go me...woop woop :) Going to bed now; there's sooo much to catch up on and I can't wait. Will blog soon.

Take care,
Miss Jay