Taking a Break: UPDATE!

(photo taken in May; Hair: two strand twists done on blown out hair, lasted for about 5 weeks!)

Dear Naturally Leslie readers,

So after 7 lovely weeks with my baby boy, I returned to work today. It was tough. People tell you it is hard but you can't know until you experience it. Luckily, my son was being cared for by my husband who decided to take two weeks off. That made the transition back not so bad and I only called home a half a dozen times.

In terms of blog postings, I hope to get back in the swing of things at some point soon but I must request your patience as I get into this new routine. I am not one of those super bloggers who can have a baby, breastfeed, pump, take care of the little tot, and continue to post frequently without missing a beat. I need some time to adjust to this new phase and I am going to take it.

In the meantime, feel free to continue to comment as you wish as I will be able to moderate comments daily. Or, you can sit back and do nothing and just wait until I get back to posting! Either way, I appreciate your readership and support and I hope to return quickly. Also, you can email me topics you would like to see discussed here on Naturally Leslie in the future. I would rather do more posts about things than interest you but I need to know what those are! Send me an email to naturallyleslie@gmail.com.

Ok, off to bed. Take care and we'll see each other soon!

Love always,

Leslie

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UPDATE:

Hey there everybody! I apologize for being MIA for so long. Thank you for all your emails and comments in my absence. School just got out for the summer and I hope to get back to posting really soon. If you sent an email and it went unanswered, please accept my apologies and know that I did receive it. I have been somewhat "unplugged" if you will and have not done much related to the blog. Baby is almost 4 months ( on July 4) and I can say I feel pretty adjusted. We're still nursing about every 2-3 hrs around the clock so that is tough and part of the reason I have not braved adding anything else to my plate! I hope you continue to stick around and hopefully I can star posting again really soon. I appreciate all your support!

Hair After Braids...

So...I took my box braids out a few weeks ago. They did not make it as long as I would have liked for two reasons. One, they were super heavy and I felt like I kept hitting my baby with them! I was constantly swinging them out of my face, so much so that I felt like vintage Cher. Two, the ends were cut very blunt and straight across. To me they looked like the ends of shoe laces when they lose that plastic tip. Not cute, imo. Alas, I spent the better part of two days undoing braids, in between baby feedings, changings, and naps.

After the take down, I washed my hair, conditioned and detangled. Before I got the braids, my regimen would then have me set my hair in two low buns to stretch and dry. But I decided to do two-strand twists on wet hair for a defined twist out instead.

Because I am dying to try some new products, but vowed to use up the old ones I have first, I pulled out my jar of Miss Jessie's Curly Pudding to set my twists.

I did medium twists all over, applying a generous dollop of product to each damp section. I only used my fingers to part but I used my denman to smooth. After twisting all the hair I poured a small amount of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) in my hands and smoothed it over all the twists. I sealed each end with a tiny spot of shea butter.

I air-dried the rest of the day and that night. The next day, I took down each twist and voila!

Here I am a few days later with a bun (and the baby!) I retwisted the front few twists to redefine in case I wanted to wear it down again.

(Baby and I both LOOOOOVE our green Moby wrap)

What's Your Opinion: What's Next for Naturals?

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I have been thinking about this for a long time and wanted to get your opinions. I don't know about you all but it seems to me that natural hair is becoming more mainstream. Granted, there is still a long way to go before natural becomes the "norm", but compared to even just 10 years ago, there is so much information and awareness out there. More than ever, women are coming to embrace their god-given locks with pride.

It also seems that every day there is another natural hair product business, website, forum, you tuber, blog, etc cropping up to support, promote, and educate about kinky and curly hair. Talk about info overload!

So my questions to you all are these: What is next for natural hair? What do you anticipate will be the big issues of the next 5-10 years in this movement? What do you want to see bloggers and You Tubers tackle on their pages and vids? What do you hope to see in the media? Are we at the point where we no longer need to celebrate ever next person who goes natural or are we still just getting started?

Your thoughts....

Black is Beautiful on Latina.com

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This week at Latina.com, we're celebrating all of our beautiful different skin tones. Be sure to check in every day for a new beauty tip specifically tailored for our Afro-Latina chicas! ~Latina.com

If you're interested in celebrating the unique blended heritage that is both Afro and Latina, check out Latina.com's first ever Afro-Latina Beauty week features. The link above takes you to Monday's beauty tip. Click here for day two.

Suppresing the PJ. Shea Moisture Products...

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Trying not to indulge my inner PJ, I have been looking-but-not-touching many different products I've seen around lately. One line that I really want to try is the Shea Moisture line. I really like what I have seen so far because the ingredients look good, the packaging is nice (not required but always a plus), and they smell great. My mom came to visit last weekend and she brought one of the products with her so I was able to get a "preview" if you will. Many times over the past week I have driven by Target and I literally had to talk myself out of going in to purchase them. I tell myself that I have a hodgepodge of products I need to finish up before I go out and spend money on more. Once I have done that, I am allowed to purchase the Shea Moisture line but not a moment before. Thank goodness there is no Walgreens around here since apparently they are having a BOGO sale as we speak and I might have broken down! Will power ain't easy!

So, in the meantime, I have been lurking online to check out reviews from other naturals who've tried it. I saw some here, here, and here. Most people seem the really like this line and have nice things to say. Of course we all know that each head is an individual and so I take everything I read with a grain of salt. That being said, the outlook seems promising.

Have you all tried these products? If so, tell me what you think and how you use them. Which of the different "flavors" would you suggest?

What's Your Opinion: Should the United States Be Bilingual?

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I just read an interesting article over on Latina.com and wanted to get your opinions. Here is an excerpt:

"The latest Census results released last week tell us that 1 in 6 people in the U.S. is Latino, and that Latino kids number just over 17 million, or 23 percent of the 17-and-under U.S. population..."

“I just feel like there’s no excuse to not speak Spanish,” she (Odette Yustman) said. "It’s like Canada — they’ve got English and French — that’s what we need to do.”

"Odette tells us she also plans to pass down Spanish to her kids one day. “It’s important because living in the U.S. it’s so easy for kids to forget the language because you go to school and the kids speak English...“I was so fortunate because I learned Spanish first, so that was my first language....You just gotta carry that on, ya know?" (Click here to read the article in its entirety.)

I love Spanish. I learned to speak Spanish in school. I even majored in Romance Languages concentrating in Spanish as an undergrad. My husband was raised in South America and my son will hopefully be bilingual as well. All that being said, do I think we need to be officially blingual in this country? I don't know. I do know that many people feel the US is English speaking only and always should be.

So, after reading the article, this raises two questions in my mind:

1) Should all Americans learn Spanish, become bilingual and willingly adopt Spanish as our national language (in addition to English)?

and

2) Are you any less latino/a if you don't speak Spanish?

You may think this issue does not apply to you if you are not hispanic/latino(a) but I think A) if you live in the USA you are well aware of the growing Spanish-speaking population and B)whether it be race, gender, sexuality or HAIR, we can all relate to issues of identity and image. For example, question 2 could easily be replaced with "Are you any less Black if you don't wear your hair in its natural state" or some other like phrase.

So what do you all think?

Click here to read an older post about Black-Latino Identity.