Do Men Like Women's Natural Hair?

When I first started growing my hair natural in 2013, my husband would frequently tell me that he didn't like my hair but I didn't let that deter me from persuing my natural hair journey.  One of my friends who started her natural hair growth journey around the same time as me, had the same issue with her husband not liking her natural hair.  When I saw her a few months later, she had relaxed her hair again to please her husband.

I remember through my transitioning phrase my Caucasian friend would tell me all the time that she likes my hair.  She was, and still is, very supportive of my natural hair journey. On one of her shopping sprees in Puerto Rico, she bought me some lovely head bands.

So I thought that I would ask a few male family and friends what they thought a black women's natural hair.  The majority of them said that they had no problem with the natural hair.

During my research I found a video my a Caucasian male - the name of his channel is No Joke Howard and in one if his videos (titled -  DREADLOCKS, WEAVES AND WHY I LOVE BLACK WOMEN'S NATURAL HAIR) he spoke about his love for the black woman's natural hair!  I was amazed!  I inserted a small clip of his video in my video below.  

I also found another popular video by my African friend Sava (also the name of his YouTube channel) and the title of his video titled Why Black Men Hate Natural Hair - in which he talked about his experiences with his natural hair growing up.  I also I settled a short clip of this video in my video below.

It is now three years since I started my natural hair growth journey and I am 100% natural now and loving it.  My husband does not say anything about my hair any more, however, occasionally, he would put his hands in my hair.  May that's a good sign??!!

How I Avoid Painful Ear Popping On A Plane

I was reviewing one of my older videos where I talk about how I clear my ear piercing that was semi clogged.  Then I remembered an event, that happened to me many years ago, which I thought I really should share.

In 1982 my mom and I were traveling from Trinidad and Tobago (my home town) to Canada for the first time to visit my uncle.  This was our first time travelling so far.

The flight was direct to Toronto and the pilot flew the plane at a height of 33,000 feet!  Every thing was going great until the pilot announced that we were approaching the airport and he was beginning descend.  As the minutes passed I felt a tension in my temples. This tension grew to a excrutiating pain in my ears.  The pain was so bad I was in tears and thought that my ears drums were about to explode!  My mom was also in pain and I could tell that she felt helpless.  We did not know what was really going on.

We even asked the flight attendant for assistance but they were no help at all. Those last few minutes went by so slowly it was as if time was going in slow motion.

Eventually I felt a pop in my ears and the pain eased up for a while but headache and soarness of ears lasted for a while.

So my mom and I told my uncle what happened and he informed us that we needed to chew gum, swallow and blow very hard when we feel the pain coming on.  So on our trip back home we tried the suggested tips but none of them worked.

I learned about another tip of putting cotton in my ears on my next flight.  This tip worked!! I only experience the pain if the airplane plane has to fly very high.  I have no problems when I fly around to the Caribbean islands.

For this technique to work for me I must put the cotton (now I use ear plugs) before the door of the plane is closed. When I am in this state I can't speak to anyone because I can't hear!!

There was a time the plane had already taken off and I totally forgot to put in my ear plugs.  I then put them into my ears when I remembered but it was too late the pressure had already developed in my ears.  When the plane began to descend I paniked and tensed up in preparation of the pain which began soon after but it was not as bad as the very first time.

Other members in my family don't have this problem for which I am grateful because the experience is very unpleasant. I remember on one flight there was baby that began to cry as the plane began to descend and I knew what was going happening.  It hurt me to hear the poor child crying in pain and there was nothing much that could be done.

Nine Ways To Use Coconut Oil

As a young child growing up, I remember some of my friends of Indian decent, use to put a lot of coconut oil in their hair and the hair looked very greasy and shiny.  Plus their hair smelt a bit funny so since then I grew up with a negative attitude towards coconut oil. 

As I grew older I learned that coconut oil is a very healthy oil and can be used for so many things.  In this blog post I will be sharing with you nine ways that I use coconut oil.  Note:  Coconut oil becomes firm in cold temperatures and liquefies in warm temperatures.  So in some of the ways mentioned below, you may need to use the coconut oil in its liquid form.  Tip:  Try putting a small bit of coconut oil (when it is in the solid form) in your hands and rub your hands together.  The coconut oil will quickly reduce to a liquid form.  The heat from the friction of rubbing your hands together causes the solid coconut oil to become liquid.

