I don’t have much to post today.  Coco and I are getting ready to head to the Tennessee natural Hair Care Expo.  We hope to have a lot of good info to post when we get back!  Topics covered at the expo will include:

• Transitioning to Chemical-Free Hair
• The Art of Hair Adornment
• Hairlocking 101
• Beauty With A Conscience :Choices for Your Whole-istic Health

Among others!  See full list here: classes. This should be fun.

Accepting your natural hair can be the first step toward self-love. Below are a few self-love graphic quotes that I made. These graphics and more are available at iheartgifs.blogspot.com.

I long for the day when this is no longer an issue. Will it ever happen?

Dark Girls: Preview from Bradinn French on Vimeo.

This was sent to me in email by a friend.  It’s not surprising, but interesting none the less.  This is actually something that should have been considered a while ago. Here’s the link: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/health/04122011-Feds-Warn-Hair-Salons-about-Straightening-Products

I’m running behind on how-to videos and web updates!  My son has had four soccer games this week and I’m suffering from a clogged ear!  Anyone know any remedies?  My ear has been like this for over a week now.  I thought it was wax or something, but now I think there may be built up pressure.  Help!

Anyway, I like posting interesting links when I run across them. This one was sent to me by a friend through email.  It’s the trailer to a film called “Desert Flower” which is, “An adaptation of Waris Dirie’s bestselling autobiography, the story recounts Dirie’s rise from childhood in the Somali desert to the catwalks of the international fashion business” (source). You can read a description of the film on the website: http://www.diretube.com/liya-kebede-new-movie/desert-flower-full-trailer-hd-video_f429c2837.html and check out the trailer below:

I don’t think this film is playing in my area, but maybe it’ll be available near some of you. I’ll be looking for it on Netflix if I can’t see it at theaters.

As I attempted to pick one answer for my last poll question: Natural Hair…Fad?, a lot of questions ran through my mind.  First off, I voted that I do not think that wearing natural hair is just a fad.  However, as soon as I submitted my vote, I had second thoughts.  I thought back to the last time in history when many were sporting their natural hair…the late 60s to the 70s.  I begin to ask myself, what happened in the late 70s that caused all those beautiful afros to fall under straightening combs, jheri curls and relaxers?  How did natural hair go from being a crown of glory to something to look down upon?  Was it assimilation into main stream culture?  Was the fight over, so the time came to tame the fro?  Was it just a fashion fad? Or was there suddenly a sale on hair relaxers?

Why am I even asking this question?  Well, for one I hold the idiom, “if you don’t know your history, you’re destined to repeat it” to heart. To truly examine whether wearing natural hair now is only a fad, it’s important to at least think about what may have happened to the idea of wearing natural hair in the past.  While looking for even a semblance of an answer, I found a very insightful article by Bebe Moore Campbell published in 1982 in Ebony magazine asking this same question.  Check it out here” What Happened to the Afro?“  After reading the article, the question changes from “what happened to the afro” to “will it happen again“?

Please forgive me today.  I’ve had a long exhausting day of home schooling.  I have hair videos that I should be editing and product reviews that I need to write and post, but my energy levels are on empty right now.  I hope you don’t mind if I leave you all with this music video put together by a 10-year-old girl (Watooto From The Nile), who is tired of Lil Wayne’s lyrics degrading women.  I think it’s great that she’s doing all she can to try to make a change. If you follow Natural-ness on Tumblr, you’ve already seen this.  If not, check it out:

I just created a Tumblr account for natural-ness and now I’m addicted.  I plan on using the Tumblr to post pictures of natural hair as well as any and everything else that I find beautiful.  This should be fun and very reflective of my personality.  However, I need your help to make the site great!  Feel free to submit pictures, drawings, paintings and animations of natural hair. Quotes are welcomed as well! You can also submit questions that I will answer right there on the Tumblr page.  This should be fun!  If you also have a Tumblr page, follow me and I will in turn follow you!  See you there!!

http://natural-ness.tumblr.com/

I ran across a wonderful site a few weeks ago and I’ve been intending to share the link, but I’m just getting around to it.  If you haven’t already, please check out the site, Hair Like Me that showcases gorgeous pictures of 4b/c hair.

The site also accepts photo submissions, but only for 4b/c hair.  It may sound biased, but if you read their explanation, I think you’ll understand.  Read it here: http://hairlikeme.tumblr.com/submissionguidelines

Check it out, it’s well worth it!

I used to love this cute little video on Nick Jr.  I just posted on the Natural-ness facebook page, but I  had to share it here, enjoy: