Nineteen and Natural

They Don’t Know Dun-Son

newlynatural — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 21:33:17 +0000

Sooo I got my hair “doobied” as New Jerseyians would say… At a Dominican Salon in Newark by a lady named Felicia. While she is an advocate for healthy hair vs just hair styling, I still don’t think she fully gets it. Although she did not burn me, as other doobie experiences have called for, her remarks were clear indicators that she is still not on the embracing your natural hair wave. She said the following comments that just made it click in my head: “You can’t be walkin out there lookin all African” – in response to me not wanting to burn my edges just to get em straight. “Girl! As soon as you wet your hair, its gonna go back to POOF!” – When I said I didn’t want to mess up my natural…more specifically, I didn’t want heat damage or my curls to become damaged. And Finally “I just have to do this to break the bonds in the hair!” O.o That one scared me the most! I DON’T WANT HEAT DAMAGE!!! Do you understand! smh..I understand that she is natural, but she does NOT embrace it. She is obviously anti-chemicals, but not pro-natural texture. She still wants to alter the “bonds in the hair”, just via another process. Something, I have a problem with. I LOVE MY HAIR! But some people just don’t see it as that. This will probably be the last time that I straighten it for a while, because 1) I’m gonna have protective styles in and 2) I want to retain my length and curl pattern- the health of my hair overall.

If I didn’t have any kinda curl pattern where heat damage would be visible, I wouldn’t mind so much. But I have corkscrews! They are hella serious, and I cannot risk damaging them… Guess I already did tho, by goin thru with the process! SMH! All I can think of and hope for is for my hair to return to normal when I am ready to wash it. I already got a taste of reversion, being that I had Volleyball practice last night. I knew that straightening my hair would be pointless ESPECIALLY for this reason. AND not to mention that the weather is HUMID! and I’m stuck walking around with my head wrapped up. I love that this situation has given me the opportunity to experiment with my scarves, but sheesh, this hairstyles is gonna only last a week and a half max. Which means, by this week – the earliest- it WILL be washed. And I better see all my curls! Its been 3 years and I’m super proud of the length that I have retained (Full Shoulder Length in long layers). I guess now all we can do is wait… patiently.. scared! – Jess

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Who Run the World?-Curls!

newlynatural — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:55:35 +0000

Check it out. Show her Love! #TeamNatural

First Video Blog!! + Pics! :D

newlynatural — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:37:34 +0000

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Whip it Real Good

newlynatural — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:28:55 +0000

Afternoon Folks!!

I’ve been meaning to write for like a week now, but so much has been interrupting me!! But I’m here! I have 2 things on my mind but this is the first: whipping it..another post will be about the light/dark issue & hair…. yea man still going on.

My mom told me a few weeks ago that it’s an old blender down stairs (in the basement) and she proceeded to tell me that I should start whipping the shea. I’m like whaat? mom WHY?? why! you put all these oils and essential oils in it to make it super duper soft, now you wanna whip it? WHY! I totally wrote off that idea. But now I’m a week older and I’m just thinking about it. Still don’t know if I would do it or why-actually lemme know..Why would you wanna whip it? Does it do an good? I wanna know!

Oh yea: my hair feels wonderful & has been feeling wonderful for the last few weeks. My mom is still urked that i cut it spring break but I had to snip some inches so it could be even all around! i feel like I should start to see results soon hopefully by august! I wash it every 7-10 days and if i was to work I guess I would stop doing it myself so much and go get it done frequently for a better natural hair appearance…aka twists like I used to wear.

But that’s all, just wondering about whipping. If you’ve done it or considered it just let me know anything! Have a good daay!

♥ Jordz

What to do!?

newlynatural — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:44:35 +0000

Sitting here in the PC lab.. bored AF! But anywho, I’ve been going back and forth on the topic of my hair…Should I keep it blonde? or should I rinse it red? Should I protective style it? or should I leave it stretched? When should I straighten it?…should I do it at all!?!? SMH! Like what is the point of all these damn questions?! lol. n e who, I don’t know in which direction to go.

As far as the color, I def will do it sporadically and whenever I want. but I’m thinking I wanna be on fire for the 4th of July weekend. Sooo that’s why I’m, holding off on it. not to mention its only a rinse and will be in for like 2 weeks or so. So its not permanent at all.

