Let me tell you, bellas!

Last night I attended a special event, courtesy of Dove Visibly Smooth deodorant. At a gorgeous place called Spa Soak in the trendy Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago, I recieved a “piticure.” On my way back home, I tweeted the following:

“Just had a Dove deodorant “PitiCure” – just so you know, I have baby smooth Beyonce armpits now.”

The response was overwhelming! Everyone wanted to know — what on earth is a piticure, and where can I get one?

It’s super easy and you can totally DIY.

It’s as simple as that! Click here to learn all about it

My piticure began with a very necessary neck and shoulder massage — I seem to store all my tension there and the muscles are always insanely tight. Sarah, my masseuse worked it OUT for me, and today I am so grateful. I love a good, theraputic massage and clearly I needed one!

After that she cleansed my armpits with Dove’s Cool Moisture Cleansing Cloths — they’re refreshing and durable, and gently exfoliate your skin. Love em!

Then she moisturized my armpits with a little lotion — I believe it was Nourishing Moisture Beauty Body Lotion. Then to end the piticure, I applied some Dove Visibly Smooth deodorant in Nature Fresh.

I’ve been using Visibly Smooth in Wild Rose for maybe the past month or so, and I really have noticed a difference. My underarm hair grows in softer and finer, less prickly and thick. It hasn’t reduced the growth of it at all, but it makes for easier shaving and depilatory use.

After my piticure, I got my nails done by Rachel, a super cute manicurist. We were cracking each other up — and together we came up with a killer color combination!

That’s OPI’s brand new skates, and Essie nail polish in Classical, a really interesting sheer, shimmery pale green for my accent nail. Apparently Classical is a rare enough shade that it’s going for $16 on Ebay. Who knew?

And I gotta tell y’all – I LOVE the layout of Spa Soak! This place is awesome for bridal showers or girls’ afternoons out, or just to go with your BFF. Pedicure stations are set up right next to each other so you can gab the whole time. I love spas set up for socializing!

So even though it may sound weird to have a stranger pamper your armpits, I thoroughly enjoyed my piticure and I’m definitely going to continue the trend at home. I’ll have Beyonce armpits someday!

Related posts:

1. Latest, Greatest Drugstore Buys
2. My Week Without Deodorant
3. My Armpits Smell like Ice Cream!

My amiga Tomiko shared this video on her Facebook page, and I HAD to post it here for all to see.

The late, truly great designer Yves Saint Laurent was an innovator of style and a champion of black models in the fashion industry. Check out this fabulous AmberMag article for more. Oh, and I am newly in love with Voguespirit, this whole YouTube channel. It’ll transport you to a bygone, much more fabulous era.

I love the rich, meaningful pause he gives between his words — he reveals a true appreciation for black beauty. We need more of this in the fashion industry today, if you ask me. Yves Saint Laurent passed away in 2008 — but of course his brand will live on forever.

Clip is from Yves Saint Laurent – His Life and Times.

Related posts:

1. Lancome Lipgloss Giveaway Winners!

As a plus size fashionista, I’ve respected your hustle for a while now. For years you’ve produced a steady and reliable line of plus size essentials. Tees, jeans, on-trend blouses. I’ve been there as a purchaser when you respected my demographic and sold plus size garments in your stores. And when you made women’s plus exclusively online I will admit, I felt shunned — but I continued to buy. Because I knew, if I was looking for an affordable, comfortable and chic tee, Old Navy would always be there for me with the right item at the right price.

So consider me outraged that you’d try to slide in an item like this super chic belted wool-blend cape — and have the audacity to charge $129 for it.

Those are Gap prices. Venturing into Banana Republic territory.

Old Navy, what are you doing? That prices doesn’t even look right as the cape shares screen space with its outerwear peers — which currently max out at $82.

Old Navy, for years I have loved you as the kind of store I could spend $100 and at least get an entire outfit from. Maybe more, if I really rummaged through the clearance aisle. I see you trying to elevate your style game with this admittedly trendy-yet-classic cape, but really. This is wool-blend. Not even 100% wool. And for an item that’s only sold online that I can’t try on or touch…ich don’t think so.

Consider this some friendly advice from a frequent and fond consumer — stay in your lane and consider your consumer. It’s entirely possible to step up your designs and still remain as affordable as ever. I’m sincerely hoping you find a way. Until then, I’ll be biding my time until this cape comes down to under $50 on clearance. My day will come, if I just wait a while.

