Hey guys! So here are the interview questions for any naturally lovely lady 40+ who would like to be featured on Naturally Leslie. All you have to do is send me an email with your responses and some pictures that you would like to share. We already have a few prospects so I look forward to seeing what happens!
40+ Naturals Interview Questions
1. When did you decide to go natural and what went into that decision?
2. Did you transition over time or do a big chop?
3. What are some of your favorite products and styles?
4. Describe your expectations and feelings before you made the leap to natural. How did you feel post-transition?
5. What have been the reactions of family, friends, etc to the newly natural you?
6. Describe what it was like to return to work after going natural.
7. Overall, what has been your greatest discovery about being natural?
8. What advice would you give to another 40+ woman who is considering going natural?
I love being natural. I love seeing other natural women when I am out and about. Most of all, I love that my mom is now natural again after 3 decades of perms!!!! She went natural about two and a half years ago and now I have the pleasure of styling her fabulous fro almost weekly. My mom's best friend is also natural and has been growing her hair for about 10 years. Her lovely locs hang to almost waist length!!!! Also, another one of her friends just did a bc and is sporting the cutest twa! It's got me so excited, I feel like a giddy two year old as one-by-one I see people embracing their natural curls. So...it got me thinking. I am really interested in WHY these women have decided to leave the relaxers behind and move into their middle years with natural hair. I wonder what went into the decision making process, what the were motives, and how they feel about the change. I have decided to stop people anywhere I am if I notice any naturals over 40 to get the scoop. I must admit I am a bit nervous about talking to total strangers but everytime I have stopped someone about their hair before they seemed very eager and gracious to talk about it.
If YOU or someone you know is over 40 and wearing a beautiful head of natural hair, I would love to feature you on Naturally Leslie. All you have to do is send me an email and I will send you one back with a few questions for you to answer.
I think this will be a unique perspective and I look forward to seeing what kind of response I'll get. I will start with the people I already know (my mom, aunt, her friend), then move into any other lovely natural ladies I can find. As soon as I get them ready, I'll post. I'm so excited!!!!
When my hair was short, I unfortunately did not take advantage of all the wonderful clips, barrettes, and headbands that are out there to adorn my tresses. Even now, I usually never add anything to my styles. What at shame!!! There are countless adornments for hair,whether it be short or long, and I am thinking about ways to incorporate them into my look.
So, where can you get amazing hair pieces?
On of my favorite websites is Etsy.com which I am sure many of you have heard of. You can buy or sell just about anything and there is a lot of creativity going on over there!
If you go to the site and click on"hair" a whole host of accessories pop up. I am interested in headbands right now as a way to dress up a twist out or a low bun. Here is a peek into what Etsy has to offer:
This cool black and tan leather one for $25 (And this one combines two of my absolute favorite things...red hair and BUTTERFLIES!!!!) $28
Etsy has some unique items, not the stuff you're gonna find in the mall down the street. They may not all be your cup of tea but they are pretty original and definitely worth a look. And you could literally spend HOURS pouring over all the cool items for sale there. The prices range from as little as $5 bucks to a couple hundred, just depending on what you want.
Bridal hair sites can also be great sources of information. On Brides.com, there are countless beautiful pics of hairdos with flowers, jewels, clips, and bands. So why let the brides have all the fun?!?!
How cute are these ladies!
And Khamit Kinks has come great inspirational style pics as well: Finally, you can always just make your own! In these economic times, it is smart and probably cheaper to use materials you already have to fashion your very own clips and barrettes. I know I have seen some amazing looking "silk" flowers at my local beauty supply store in a variety of colors. Nothing like a bright fuchsia bloom to enhance naturally curly locks! And if you really want to DIY, all you need is a glue gun, some dollar store flowers (I've heard, never actually done my own but planning on it), and a bag of clips or bobby pins from Wal-Mart or a BSS.
Once again, one of my fave You Tubers, Curly Chronicles, has a cool tutorial on DIY flower clips. Check it out!
I did not get to enjoy a TWA the first chop around...but I totally enjoyed it the last chop I did in 07. As much as I wanted my hair to grow back, I really enjoyed the freedom of the TWA. Endless wash and go's were a fave back then. Enjoy these lovely-n-cute TWAs!
