naturalista

The Big (Hair) Easy + NONHE

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The last week was an exercise in adaptability. On Wednesday, I traveled to The Big Easy mainly to broadcast the New Orleans Natural Hair Expo. I arrived with first-day hair in the dark of a humid night to cooler temperatures than had existed in Dallas that week. As many of you know, the Essence Festival, a four-day music event with parties and concerts stretching day and night, was happening concurrently, which I believe was a strategic ace on the part of NONHE creator, Monique Herbert, but more on that in a bit.

By my first morning there, my schedule began to fill up. First up a press conference at the Roosevelt Waldorf Astoria about the two queens of fierce rivals Grambling and Southern universities being first-cousins for the first time in history. Then the Mayor’s Ball.

Me with Nola Mayor Landrieu and City Councilman from Bogalusa

Me with Nola Mayor Landrieu and City Councilwoman Gloria Kates from Bogalusa

There was so much on the slate. Congressman’s party. NONHE. Erykah. Missy. Usher. Trombone Shorty. Mary J. Kendrick Lamar. And the dampness of the air threw me a serious curve ball, but with a schedule like that it’s not like I could stay inside and fret over my hair. My first time traveling as a natural was to Houston a few weeks ago. With similar humidity levels there, my hair held up well with no issues, so I didn’t even bother to bring anything other than oil and a creme moisturizer.

New Orleans was a different story. I don’t know if I was outside more and for longer stretches of time compared to Houston, but by the time I woke up on Saturday to broadcast live from the NONHE my hair went from full to big then full-on frizzy.

My second-day hair never looks this big and full. And, this is before cruising around in a convertible that night.

My second-day hair never looks this big and full. And, this is before cruising around in a convertible that night.

I didn’t lose all definition, but enough to lament my decision to travel without at least gel and my trusty curl enhancer of the week. I didn’t even have bobby pins.

In a panic because I knew the ladies hosting and attending the NONHE would have flawless natural hair, I was desperate for a solution. I always travel with two barrettes in case of emergencies and pulled those babies out. I wet my hair on the sides to loosen the gel and clipped them up. Viola!

frohawk realness

My hair looks as fly as my lashes I copped at Hair and Beauty Mart for just $1.

I had achieved frohawk realness in about five seconds. With this style, the frizzy aspect of my hair worked to achieve the style. It also created an edgier look that worked well for the NONHE and the events that followed.

They say necessity is the mother of invention. I would switch it up a bit, “Desperation is the mother of inspiration.” In my case, both are true, but I’m glad it all happened. I can now add the frohawk to my budding arsenal of hairstyles, especially when my hair is on its last legs and I want to get some more life from it before the big wash day.

The NONHE was a productive and valuable event. I was too busy broadcasting live, taking archival photos and retrieving interviewees to take an official headcount, but I could see it was well attended and as I spoke to brands like CURLS, I discovered many were running out of product due to the high-volume response. I got to know Kinky, Curly, Yaki and swear I will make my top knot dreams come true with some of their extensions before the summer is out. The celebrity bloggers were all knowledgeable about their topics and friendly to boot. I will have lots of fun following them now that I’ve gotten to know them a little more.

Me and Strawberri Curls after our interview.

Me and StrawberriCurls after our interview.

I cannot wait for next year’s NONHE. This event is definitely a destination trip that I will travel for in the years to come. If you missed our broadcast you can check out the re-air on Wednesday at 8 p.m. CT, here. Or play it back at your leisure via the #hairbeautybuzz Soundcloud.

My Little Pony

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Yep! You read that right. I am happy to announce that just before my 8-month big chop anniversary that I am able to comb my hair back into a tiny little ponytail. Take a look:

My little pony.

My little pony.

Not a glamorous shot, I know, but it was important enough for me to take the picture in that moment. This is the first time my hair has been long enough to snatch back for a style other than my trusty wash-and-go. Now, recognizing milestones are one thing. Wearing a new style is, indeed, another.

My hair isn’t quite long enough to rock my little pony in public and look presentable, which brings me to another challenge. I would love to wear a topknot, which is my favorite lazy hair day style to rock. That means I need to find some extra hair. But where to go? What to do?

I’m kinda lost in the extension world because it’s not something I was really into when my hair was straightened. Even if I had been though, strides have been made in providing kinky curly options with clip-in attachments for added length and volume. I learned this the hard way when I was convinced this past weekend to spend a few dollars on some marley hair, some clip-ins and a needle and thread to make my own. I asked the proprietor if the needle would fit through the clip-in hole, to which I was assured it would. To my dismay, once I got home and attempted this ill-fated project, it did not. I should have known better than to go anywhere other than Hair and Beauty Mart in Cityplace for my in-store hair care needs. Lesson learned.

This extension hair issue has me really psyched for this week’s New Orleans Natural Hair Expo on July 4th and 5th. They will have no less than three natural hair extension companies vending at the expo including Kinky, Curly, Yaki, a brand based in Toronto. I first discovered this brand when I attended the awesome Living No Lye Tour stop in Dallas in late May. (Click here for their NYC tour stop, Curls and the City on July 25th). The look and feel of the Kinky, Curly, Yaki hair is just amazing. I hope that I can find a match and pick up some to make my topknot fantasy a reality!