Bestest,
Afrobella

PS: my curvy homegirl Marie Denee feels the same way.

Related posts:

1. Dear Mama
2. Getting What You Want (For Less)
3. Fashion Mission — Bright Yellow Top

When I had the opportunity to talk with Doe Deere, also known as Xenia, the creator of controversial cosmetics brand Lime Crime, I was both excited and hesitant.

Excited because her makeup brand has a lot of buzz around it right now — Lime Crime is featured in the November issue of Nylon magazine, and I’ve heard many a beauty blogger rave over the range of crazy colors available in their Magic Dust eyeshadows and Candyfuture Lipsticks.

Hesitant because I’ve also noticed many a beauty blogger talking umbrage with Doe Deere herself, and disparaging Lime Crime as a brand.

You can read some of those posts:

here, at Gothique

here at Funny Face’s Place

here at the Examiner (those comments are off the chain)

here at Jessica Allison’s blog

here at Lipstick and Lightsabers (WHAT a great blog name!)

here at Sparkle is My Crack

here at Sparklecrack Central

and…you get the picture.

But for every hater, there’s a congratulator. There’s an army of Lime Crime and Doe Deere fans out there — say hello to Team Candyfuture! And besides the people who admire Doe’s appearance and personality, there are those who really are intrigued by the makeup itself, all chatter aside. I fall into the latter camp.

I heard of Lime Crime before all of the brou-ha-ha began, and the reason I heard about them was because people were raving over this hot new makeup brand, all packaged in pink with sparkly unicorns, dedicated to super intense pigments and bright colors. And I realize there’s a reason just about every post about Doe Deere online generates hundreds of bickering comments — she’s a fascinating figure. And the creator of a makeup brand that targets a very passionate audience.

When we started our interview, I offered Doe two options. We can start out fun and lighthearted and talk about the makeup itself…or we can wade immediately into the controversy and address it right off the bat. Doe chose the latter.

“From what I’ve seen so far, I’m getting positive responses. I’m getting overwhelming support. And it’s just a handful of people who are all linking to each other, First it was one blog, then there were a few more, but they’re all regurgitating the same stuff,” she declared. Doe is soft spoken, she’s got a charming Russian accent, she’s polite and quite sweet to converse with. But make no mistake, homegirl is about her business, and she has worked hard to build her brand.

I broached the topic of the offensive online comments that had been circulating, supposedly written by Doe herself. One that only an extremely foolish businesswoman would write. She denied writing that outright, and in no uncertain terms.

“Certainly not. I would at least know my own company’s name and how to spell it. It’s Lime Crime. Two words,” she retorted, much to my relief.

Doe carefully applying lashes on her model, Atim

That’s one of the major things that’s been bugging me about the complaints against Lime Crime — e mails and online comments supposedly left by Doe seemed so misguided, and out of character for someone who presents themselves as being dedicated to their business. A business owner leaving public messages in which they refer to their customers as idiots = business suicide in this online age. It didn’t make sense to me, and Doe was quick to refute it.

“The only reliable source of information is my blog and my Twitter. I do not comment on other blogs. So any comments that are being passed around aren’t from me.”

“I built my brand on the internet, and I of all people would recognize the power of the internet. I am an internet phenomenon. So I knew I had to address this directly, online,” she explained, in reference to the YouTube video she recently released, in which she speaks out against the critics.

To counteract the accusations that Lime Crime was merely repackaging makeup made by wholesale companies, Doe released a YouTube video in which she makes eyeshadow and a post on her blogazine titled So How Do You Make Lipstick? — and that’s where she draws the line.

“I think they have set an unreasonable standard. Of course I am not going to tell you who is my manufacturer, what are my formulas. Not alot of companies would be as open as I have been. But from now on, I will document every single thing I make.”

Lest you think making makeup is a glamorous task, Doe assures me — “It can be quite laborious and tedious.”

The whole Lime Crime controversy and interview made me realize — WOW this is a world I am completely unfamiliar with. Also, I really don’t think enough about makeup. Or what goes into it. For the most part (with obvious exceptions like Valana Minerals and B.L.A.C, brands I’ve blogged about before), I tend to wear mainstream brands that are available in the drugstore or department store. And it has never occurred to me to try to find out — hey, can I find a replica for Bobbi Brown or MAC or NARS or Kat Von D’s makeup or Lauren Luke’s makeup from a cosmetics pigment wholesaler and make it myself, at home? But there are ardent makeup fans who are doing just that — swatching, comparing and experimenting, blogging about their experience and repping niche makeup brands that truly provide something for everyone. That is awesome. The internet, it is vast and amazing. And I learn something new from it every day.