1. Great for the hair. Use generous amount in the hair as a deep conditioner.  Put a show cap over your head for about 45-60 minutes then wash your hair in normal fashion.  You can also use coconut oil as a daily hair moisturizer, apply some to the scalp as well and massage.  It is good for hair growth.
2. Apply to your skin as a skin lotion.  You can also mix with your regular skin lotion and then apply to your skin.
3. I mix coconut oil with some baking soda and apply to my face as a exfoliator.  You can also use brown sugar instead of the baking soda.  The crystals of the brown sugar are big and will give you a nice facial scrub.
4. Add about a tablespoon in your smoothie.  I make a green smoothie every morning and I add a tablespoon of coconut oil.  You can also digest a tablespoon of coconut oil just like that if you think you can handle it.
5. Cooking oil is great to cook with.  When I prepare my eggs, I use coconut oil instead of butter.  If I am baking a cake for example and the recipe requires vegetable oil, I use coconut oil instead.
6. Oral Health:  I have been using coconut oil to do my oil pulling every day.  What is oil pulling?  Oil pulling is a technique where you put a tablespoon of oil in your mouth, swish it around for a few minutes and then spit out the oil.  This technique helps removes all the bacteria and toxins in your mouth.  Another benefits of Oil pulling, with coconut oil, is that it whitens the teeth.
7. I have been working from home since 2015 and there are days I don't put on my earrings and on the days that I do, I find it is a little difficult to get my earnings into the piercings in my ears.  So I apply a small bit of coconut oil to my ear lobes and massage them a bit and it is so much easier to put on my earrings after I have done this. 
8. Coconut Oil is great to use as a make up remover.  Just put a small amount of the coconut oil on a piece of cotton and apply to your face.  Wash your face and you will be amazed how effective this is and your face will be well moisturized and feel really soft.
9. Use a bit of coconut oil on your lips to moisturize.  I also like to apply a bit on my lips after I putting on my lip stick.  My lips have a beautiful shine and they are well moisturized.

Coconut oil is a great product in the home.  I always keep a bottle of coconut oil and baking soda in my pantry.  When purchasing coconut oil, look for the organic, cold pressed ones.

HOT NEWS: Gymnist Gabby Douglas Hair - AGAIN!

So today I decided to join the debate about Gabby Douglas hair during her performance at the 2016 Olympics in Rio and 2012 in London.

Olympics 2012, Gabby was the first African American to earn an individual, all round Olympic title!

OMG I am appalled at the amount of negativity out there especially on twitter about this young athlete!  People are talking about how she should have made an extra effort to make her hair look more presentable and that she has enough money to do this so why didn't she.  These same people are not even acknowledging that she has won more gold medals this year.  I am soo happy for her and her team!!

I was proud of her when I first saw her performance in 2012, I am not into watching the Olympics etc but the first time I saw her, she made an impression on me.  She is truly a gifted and talented young woman.  She works hard and I mean hard, to achieve this level of skill.  What I see is a woman that is FOCUSED and does not intend to let anything get in her way - not even her hair!

There are other athletes who have their weaves, extensions and braids while performing but not everyone is the same.  Gabby chose not to have any hair distracting her during her performance, she has her hair neatly tucked back and she is happy with that.  As I look closely at a few of her photos, she does have a weave or something in her hair but it is all pulled back. Gabby choice to put her money into her training which paid off BIG TIME!! But you can be guaranteed when she has to do go to an event, she would go all out to make herself look 'fly'!!!

Please people, stop the hating and show more love!  To Gabby, I am so proud of you and your accomplishments!  You go girl and please, please, ignore these haters.

Here is a response from Gabby in 2012 to the haters:

“What’s wrong with my hair?  I’m like, I just made history and people are focused on my hair?  It can be bald or short; it doesn’t matter about my hair.  Nothing is going to change, I am going to wear my hair like this during beam and bar finals.  You might as well stop talking about it!”

Review Of Possiave Hair Straightener Brush | Natural Hair

I had a desire to try one if those hair brush straightener that I saw on TV and the reviews from other YouTube creators are positive.  Eventually on July 30, 2016, I took action and ordered one of these products.  The first one that I tried ordering on Amazon for some reason my order was not going through.  Anyway I ordered the Possiave Hair Brush Straightener and on August 4,2016 the product was in my hand!!  Wahoo!! ☺️

I began reading the manual and by the third page I realized that the content was translated from another language because the translation was a bit rusty and I had a little trouble understanding the instructions but I was able to put the pieces together to be able to use the product. 

On the side of the brush handle there are three buttons, the top one is to start and turn off the brush, the middle one has a plus sign and is to be used to increase the temperature of the brush.  The third button has a minus sign and is to be used to decrease the temperature of the brush.  There is a LCD screen on the back of the brush handle where the temperature of the brush is displayed. The electrical cord is approximately 6 feet in length.

I had my hair in mini twists so I untwist my hair, brushed it out and applied some Kuza 100% African Shea butter.  While I was doing that, I had the brush heating up and stopped at it when it reached a temperature of 200 degrees celsius. Next I sectioned out my hair and began using the Possiave Hair Straightener Brush.    I think the highest it heats up to is 230 degrees celsius.

I used the brush straightener to brush each section of my hair and the curls of my hair began to stretch out but the ends of my hair were a bit husky.  However I was pleased with the results.  Keeping in mind that I don't want my hair to be bone straight but I just want to stretch my curls to make my hair more manageable.

When I was done even though my curls were stretched out a bit, my hair was like a big mass and believe or not I did not know what to do with it.  I found it to be a bit unmanageable. 

Issues.  While brushing my hair with this brush straightener, as I held the brush, my hand was over the controls which would fluctuate as I brush my hair.

On my second attempt (August 8, 2016): I co-washed my hair, sectioned it out and applied some Blue Magic Hair Grease and combed my hair into large twists.  By the next day when my hair was totally dry and I used the brush straightener again.  I brushed my hair in small sections and with each application, instead of using the brush as a brush, I used it as a curling iron and stroked my hair with the brush slowly, from the roots to the ends of my hair.  Right away I realized that I was doing the procedure better this time and my hair was a bit more straighter than the last time include the ends!👍👍

Now I can easily comb through my hair and put it into some sort of protective style.  My stretched hair basically lasted for a week.