The protective styling: I’m scared that if I spend all this time doing it, that I’m gonna get bored of it and not wear it for the maximum amount of time that I think will = the amount of work I put in. So there I am thinking at the margin – as we would say in Microeconomics. (lol. I’m taking that course now). So basically will it be worth it.? What is my opportunity cost of spending x amount of hours on my hair that I could be doing something else – sleeping/studying/hanging out. Its just wayyy too much to think about, for now at least. It actually is in a protective style at the moment, b/c I had somewhere to go this past Saturday. [I'll put pix]. So yea. And also, should I put weave or no? like do I want long braids, or just my hair. I really do not know!

Straightening my hair, there are a couple things that go into this. Because I am working out, it probably wont stay as long as I would like. When should I do it? the weather here has been crazy, cold raining, sunny, hot. IDK. getting crazy out here. lol. And then a recent battle with myself over blow dry or Flat Iron!? Which one do I want? I was just going to stick to my normal flat iron at the place where I most recently went. But there is this Dominican woman who is all about healthy hair, and she does a friend of mines hair who is also natural. She blow dries it and is very affordable, but I was scared of the blow drier. I did NOT want to risk losing my curls, cause ya’ll know I love them. But then I came across something on NaturallyCurly.com and they said that a blow drier is less damaging than a flat iron. I had trouble wrapping my mind around it, but it kind of made sense to me in the end. If you get your hair rollerset, and then just straighten the rest with air and a round brush, it is less tension. It says that flat irons cause pressure along with the heat from being clamped between 2 plates. but IDK.. I just dont know. The blow dry affect will probably leave my hair free flowing and more likely to curl up faster with moisture. But with the flat iron, its a nice moisture level that can be maintained over the promised 3 week period. Oh man!! smh.. this is a debate to be HAD okay! And not alone! But i think I will try it, with my hair red possibly… smh. I really need to figure it out! lol. but that is my rant for now.

I think I’m going to do something irrational and sporadic but positive. lol. It will be in a good direction for my hair (whatever it is that I decide) and yea, I’ll notify everyone of it. Till then, I have pix of before and after of my trim and the style that I am currently rocking!

Later <3 Jess

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My Veggie Glycerin Mix!

newlynatural — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 01:04:19 +0000

Good Evening!!

I’m so super duper excited right now! Yes of course it is 95 degrees in Philly, but it is also humid. I’ve been trying to figure out all this chit chat in the natural community about the glycerin. So I’ve been doing my own research and getting extra confused, talking to Jessie and getting even more confused but I think that I figured it out why it can be good.

So from the information that I’ve gathered, glycerin is good for moisturizing hair and it’s good in the humid weather because it can “grab” the water from the air and use that to moisturize your hair. Supposedly it doesn’t work that well in non-humid weather (I’m not sure) and too much will give your hair adverse affects. OKAY so this is what I have gathered.

I then youtubed and found all these videos about glycerin and mixes that natural peeps make. I needed a spray bottle and I had the most peeerfect jawn!! yay yay yay. I had a spray bottle from Bath & Body works it was pearberry or something in there like a millimeter left. I washed it out last night and starteeed like 5pm lol just because i was busy all day.

This is my mixture: (don’t laugh at my measurement )

one inch of veggie glycerin
2 cap fulls of Shea Moisture**
A little bit of EVOO
3 drops of lavender
6 drops of rosemary
about 2.5 inches water

** The Shea Moisture is their Reconstructive Elixir and the ingredients include shea butter oil, argan oil, carrot oil, macadamia nut oil, avocado oil, castor oil & more**

I sprayed it a little bit, then sat outside hahaha….I was such a hype jawn. But anyways that’s all I have now. I plan on spraying not that much don’t want to over do it. I’ll keep yall updated!

♥Jordz

My Veggie Glycerin Mix

Whoa. It’s so soft…

newlynatural — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 04:23:18 +0000

hello!! It is I, Jordz! here with a thought/topic/etc.

One evening during the spring semester, I went to this program and my friend was with me. She perms her hair, it’s fairly long and cute. Love it on her. For some reason something happened (this was early april Details are few & forgotten) and she touched my hair. It was out in a fro. She exclaimed, “OMG It’s so soft!!” then she felt it again.. homie was truly shocked. And I don’t know why now today I’m thinking about this, but it seems like the perception of natural hair is just NOT changing at all. Why wouldn’t hair be soft? I’m a little confused by this. Do people still have that notation that it’s coarse and you’ll injury your hand if you touch it? Times have changed and hair was never like that anyways. Yes hair is soft. Yes. NATURAL hair is soft. Is this so hard to fathom?