I knew there was much more I could ask Doe about the online witch hunt going on against her, I could have asked her more about the ongoing Mineral Makeup Mutiny and her thoughts on what else she could do to appease her critics…but I honestly don’t know enough about this online world and the manufacturing of cosmetics to ask more pointed questions. She was certainly willing to answer them, and I appreciated that. But I was ready to talk about this makeup!

Lime Crime is not for the timid. It’s for the young and the young at heart, girly girls who love pink and unicorns and bright colors, who may cite Rainbow Bright or Punky Brewster as style influences. As Doe describes it, it’s “statement makeup.”

I was lucky enough to review two Lime Crime lipsticks, so allow me to break down my results for you.

The packaging is SUPER cute and in the tube the colors are vibrant. On my lips, My Beautiful Rocket was way more subdued than I hoped.

Apparently I need a deeper orange to really make an impact on my skin tone. Also I tend to have dry lips that are prone to peeling…this particular lip color called attention to my peeling lips RIGHT AWAY. I had to rub it off, scrub my lips (a little MAC Volcanic Ash Scrub worked marvelously), then reapply. And the claim that the lipsticks go from tube to lips in one stroke…that didn’t happen for me with My Beautiful Rocket. I had to really layer it on, for it to be even and opaque on my lips.

I think this color would work best for those with lighter complexions, or darker complexions. On a darker skin tone this color would pop! On me it just kind of looked peachy and regular.

But Centrifuchsia, that was a whole different story! Here I am, trying to give you fierce.

Did that work? I was trying to “smile with my eyes”!

I really like this color. I went into it expecting an uber bright obnoxious fuchsia, but instead it turned out to be really wearable and the kind of lippie that would add fun impact to my winter wardrobe. And it lived up to the claim, and totally covered my lips with high impact color with one stroke. REALLY high impact color. In fact, I washed my face, went to bed, and woke up the next day to find my lips were still really, really pink. This worked almost like a lip stain, for me. So if you’re looking for a hot pink lippie that lasts, this could be it.

Lime Crime lipsticks are smooth, not drying (but I always slick on a little regular balm first, because of my dry lips), and the packaging is youthful, fun, super cute. They cost $16 a tube.

What’s next for Lime Crime? Lots.

“We are coming out with an expansion line of our lipsticks. There are going to be a lot of surprises — colors that are wearable, but still unusual. I mean, it’s Lime Crime!” says Doe.

Now that she’s been fashion forward and released the wildest colors in the wheel, is Lime Crime going back to make the kind of colors that are considered more traditionally wearable?

“It’s not going back, it’s going forward! But before it was about being as bright as possible. Now it’s about sheen, or how about a duo tone. Now it’s not as loud. It’ll be a more well rounded collection.”

And there you have it. The stunning model of color you see in photos above is Atim Birungi – I love her hair, I love her lips, I love her style! Gorgeous! And if you click on the Lime Crime site, you can see her lips modeling different lipstick shades, to give you an idea of the color impact on women of varied ethnicities.

Now that you know the Lime Crime story from Doe’s perspective, what do you think? Would this be a brand you support? Or do you agree with the dissidents? I would love to hear your views either way — and Doe’s reading, too! If you’re new to Afrobella — hello and welcome! I do monitor my comments closely for profanity and offensive content. But if you’ve got some respectful and constructive advice for Doe, or her makeup brand in general, please feel free to leave a comment!

Related posts:

1. Buy or DIY? – Brown Sugar Lip Scrub
2. Nails of the Season
3. Patrice meets Patrece!

Picture this: I’m standing in line at the supermarket last night, about to pay for my groceries. The casher and bagger are both young African American females with relaxed hair. One of them appears frustrated with her hair (judging from the haphazard way in which it was styled).

The bagger turns to me while bagging my groceries.

“Is that your natural hair?”

Yes.

“But you use a chemical to get it like that, right?”

No.

