Face

                                                         image via HeyfranHey

Face, like ashiek118

My Girls, My Beautiful

It all started with this picture of Grace Jones, that I saw a long time ago, then recently, I catch myself in the bathroom mirror doing a sideway version of this. Ever since then I haven't been able to stop myself from doing this each time. Years ago, my sister would tease me telling me that I look like Grace Jones, am ashamed to say I didn't think Grace Jones was beautiful; infact I thought she looked like a man. My perception of beauty has matured since then and  if my sister were to tease me now.I would definitely pull that face again.

This picture got me going with a whole train of thought and I went searching on internet, spent hours looking at images of strong , fierce women that i grew up watching. All these women, love, love them for all they have inspired in me.

 All images are from pinterest.

On Repeat....

Been currently obsessed with these two tracks. Been listening to their music for as long as I can remember.

These get me grooving and dancing, my current get ready music.

Enrique.....

                     

Marc...

My natural hair is me

                                                                      via Le Coil

Recently I have been confronted with what it means to wear my hair in its natural state. It has been 3 months since I took my braids out and have been wearing my hair in twist out, updos and buns. Personally I have really enjoyed it and had a lot of positive reactions to it. So much positive reactions that the one negative ( nose turned up) reaction/ comment stopped me in my tracks and caused me to think.

3 years ago standing in front of the bathroom mirror, I cut off my relaxed ends, did  the big chop. The only negative reaction I had at the time, with my twa was from two family members who soon stopped the teasing when they saw and came to understand why I was natural. With friends, my brother and younger sister, the latter two being my greatest supporters cheering me on, I navigated through my natural journey.

On hair forum and blogs, I read about negativity that other naturals encounter and thought I could relate ( remember the two family members)but really I now know that I didn't really know the half of it.  My large cheer quad boosted up my confidence in the new natural me that I was and am able to be natural and love it.

I have been thinking, I have take for granted the great support I have. I have been thinking about what my natural hair means to me. I do not have the amazing curls like much type 3 or 4a naturals, my kinks and coils need some manipulation to clump together in a curl ( usually after being in twists). But I have come to love it as it represent me in every sense, in ways that even I do not even know but am coming to learn about.

Will I ever go back to getting a relaxer, most people that know me, already know that answer, NO.

I came across this picture on Le coil and it spoke to me, it captures how I feel about my hair, my natural hair, so natural, so me, so in tune with me. My natural hair is me.

Music: On repeat

Am so late on this song and this group. Just found out about them and this song while reading about the recent MAMA - Mtv Africa Music Awards.

This song has been on repeat. Love the rhythm, love the video, love the styling, love the way it makes me feel.

Ahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Stampede styling

The Calgary stampede kicked off yesterday. The Stampede has a special place in my heart as it was my first official outing and total immersion in Calgary when I moved here. I moved to Calgary a week before the Stampede that year.

One thing that stands out during the Stampede is the fashion, conservative office folks leave their suits at home and put on their best western duds. Even the police wear  Stetsons during the 10 days of the greatest show on earth.

Given that I am originally from the east cost ( like they call it here in Calgary), I don't feel myself going full on western stylewise. So for this year's Stampede, I turned to some of my favorite blogs to gather inspiration, here is what I came up with.

The following images are from the blogs, Kendi Everyday, Simply Cyn , Moiology, My Little Secrets and My Small Wardrobe .

The Canadian tuxedo is an obvious classic and Old navy is a great spot to find all shades of Chambray shirts. The trick to a good Canadian tuxedo is to wear different shades like Sasha from Moiology does very well. 

Rompers are common during the summer and to add a western feel to them would be to do it in denim. Again Old navy has this great denim romper here or a denim dress as rompers can be annoying when nature calls.

Some other clever ways to do denim

Now I know the dress that Cynthia from Simply cyn  has on in the picture above is not denim but I think doing the denim look works.