Oprah a kinky curly fro'ed-out gal??? Woah! Cool. I bet she has a lot of heat damage though with all that daily straightening. And even though we are so used to seeing her with her makeup, this picture looks fine to me considering she's in her fifties! It looks like she just washed her face in the morning and is waiting to get her hair done at the kitchen stove! I wonder what her audience was thinking when they saw this? Watch this Video
Here's an update from You Tube's BeautifulBrwnBabyDol on what she does to her natural hair. She has worn her hair in twists for so long and it's nice to see her beautiful kinks and curls (check out her fotki updated with new pics). It's an update on her products and regimen, she uses a lot of Karen's Body Beautiful products. I have never actually tried those products but she says they smell soooo good and I LOVE that. Actually, that was one of the reasons I went natural- I could cleanse as often as I wanted and no longer had to deal with burnt smelling hair! Anyways....I love her spirit and joyful presentation. She's just fun to watch!
Hey guys! You know I love You Tube and always looks to it for info, inspiration, ideas, etc. I love Glamazini's videos as well as her oh so informative site. Here are two vids she posted a few months ago about what she does to wash and condition her hair. I really like her alot and I remember her from years ago before she got married and updated her site. It has been cool to watch her hair progress. Her hair has gotten pretty long and she does cool styles with twists, braids and more. I also like that she features her husband's hair as well since he wears his pretty long. My favorite thing on her site is her wedding photos. She wore her natural hair in a beautiful bun with twists. Such a cutie! Check her out!
Ha! I was so busy snapping shots of them..I guess someone got one of me! I think I was buying some Curly Buttercream for my mom and a photog took this (#10/47). There were cameras EVERYWHERE and there's no telling where people might end up out there in cyberspace! Check out number 46 and 47. It's the same lady so I guess it's a before and after shot. Pretty cool.
Hey guys! I was over on Essence.com, as I sometimes am, and came across this feature about Black men and White women. Interracial dating, in general for some people, raises issues. But for other, the specific "Black man/White woman" combo really gets the wheels turning. Why is this? The feature tries to answer just that by delving into the history of interracial dating. All of this is on the heels of the release of the new movie Obsessed with Beyonce Knowles and Idris Elba (who I swoon for btw, sorry TMI) and progresses through other films like Jungle Fever and Waiting to Exhale to illustrate its points. Then, it (and at this point "it" is columnist Finesse Mitchell) goes on to make suggestions about what White women are doing (better) than Black women in terms of getting a Black man.
“My beautiful Queens of Color, White women don’t have Big Mamas. When a White woman—let’s call her Becky (because we think they’re all named Becky)—likes ‘Marcus,’ she’s all up in his face, getting his attention. Becky takes the guesswork out of who likes who, and some men like that. If a Black woman likes Marcus, she telepathically sends him a message that he almost never gets,” says Mitchell. Interesting. Then he goes on to talk about how White women are more open to dating blue collar. I feel like I've head this before. Then we just need to loosen up at parties and stop hatin on the fun-loving White girls in the club. Ok.
It goes on and on. Another commentator had this to say: “If you take a step down, it is something about us that is intimidating,” says Jeri of Baltimore. “There is nothing wrong with a White woman, but come on now, step your game up. I was definitely surprised to see Ice-T marry Coco.”
I don't know. I guess I don't judge myself buy what type of White woman another Black man chooses to date/love/marry.
So... go read it for yourself and tell me what you think. I'm sure most of us either know someone, or are someone who has dated "outside of their race". Is this something Black women need to get over? Is this a dead convo? Do you know Black women that still find this to be an issue? If so, what do those women (or people if it's guys) think about President Obama? I would be fascinated to hear what your opinions on this are.
So my Sunday Cuteness (Afros and Flowers) post got me in the mood to talk about fros. I am seriously missing mine, thanks to my lovely Afro twists, so I am currently living vicariously through images and words that are all about the fro. Wandering through Wikipedia, I came across this interesting entry...
