Love your kink

So you guys already know my hair journey,

My tag line at the end of every post is always to love your kink and there's a reason why I say that. We were brought up into a society (I don't want to go into the full history of slavery and how the slave masters conditioned our minds to dislike everything that is ours but you will get pieces) where we now fail to recognize that what we have is beautiful just the way it is.

We always either consciously or unconsciously try to emulate western standards of beauty when who you are and what you have is beautiful as is. From not liking darker skin, to not liking how kinky our hair is (why can't it be a lil straighter) to our eyes, nose and mouth shapes. 

While we are hating on ourselves the western culture is trying to emulate us. I remember reading an article on a trend where caucasian girls with type 1a hair was talking about having fro's (I looked again for the article and I could not find it). What about Kylie Jenner and her groundbreaking cornrows huh? Remember when the media thought it was the hottest thing since slice bread because she did it?

It is sad that we do not accept who and what we are because of years of being conditioned not to. It is time ladies, time that we put aside the combs and brushes, time that we put aside the edge control and the gels, time that we put aside the mindset that we don't have "good hair" and time to start loving ourselves just for who we are.

Your hair is your crown, your pride and joy, the connection to who you are as a woman, as a person. It is your dna, your culture, your uniqueness. Accept it, love it, appreciate it and take care of it.

And as always

Love your kink

Kadella

Hair and exercise Yay!!!

Oh my gosh guys,

So my second colaboration is with my girl Swan (sistahs I tell you sistahs).
We both love our Natural hair, and we both love to work out because we both are on our fitness journeys. Our styles are a bit different when it comes to both our hair and our work out plans and programs but I tell you sistahs!

Check out the vid blog below of what we talked about (everything).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcmSiew_EeY

We had fun together on this, and dropped some info on you guys as well as a mini promo for courts and google (I kid you not).

Hope you guys enjoy it and remember to love your kink.

Kadella

Shadowshaper( the book)

Hey guys,

I'm an avid reader, I love fiction, and I love when the protagonist of a book is someone I can relate to. I'm doing this article in collaboration with my girl Adina and you can check out her youtube channel bellow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipjAzG7YZvA

 In his book Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older that is exactly what happened, I could've relate to his protagonist Sierra.

Just looking at the cover of his book had me curious. Then I started to read. Now mind you the book was a bit slow in the begining but I pushed through and did not regret it.

I'm not going to give you any spoilers, just a general bio and a scene that touched me in my solar plexus...(that's a place in our bodies right? if not it should be)

So Shadowshaper is about a young girl of Puerto Rican decent that lives in New York who finds out that she is part of a shadowshaping heritage. Her grandfather and the old domino playing boys on the block are part of this elite "boys club". Somehow though she gets wrapped up in it and piece by piece learns about her heritage of shaping spirits into any art form. The conflict though is that the the main spirit is gone, and someone is killing out all the old boys on the block using shadowshaping. Sierra sets about saving her heritage and in the interim finds out a big secret about her own family.

The scene that touched me the most though is the part where her dark skin, wild hair hating aunt who constantly brings the protagonist down about her looks and dark skin got put in place, like seriously. Sierra could not take it anymore. One day when the stress of all the secrets was getting to her, her aunt chose that time to say something about my girl's hair. Sierra laid into her aunt about how much she loves her hair and her skin color and that her aunt isn't much different herself.

I'm not saying no more, but that scene made the book for me. I usually don't read male fiction authors often because I feel like their connection to the female characters are one dimentional but Daniel Jose Older got Sierra, he got how a young girl at that age thinks and feels and he got how other's concept of her appearance affects her. For that and that alone I say good job Daniel Jose Older.

One thing though is that Sierra showed me how much we need to...
Love and accept our kink

Kadella

Chris Rock's Good Hair

Hello,

For those of you who did not know, Chris Rock (the actor) did a documentary on the term good hair and what exactly does it mean. His motivation? His daughter and wanting her to love every part of herself (did I hear some awws there?).

This film was released in 2009 and I absolutely recomend that you get it and watch it. I mean come on it's Chris Rock so of coarse it's going to be funny, yet he hits home with some truths in there.

This documentary opens your eyes to many falsehoods that was fed to us about how our hair should look and helps you accept that your hair is gorgeous just the way it is.

I have to give him kudos for this.

Well what are you waiting on? Go get the movie!

Oh and please,

Love your kink.

Kadella

Kim Kerdashian adjusting to her daughter's hair

Hey,

I am normally not a follower of the Kerdashians, but I saw this video and I have to give Kim some mad props for trying to understand her daughter's hair.

A lot of moms with daughters who have mixed hair often do not know what to do with their hair. They give up and just leave it loose and crazy, for her to make the effort to understand and learn her daughters hair type to me, this is applaudable.


Check out this video below and tell me what your opinion is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j40kXavmhxs

Remember guys,

Always love your kink

Kadella

Protective hairstyles

Hey,

As much as we would like to just wash our hair and go about our day, the harsh reality is that curly to kinky hair cannot constantly be left in an afro because of the wind, humidity, life... you get the point.
So protective hairstyles are a way to keep our hair protected as well as look good. Also combing our hair everyday will break and damage our natural curls.

I'm going to keep it short, because this is not my strong point. I go to a hairdresser for these things. Sadly for a natural hairlista I cannot do cornrows to save my life, flat twists... yeah! cornrows...no!
Don't judge me!

Don't get me wrong, cornrows aren't the only protective hairstyle out there. There are many, please check out this website that has 45 of them. Gotta love our options.
http://therighthairstyles.com/top-5-easy-showy-protective-hairstyles-for-natural-hair/

When you see styles and options like this you just gotta:-
Love your kink.

