Even though I’m far away, Trinidad will always be my home. And on days like today I miss the simple pleasures.

Like spending time with my family, going to visit my friends, eating good food like roti and doubles, shark and bake, pholourie, and pelau. I miss drinking Shandy and having the best rum available at the ready. I miss hearing the lapping waters of the ocean while looking back at verdant mountain ranges.

To my friends, family, and fans at home in Trinidad and Tobago, and my Trinis scattered around the world — Happy Independence Day!

Portrait of Trinidad – Mighty Sniper

Bellas — slow down, take a moment. Drink it in. Our hair is having a moment.

Tyra Banks is about to devote a whole show to her own Natural Hair Day. Chris Rock and Nelson George’s film Good Hair hits select cities October 9 (and opens nationally October 23). And just last week, the New York Times did a whole article and special interactive feature on black hair in its myriad textures and forms. The beautiful photo you see here is of Shayna Y. Rudd, who was featured in the article. Photo by Andrew Councill for The New York Times.

I think I was sent the article — titled Black Hair, Still Tangled in Politics, oh… maybe 20 times. One of my friends even thought I’d written it, which gave me a good belly laugh. I’m going places, but trust me, the WORLD will know if my byline ever appears in the Times.

What did I think of the piece by Catherine Saint Louis? Well, I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know but it was an engaging read nonetheless. The author did her best at being balanced, revealing the perspectives of academics:

“In the face of cultural pressure, the thinking goes, conformists relax their hair, and rebels have the courage not to. In some corners, relaxing one’s hair is even seen as wishing to be white.

“For black women, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” said Ingrid Banks, an associate professor of black studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. “If you’ve got straight hair, you’re pegged as selling out. If you don’t straighten your hair,” she said, “you’re seen as not practicing appropriate grooming practices.””

Saint Louis reached out to those who embrace the versatility of hairstyling through all means, by featuring Tywana Smith of Treasured Locks:

“... in recent interviews, a number of people of color expressed a weariness with the debate. They asked, essentially: Why can’t hair just be hair? Must an Afro peg a woman as the political heir to Angela Davis? Is a fashionista who replicates the first lady’s clean-cut bob really being untrue to herself?

“I am who I am regardless of how I wear my hair,” said Tywana Smith, an owner of Treasured Locks, a Web site devoted to upkeep for relaxed and natural hair. “I want my kids to be seen for who they are, not for how they wear their hair,” she added. “Whether they walk down the street with twists or braids, they aren’t making any other statement other than ‘Today I felt like twists.’ ””

And big respect to Patricia Gaines of Nappturality, for being quoted in the piece on hair color — a topic recently explored right here on Afrobella:

“Oddly, Patricia Gaines, the founder of Nappturality.com, a pro-natural Web site, points out that dyeing one’s Afro puffs or double-strand twists blond isn’t viewed as conforming to a Euro-centric look. “It’s never been about color with black women,” she said, referring to the tint of one’s hair. “If it’s blond hair and it’s nappy, it’s still nappy.” (A term she uses proudly, though some use it as a slur.)”

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What a great giveaway month August has been!

Sarenzo Beads, Queen Ifrica, Avon… and I’ve got one more before the month is through. So if you aren’t among the lucky 10 listed below, don’t you worry – there’s one more in store for bloggerversary month!

For now, here are the winners of the Avon 3-in-1 Lip Wand giveaway!

1. DNLee

2. Nerd Girl

3. NiaSoul01

4. GG

5. b.

6. nolagirl

7. SUPANATURAL

8. Edi

9. Shones

10. Nicole J. Butler

Congratulations, bellas!

This next week is shaping up to be crazed for me, but I’ll be in touch with you via e mail to get your contact info to my people at Avon.

Didn’t win this time around? Stay tuned — another giveaway’s on the way!

When Fefe Dobson burst on the scene back in 2003, rock-loving black girls around the world sat up and took notice. Here was a chick who refused to play by the record label rules. Edgy, cute, funky, and totally unique at the time.

She was getting solid airplay on MTV for a minute there, but then she disappeared. What happened?

I wondered when I wrote a loving homage in 2007, but now thanks to a great interview with Honey Magazine, we know what Fefe is up to!

– planning her glorious comeback and releasing new music
– diplomatically defusing those “Rihanna bit your style” allegations
– looking fly as evah!!

I’m team Fefe all the way! And I love her new song, I Want You.

Click here for her official site, and click here to get her new song!

Are you a fan of Fefe? Tell me!

The words we use to describe our hair are so loaded with significance and so often lead to complex, thorny issues.

I try to choose my words carefully, but even still, sometimes I get tripped up in what’s acceptable and what can be offensive. I personally don’t care for, and consequently don’t use “nappy.” But I do use “kinky,” and “coily.” And I’ve been called out in the past for describing natural hair as “curly.”

But the fact is, not all natural hair is curly. And if you do decide to go natural, you shouldn’t necessarily expect your hair to be curly, or to look a certain way.

When I first started this blog, I did it to reinforce my belief that all textures of natural hair and all shades of black skin are just as beautiful as the mainstream ideals I felt bombarded with in magazines.

But now, curly haired women are becoming an advertising norm. Think of how many commercials you’ve seen featuring a beautiful, smiling afrobella with a lush head of curls lately. Curls have become common sightings. But, as a fascinating Racialicious article, Are Curls The New Straight Hair? by Carolina Asuquo-Brown, points out — it’s a certain kind of curl. The kind you see in the photo above.

Asuquo-Brown’s article takes a fresh, international angle on the issue. The author resides in Germany, where curly hair has become ubiquitous. It all began when she was flipping through a magazine with her friend, and they came upon an image of “an obviously biracial black/white model sporting a huge curly ‘fro.”

“the model’s medium-length curls were something I really considered desirable. The hairstyle did strike a chord with me, but my friend Jen, who has two African parents, is many a shade darker than I am and has shiny and fantastically healthy-looking relaxed tresses (which I have never managed to obtain) was a lot less enthusiastic about the model’s look.

Obtaining a certain look hair seems to be almost as pressurising as it was to have bone straight hair back in the day. Only now curly hair is the new straight hair.”

You really should click here and read it yourself, I thought it gave a very interesting insight to German culture, and to an experience that’s happened to me many times. The “you can go natural but I can’t” experience.

If I had a dollar for everytime someone told me that… I wouldn’t need to work so frickin’ hard.

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Talk about a sweet revenge!

I read the story of Roxanne Shante fighting the system and getting what she earned and deserved in the NY Daily News.

Of course being an Eighties baby, I was familiar with Roxanne Shante. The hip hop pioneer was one of the first ladies to rock a mic, and one of the first to experience the harsh realities of the recording industry. From the NY Daily News:

“This is a story that needs to be told,” Shante said. “I’m an example that you can be a teenage mom, come from the projects, and be raised by a single parent, and you can still come out of it a doctor.”
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