“Cause I saw on the Tyra show…”

You can just imagine my expression at that point. I bit back the “Lawdamercy” that wanted to come out of my mouth, and tried to engage the girls in conversation without being preachy. The cashier started to tell me that she was interested in going natural, but “can’t deal with nappy hair.” I tried to explain to her that it takes time to completely grow out a relaxer and transition to natural hair, it takes commitment and patience, and part of that means learning to love your hair’s real texture, regardless of how “nappy” it may be, it’s yours and it’s beautiful…but of course at that point I was holding up the line, my groceries were bagged and it was time to end the conversation. So I just let them know about Afrobella and BVHairTalk.com, and went on my way.

But I keep thinking about the reaction natural hair inspires.

Every week without fail, I get questions from someone.

What products do you use? How long have you been natural? What made you decide to do *that* to your hair? And these questions are usually followed by an explanation. I like your hair but mine would never look like that. It looks good on you but I can’t deal with my natural hair. My texture is too difficult to deal with. Or, I used to be natural but I wear a weave/use a relaxer now because… (like I’m some kinda natural hair police who is silently judging them for their own hair choices).

To which my response is usually, girl do YOU! Please know that you are beautiful. And if you ever have questions, or feel ready to make the transition — visit my blog or e mail me. Then I usually hand them a business card if I feel so inspired (or if I have some in my purse at the time). I try to respond with warmth, candor, and encouragement… but sometimes the questions get me down. Not because I don’t like talking to people about my hair, but just because I find the ignorance about natural hair to be so depressing. It’s astounding how many beautiful, bright women of color have no idea what the natural texture of their hair truly looks like, and just assume that it’s unattractive and uncontrollable without the use of chemical means.

I was inspired to title this post from a previous one — Natural Attitudes, which I wrote in 2007 about the reaction my hair gets in Trinidad. My location and life circumstances have changed quite a bit, but some things still remain the same.

What’s the typical reaction you get to your natural hair? How do you respond to it?

Related posts:

1. Define Your Natural
2. You Have Taught Me
3. Natural Attitudes — Taking the Plunge

When I saw the photos of Sammy Sosa that have been circulating online, one dancehall classic came immediately to mind.

There’s a few more photos on Huffington Post that show the sharp difference in his pigmentation.

The story Mr. Sosa is sticking to is that a skin rejuvenation procedure has made his skin appear lighter, and besides that the lighting made him appear significantly fairer skinned than normal.

If that’s true, then it’s a shame that Mr. Sosa had a facial treatment that resulted in such marked discoloration. Any technician worth their salt will tell you, laser treatments can be very problematic for black skin, and deep chemical peels can damage black skin. So I’m curious as to what kind of treatment Mr. Sosa may have had, so I can make sure not to ever get it myself.

Additional conjecture that Sosa may have vitiligo triggered by steroid use has been gathering steam around the blogosphere.

Among many, the concern is that Sammy Sosa is undergoing a Michael Jackson-esque makeover. He’s reportedly wearing colored contact lenses. Sadly, if Sammy Sosa has indeed been bleaching his skin for superficial reasons — he wouldn’t be alone.

Throughout the Caribbean and Africa, skin bleaching is a popular phenomenon. Products like Fair and White, So White, and Nadinola fly off the shelves throughout most Caribbean islands. Just recently in Jamaica, dancehall artist Lisa Hype defended the practice of skin bleaching and even celebrates the practice in her song Proud of Mi Bleaching. The song title alone speaks volumes, and is a mentality that I have a hard time understanding. But it’s real and it’s happening — black people around the world still seek to alter their natural beauty, often by dangerous means. Just this year reports surfaced of a black woman who underwent a questionable operation to change the color of her eyes from brown to blue. And despite the known dangers of skin bleaching — from permanent disfiguration to skin thinning to cancer — there are those who pledge undying loyalty to the practice. For more insight, check out this clip by Current TV about a Jamaican family of skin bleachers.

Sammy Sosa may not be deliberately lightening the color of his skin by chemical means — one photo can’t tell the whole story. Either way, he needs to stop whatever he’s doing that appears to be causing so much change and apparent damage to his skin color. I still want to give him the benefit of the doubt, so I hope he really isn’t using skin whiteners. But I also hope that this current outcry reaches the people out there who are risking long term health effects hoping to achieve a more light skinned appearance, and sends a direct message that the practice is sad, scary, stupid, and unnecessary.
Queen Ifrica said it all better than I ever could.

** edited November 10 at 10:39 p.m. CST — Well, Sammy’s admitted the truth during television interviews with both ESPN Deportes, and Univision. My suspicions were correct.

“”It’s a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed and whitens my skin some,” said the former slugger during the “Primer Impacto” program at the Univision Spanish network.

