Nappy Kitchen

Overprice Much?

Yesterday I called myself walking into Bath and Body Works to hopefully obtain a bottle of rosemary essential oil (I'm trying to stay away from ordering too much stuff online). Umm...not een an option! Tell me why a lil itty bitty bottle was $18.00?! Trust me it was not that serious. Luckily for me I'm a computer/research nerd and I know that I can find essential oils at a much lower price on the web. I promptly walked out...er, after I procured some coconut lime verbena products. Hey I'm a fragrance whore...what can I say?

Speaking of going to the mall (did I mention I went to the mall?), I went into the beauty supply store and bought a small sample bottle of Paul Mitchell's The Conditioner since I'd heard some good things about it. Ew. This stuff sucks booty in a major way. It seems like it actually irritated my scalp a bit (told y'all it was sensitive) so I quickly washed it out and apologized to my hair for insulting it with such foolishness. And the worst part is it stinks like curl activator, which is a big no no for me. I can't be going around with my hair smelling like my first name is Jheri.

I promise I will put up product reviews and photos when I get the energy. And yeah it's a pretty good bit of stuff, so I need to be fully rested. *lol*

Something I've noticed in some naturals is a borderline obsession with hair growth. When I did the big chop my first concern was freeing myself from the relaxed ends as well as doing as much as I could to ensure the health of my hair. Growth is an eventual thing that I can't say I'm overly concerned with. Yes I would like for my thin spots to grow in more, but I refuse to bend over backwards and buy every hair product out there in order to ensure this. Damn all that. Length is aight...but I kinda like this short hair at the moment. Sue me.

And why do people say they're at an akward length? What's so akward about it? I suppose it's the fact that your styling options are somewhat limited. But hell that's what headbands and the 394830984 hair accessories at Claire's are for! Please believe I am working the hell out my lil baby 'fro when I go out.

Another thing I notice is the drive to completely eliminate frizz and enhance shine. Hell-freakin-lo! Black hair frizzes on a quite consistent basis. I think a lot of folks are still in that relaxed mindset where they equate silky/straight/shiny hair with beauty. Anyone transitioning or completely natural needs to be aware of the fact that most black hair has more sheen than shine. There's a big difference. No way in hell I'm finna be greasing and shellacing my hair just to get a shiny look. I want my hair to feel as good as it looks. Now if that means my hair will be looking "dry" but feeling soft as lamb's wool then hey I'm all for it.

And the curl definition thing...lawd please stop it. Hell yeah curls are pretty and I'm quite partial to them myself. But as I've said before, I'm not going to be applying all kinds of crap to my hair in order to ensure that they stay frozen in place. I enjoy my purty coils when I step out of the shower with wet hair. I like to play with them when they dry and make little boing sounds when I pull on em and they spring back. Ok I'm kidding. The point is, it's not the be all and end all. It's all about accepting what you have and working with, not against it. If you want silky curls then get a damn texturizer, cause apparently the nap thing ain't for you! Now!

Over the past couple of years I kind of got into the habit of having some kind of color in my hair. My natural hair color is kind of a sandy brown deal which I'm not really into. However, I'm not really feeling the idea of putting permanent color into my hair. I did that once when I was permed and spent the next few months trying to get my hair back in decent condition. It's just drying as hell and I would be ultra pissed if my hair turned out feeling like straw just because I wanted a little variety. So for now it's semi-permanent or highlights...I'm not really worried about it too much, since I don't have a lot of hair in the first place. Umph. We'll see.

Anyway I'm off to workout and mayhap fiddle with my hair. Later gators.

Oh yeah, here's a pic of with my lil V-Day club hairdo. This was after I came back, so the ubiquitous frizz and shrinkage was in full effect. Cam whoring is a 24-hour job don'tcha know! Click for a bigger version:

Posted by Lisa at February 17, 2004 06:48 PM