R&S: 'Natural'

Over the past few years it's like black women have finally realized how truly funking fly they are and I have been observing how women where I live have been coming into themselves, which is an absolutely beautiful process! From my personal experience I have noticed that this emerging dialogue of self love is deeply rooted in changing the way we talk about, interpret, and experience our natural (unprocessed) hair. As I mentioned in a previous post R&S: Genie Locs the Story of a Queens Crown I have had my crown for around 11 years now, and because of that I have felt very disconnected from this conversation. My crown is no reflection of self realization and I never intended for it to make a statement. Yet I find that more and more people assume that my hair is some political statement of self acceptance:

"I love me a natural sister"

"I am so happy to see a young woman accepting who she is!"

"How long have you been natural?"

So I have been asking myself, for real tho, what is this thing called natural that everybody keeps talking about? If I have a face full of make-up am I still natural? If I daily eat processed foods am I natural? If I clean my house with products that pollute the environment am I still natural just because I have unprocessed hair? Y'all know how I feel about saving money and within this I have come to find that being natural should aim to be a more holistic lifestyle and not just about how we look, present and see our selves. It should aim to include how we treat both our bodies and natural environment and look at the effects of what we put into them. After all the state of our environment greatly affects us and our health, including our hair! So my R&S project is...natural cleaning products!

I have to apologize I didn't mean to build up all that suspense to bore you with cleaning, but I am really serious! Improving the health of your living environment and ridding it of toxic and abrasive chemicals is just as beneficial as cleansing your hair from harmful chemicals such as perms, dyes and products. While admittedly cleaning your house does not have the same social meanings and realities as black women's hair, I would welcome you to think about the parallels between the two.

1. It is far cheaper than buying chemically processed products
2. You reduce the amount of pollutants you use and expose yourself to
3. It is a lifestyle change that forces you to think about how to treat and value your environment/body

I always think, why should I clean my house with highly toxic products that clearly state that if I have had prolonged exposure, have ingested, inhaled, or has caused skin irritation I should call poison control? And then they try to tell me I can cook on and use these surfaces daily? Yeah right. In the same way people have stared to ask why we should use hair products that damage, strip, dry and thin our hair. The only difference between the two is that the outcomes of using toxic products in our hair are more or less visible we can see, feel and touch the damage. As opposed to exposure to toxic cleaning compounds where it is harder to identify tangible negative outcomes. You could alternatively buy all those eco-friendly products, but they make investing in less toxic eco-friendly environments really inaccessible by being grossly over priced. Forget em! I have a 'natural' money saving cleaning method that only requires two products!

1. Baking Soda

2. Vinegar

Vinegar is acidic and acts in the same way as bleach, when you leave it and let it soak it is an effective disinfectant and cuts grease. Baking soda acts like soap and easily scrubs off and lifts any kind of build up of dirt, and can be used as a deodorizer & laundry freshener. You can also use baking soda to cleanse you hair, whiten your teeth, bake, exfoliate your skin, clean fruits and the list goes on. Both are non-toxic, non polluting products that you can find at any dollar store, and are used for purposes beyond cleaning. Each is like a 100-in-1 multi-purpose product! All this 'natural' goodness for just one dollar each! I'm about it! In short changing the way we talk about, interpret and experience our selves should be linked closely to how we do the same to our environment as it also influences and impacts us physically. What ever natural means to you it has the potential to shift towards having a healthier, more respectful and positive relationship with our environment, and just as equally with ourselves. 

love your natural environment, love the natural you and your wallet will love you too!

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

R&S: Genie Locs: The Story of A Queens Crown

I have had my locs - which I call my crown- for roughly eleven (11) years now I used to dye my crown different colours, do wild hair styles, shave some off, reattach em you name it and over the past decade I have had some crazy conversation that often leave me wondering (and praying) for the fate of the human race.

"You know when the rapture comes you won't ascend to heaven with those things on your head..."

"We have to look like respectable and professional black women, that style doesn't say that"

"Oh my gosh I could never get locs it is such a huge commitment!"
"You're just rocking em for fashion...rent-a-dread"
"You are so exotic"

I would like to say that never have I invited these conversations, and they happen in everyday life, on the bus, street, work, parties you name it...and sadly I end up walking right into them. Outright undeserved criticism, perverse notions of my assumed 'otherness' and other peoples insecurities...I promise you these conversations got tired a long time ago, but at last as with many things in life you win some and you inevitably lose some. It happens. I can assure you that no one can ever tell me I don't look hella sexy! My crown asserts my presence in a room without me even having to say a thing, I enter and leave rooms feeling like a queen in my own right, and I can not be dethroned unless I lay my crown to rest. 

So how does all of this = a recycle and save project? Well, I cut my locs shoulder length about a year ago, and started missing the length I used to have. I tried adding braids multiple times, mistake. It was so heavy my neck hurt...plus my head looked so big! Not cute. Anyway,  I met up with a friend of mine who I had not seen in a while she had these beautiful long locs, and I was shocked cause the last time I saw her she didn't have em. she simply told me "Girl, its just yarn!"

Yarn is a simple way to add length to existing locs, or can be added to non-loc'd hair as a substitute for the synthetic hair bought at the hair store. I remember when I started loc'ing I hated it, they just looked nerdy to me poking out all over the place. So for anyone looking to avoid the awkward stage of locs this is the perfect style! Most importantly its a pocket friendly lengthening en devour! It took about three days on and off to complete (with some help of course), looks %100 like my kinky hair, its light weight and super fly. By recycling some black yarn I had lying around the house from various projects and some free time, I got to work and the final outcome was sexier than I could have imagined.

 

Genie Locs - half up, half down

Genie Locs - Up do

Materials:
1. Yarn Needle
2. Worsted Yarn (that matches your hair colour)
3. Scissors
Where do I get em?: If you don't have any of these materials you can most def find them at any store similar to Wal-Mart

Instructions:
1. Insert and pull the yarn though the eye of the needle
2. Pull through eye of needle until desired additional length of loc
3. Use scissors to cut yarn
4. Thread through the tip of loc (with about 1 cm from the tip to work with) until both ends of the yarn starnd are even
5. Use scissors to cut yarn again (to remove the needle)
(You should now have the yarn threaded through your loc and have two pieces of yarn on opposite sides of it)
6. Fold one of the two pieces in half and hold (this is where you decided the thickness to match your loc)
7. Use the opposite (unfolded) yarn to begin braiding (making sure to keep the other piece folded)
8. Braid part way down, then start to twist all the way to the bottom
9. Tie in a knot & cut

Thats it! Now you have another use for yarn!

Tips:
1.The more times you fold the yarn in half, the thicker the loc will be. (to match the size of my individual locs I folded the piece in half twice)
2. You can choose to burn the end to make sure it doesn't unravel, but it doesn't look too good, or real...I tried -_-
3. If you run out of yarn to braid/twist with DON'T WORRY just cut some more and continue
4. Braiding and twisting give slightly different looks. Twisting looking more loc like and braiding less loc like (not visible from far, but more so up close)

 Who says you can't look cute just cause you're broke?

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

Have any questions? Something not clear? Just ask!