“It’s a cream that I have, that I use to soften [my skin], but has bleached me some. I’m not a racist, I live my life happily,” said a smiling Sosa during the interview.”

And he’s joking about marketing the product too. I would write more about this topic, but all of a sudden I have a mysterious headache. SMH.

Photo courtesy the Chicago Tribune.

Related posts:

1. Naomi, Stop
2. Political Propaganda (It Needs to Stop)
3. Whitewash and Photoshop

If you’ve sent me an e mail within the past oh… six months, asking me advice on how to start a blog or build your blog audience, I’ve been meaning to write back. Really I have. But every day I’m inundated with e mail. Every day I’ve got a monstrous things-to-do list and on top of all of that, I’m a forgetter. Just ask my mom, and she’ll probably go into a long rant about those photos/products/e mails I promised to send her and all kinds of other yadda-yadda-yadda.

Please don’t be mad at me, my brain is like a sieve. It’s a problem.

But anyway, I’ve recieved several e mails recently from aspiring or new bloggers asking the same kinds of questions. So I will attempt to answer some of them here. If you want to be a blogger, these are my top five insights.

1. Blogging may start as a hobby…but it’s a hobby that requires a tremendous amount of work. Are you ready to put in work?

Don’t be fooled. Blogging is fun, yes. It’s an avenue for personal expression, definitely. But it requires a tremendous amount of work. Behind the scenes, many (if not all) of your favorite bloggers are staying up into the wee hours of the morning, and then waking up early to make sure they’ve got a fresh post up for your reading enjoyment the next day. Being a truly great blogger requires a certain amount of sacrifice — and that comes straight out of your personal life and downtime. Learning the basics of HTML, coming up with fresh ideas, getting the right photos you need, linking back to your sources… all are time consuming but extremely necessary parts of building your blog.

2. Everyone and their mom has a blog now. What’s gonna make yours different and special?

Name your top ten favorite celebrity blogs. Or beauty blogs, hair blogs, food blogs, fashion blogs, mom blogs, music blogs…whatever category you can think of, there’s the ones you visit often and hopefully leave comments on, and there are the ones you read once a month if even that often. Why is that? It’s important to identify what resonates with you as a reader, what keeps you coming back for more…and from those answers, your inspiration will come.

Because there’s such an overwhelming number of blogs out there now, it’s even MORE important to make yourself stand out. In a GOOD way. When I first started Afrobella in 2006, I started it because there were no blogs like it. I couldn’t find a natural hair-loving, black beauty celebrating, plus size fashion endorsing blog that filled the void of all the print magazines that had been sucked into the vortex. That was in 2006. Flash forward to 09 and there are SO many awesome natural hair blogs, black beauty blogs, plus size fashion blogs…. the pressure is continually on me to step my game up. So I sincerely believe it’s even harder for a new blogger to establish themselves and carve out a distinct niche. But it CAN be done. Do your research. Visit other blogs that inspire you, so you can know what’s out there first and find a fresh way to present your information. Which brings me to #3.

3. BE ORIGINAL.

Not too long ago, another blogger came at me with accusations of plagarism. In the past I’ve gotten some e mails that bothered me…but this one REALLY bothered me, because I PRIDE myself on my originality. I work hard to write fresh material for this blog — and for AOL — every day of the work week. I was so incensed by the accusation that actually asked a friend of mine about this, who runs one of the most popular gossip blogs around…and she admitted this happens ALL the time. When you’re writing about the same kind of topics as other bloggers (especially breaking celebrity-related news), at some point some overlap will occur. It’s inevitable.

Look at your favorite beauty blogs right now, or celebrity gossip blogs…. most of the time they’re writing about the same thing. That’s because most of us get the same press releases from public relations firms, we watch the same television shows, and we all rush to get the information out to the reading, clicking public ASAP. Which is why sometimes it’s better to wait — I’d always, ALWAYS rather review a product than just post the press information about a product that isn’t available yet. It’s also why it’s vitally important to have your own voice and your own views, and not just cut and paste from press releases. Otherwise you stand the risk of being caught in the shuffle.

