“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
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Sunday, June 8, 2014
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
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Pic of the week
Came across this picture on HeyfranHey tumblr and it made my day. An image I would like to come true for me.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
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.
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.
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.
Friday, April 18, 2014
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)