1Blessed Natural Mag

1BlessedNatural: Dealing with the Fear of Human Trafficking (photo credit: Raquel Santana) Hey, my blessed naturals, I've been wrestling with myself for a couple of weeks on how to talk about human trafficking and our mental states on this blog. If you're like me, then you've seen numerous posts including articles and videos warning us, as Black women about human trafficking. You've also seen the news stories about people getting kidnapped. You've heard figures like "64,000" and "75,000" Black women gone missing in the U.S. The idea of us as Black women being under attack does something to you. The question is: What does all of this do to us mentally? For example, now when I go to stores or any place for that matter, I am on high alert. High alert means that I am not only looking around for any suspicious activity, but I find myself living in fear and what some may call paranoia. The truth is that we are living in crazy times where a...

Happy Saturday, my blessed naturals! I hope you all are having a good weekend. I wanted to update you on my hair.  Latest Styles: The Cornrow and Twisted Crown Style was done about 3 weeks ago on stretched hair. I kept it in about 2 weeks before putting mini twists back in my hair. If you've read my past mini twist posts, you know I love them when I have the patience to do them. Taking them out is a different story! lol. Last week, I trimmed my hair with the twists still in.  The Style: The Cornrow and Twisted Crown Style took  about 45 minutes to create. I used Let's Jam Extra Hold Gel for the base of the cornrows because I got so tired of my scalp itching from regular gel. The hair was cornrowed until I got about 1/2 to 1 inches away from my scalp, and then I two-strand twisted the rest of the way.  Update on Detangling: In one of my last natural hair posts I told you about how I was using the Denman brush to detangle my hair. H...

1BlessedNatural:  Tracee Ellis Ross with her natural hair in Bantu knot out (photo cred: Tracee Ellis Ross/Instagram) Yesterday, Tracee Ellis Ross announced her new hair care line called Pattern. The Black-ish star said the products were for people with "curly, coily, and tight textured hair" specifically types 3b to 4c. The line is set to launch online at 9 pm ET on September 9th.  Ross said she'd been working on the line since 2008 when the show  Girlfriends ended. The actress also spent an additional 2 years working closely with chemists on the products. She said that all of the ingredients were safe and tested by herself and her panel."I tried 74 different samples to get these samples to phase one," Ross said. View this post on Instagram BRAIDS ~ @blackishabc A post shared by Tracee Ellis Ross (@traceeellisross) on Aug 27, 2018 at 4:47pm PDT The 46-year-old said Pattern ...

1BlessedNatural: Mo'nique (photo cred: Mo'nique/Instagram) Through the years, actress and comedian Mo'nique has been open about her mental health and weight loss. She recently talked about how she battled depression with exercise. Every time the actress got depressed, she would go for a walk. In an Instagram video, Mo'nique said this: "For those of you who feel like you can't get up, you can't move... When I was feeling that way baby, I started walking. I started walking and I started dealing with Mo'nique. When there was nobody else around to answer me but Mo'nique. And I had to have some real tough, honest conversations with myself." The 51-year-old actress  has been receiving DM's from other women who have been battling depression. According to Angela-Neal Barnett of the Anxiety and Depression of Association of America , Black women suffer more with anxiety than their white counterparts. Mo'nique said she had to spen...

1BlessedNatural: Promise Mi'Amor determined to wear her natural hair to school (photo cred: Facebook/Qui Daugherty) Recently, a video of 10-year-old Promise Mi'Amor went viral when she said she was determined to wear her natural hair back to a school in Nashville,Tennessee despite being bullied. The video which received more than 600,000 views on Facebook alone featured the little girl stating that she was bullied for wearing her hair in an Afro the day before. She said, "Yesterday I went to school and I wore my Afro like this. And a lot of people had a lot of mean things to say about it. So, that made me feel some type of way." After telling her mother Qui Daugherty, who is also a coach about the bullying she told the little girl to not forget who she was. Little Promise announced that she was going to go back to school with her hair "bigger and better than ever!" She also had a piece of advice for people who were watching the video. She said...

Taraji Teases New Hair Care System: #TPHbyTaraji and Natural Hairstyle! (photo cred: Instagram) If you've been following Taraji P. Henson on social media, then you know that she has been teasing us with posts about her upcoming natural hair care line, #TPHbyTaraji  Beauty. Yesterday, she posted a video of her applying a product to her blown out natural hair and twisting it for a twist-out. Solange's "Don't Touch My Hair" was playing in the background. Taraji has also been wearing her copper highlighted hair in a cute twist-out! Back in July, the Empire star said, " All naTUral and I ___ LOVE IT!!! can’t WAIT to share my hair care system with you #TPHBeauty coming VERY SOON!!!  In 2017, Taraji rocked a tapered natural haircut, and her hair has grown significantly since then!  Although the actress didn't give an exact launch date for her hair care line, she said that's it's coming soon! So, we'll see! Please bookmark this page a...

Recently, India Arie   broke down what it's like to be a woke, Black spiritual woman in the entertainment industry. After performing in 26 cities for 40 days on her "Worthy" tour, the singer shared her disappointment in pay and overall recognition. The segment was a part of the singer's "SongVersation" podcast on IGTV. After seeing, Toni Morrison's new movie Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am , India Arie said she identified with the author's experiences. She said, Like her, I too am a Black American woman making art that is unabashedly Black, unabashedly spiritual in a world that doesn't love me." As a result of her not being accepted, India said she has been blocked from a lot of opportunities. She said, "I've been denied access to so much -- money, awards, certain types of recognition. Being spiritual, conscious, and Black and female is not marketable-- not really. It was for a minute, then it wasn't. It's no...