The evolution of Afro hair texture
During the process of going from fur to naked skin, hair texture putatively changed gradually from being straight (the condition of most mammals, including humanity's closest cousin--the chimpanzee), to Afro-like or 'kinky' (ie tightly coiled). This is made clear in a study by Iyengar[17] which has provided evidence that the roots of straight human hair may act as optic fibers that allow UV light to pass into the skin. In this sense, during the period in which pre-humans were gradually losing most of their straight body hair (fur) and thereby exposing the probably pale skin underneath their fur to the sun (Rogers et al, 2004), straight hair would have been an evolutionary liability. 'Kinks' in fiber optic tubes are known to prevent UV from passing through. Hence, tightly coiled or 'kinky' hair may have evolved to prevent the entry of UV light during the gradual process of evolution toward dark skin and the simultaneous transition from hairiness to virtual nudity. Later, when groups of modern humans migrated from Africa approximately 60,000 years ago, the straight hair phenotype, which is more common in mammals, re-emerged. (see hair texture--'The Evolution of Straight Hair'). As mentioned, the equatorial heat and higher proto-human activity levels were such that most body hair was eliminated 1-2 million years ago. However, Jablonski[16] agrees that at this time, it was evolutionarily advantageous for pre-humans (Homo erectus) to retain the hair on their heads in order to protect the skin there as they walked upright in the intense African (equatorial) UV light. Auxiliary hair in the groin and underarms was also retained; probably as a sign of sexual maturity.
Once dark skin evolved approximately 1 million years ago (Harding, 2000), Afro-hair texture was less crucial in terms of protection from UV rays. However, this texture has been sustained in some areas (such as sub-Saharan Africa) at frequencies approaching 100%. It is possible that this hair texture has the capacity to prevent UV (and possibly heat) from entering the body through the head.[citation needed] Alternatively however, it is also possible that the trait sustained high frequencies in the founding/original (sub-Saharan African) human population because most of the various genes that determined this trait retained phenotypicmonomorphism in the population due to the genetotypic dominance of coiled/curled hair genes over straight hair genes.[citation needed] In other words, an ancient selective sweep likely occurred for genes coding for Afro-hair while skin was darkening 1-2 million years ago. This change has been sustained in sub-Saharan Africa, the Andamans, and Melanesia since the 200,000 year origin of humans due to high levels of isolated inter-mixture between those expressing the trait, and/or the genetic dominance of the factors determining the phenotype. Notably, sexual selection is another possible factor.[citation needed]
Also, because inter-mixture within the large sub-Saharan African population remained relatively high for a significant portion of its pre-history (compared to those who migrated outside of this region), severe, sustained isolation and its associated intensive inbreeding (i.e. bottlenecks) did not occur there (Tishkoff, 1996). Thus, straight hair did not arise by way of random mutation and isolation (i.e. genetic drift) among any of the subgroups of the sub-Saharan region. In fact, it is very likely,[citation needed] given the basically ubiquitous distribution of the Afro-hair trait among contemporary sub-Saharan Africans, that the evolution of Afro-hair predates the migration out of Africa.
I just saw this woman on another blog and instantly wanted to know more about her. Turns out, her name is Paula Lima, she is Afro Brazilian, and she is a famous composer and singer. I saw her and the first thing I noticed was her amazing hair! Picture after picture of this beautiful woman and I was taken aback by how cool her hair looks. At first I could not tell what was exactly going on but upon closer look I realized she has braid extensions that she wears curled. Very interesting. I could not find a pic of her without them so I assume this is her staple look. I have not seen braid extensions styled like this before and it looks really cool. Actually, they remind me of BeautifulBrwnBabyDol's (love her!!!) twists now that I think about it.
Aside from her amazing hair (and skin by the way), she has a beautiful voice! I love listening to Portuguese, especially Brazilian Portuguese. Watch her move people!!!!!!!