Last Week at RU

Resisting the PJ inside!

newlynatural — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 05:27:52 +0000

Soooo! Yesterday while grocery shopping @ShopRite, I realized that I MAY be sort of a product junkie… I went down the hair aisle, and they always have the bomb sales!! They had Organix Shampoo & Conditioners for $4 each!! But I had JUST bought 2 Pantene Conditioners from Walgreens – 2 for $6 or something. And I hadn’t even begun to use them. What’s worse is that I left them up here in Jersey, and when I went to Miami, had NO hair products. So i ended up buyin Suave Almond & Shea Butter Shampoo and conditioner. I didn’t even need any more shampoo because I def only use a bit of it compared to conditioner. But me, not thinking, I went and bought the BIG shampoo and the normal size Condish… so now I have like a LIFETIME supply of shampoo -___- and a variety of Conditioner. Mind you, my cousin bout me the Organix Coconut Condish, I bought the 2 Pantene’s, PLUS this Suave Almond & Shea and my Mixed Chicks Leave-In. And I had JUST finished up my conditioners and stuff that I had bought while I’ve been in school. I feel like now I’m stuck with having to use up all of this product, that I kinda actually want someone to help me!! lol. Seriously.. i STILL want to try Herbal Essences Hello Hydration, and that was on sale also! ugh AND the hmm Tresemme stuff! Man its just pure torture! I know what I WILL invest in tho, Cantu Shea Butter Leave in Conditioning Repair Cream. This leaves my hair feeling so soft, AND defines it when I do braid outs or the 3-strand twist out that i experimented with on Blow dried hair. oh man..I can rant on and on about some damn products.. But bottom line is that I WANT MORE PRODUCTS!! And speaking of products, I def will be whipping up a batch of shea butter, with other stuffs in there of course. And I will continue to use KimmayTube’s Leave in to retain the length and stuff.. maybe I’ll mix it up with the shea and it COULD possibly yield desirable results… either way, I need to become more consistent as far as hair regimen. I watchd Bronzeqt on Youtube, and that was one of the things that stuck out to me on her 2 year anniversary vid. What better way to figure this stuff out than in the summer tho!? Sooo thats what I dedicate this summer to!::

Finding Staple Products, Creating a Regimen, Doing hairstyles! Imma handle my hair for SURE!!! and let that be known!!

Tis all <3 Jess!!

Oh! And i am going to be posting random pics of my hair this year so far… Whatever! Just for fun!

#HairDay

newlynatural — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 04:59:44 +0000

I deem tomorow, Friday, June 3, 2011 Hair Day!! I will trim my hair, Deep condtion, protein treat, and twist or braid up my hair… Yes yall.. i think I’m gonna put it away for a couple weeks.. probably plait up my own hair or put some weave up in it… IDK what to do yet.. if I put weave, I know that I want the braids to be big – think Poetic Justice. at least some visible thickness to it, and not your traditional plait/box braid/individual/whoeva u call it! Sooo I’m gonna hafta do that. The heat is not the problem tho, I just want a hairstyle for my hair to rest… and to give my hands time to rest! lol

Now, I am rocking a successful chunky twist out! My hair is huge and the wind and bit of moisture in the air has helped it to become as big as it is! But 8-10 plaits for the last couple of nights are how I’ve achieved my lovely braid out. I haven’t actually done a braid out in a while because I felt like it always yielded a separated look and I don’t think I was feeling it. And also, I figured braiding was more time consuming than twisting! N e who, it def gives more length, and i like the chunky look with my length of hair. I’ll put picks up!!

And I will also blog about how tomorrow goes as well as giving a product review on a Pantene Conditioner that I purchased for color… I thnk that is all. I mean is the DEF more, but staying on the topic of hair day, I will end it here.

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N’dambi

newlynatural — Sat, 21 May 2011 02:35:58 +0000

SO I’m watching VH1Soul a few days ago and I’m like whoa who is this jawn? He hair was crazy natural! It was N’dambi and I was looking at it like 1) it looks way healthy 2) refer back to one. I am not a HUGE fan of the color but it seems to work for her, so I’m not knocking it. I just wanna get mines to be a portion of her length. I was saying Tracee Ellis Ross was my hair inspiration, but she’s half white so I can’t do that cuz her hair type is WAY different even tho I LOVE her hair with all my heart. Whenever I watch Girlfriends I’m in love. ~Jordy