Birthing While Black

I'm not pregnant, nor is this entry about hair care while giving birth.

I came across this article this morning and thought I'd share. I rarely, with the exception of blogs I follow, have the occasion to read about or see images of Black women's experiences in marriage, love and motherhood in mainstream media. When I do read an article on such matters it tends to be a spew of skewed statistics stating some alarming crisis plaguing black women (i.e. most recent "the single lady/marriage crisis"). This morning while reading the Huffington Post Black Voices section, my eyes quickly landed on an article  "Birthing while Black: An Experience I'll Never Forget", I thought it would be a personal, touching story about one's first birthing experience or something of that nature. Well, after reading the article, I found it was personal and touching but not in a positive way. Read for yourself here . I already find the medical birthing industry to be a money pushing, impersonal, fast-fix industry--- however, this article takes it to another level.

Happy Tuesday!

xoxo


Annabel

Mission Destroy Afro-Mullet

In an attempt to coax my hair through its awkward phase, I tried something new last night.

So yesterday's wash-n-go headband combo (see prior post), worked really well. My curls were really defined, moist and shiny. Last night, I thought it would be unfortunate to throw on a satin cap and wake up to flat, matted curl, after having a good hair day. So I revisited a styling method I used during my transition, the bantu knot out. Why didn't I think of this sooner?! The results were much nicer than the twist-out attempt and it calmed down the volume of my hair! My hair is super thick and dense-- so I'm all set with volume. Today, I'm enjoying "flat hair". The bantu knot out was done on a dry wash n go, with conditioner as my leave-in, I just slicked on a small amount of jojoba before styling.

Aaaaaw

KWARD!

I knew this day would come. I thought I was prepared for it. Being a follower of Curly Nikki's blog, I'd encountered this topic, read about the solutions and thought "I can handle this, no problem" (dusts shoulders). 

Boy was I wrong... It all started on Sunday, I put my hair in flat twists to avoid washing it until Wednesday. I've been really busy trying to meet deadlines, so did this to shorten my morning routine. Well, yesterday I took out the twists and I had an instant twist out. Unfortunately, I didn't like the way the twist out looked so just jumped in the shower to co-wash. After, as I stood in front of the mirror styling my hair, I realized two things: 1) my hair has grown a lot and 2)it's definitely reached the awkward phase. IMO it looks like a square mullet-- no bueno! To lessen the severity of the  afro-mullet I slicked back the front and slapped on a head band. It came out cute, but am not sure how long this solution will last.

Seeing that I don't plan on cutting and am focusing on growth,  I need to find a way to live in awkward harmony with my hair until it grows out of this phase. I should find more styles that hide awkward lengths. I'm not a very adventurous person in the styling department and never have been. Heck, I thought I was avante-garde when I rocked a braidout. I'm a plain jane when it comes to my hair, but I guess I'm going to have to start walking on the "wild" side soon.

Oh My Gorgeousness!

Actress Aïssa Maïga