4. Make your own blog family.

What’s that saying, no man is an island, no man stands alone? I think the same goes for the blogosphere. I strongly believe in forging relationships with your fellow bloggers, showing and sharing respect, and being a contributing part of the blogging community. You can do this in several ways. You can join a group — many of my favorite beauty bloggers show each other weekly link love through Web Snob or Glamour Squad, things of that nature. While some of these require an invitation to join, I’ll tell you from my first hand experience — you don’t need an invitation to any exclusive blog group or organization to make a name for yourself, or to make friends in the blogosphere, just like you don’t need to join a sorority to make friends in college. How do you do find friends in the blogosphere? By commenting regularly on the blogs you like. By linking the articles you find interesting on your own blog. By communicating with these bloggers via Twitter or Facebook or via e mail, sometimes. By being friendly (without being pushy or insistent or leaving comments just to post your blog title on someone else’s blog or getting mad if a blogger doesn’t write back right away).

I’d be lost without my friends in the blogosphere. Especially in the early days when I first started out, I learned about blogging etiquette so much by just e mailing and communicating with the bloggers whose sites I used to comment on every day. While blogging CAN be extremely competitive, it’s better, smarter, and emotionally healthier to be cool with everyone, instead of approaching blogging as a game where there can only be one winner. I’ve been called “naive” before, for stating my belief in the sisterhood of the blogosphere. Well, I still do believe. And my sisters (and brothers) online know who they are. Love to all of you!

5. Don’t come into this expecting free products. Or money.

If you’re getting into blogging just for freebies or profit, I’ll tell ya right now — you’re doing it for the wrong reasons, and this probably won’t pay off in the long run.

Just this week I logged onto the Estee Lauder Facebook page and there was a comment right on the wall — “How do I get free samples?” It was apparently deleted shortly afterwards. I read that and thought, how tacky, rude, embarrassing, and clearly unprofessional. That kind of thing can make public relations people and business owners wary of working with bloggers, for understandable reasons.

As with anything in life, you have to put in hard work, prove your worth, and then the rewards come later. It took me at least a year to start making any kind of income from the advertising on my blog. I am extremely (almost annoyingly) cautious about the kinds of ads and affiliations I host on my blog. It took longer than six months before PR companies recognized that my reviews were considered, well-written and deliberate, and consequently started sending me products to review. Recently I’ve been meeting bloggers who seem to believe that there’s a fast track, and getting freebies is all that it’s about. So. Not. True.

As much as it may pain professional journalists, blogging is the new journalism. It’s the new medium for the masses to get information. With newspapers and glossy magazines going down left and right, and the recent implementation of FTC guidelines, it’s even more important now for bloggers to recognize and respect the need for professionalism.

I’ll be writing more about this soon, but for the interested bloggers who e mailed me, I hope this begins to answer some of your questions! And if you have more, please leave them in the comments below.

Are you a blogger? Please introduce yourself in the comments, and share your best advice for bloggers on the come up!

(photo obtained from LuxuryRealEstate.com).

Related posts:

1. I’m a Thinking Blogger!
2. Guess Who’s a Glamour Magazine VIP Beauty Blogger?
3. Inner Conflict of a Budgeting Beauty Blogger

Your girl Afrobella is having a beauty crisis of her very own. It’s getting colder and colder here in Chicago, and I can’t hide from it forever… my first winter is just around the corner. My skin’s becoming noticeably dryer, and my hair… well let’s just say my hair seems to be trying to acclimate to the changes. My coil pattern has stretched out somewhat, my hair feels and looks dryer to the touch, and the less said about my scalp, the better.

I had some ideas about what I needed to do to resolve these issues and winterize my natural ‘do, but just in the nick of time, a hero came along.

I recently interviewed Nikki Walton, better known as Curly Nikki. Her blog is so focused, informative, and welcoming – truly a breath of fresh air in the natural community. Love me some Curly Nikki! You can read my whole interview over at AOL Black Voices — Nikki shared details on everything from her own interest and expertise in natural hair care, to her predictions and hopes for the future of black hair. And she answered a special question for me.

I recently moved from Miami to Chicago, and I’m about to encounter my first winter! Any advice for me re: winterizing my hair routine?

Remember to seal in your water-based moisturizer or conditioner with shea buter, castor oil, or other emollients. This will protect your ends from the harsh winds. Weekly deep conditioning treatments won’t hurt either! During the winter months, replenishing moisture should be your top priority!

OK, I already LOVE DevaCare One Condition, and I’ve tried some other Curl Junkie product samples (thanks to the generosity of my girl Brittany of Clumps of Mascara and Loc Rocker!) but have never tried Jessicurl before. And I keep hearing bellas rave over Herbal Essences, which hasn’t done anything for my coils in the past…but maybe I’m up for a refresher course.