A gingham dress is a unique way to go as well. I am also inspired by this leather mini with a plaid shirt. A great way to kick it up a notch with the plaid shirt.

With these inspirations and more I feel ready to do Stampede this year.

Yeehaw!!!!

                                                                via lighthousepub.ca

Yayyyy!!!!! it is Canada day today. Apart from the fact that it is a holiday and a break from work. I personally have never really done anything festive on this day. This year, I decided that this will change and am off to join in some if not all of the festivities. There is so much sadness and seriousness in the world, I believe we have to take advantage of opportunities to celebrate and have fun.

Calgary this year have made things easier by posting all the events for the day on a website. Plus there are shuttle buses to take you from one venue to the other, so yes I am leaving the car home as well.
http://www.calgarycanadaday.ca/

I plan to document some of the festivities I get in today and hopefully post on the blog. It would be great to look back next year at this and see what I did.

Cheers to all who call this great country home.

Natural Hair Reaction

Sunday afternoon in apartment lobby, with laundry card in hand. 
Knock, knock

" My laundry card does not work." I say

"Hi", says the Building Manger, " You look different."

" Really"

" Did you gain some weight?" she says.

With a frown, " No"

" But you look so different" she insists.

" No I haven't gain any weight" I say. " you saw me just a week ago, the only thing that has changed is that I took out my braids."

" Oh yeaaahh! you look soooo different, come I will get your card  to work."

Monday Morning, at work

click clack click clack, space space click clack (Typing on my keyboard) 

" wow, what did you do to your hair"  Sheri says.

" she went and cut it all off"

I look up to see a small crowd is gathering. " No I did not cut my hair, maybe a little trim but no I did not cut it. My hair just shrinks up, that all, see" I pull one curl extending it to show it's length.

" It is curly, can i play with your hair?" Angela asked with excitement in her voice.
"No, I don't like it when people play in my hair" I responded.

 Same day, the last hour of work
"You have one curl sticking out" Angela informs me with a grin on her face. She still has that look of bewilderment. " I like your hair, it is like my sister-in-law's hair and I am always playing in it"
Tucking the culprit curl right in, " You can touch my hair if you like, it is almost time to go home so, I don't care very much if it is messed up"
" I love it, it is so soft" Angela touching my hair very carefully. You can tell she is trying not to mess up my fro.
"Erin you should come touch it"
"No" says Erin, giggling by my desk.
" It is okay Erin,  you can touch it"
"It is so soft (giggles), it is like a pillow" Erin practically squashing my fro like it is a loofah.
Freeze, now my thoughts at the time  was "my hair is not a loofah but you know what? let her knock herself out, it does not matter anyway, she is just curious." 


The next day at work, in the hallway
Helen stops me, " Hey I love your hair,  I keep trying to explain to every one that it is your real hair but they keep saying you cut it. I told them that you took your extensions off and you are natural so your hair looks short."
" I like that you are natural and don't use relaxers"
" Thanks Helen, I tried explaining too, but no one is getting it so I stopped"
" I love your hair like this, it looks good for the summer, fresh"
" Thanks Helen" with a big smile on my face.


A few days later.... at lunch
" Do you like Jenell Monae?" asked Savi
" Yes" wondering where this was going? I had my hair in an updo the day before and she had asked me if I cut my hair and I described the whole roll, tuck and pin.
Savi shows me the day's metro paper.It had a picture of Jenell Monae with a scan code for the hair tutorial. 
" Savi, this looks complicated" it was a updo but the front was not the usual pompadeur but a 40s press curl.
" it is not that complicated, besides there is the code, you scan it and do it" 
" Okay Savi,  I will take a look at it, thank you" 


A few different reactions I got for my natural hair, days after I took down my braids and wore my hair in twist-out afro and updos. I wasn't too surprised with the comments but was a little surprised at the amount of attention, which even after three weeks am still getting. To be frank, I don't like the amount of attention, but that is just me, I get really uncomfortable if I get too many compliments for my looks. Especially when it comes in the form of getting a good morning or hi greetings like 5 times from the same person in a space of an hour.I know I know, I should learn how to take compliments and move on. One thing I can say is I appreciate the compliments and reactions, they have all been positive and have made re-embracing my natural hair easier.

