Nappy Kitchen

Conversation at a BBQ

Young Cousin: How'd you get your hair to do that?
Me: I twist it and then unravel it
Her: Oh forreal? Dang, it just looks like good hair.
Other Cousin: She does have good hair.
Me: *internal smile*

It's the little things that keeps us nappyheads chugging. ;)

Misc. Pics:

Flat twistout:

I rocked that stretchage for a day then put in some twists on damp hair. Here's the resulting twistout.

Sorry for the brightness factor, but it was nighttime and my flash is NO joke. Heehee. The humidity had really gotten to my hair by this point and it was nice and puffy but sooooft. I think it was the coconut oil that I used. A little of that stuff goes a loooong way, just like shea butter.

Growth Check

Very rarely do I comb out the fro (I'm not into damage), but since it was already stretched by an old twistout, I decided to stretch it a bit more.

AFROOOOO POWER!

I figured I'd go on and flat iron it a bit for my growth comparison. I used shealoe butter to protect and did my thing. And bout 10 minutes after I finished a section it would start shrinking up. LOL. I don't know how people press their shit regularly...I ain't got time for all that fuckery. Anyhoo, this is how my light press turned out.

I'm reaaaally unaccustomed to seeing my hair straight. But I do love the fullness of it, as opposed to the way my relaxed hair used to hang limply. The back is growing the fastest, and is pretty much shoulder length. The front part is crazy...growing like I have layers or some shit. Weird, but of no real consequence since I always wear it nappy.

Here's my lil growth comparison pic.

I think there's a bit of growth from two months ago. And yes it's close enough to June! :P

I'm about to warsh it and put it in flat twists. Of course I will document the results for you fine people.

Peer Pressha!

Man, nappturality.com is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I love the fact that there is a community for us nappyhead sistas. I leaned on this site heavily for support in my first year and it kept me focused and determined to relieve myself of my creamy crack dependency. And it still helps on those days when I feel as if I'm going to drown in a sea of straight. Just the other day I was fiddling with this virtual makeover thing. I tried a long straight look and just had a lil mini-fit where I was like OMG I looked so curte with long hair! And was tempted to call my friend and be like hook me up with a sew-in! LOL. I don't know...I think I'm just feening for major change of any sort in my life. Pray for me.

And now for the downside of NP. It's not until I visit the boards that I begin obsessing about hair growth and products and styles. Knowing darn well that my hair has responded best to being as manipulation-free as possible. It's like this...unspecified peer pressure. Shoot. I don't know. I guess I'll keep trolling the hair albums and whatnot, but stay away from the discussions about products and the like. I've found something that works for me and though long hair looks curte on me as well, I feel that the length I have right now is pretty darn flattering.

I really need to go shopping for hair accessories though. I always feel a need to get a bit more prettied up for spring. Guess I'll jump on the bandwagon and cop one of those darn flowers so I can be all Billie Holiday with it. :D

Since natural hair is still the exception and not the rule, support is essential. Even the strongest of wills could be broken when faced with constant disapproval from the gen. pop. I've been lucky in that most of reaction to my hair has been positive, which I think is a reaction to my own belief that this hair, my real hair is what is most flattering.

I don't have any hair news...I put the hair into medium-sized twists. No pics because um, they were put in at 3 am and I wasn't een trying to apply logic or reason. I'll probably wear those throughout the week until my head becomes too itchy from working out and stuff. After that I might rock a twistout for a day then wash and try something slightly different...

We shall see! Until then, peace and non-petrolatum hair grease!

Love You or Shut Up!

So I was on nappturality.com and stumbled upon one of those threads rehashing that age old question of whether every nappy sista is truly comfortable with her naps. I think we all know the deal. We know that there are chicks that hope and wish and pray that they will have the Kelis curls hiding up under the perm, and when they don't get it, there's this insane need to either go into hiding up under braids and weaves or fake the funk with all kinds of goop. I say fake because there are gals whose curls come naturally and those that know damn well if they ain't mold and shellac them thangs into place they wouldn't be there.

These discussions inevitably deteriorate into accusations and defensive statements. "Oh I'm not like that!" or "My curls are naps too!" or "The curlies think they're better." or "The nappies are just jealous." When really it works both ways. There are some ultra nappies that would pay money for the all hallowed silken curls. And there are some wavy hair chicks that would love to get their hair to stand on end into a big A. Davis fro. Which leads me to believe that the bottom line is acceptance. If you're not feeling yourself, then it doesn't matter what you have, you're going to be one unhappy heffa.

Note to self: Resume old habit of not putting in two cents at nappturality.com. I forgot a) how much I'm not really feeling the majority of black women; b) how long-time naturals seem to feel as if they've gained some sort of god-like wisdom that affords them the right to pass judgment; and c) you aren't really allowed to make observations because you will judged as having issues that you are projecting. Lawwwwd. LOL. Let me not get caught up.

What these chicks waste time arguing about is what I love about black people. I love that this mixed chick's hair might be straight up nappy, whereas this chocolate brown sista over there has ringlets that bounce and behave. And then you got someone like me who has errrrthing going on. Why don't we ever pause for a minute and be like, we black people are the shit? Who else's hair does what our hair does? Our naps are what differentiate us the most, but all too often we do everything but celebrate this fact.

