1Blessed Natural Mag

Happy Thursday everyone! I hope that your are having a great week. I just want to remind you and myself (lol) to let God fight your battles and stay in His word, regardless of the way things appear. He will see you through :-) "Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head."- Psalms 3:1-3 In hair related news... last night I put a diagonal part in the front of my head, and created 4 flat twists... two going down each side. I put the rest of my hair into two-strand twist pin curls. This morning I unraveled them. When I pin curl or bantu knot my hair, I make sure that I apply a moisturizer to my ends before wrapping them around. Do you wear flat twists?

Here's my style for church today: Two-strand twist pin curl out. I kept the pin curls in for almost two days. I bought the headband from Family Dollar. I unwrapped the pin curls and applied Cantu Coconut Curling Cream and Jojoba oil to my ends. Then I unraveled the twists and separated the hair a bit. What style did you wear to church today?

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you all had a good week. If not, I pray that it gets better. This week, I was sick. But, thank God that I am feeling much better. I shouldn't be, but Isaiah 53:5 says that I am healed! In hair related news, this was a three-day old twist out. I went to sleep with my hair this way and fluffed it out in the morn. This week has been a careless hair week. I wore hats and old twist-outs for the most part. Since I cut my hair, it has kept the definition of my twist-outs longer than normal. Did you have a careless hair day this week?

Happy Sunday everyone! Today, I washed my hair with my Castile soap mixture . I cut a little more of the damaged ends from my bang area and crown. My hair is still not as short as I thought it was (after my trim). "... And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee."- 1Kings19:7

Hey everyone! I have been adjusting to the shorter length of my hair. I also like the fact that I can do things a little differently and apply new things that I've learned.  Shampoo Less  I have decided to stop using shampoo as often as I normally would. Because shampoos strip your hair of moisture, I have decided to use my Castille soap mixture or co-wash as an alternative. This is good for me especially because my hair gets super dry in the winter. I have to moisturize and seal my hair twice a day. 2nd day two-strand, pin curl twist-out Styling   I am a big fan of trying different styles, but I like to give myself and hair a break sometimes. Lately, I've been alternating between two-strand twist pin curls and twist-outs. This way I can give myself a break every other day or so, but still have fun styling my hair.  Before I cut my hair, I loved to do styles on freshly washed hair. Now, I don't mind doing different styles at any time. ...

Happy Wednesday everyone! I know this is a hair blog, but I wanted to take the time out to post the video above. It brought tears to my eyes when I first watched it. It was posted by Laura L. Victoria. I apologize for it being sideways. That is the way in which it was posted. Enjoy! Please let me know what you think :-)

Quvenzhané Wallis (Photo courtesy of Facebook: Quvenzhané Wallis's page) Here is a cute (bun) photo of  Quvenzhané Wallis, who plays "Hush p uppy" in the Academy Award nominated movie "Beasts of the Southern Wild" .  Wallis is also the youngest person to ever b e nominated for an Academy Award. Her parents must be proud :-) The movie is available on dvd and, it is also heading back to theaters in some areas. It is a fantastic movie! Go see it! 1BlessedNatural review of "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Raphael Saadiq (Photo courtesy of Flickr: Patrik Hamberg)   Happy Sunday everyone! Many of you may remember Raphael Saadiq from the group Tony! Toni! Toné! He was also a member of the group Lucy Pearl which also included Dawn Robinson (Envogue) and Ali Shaheed Muhammad . Saadiq has gone solo and continued making albums through the years; he has also collaborated with many different music artists. I think that Saadiq is one of the most underrated music artists. However, he did make Time Magazine's list of The World's 100 Most Influential People . Yes! Last year, Toyota released a commercial advertising the new Prius car. The commercial features Raphael Saadiq singing and strumming his guitar alongside the car with 3 beautiful woman of color, including 1 natural :-) The song is catchy and fun. It makes you wish that he would have made the song longer than 30 seconds (hint, hint). The commercial makes me want to go out and buy a Prius lol. Mission accomplished...