Wise words

“Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”

Dalai Lama

Natural Hair inspiration

Since I decided a month ago to wear my hair out this summer, I have been bombarding myself with pictures of naturals with their twistouts and afros. To inspire and recondition myself as to what my natural hair looks like and is capable of doing in its loose state. Here are a few that caught my eye.

                                   

via black ivory

                                                    via HeyfranHey

Banana pecan chocolate chip muffin

One of my favourite past times is cooking.  Believe it or not, I enjoy reading recipes, watching them too on youtube/tv and then trying to make them. One of my favourite websites for recipes is allrecipes.  I was even more excited to find out about their youtube channel and stumbled across this recipe for Banana muffin.

I love this recipe as it is simple, easy and there are lots of suggestions on allrecipes on how  to spice it up. And spice it up I did, I followed the recipes exactly with a few additional. I added a teaspoon of cinnamon to the dry ingredients and a dash of vanilla extract to the wet ingredients. I also added a 1/2 cup of chocolate chops and a 1/2 cup of chopped pecans ( you could use walnuts).

Lastly, I am very conscious of the amount of sugar I take in so instead of a 3/4 cups of sugar it was more like 2/4 cups and a dash. 

With all that additions and subtraction ( the sugar), it turned out great that I have made these muffins 4 times! Here is what my muffins looked like.

They taste delicious as well that I have been snacking on this and might I say, it has been helping with my sweet tooth.

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to

 get my work done and try to love somebody

 and have the courage to accept the love in

 return.

Maya Angelou

Pic of the week

                                           image via hey fran hey

Came across this picture on HeyfranHey tumblr and it made my day. An image I would like to come true for me. 

The dangers of long term protective styling

I still remember the day my boss, yes my boss at the time told me about the hair forum Hairlista. It opened up a door to a world of hair journey and hair care knowledge I never knew existed. One major thing encouraged on hair forum, hair blogs, youtube hair vloggers is protective styling to retain length for hair growth. I mean there are protective hair challenges, tutorials and such. Protective hair styling became a big thing for me especially when I went natural and my protective style of choice has always been box braids. As a matter of fact, I just completed a whole year of protective styling and I mean my hair did not see the sun much.

While the pros of protective styling are sung out loud with most hair bloggers or vloggers with really long natural hair talk about how they were protective styling. There have been a few youtubers that have done videos about their issues or setback caused by protective styling like BlaklzBeautyful. The cons might not be very apparent and in most cases might not be the main focus. 

Here are a some of the dangers of long term protective styling that we should all be aware of.

Wrong protective style/wrongly installed

     We have all heard of women loosing their edges,receding hairline or alopecia due to tightly installed weaves, braids or hair glue. Just the other day the Wendy show's hot topics included the well known actress from the TV show "The Parkers" speaking out on hair glue causing her receding hair line. The internet was a buzz when pictures of Naomi Campbell non-exsistent edges showed up. Protective styling can be dangerous if not done right.

      Also depending on your lifestyle, certain protective styles might not be right. If you know that you are the type to neglect your hair when it is out of sight then protective styling might not be for you. It might serve you better to have your hair loose that way you are forced to care for it.

Neglect of hair ( aka Laziness)

     The one is a no brainer and hair sites and vloggers do mention this, of taking care of your hair even though it is in a protective style. However once you are in that protective style, it is very easy to give in to laziness. I mean even when you have your hair loose you do sometimes get lazy and don't moisturize it as much, imagine what happens when you have braids or a nice weave in. The fact your braids or weave or wig looks nice does not mean that your hair is clean and conditioned.