When I first chopped I struggled with product junkyism, not so much because I was pining for curl definition (I actually thought I had 4b hair, which has no curl pattern), but because I was trying to find that certain set of products that would make my naps look like they weren't in a complete state of shock. Which they were...I'd just chopped off 18 years worth of perms. Over time, I found out less is really more, and my hair is probably the happiest and healthiest it's been since I was a lil gal.

When I go out in public, I get compliments every time. It surprised me at first, because my hair is certifiably nappy and I usually try to make it look wild as hell when I'm out. After a little retrospection, I've decided they compliment me because a) my naps are on POINT and b) I carry myself like a person who knows their naps are BAD, hear me? At this point, you can't tell me shit. Couldn't nobody say some mess to me like, "that's why yo hair is nappy." Ok, and?! That's exactly what I'm going for, shawty!

Don't get me wrong. I sometimes miss my straight hair and my braids and my weaves, because hell, I was cute with those things going on also. And I still reserve the right to throw a ponytail up in my head any day, because I love variety. But the comfort and ease and beauty of my naps has spoiled me to the point where thoughts of change are fleeting notions that tend to dissipate when I look in the mirror. When my hair does things like this:

I ain't eeeeven tryin to cover that up! Shoot.

A sista on the hair board said she wished she could bottle up self-love and give it out to those that need it, because nothing on this earth compares to true self-love. I agree.

Twistout and Shout :D

This is a pretty cool switchup from my usually chunkier twistout. There was scads more definition in the initial unraveling...I guess cause I'd kept the twists in for days. Now I know what to do if I want to rock a really nice and stretched twistout or chunky fro. Click for bigger visuals:

My scalp feels a bit icky from workout schweatage so more than likely I'll do my pampering thing, put it in big twists to stretch it out, then put in smaller ones. Maybe I can actually go a full week next time!

Stretched Twists

I must admit sometimes I get a bit of hair envy looking through some of these gals' hair journals...I love me some thick nappy hair; the bigger the better. Yes I know from my own struggles that even thicker hair would be more of a hassle, but goot lawd my twists would look bomb! Anyhoo I got a few pics of the hair for y'all.

Remember I said one day I would take advantage of stretched hair and do some twists. Well I decided to take advantage of a twistout and do just that. First let me show the twistout I got from the chunky twists in the previous post.

I liked the way it turned out...I'd kind of been longing for a shorter look so I got it. I kind of want to go even shorter though! One I may try Melanizm's trick of rollersetting braids. Imma have to up my patience factor for that though!

Here's what the twistout looked like the next day:

I like how my twistouts gradually get puffier and wider with each passing day.

This is the twistout on Sunday...basically degenerated into a chunky fro. Here it's pulled back (gently!) with a pantyhose headband.

So, later on that night, I decided to twist my hair, going a bit smaller than usual. I used shealoe butter...god I love that stuff. It's basically the only "product" I use...and my hair has been responding excellently to the lack of manmade ingredients.

Here are the twists...

I was so feeling the hang time I got. Plus they were moving and stuff aannnd starting to creep down my neck. Shooot...give me about six more months and I will be officially feeling myself!

Here's the twists today...shrunken a bit from shower steam and whatnot.

I likes em still. I'm really going to make a concerted effort to wear my twists longer than I usually do...basically cycling between wearing them a week or so, wearing a twistout for maybe a day and then twisting again, washing as needed. I wanted to see how this will affect my growth and the condition of my hair...even though I think my naps are pretty darn healthy as is!

Stay tuned.

Color Me Nappy

Maan...I'm so lazy about styles and the like these days. However, I do believe the lack of manipulation is doing my hair a world of good, so it's cool.

I got a mild case of spring hair fever and decided to spruce up the hair color with a rinse. I used Jazzing Red Hot Red and Black Cherry (yes you can mix them). Settled under a dryer for about 30 mins...marinated. You know how I do.

The hurr before I warshed out the color.

I then conditioned the hair for like 3 or 4 hours afterward...sat under the dryer for like 15 minutes and then sat with a plastic cap on and let my body heat do the trick. My hair came out soft as hell...I'm thinking my increased water intake has a lot to do with that. AND Elasta QP's DPR-11 is the certified bomb, mkay? I put some twists in, but they didn't "set" like they usually do because the hair was that soft. I was like whatinthehellistheprob when I unraveled. Greatly lacking the usual definition, but it was cool...wasn't like I was scheduled for a photo shoot or someshit. I went outside and took this pic, since semiperm color shows up way better in sunlight. Here I be:

Notice the scalp stainage. Ugh.

K, so after a day or so of hellafied workouts, my scalp felt like crap...I'm thinking the color residue had a lot to do with it. So I did a quick conditioner wash with L'Oreal Vive Smooth Intense...cop that shit, y'all...it's good stuff!

That damn crown hair is so bogus for flopping forward like that. Pfftt...whatever.

I let the hair air dry like 30 mins. then put in some fat twists. They shrunk like hell because my hair was damp. One of these days I'm gone stretch the hair out then put in some twists, so I can see what I look like with a lil length. One day....don't hold me to that!

Me with twistery:

Aight that's it for now kiddies...I shall return.