The NONHE starts Saturday, July 4th at 10 a.m.

The NONHE starts Saturday, July 4th at 10 a.m.

Do you make your own extension pieces? What hair do you use and how to you attached it to your hair; clip-in or bobby pins? I need your advice.

It’s the Shingling Baby

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Over the last seven months since I big chopped, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about my process. I wear a simple wash-and-go that I style with Ecostyler gel after I LOC.

After the oft-asked “What do you use?” query, the next most asked question is, “How do I use it?” My answer is succinct: I shingle. I am more surprised by the ‘What’s that?” that follows than by any other question I’m asked about my styling process. Shingling is the styling and application method to achieve defined curls and coils for a perfect wash-and-go. It is used in just about every wash-and-go YouTube video and it is really easy to emulate and add to your styling routine.

Here’s a quick primer: Section small portions of your freshly cleaned, conditioned and thoroughly wet hair. Apply a copious amount of gel to the section from root to tip. For thicker or coarser hair, comb through with a Denman brush. Otherwise, finger comb. MissKenK uses the shingle, rake and shake method that I find useful as well. I periodically shake my styled hair, so the gel from the shingled curls dries individually instead of together. Shaking your hair vigorously assists your clumps to dry as well.

Below you can catch a glimpse of me shingling my hair. If you have never tried this method, try it on your next wash-and-go and report back on how you liked it.

Orange Will Never Be the New Black

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Author’s Note: This topic was discussed live during #hairbeautybuzz radio show on Saturday, June 13th. It will re-air Wednesday, June 17th at 8 p.m. To tune in, click here.

Rachel, Rachel, Rachel.

All I can do is shake my head. Rachel Dolezal is fodder personified for social media, Black Twitter and Instagram in particular. If you have been out camping for the last four days, Rachel is a white woman who has been masquerading as a black woman while leading her local NAACP chapter and championing black causes including wearing natural hair. Then on Thursday, this happened:

Here’s my problem with Rachel. It’s not her lies. We have all told lies whether they were big or small, and if you are denying that fact after reading that passage, then you are now lying to yourself. My problem with her is that blackness is not something that you can spray on like the tan she perfected. Blackness is not something you can choose to be or wear because it suits your personal proclivities.

She is a woman who didn’t just spout rhetoric, she lived it. She wore faux locs that were a good portion of the length of her body. She wore headwraps and posed with Angela Davis, one of the pro-black sheros of contemporary times. Yes, y’all, she DID that. We cannot take that away from her. Rachel was instrumental in revitalizing the NAACP chapter she headed in Spokane, Washington, which I’m sure was no easy feat. I admire the fact that Rachel caped for black causes and even gave a stirring and empowering speech about the history of black hair and why we as African American women should wear our natural hair.

She owns these things, and as much as the lies are a part of her story, so are the victories. Herein lies the rub. Rachel doesn’t realize she could have done these same things in her own skin. She could have led the NAACP. She could have championed the embrace of natural hair in our culture. She could have continued to educate. Perhaps, not from a place of personal experience, but definitely from the sound foundation of education she received as a full-scholarship recipient at Howard University, the HBCU community’s Harvard. At some point I will have to deal with the complication that she received that full-ride based on her assumed identity, therefore, taking an actual person of color’s spot…but I digress.

Besides the lie, here’s what Rachel did that is the most egregious: she normalized cultural appropriation. At first, when it was just her secret, she normalized it as her way of life. Now, that she’s outed, she’s ushered in talk of “transracial” people, which is a unoffensive label for the disgusting normalization of cultural appropriation and I cannot stand for that.

Blackness is an existence you are born into. It is the knowledge that your people have a complicated history of enslavement, oppression, segregation, discrimination and inequality that perseveres today. That we know we come from the cradle of civilation, but don’t know which tribe and cannot trace our roots back the Motherland. It is the collective knowledge that we are judged as a monolith not by our personal merits and only when the subject is negative. That mainstream standards don’t include our experience, our beauty, our culture as a measure of perfection, or even a benchmark standard at all. Not to mention, that in a purely scientific manner, although I can take hormones to change my sex, I cannot ever take a pill to change my molecular makeup to read anything other than what it is, and neither can Rachel.

No, I must reject this idea that one can become black. Yes, you can personally adopt and relate to social experiences or the products of our culture like music, food and language. But, unless you are born black, you do not, cannot and will not ever have the intrinsic understanding that it is both a blessing and a curse to be born African American in the land of the free, the home of the brave because those words and laws weren’t meant for blacks. You can academically study our culture until you have an alphabet soup after your name, but you cannot put on black as if it were a jumpsuit uniform.

Rachel will speak out on Monday (tomorrow) for the first time since this scandal broke, and I’m unsure if what she says will help or hurt. She has done a lot of positive things to advance the causes of blacks, but for the decade-long, cultural appropriation that was her sham of a life, she owes several apologies and in return for her mea culpa, she can have several seats.

Eminem comes to mind as an example of a white person who understands black people in a personally relatable way but is careful not to cross that line into appropriation. Don’t believe me? Just #AskRachel.

Yes, it's funny, but Rachel Dolezal has opened up a can of worms that seeks to normalize cultural appropriation.

Yes, it’s funny, but Rachel Dolezal has opened up a can of worms that seeks to normalize cultural appropriation.