Accepted, Affirmed, and...ACCESSORIZED!!!

Last night some of my girlfriends & I attended the Naturally Flyy Detroit Meet-Up #5 at Sweet Potato Sensations in Artist Village.  It was a time of celebration of natural hair, networking, & panel q&a.  I felt SO BLESSED to be amongst like-minded sisters and brothers who have embraced natural hair care.  My only regret is that I forgot my camera!  When I got in my car to go home, the three words I came up with to describe my experience were: accepted, affirmed, & accessorized.

Accepted
I think a few of my closest friends knew about a period of about 3 mos. this past winter/early spring that I refer to myself as "The Dark Night of the Soul."  It was a season of my life where I kept trying to figure out what was "wrong" with me & why I am 27 and still not married.  At one point I even questioned if wearing my hair natural was why I haven't been on a date in a HOT second.  Most of my friends who are married are not natural and a few had encouraged me to "just get your hair pressed."  I've been natural for 5 years.  But in February, I got my hair pressed for the first time in AGES.  And relationally, it got me nowhere.  After 2 weeks, I went back to being natural.

What I had to learn, and what was expressed yesterday by several gentlemen (on the panel & in the audience) is that it isn't the hair that makes you, but the confidence within.  I had worked really hard after undergrad to build my confidence, but somewhere along the way, I let all my hard work unravel.  Being in a room full of naturals (and their supporters) built my confidence in my decision to be natural, as well as to accept and love my decision.

Affirmed
From the moment I pulled into the parking lot, 'til the moment we left, I was affirmed.  The security team not only helped us park, but walked us to and from the venue.  When we entered into the meet-up we were greeted by gentlemen who had nothing but positive things to say about our hair.  All of us even received a wonderful poem, which in all honesty I didn't read until this morning while I was digging through my purse at church.  The poem, "Perfectly Beautiful (Just as You Are!)" made me feel so good, not just to be natural, but to be a BLACK woman.

I live and work in the suburbs, so most of the admirers of my natural hair are my middle-aged/senior, caucasian co-workers or my adolescent students.  While I appreciate their comments, it just doesn't feel the same as when brothers & sisters my own race and age complement me on my hair and affirm my decision.  I definitely left full & feeling like the queen that I am.

Accessorized
Ok, so, I am going to start putting aside money every pay period so that when I go to the next meet-up (July 30), I can have PLENTY of spending money!  There were so many neat things that I wanted to buy, but could only get a few.  I picked up a "Thank God I'm Natural" Shirt (w/ complimentary tote) and a clip from OMSoul.  Next time, I want to get some earrings from Created in His Image.

All in all, a great time, & I CAN'T WAIT for the next meet-up!

Curly Girlie

This week's hair inspiration came from one of my favorite singers as a teen...Gwen Stefani!

I hadn't done this since college...but took it upon myself to curl my braids.  How do you curl synthetic hair?  Good question!

First I put my hair in medium size ponytails all over.  Then I divided each ponytail into smaller parts and put rollers around them.

Then I GENTLY washed my hair with Joico's Color Endure shampoo and used towels to squeeze the excess water out of the rollers.  To make sure that the braids were really curled, I boiled hot water and dunked each section of rollers into a bowl of the hot water for 30 seconds.  (TIP: If you do this, be sure to hold a towel around your neck & ears...you don't want to burn yourself!)

I squeezed the water  out of the rollers, applied some extra-hold Pre-Con Gel to my roots to prevent flyaways, put on a scarf, laid a towel on my pillows to absorb any water & went to sleep!  The next day's results:

I took me awhile to figure out a good way to get my hair over like Gwen's.  I had to part it and put a scarf on it to try and flatten some of this hair.  I put in a couple of bobby pins & now I'm all set!