Difficulty telling the condition of your hair

      With certain protective styles like full head weaves or braids, it is difficult to tell the condition of your actual hair. A lot of us enjoy the look of the beautiful protective style only to take them out and our hair is coated in filth, limp or rough and brittle. As much as you would like to take care of your hair while it is in a protective style,it can be difficult to give your hair what it wants, whether it be more moisture or protein or a trim if you cannot tell what condition it is in.

Difficulty with taking care of your hair

      Depending on the protective style you have in, it can be difficult to take care of your hair. This is one of the reasons why my protective style of choice for the past year was single braids. This is because it is easy to wash my scalp, condition my hair and get it to dry. I just have more difficulty doing the exact same with a weave, I mean you could clean the scalp but not as thorough but how do you condition or do a protein deep condition? And if you have a lace closure that is another matter.

Not so healthy hair practices

       In the process of keeping our protective styling looking good, there are some unhealthy hair practices that we can and do get into. I personally, especially in the winter would blow dry on high heat my braided hair without a heat protectant everytime I wash which is at least one a week. Even with a weave where you have a leave out, you tend to straight that or apply gel to the edges without properly washing the gel out.

All this being said, protective styling can be great and really helpful in maintain healthy long hair. After a year of protective styling none stop ( not good). I ran into the issue of breakage similar to Jenell ( see her video below). At first I thought perhaps it was new growth my hair thickening up but after a while the truth dawned on me and I realized that I had to do something about it.

It has been so long since I last wore my hair out that I need some reconditioning to appreciate and to enjoy my hair and natural texture again. I plan to document this along with inspirations along the way on the second stage of my hair journey.

Cyber window shopping and style inspiration

Online or cyber window shopping is a favorite past time and today while looking for work outfits, I was reminded of the Canadian clothing store Suzy Shier. I haven't shopped at Suzy Shier in a long while so I decided to check out their website as I remembered them having great dress pants.  I got really excited about the pieces that I found; not only are they trendy, the prices are great as well. Here is what I found and style inspirations.

                               Suzy Shier solid knit pant - $25; style inspiration via Glamour Magazine

                              Suzy Shier Oriental print pull on skirt - $25; style inspiration via Fab sugar

                             Suzy Shier Faux leather waterfall jacket - $45; style inspiration via JakandJil

                                   Suzy Shier Floral print bomber jacket -$32; style inspiration via chictopia

                              Suzy Shier Printed soft pant - $25; style inspiration via kendieveryday

Now that I have these marked, I can't wait to try them on.

The cure

With the beautiful transitional weather we have been having ( thank God it has been in the + degC),well sadly with the beautiful but fluctuating temps comes the sniffles. I thought I was immune to it( just kidding) but it finally got me.

I am up typing this blog as I had a hard time sleeping with my congested sinuses. Then I decided to try a good old tried remedy, the cure so to speak.

I learnt of this remedy from a nurse friend ( my friend who is a nurse) and it actually sounds like something my grandma who prescribe to. One thing I do know from experience is that it works and it is natural.

To start you will need some limes, lemons would work but limes are better, some ginger and honey. Slice the three to four limes in half ( you can use less if your limes are bigger), chop up some ginger, not too much. Place all of these in a small pot or sauce pan, add some water and bring to a boil. Drain liquid into a mug and add some honey to taste. You will need the honey because this stuff is potent and the honey is what would help you drink it up.

Drink it warm with your eyes squeezed shut, at least that is how I drink it.

Cheers, here to getting well, soon.

-Honey B.

A new blog

So,

I decided to start a new blog, I have been itching to get back in the game and hopefully this blog will become what it is meant to be, what I meant it to be and more. What would this blog be about? Well we will have to wait and see. One thing I do know is that it will be for me a challenge and an avenue for me to develop myself. I would be talking ( actually writing) about every and anything that comes to my mind. It is the reason why the blog is called lamaletalife.