So that’s the winter hair advice I got from Curly Nikki! Once again, clicky click to read our whole interview on AOL Black Voices.

For my bellas who have been living in a cold climate and dealing with winter weather year in, year out – what do you advise a newbie like me to do?

Related posts:

1. Hair Care for Little Afrobellas
2. The Afrobella Interview: Motown Girl, the Curly Hair Guru
3. How NOT to Care For Your Child’s Hair

Can I be real with y’all? I’m kinda sick of Chris Rock’s Good Hair. Raise your hand if you’re with me.

The endless media tour. The premature outrage. The trailer, which showed all of the docucomedy’s best clips. To paraphrase Chris Rock himself, I’m tired, tired, tired of Good Hair.

So I’m gonna conclude writing about it once and for all with this review.

I hate going into a movie when I already know too much about it. And I already knew WAY too much about Good Hair. And to be honest, I didn’t quite understand the controversy and call for boycotting the film. As I said in the Black Voices podcast: it’s important to remember who’s making this movie. It’s Chris Rock, the man who brought us Pootie Tang! The comedian who continually courts controversy. What did we REALLY expect from Chris Rock besides comedy? Social commentary? A historical perspective? Sorry — wrong filmmaker. Wrong film. For more informed views on black hair, see some of the documentaries I mentioned in my previous post, Before Chris Rock’s Good Hair.

As a comedy, Good Hair delivers. There were scenes and one-liners that were laugh out loud funny. Some scenes brought back painful memories of my own burning scalp. And there were scenes that caused my throat to tighten up and tears to well in my eyes. One particular scene, where a three-year-old girl explains that she has her hair relaxed “because we’re supposed to,” particularly ached to watch.

If there’s one thing Rock does well, it’s underscore the point that kiddie perm is an unnecessary evil. There are a few points where you can see true concern and consideration on Rock’s face as he interviews the subjects in this docucomedy, and whenever he touches on this particular topic — that little children in our community are taught that their own hair texture isn’t beautiful the way it is, and are conditioned to crave chemical relaxers from such a tender age — you can see the ache in his eyes. It’s in moments like that where you can see his genuine motivation in making this film.

I believe the power of scenes like that are undercut by the barbershop scene, where a group of black men cackle wildly while confessing that they feel a level of intimacy with white women because they can run their fingers through their hair.

The audience at my screening of Good Hair wasn’t the target demographic. The theater was in a “white” neighborhood, and there were few people present — I’d estimate 10, tops, and I seemed to be the only woman of color there. So when laughter rang out in the crowd, it was easy to tell who was laughing, and it was interesting to see what the audience laughed at. It sometimes underscored what frustrated women were telling Rock when he appeared on Oprah to promote this film for the second time. When the Caucasian couple sitting behind me burst out laughing at the scene in the relaxer factory, I wondered if this is what the upset black woman in Oprah’s audience meant when she admonished Chris Rock for “telling our secrets.”

If I had to do it over again, I’d probably have waited to see Good Hair when it makes its inevitable debut on HBO. It was amusing and interesting, but I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know. I have to agree with The Hotness Grrrl on this point — if you must be mad at Good Hair, be mad that Chris Rock’s wife, Malaak, didn’t appear in the film. I was perplexed by that, especially since so many celebrities gave on-camera interviews about their weaves, and the whole point of the film was that Rock’s own daughters had negative feelings about their natural hair texture. That would have made Rock’s film a little more interesting, but would have probably made his home life a lot more uncomfortable.

In general, Good Hair is worth seeing. The underlying message of the film, “the stuff on top of your head is not as important as what’s inside your head,” resonates. Will this film make anyone stop and ask themselves – why do we use sodium hydroxide to alter the texture of our hair? Will we ever truly believe, as Kari Cobham’s Daytona Beach news article states, that “good hair is healthy hair, regardless of texture”? That remains to be seen.

Did you see Good Hair? What do you think? Was it worth the price of the movie ticket, or not?

Related posts:

1. Oprah And Good Hair
2. Good Hair, According to Chris Rock
3. The New York Times on Black Hair

Gone are the days when people shopped with whimsy. Now I go armed with a list, and double guess myself on every item I buy. Now instead of ooh that’s really cute I want it, it’s ooh that’s really cute but will I ever wear it? Probably not, get the sensible item instead you know you’ll wear that more than once.