Hey guys and gals! This coming Wednesday, the 22nd, will make 6 weeks I've had my hair in Afro twists! I am still loving them and contemplating how much longer to keep them in. The stylist said three months but I seriously doubt I'll go that long. So far, they look pretty decent still. The parts have pretty much disappeared and I have lost a few around the front and back edges. For those pieces, when I wash, I just coat the hair with oil and curl around my finger to form a little ringlet. I actually think this makes it look more real since some of my hair is exposed. Also, some in the back "kitchen" area have slipped down a lot but are still hanging on. I think in the second pic below you can see one hanging down really farThey still feel very lightweight and have more movement since they don't fall the way my hair was initially parted.
These shots were taken right after I left the World Natural Hair and Health Show in ATL.
This has been my regimen overall: 1) Wet my hair under warm running water 2) Use Giovanni Smooth as Silk Deep Moisture Shampoo on the roots. (I just pour in my hands, and massage into my scalp with my finger tips) 3) Rinse really well to make sure all residue is gone from the shampoo 4) Apply coconut oil or Taliah Waajid African Healing Oyl (I got a sample from the hair show and LOVED it!) lightly to my scalp with my fingertips and massage in 6) Towel blot the hair dry 5) Spray Aussie Leave In Conditioner and/or Infusium Leave In to the twists 6) Lightly blow dry the rest of the way with a hairdryer and diffuser on warm
Overall, I would say this has worked fine. Some that have gotten a little fuzzy looking I just un-twisted to the braided part at the root and re-twisted. Here are what I perceive to be the pros and cons of Afro twists in case you ever considered getting them:
Benefits: Protective style Get up and go! Less Products Used No prep for gym workouts Quick drying time Looks pretty natural No shrinkage when I wash
Drawbacks: One style for weeks at a time (I get so bored so this has been a little hard for me) Expensive! The hair is a little scratchy, better than kinky twists, but not as soft as real hair (of course)
I like these a lot and the more I wash them the more I like them. In the future, I might consider getting them in the fall/winter since I don't like leaving the house with my hair wet when it's cold. I miss playing with my hair but I am enjoying this break!
Wow...talk about a BC! I know ya'll have seen this by now. I think she can handle it! I really like it. Of course, for those of us with "real" jobs we could probably never get away with it. And not that I personally would ever want to. But...wow...I like it.
I like how it makes her look a little boyish, sorta. It's sexy and a little wierd. At least she does not look like every other pop artist out there with the long wavy hair, it's something different. And you can actually see her face now, she has really interesting features.
So a day or so ago I left a comment on afellow blogger's post about henna. I have not henna'd before but I have thought about trying it based on what I hear about its ability to strengthen. I had been experiencing some breakage and wanted to try something that might thicken the strands a bit but I was not sure henna was the way to go for me just yet. I noticed, however, that a lot of people, in their fotkis and on other blogs, commented on Henna's loosening effect, that is, some people experience a looser curl after using the henna. We're not talking a whole texture change, but for some, a visible difference. I began to wonder if some naturals choose to use Henna specifically for that purpose and, if so, what that means in terms of self acceptance, etc, etc. Go here to The Natural Haven to read the post and leave your own comments about the issue.
Somewhat in the same vein of my earlier post on Hair Envy, my question aimed at Jc was meant to be a little controversial but also to stimulate conversation. My intention is never to offend but to always say what's on my mind and ask others to do the same. So, if you have come across this issue in blogs, fotkis, etc, go on over and leave your comment. Or you can leave one here if you'd prefer.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
I was watching an episode of Oprah I DVR'd (procrastinating yet again...this semester is killing me ya'll) and the whole episode was dedicated to some of country music's hottest stars. The guests were Carrie Underwood (love her), Kenny Chesney (ehh), Sugarland (yeah!), and Darius Rucker (if you were a Hootie and the Blowfish fan you know who he is). Oprah said something to him like "Wouldn't you agree that country is the real soul music" or something like that. She brought up how he's only the third African American to top the country charts behind Ray Charles and Charlie Pride. Cool. I thought about it and how country music is seen as such a "white" thing typically. But if you look at country's roots you see it has a complex history:
Country music was a federation of styles, rather than a monolithic style. Its origins were lost in the early decades of colonization, when the folk dances (Scottish reels, Irish jigs, and square dances, the poor man's version of the French "cotillion" and "quadrille") and the British ballad got transplanted into the new world and got contaminated by the religious hymns of church and camp meetings. The musical styles were reminiscent of their British ancestors. The lyrics, on the other hand, were completely different. The Americans disliked the subject of love, to which they preferred pratical issues such as real-world experiences (ranching, logging, mining, railroads) and real-world tragedies (bank robberies, natural disasters, murders, train accidents).