Hey everyone, Thank God we have made it through the week! This morning, I applied Jojoba Oil and Coconut Oil to my hair and unraveled the two-strand pin curls. I was pleased with the results. Tonight, I plan to Pineapple my hair to keep the twist-out. Tomorrow, I may do a faux hawk.

I was trying to do a two-strand twist, pin curl style before, but I didn't like the way it looked. I decided to give it another try.   Tools You Need 1. hair pins 2. wide-tooth comb (optional) 3. moisturizer and oil 4. hair clips (to section)   Hair Preparation I moisturized my hair with Cantu's Coconut Curl Cream; I sealed my hair with Castor Oil. Directions 1. Part hair in small sections. 2. Two-strand twist the section 3. Take the end of the twist and wrap it around your finger Then lay it flat to your scalp. 4. Use two hair pins to keep the pin curl in place Next time, I might try to do these with Aloe Vera gel or Eco Styler to give it a neater look.

After washing and banding my hair Hey everyone, If you read my last couple of posts, then you know that I had heat damage because, I flat ironed my hair. I cut 2 1/2-3 inches of hair off. I was upset at first, but I'm happy with my decision now. I know how to grow out my hair and keep it healthy. I'm going to continue to follow that path and have fun along the way!

This is the result of my braid-out. My hair didn't keep the bend. It was a bit stiff.. This afternoon I cut about 2 1/2-3 inches of my hair off. Heat damage is no joke. My hair and heat doesn't mix lol... lesson learned.I re-washed my hair and used Organic Root Stimulator's Hair Mayonnaise as my deep conditioner and two-strand twist/pin curled my hair. I might wear a twist out tomorrow. Starting over, or almost all over stinks but I'd rather my hair be short and healthy than long and unhealthy. Also, when I was washing my hair it took awhile to get the heat protectant off of my strands. I had to apply shampoo about 4 times before I could get a good lather and hair to revert back to the curls. 

Happy Monday everyone! I hope all is well. This weekend I finally decided to flat iron my hair. I do not plan on flat ironing my hair again. Here's how it went down lol : I used these Conair clips (from the dollar store) to keep  my hair in 4 sections, after washing, deep conditioning, and detangling my hair.   Then, I parted small sections (within the 4 sections) and used a small tooth comb and did a cool blow out using the Tension Method. I applied  the Organic Root Stimulator Olive Oil Heat Protection Serum to each small section before blow drying. The Tension Method is when you blow dry your hair while keeping it very taut to limit the amount of heat on your hair. Afterwards, I twisted the section. I used the HerStyler Classic Forever ceramic flat iron. I paid $100.00 for it at a mall kiosk, right before going natural smh. The setting on the flat iron only include a range from 180 degrees F-460 degrees F. So, it's difficult to really to be able to ...

  1. What made you decide to go natural? I made the decision to go natural in college because I was tired of going to the salon and sitting for 4-6 hours to get a perm. And it didn't help that each time, the stylist would burn my scalp because they wanted to get my thick hair as straight as possible! Plus, I was too cheap to pay for perms every 6 weeks.  2. What were your friends and loved ones' reactions to your decision? My friends didn't really know because I kept my hair in weaves for the first year or so. My mom was okay with it and my dad absolutely hated (still hates) it. I think he's used to the traditional standard of Caucasian beauty with girls having super straight hair. He doesn't think natural hair is professional. But  for anyone out there thinking that, please know it's wrong. I purposely went to all three of my job interviews with my hair in its natural state (curly and unstraightened)  and  I got the job! ...

Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone had a great day. If you are having a hard time, please know that Jesus is the answer.  "Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 I was blessed by this video called "Maintain Your Joy" by HolyGhostCarrier on YouTube. I hope you are too. I have to clear the smudges off of my camera! My headband is the Goody brand. It came in a multi-pack from the grocery store. Tomorrow will make 22 months natural. I'm getting closer to the 2 year mark!