Bellas!

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.
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Originally posted at BVHairTalk.com.

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.

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Thanks to all of you who have sent me that Newsweek article by Allison Samuels about Zahara Jolie Pitt and “the politics of uncombed hair.”

I know y’all already know how I feel, but I wrote about it for BVHairTalk in a post titled I’m on Team Zahara! Just so everyone else knows.

Baby Z looks fine to me!

Is it weird to quote yourself? Oh well:

“Sometimes when I read posts on gossip blogs about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s children, I’m left feeling lost and alone in the universe.

Small wonder I got a dose of kiddie hair relaxer at age 7 — I didn’t exactly make myself easy to handle.
When I see Baby Z — and the same goes for her sister, Shiloh — I see two happy, loved, very independent-minded little girls, and an indulgent mother who allows them to express their own style.”

“I disagree with the conclusion of that Newsweek article: “…there will come a day when this beautiful little African girl will understand what it means to be an African American woman in this society and realize unlike her younger sister, hers is not a wash-and-go world.” That sentence revealed more about the author than she may have realized. For some African American women, the expectation isn’t that hair needs to be tamed into submission. For many natural hair bloggers and our readers, this world is whatever we want it to be. I’m comfortable and happy with a wash-and-go style, and I dare you to look at a natural-hair Web site like Le Coil and tell me those women look unkempt or “a hot mess.”

So there you have it, and for further reading allow me to recommend Roslyn Holcomb’s take, and Gina of What About Our Daughters, who titles her post Leave Zahara Alone!

Cosign THAT.

I’d love to hear your opinions on this, seeing as any photograph of this four year old child will invariably be torn to shreds by writers, bloggers, and commenters who apparently are all experts on black hair styling. Is Baby Z under a different kind of scrutiny than other celebrity kids her age? What are your feelings on that? And if you have advice for Brad and Angelina about her hair, what would it be?

I’m oversensitive. I can admit it.

I’ve been told that my whole life. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten better at covering it up, but I’m still a pretty sensitive Piscean soul. Quick to feel empathy, quick to love, quick to be offended. So maybe I’m not the best bella to respond to the hot new style strutting down the runway at the Louis Vuitton show at Paris Fashion Week. The style statement? Oversize afro wigs on all the models. Which are being called brilliantly cartoonish by the WWD.

Like I said, I’m oversensitive. To me, my hair isn’t comic relief, it isn’t “cartoonish,” it isn’t a style statement. It grows out of my head this way. So my general response to people in afro wigs, at sports games, on Halloween, is The People’s Eyebrow and a we-are-not-amused attitude. It irks me. Am I wrong?

I saw these pics over at one of my favorite blogs, NY Mag’s The Cut, and my eyes practically rolled themselves on out of my face. Really, LV? Afro wigs are what’s hot in the streets now? Is this an attempt to be more inclusive?

Hey – at least there was one model of color in the show, right? Edited 2:45 p.m. — I stand corrected — there were several models of color in the show. Click here to see the complete WWD slideshow, more black models hit the runway towards the show’s finale, it appears.

I dunno, y’all. Talk amongst yourselves. Am I being oversensitive, as per usual? Or should I be delighted that afros are making waves at Paris Fashion Week this year?

Originally posted over at BVHairTalk.com.

This is the time of year where pink ribbons mysteriously appear on every item at the drugstore, where annual walks are walked and funds are raised, all in the names of the Susan G. Komen fund and breast cancer research.

When most people think of breast cancer, they think of the most obviously affected area. Not everyone addresses the less obvious things that are affected by breast cancer, like self esteem, overall well being, and hair. But for some women, cancer can attack those things are well.

When my Aunty Gemma was diagnosed with breast cancer, I got to see how breast cancer can go far beyond the chest. My aunt struggled with hair loss, and what to do in the aftermath of cancer therapy. In an effort to answer some of her questions, I reached out to an expert in the field.

Vaso Spirou, the owner of Miami Beach’s Salon Vaso is known and widely respected as a master colorist and hairstyling artist who specializes in curly hair and caters to the needs of South Beach’s elite. Her salon is sleek, sexy, and captures the exclusivity of the city. But Vaso’s hidden passion is in helping and serving the needs of those affected by cancer. As a survivor herself, she knows all too well the debilitating effects the disease can have.

“It has a major emotional effect on your beauty. Losing your hair can help you feel even worse,” she said in a telephone interview.

For clients of her gorgeous salon, Vaso customizes store-bought human hair wigs — offering scalp measurement so the wigs fit perfectly, and styling the wigs so they look normal and natural for each customer. “Why would you want to look different, especially when you are going through something as serious as breast cancer?” she asked.

Vaso offered five helpful tips for patients dealing with cancer-related hair loss.
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Anyone who’s been reading this here blog for a while now knows — En Vogue were among my most significant beauty icons back when I was but a greasy-faced teenager who wanted to wear makeup and feel pretty but didn’t know how. In my day, it didn’t get better. En Vogue filled an important chronological girl group era for me — between TLC — and raised the bar for harmony and class.

LOVE. THEM.

So imagine how geeked I was to meet them! Yup, two weekends ago I had the privilege of meeting the Funky Divas during a stop on their Rooted in Nature beauty tour, on assignment for Black Voices.

Click here to read my original post, and click below to watch the video!

Please excuse my nerves.
I also met Angela Guy, senior VP general manager of Softsheen Carson, who told me more about Roots of Nature. I’m curious about that reconstructing deep treatment, so expect a review to come!

The girls were sweet as pie and seemed honestly interested in checking out the site. So Cindy, Terry, and Dawn might be reading this. If so — hi!! It was wonderful to meet you, and I look forward to hearing some new music from one of my favorite groups ever!

What’s your favorite En Vogue song, bellas? I’ve been listening to Free Your Mind lately, and WOW that song and the video are so progressive and ahead of its time!