1Blessed Natural Mag

Mursi woman (photo courtesy of Flickr- "Rod Waddington" under the Creative Commons License )  The young woman's hairstyle appears to be in small locs. The sides of her head are shaven. The Mursi people are known to have little or no hair on their heads. They often wear decorative headdresses. Similiarly, African-Americans often wear headbands , accessories, and locs . The woman in the photo above is from the Mursi Tribe in Ethiopia. The Mursi people are known for their practices including lip and ear stretching. Both practices are also practiced by African-Americans and other people around the world, but the Mursi people seem to draw the most attention because of the size of their piercings. In the Mursi tribe, lip stretchings are done for beauty. It also indicates a rite of passage from girl to womanhood. Around ages 15 or 16 (before marriage), the girl's lip is pierced by her mother. The piercing is held open by a wooden peg until it heals. Afterwards...

The "Son and Daughter Birthday" card 2-pack available in the Ruthie's Greetings Etsy Shop . Hi, my blessed naturals, I hope you all are enjoying your Monday. I just wanted to let you  that I have added a few new greeting cards to my Etsy shop . They include the "Father's Day: Daddy's Girl" and "Son and Daughter Birthday" 2-pack of cards. The "Father's Day: Daddys' Girl" card has the option of you having your name added after the closing (e.g. "Love, Kim). The "Son and Daughter Birthday" cards also allows to personalize the inside message to be from "I" or "We." You can also include your son and daughter's name in the cards, and yes, all 3 characters  have natural hair (smile).  Please visit the Ruthie's Greetings Etsy Shop for more information. The "Father's Day: Daddy's Girl" handmade African-American card available in the Ruthie's Greetin...

Akintunde Ahmad (photo courtesy of ABC 7) Akintude Ahmad appears on camera dressed in blue jeans, black t-shirt, zip-up hoodie, and a black fitted cap. His hair is in long dread locs that flow down his back. I must mention that he is African-American. If you turned down the volume on your television, you could attempt to form your own opinion about why the 17-year old from Oakland,California was on ABC 7 News . Did he witness a crime? What was he involved in? After turning up the volume, you learn that the 17 year-old scored 2100 on his SAT and maintained a 5.0 GPA. He also was accepted to numerous Ivy League schools. I love Ahmad's story because it is one of the many stories that proves you cannot judge a book by its cover. In addition, ABC 7 News reported that Ahmad was well aware people would not believe his achievements based upon his appearance. As a result, he kept a picture of his grades in his phone as proof. I thought about how many African-Americans get ov...

Mary H. Graham (photo courtesy (cropped) of Flickr- MLibrary ) I can only imagine being an African-American woman attempting to finish college in the 1880's when race relations between Blacks and whites were chaotic. Kudos to Mary H. Graham who was said to be the first Black woman to be accepted and graduated from the University of Michigan. Graham earned a bachelor's degree. Read more about her story...  If Mary H. Graham were alive today, what would you want to say to her? Related Articles: Black History Month: Dominique Dawes                           Black History Month: Don Cornelius (1936-2012)                           1BlessedNatural Spotlight: Venus Williams        ...

Hey my blessed naturals! Some of you may have been aware that the Ruthie's Greetings Etsy shop was closed for vacation, but now it is back! I'm in the process of adding new Valentine's Day cards. The picture above shows the " High School Sweethearts " card and gift tag duo that I've just posted. You know... Both of the figures on the front are rocking natural hair (smile). The young lady is rocking a puff, and the girl is rocking a fade, lol. Please visit my Etsy shop for more information!  What was your favorite hairstyle from back in the day? Related Articles: (NEW) Winter Natural Hair Greeting Cards                           Ruthie's Greetings Etsy Shop: (NEW) Natural Hair Items                          

This week, I received the blessing of interviewing my Aunt T, who is an 83-year old Breast Cancer survivor. In 2005, she was hit with the shocking news that she had the terrible disease. T. could not believe that it happened to her. The older woman was faced with limited options, and she chose to have a double mastectomy. After surgery, T. underwent several rounds of chemotherapy treatments. Shortly after the treatments commenced, the older woman's hair began to fall out in patches. "My hair just started falling out... I couldn't believe it," she said. The frantic woman grabbed a plastic bag and began putting the plugs of hair into it. It's been 8 years since her surgery, and Aunt T. is still cancer free (Thank God). Her hair has also grown back. I asked her if she did anything special to promote hair growth; she said she did not.  It grew back on its own. Before losing her hair, T's hair was chin length. Now, she keeps it at a length that is less than...

Deborah L. Tillman is best known as THE parenting expert on Lifetime's   hit show, "America's Supernanny" . Along with being America's favorite "supernanny", Tillman is also the owner of 3 childcare centers in Alexandria, Virginia, and the author of the book, Stepping Out on Faith: How to Open a Quality Childcare Center. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and Master's Degree in Early Childhood Special Education. Last week, I received the blessing of interviewing this inspirational woman. Although Tillman is not natural, she says she will get there one day. Because she has a soft hair texture, she only gets a perm every 4-6 months. But, she doesn't like them at all. They do help her get through the summer months. Tillman says when she goes natural, she will be visiting my blog to find out what to do. I'm going to hold her to it. 1BN: So, about "America's Supernanny"... There's s...

This post is not related to natural hair in any way, but I had to write about it. According to the Daily News , middle school honor student Deja Turnstill was allegedly sent home for wearing brown tights. Her mother claims that she has worn tights to school before. But, it was never a problem until she wore the brown ones. One of the school aids allegedly commented on the tights being brown and looking like the 11 year old was not wearing any pants. As a result, her mother felt like her daughter was being an object of discrimination. In my opinion, tights (especially the see-through ones) should not be worn by themselves in public, let alone to school.  Wearing tights is the the new trend for teens and young adults. I remember the early 90's when tights  were worn with a long sweater that covered your thighs or under shorts. .When I was a kid, my grandmother used to dress me in tights stretch pants with long shirts. Stretch pants were also worn by themselves or with a long s...