The instrumentation included the banjo, introduced by the African slaves via the minstrel shows, the Scottish "fiddle" (the poor man's violin, simplified so that the fiddler could also sing) and the Spanish guitar (an instrument that became popular in the South only around 1910). Ironically, as more and more blacks abandoned the banjo and adopted the guitar, the banjo ended up being identified with white music, while the guitar ended up being identified as black music. For example, Hobart Smith learned to play from black bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson, but went on to play the banjo while Jefferson played the guitar.
Growing up I always felt conflicted about the type of music I 'should' like versus the music I did like. Sometimes what I liked was different that what I thought I 'should" like and sometimes it was the same. Being from Nashville, TN, I always heard "Oh you're from Nashville so I know you like country!" Back in the 90's I really didn't. But now, since country is slightly more pop Ifind myself liking it more and more. I love Carrie Underwood and Sugarland. And before Darius went country (although he always sounded a little country to me), I liked Hootie and the Blowfish.
So each act performed on the show. When it was Darius's turn, he chose a beautiful slow song written about his daugter. Pictures and videos of his wife and kids splashed across the screen behind the band as they played. It is such a tender song about a dad watching his babies grow, knowing that one day they will be all grown up. I liked it so much I thought I'd share. Country might not be your thing but this song is lovely. I'm thinking I'll go check out his cd this weekend...
Oh...and if you haven't heard this one by Sugarland, Miss Jennifer Nettles will make a believer out of you. (BTW the other half of Sugarland is Mr. Kristian Bush of Bush's baked beans, lol!!!)Brings me to tears to watch her. Click here to see the actual video, for some reason I can't embed it.
Hey guys! I saw this on another blog and thought I'd share for those of you who had not seen it. The news anchor lady is putting it all out there and I like it. Very interesting. I had read some articles about Black women, health and exercise, and hair but it was interesting to watch the different women in this video share their experiences. Things I thought were funny: 1) A hair salon in a gym and 2)The side-by-side comparisons of the black anchor's hair after her new styles and her white co-anchor's opinions. Oh...and btw have any of you seen those little 'strawlers'? I wonder how they would work on natural hair. Hmmm....might be something to try after I come outta these twists (which I have to say I am still loving and I don't know yet when that'll be!). Ladies and gents, what are your reactions to the video? Do you know people who won't exercise because of their hair?
Starts of a little shaky...but then he gets in and makes beautiful sounds with his hands. Lollipop already has a nice melody to it anyways...but the piano makes it soar...around 1:07 or so.
Once you find the key the song's in the rest is just playing with different melodies. But he does it so nicely. I likes it. I likes it a lot.
I don't know why this popped into my head but I guess it kinda goes along with my Hair Envy post. What do you all think about the word "nappy"? Is is bad or good or just plain neutral? If someone were to refer to your hair as nappy would you frown in disgust, anger, and resentment or would you take it as a compliment? Is this a term that people should use to describe the kinky, curly, coily, and wavy hair of African Americans? Lastly, is it like the other other "N" word- meaning it's okay for 'us' but not ok for 'them' to say? Here's a thread discussing this very topic on Long Hair Care Forum. Hmmm.... just a random though but I'm curious to know what you all think.
BTW I do have my own opinion on the subject but for now I will keep it to myself so hopefully everyone will feel free to openly express their own view.
Photos are from Carolivia Herron's book entitled Nappy Hair, which endured it's own little controversy in 1998.
From as far back as I can remember, I have always loved red hair. On any race, sex, age. I think it is stunning. I love these ladies and each does red in her own way. I especially like Kelis' red curls at her wedding. What else can I say. Just a random red itch I felt like scratching (while I am here procrastinating writing a paper).