I have a beer budget, but oh those champagne dreams won’t go away. So I’ve had to become an expert in my own right. I’ve had to learn how to get what I want, for cheap. And now I’m gonna pass along some of my best discoveries.

You want — hot Fall fashion.

How to get it — avoid the regular retail stores and bypass those trendy boutiques. As cute as everything is there, you’ll wind up paying more there than you will at an off-price store like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, or my latest haunt, Filene’s Basement. (Sadly, there is no Ross in Illinois. I miss Ross!)

If you’re not used to shopping at stores like these, a brief tutorial. This won’t be an in-and-out shopping trip. Be prepared to spend time sifting through disorganized racks of clothes.

Also, know your stores: TJ Maxx is more about trendy clothes and beauty products, Marshalls is more about shoes, purses, and fly accessories — and the hip teen section in the middle called The Cube. Many of the items available at these off price stores aren’t previous season duds, they’re currently being sold in stores or online… but the vendor may have ordered more than they can sell to department stores. Their miscalculation = your shopportunity, as they say! My recent purchases include a super fly retro-styled denim jacket from TJ Maxx, a cosy and classic V-neck Jones New York sweater from Marshalls, and a stunning crinkled parachute-material skirt from XCVI, that I recall seeing on Zappos for like, $100, I got at Filene’s Basement for $29.95. SO glad I waited and didn’t rush to buy it online. I’d say a good 95% of my shopping is done at off-price stores. These three are my favorites, then there’s Nordstrom Rack which has amazing high end finds…but the prices still aren’t as affordable as the Maxx, Marshalls, or Filene’s. FYI.

You want… furniture for your home.

Where to get it… NOT at a mainstream furniture store, that’s for sure. Have you ever been to a Thomasville store before? The prices are insane! Like, you’re gonna need to have a special credit card just for this purchase, insane. I don’t know about you, but I just can’t afford to pay full price for items like that right now. But I did get a relatively new, great-looking Thomasville dresser about a month ago, from a most unexpected source.

Three words: hotel furniture liquidators.

Do a Google search to see if there are any near where you live. I got lucky — here in Chicago there are THREE hotel furniture liquidation centers. For my Chicago bellas and fellas, I’ll save you some time right now. Cooper Furniture and Carpet is five floors of crazy. Seriously, they could film a horror movie here — the upper floors are just piles and piles of lampshades, old carpet and ugly chairs, and what’s that in the stairwell? Is that a dead pigeon or just a huge pile of feathers? What’s that…smell? Yikes. There are finds for sure, but they’re probably all on the first floor and I wish you all the best in getting someone to help you.

The shopping experience was like night and day, when I went to Fort Pitt Furniture. This place is on a whole ‘nother level. For a super fun shopping experience, you need to go in on Monday or Friday, when Phyllis is working. Who’s Phyllis? She’s a 6-foot-tall sista who will break it down for you, when it comes to finding the best deals in the store. And oh, there are some deals to be had. I got a beautiful, mahogany, marble topped kitchen cabinet/pantry thingy for $120. A Thomasville dresser for $150. And best of all, an enormous wood armoire to hold all my clothes, makeup, and hair products for $99. I said $99! Try finding something like THAT at any other furniture store.

Not the best photo, I took it with my phone. Sorry =(

For other affordable furniture purchases, there’s always IKEA and Craigslist….but Craigslist requires patience and sometimes you just can’t wait forever. For accent pieces and accessories, you need to find out where the nearest Home Goods is. Home Goods is the domestic branch of the TJ Maxx/Marshalls company, and there are fantastic finds there. I bought a gorgeous rug for my bathroom for less than $10, and this was the kind of fluffy rug that would retail at Pier One or Bed Bath and Beyond for over $20.

Another way to find furniture and home decor on the cheap is to look for store closings. Sadly, not every retail chain is sailing through these rough economic seas. But where there’s a store closing, there are items being sold for insanely cheap. This past weekend, I found out that a local Cost Plus World Market was closing. Floor models were moving fast, but the shelves weren’t yet picked clean… and I managed to get the most amazing fluffy white shag rug — originally $300, now $130. SCORE! Even the shelves and fixtures are up for grabs, so if you’re in the Orland Park area — go now!

I’m gonna return to this subject soon — look out for future tips on affordable food shopping, and beauty buys! Where are YOUR affordable shopping secret places? Share with me!

Related posts:

1. You Should Go!
2. Big Girl Pants
3. Fashion Mission — Bright Yellow Top