Kadella

TWA's

Sup people's,

For those of you who don't know what TWA stand for Imma lay it down for ya!

Teeny Weeny Afros:- I know totes redic right? But I love it, and I love them. Check out some of these awesome TWA's, which do you think would look good on you?

  


Oh my I would be posting putting images like crazy so i'm going to stop now. There are tons more, if you are on pinterest (btw pinterest is life) check out some twa's you would die of envy.

Oh and remember,
Love Ya Kink Baibehz!!!
Kadella

The Receding Hairline problem

Hey ma peeps!

Yes you read the heading right, we gonna tackle that problem. I know you are in absolute denial about the causes of it but we are going to talk about some of the causes and the remedies ok? So pay attention.





What you are doing wrong 1.

You know that phrase if it ain't tight, it ain't right?
Them braids need to be pulling on your scalp till your face feels like it's being drawn to the back of your head.

Stop pulling on the braids too tight. It does not need to be tight for it to be right.


What you are doing wrong 2.

You know how you like to brush, brush, brush until your hair lying flat like if it straight?
Well it ain't straight, it's curly, kinky and all kinds of things inbetween, accept it for what it is.

Combs and brushes damages our hair, try to if not stop at least lessen down on using a comb or brush. Our fingers work well for detangling.

What you are doing wrong 3

Gel oh Gel how we love you.
Gel has alcohol in it that damages our hair, and where do we put gel the most? Where our baby hair is right? Our minds are so conditioned that flattened, slicked back, gel down hair is what looks good we forget even after joining the natural hair movement that our hair isn't made that way. I know my hair defies gravity, it refuses to lay down where I put it, and don't talk about baby hair. Who says baby hair need to know his place?

But if you really have not reach that place yet where you can accept that then please look at the type of gels that you are using. Get the gels that won't harm our hair type.

Check out this link for some gel types that will help, also read the comments for more.
http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/kinky-hair-type-4a/you-jelly-6-gels-for-natural-hair/


Check out this link for more hair damaging traits that we practice
http://naijahaircangrow.blogspot.com/2011/07/10-things-to-stop-receding-hair-line.html


Hope that we all learn our lessons and treat our hair with the love and respect it deserves for making us feel as awesome as we do.

And please remember,
Love Your Kink!
Kadella

Water... More water!

  

Please take this glass of water, your hair looks like it needs it.

I cannot stress how much moisture is important to our hair. Yes spritzing your hair with water, adding in leave in conditioners, practicing the LCO or the LOC methods is all important but as I said before, the hair we hold, comb, style and rock is dead, what is inside is what matters the most.

Drinking water is very important. I would not tell a person to consume eight glasses of water a day because that makes absoluetly no sense because different body weight and different situations will  determine how much water a person need to consume a day.  A good way to test that you are drinking enough water my friends is to look at your urine. Is it clear? cloudy? yellow? which do you think it should be?

Of coarse a clear urine is the best, the only way to get your urine clear is to drink enough water to do so.

Our bodies is made up of 75% water, we must always hidrate, hidrate, hidrate everyday.
Your hair, skin and body will thank you for it.

Remember, love your kink
Kadella

bedtime and my hair

The importance of this... sigh I wish you all understand.

Either having a silk/satin pillow case, a silk/satin hair net or even both is very important for our hair.
I'm going to keep this one simple, cotton soaks up moisture, silk traps moisture keeps it inside.
Naturally curly has an article I think you may like.
Check it out below:-
http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/curl-products/what-should-you-be-sleeping-on-silk-or-satin/

Love your kink guys.
Kadella

Little Hair Tip for the Beach/ pool

We in Trinidad and Tobago love the beach and the rivers, we love water especially on really hot days. But what do you do with your hair to protect it from the harsh salt water? Or if you are at a pool? Ebony says it best.

http://www.ebony.com/style/ways-to-protect-hair-when-swimming-993#axzz4QTuAc0Zq

Remember, love your kink.
Kadella

When Sesame Street joins the natural hair movement

Just the other day, I didn't feel like putting my hair up into any particular style so I made sure it was properly moisturized and in a stretched out fro and went out to conquer my day. An older guy would look to me and say, what's going on with your hair today?
I'm thinking to myself... why is that any of your business? but my parents brought me up right so I had to just smile and say "nothing, absolutely nothing, anything going on with yours?"

As much as the natural hair movement is making strides, there are still a lot of people who cannot escape from what they grew up internalising about their hair which is why I am so happy that Sesame Street has joined the natural hair bandwagon and is trying to let our kids know that their hair is perfect just the way it is.

Take a gander at this video:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enpFde5rgmw


I hope that we encourage our kids to love their kink.
Kadella

Don't touch my hair

This is a big one guys,

Can I touch your hair?... ugh no ew!!! where have your hands been?

Now I'm not superstitious but I do not let any and anyone touch my hair. I might quicker trust you with my kid...(joke I ain't trusting that either).

I cannot however state it any better than Solange Knowles did in her song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTtrnDbOQAU

These girls did a cover of her song and rocked it out as well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_iSqPBpx3k

So what is your opinion though? Would you let people touch your hair?

Remember, love your kink.
Kadella

Dandruff and dry scalp

If you guys haven't realised yet I'll tell you that I read a lot of natural hair articles from many different natural hair blogs. There are so much content out there now on natural hair for which I am so glad. The problem with that is that there is so much that you literally have to wade through a lot to get what you are looking for. So I am here to help you with that. I'm bringing you the best articles right to your doorstep.

Curly Nikki is one of my favourites, here is what she had to say on Dandruff and Dry scalp. Hope this helps you. I don't need to say anymore because she has covered it all extensively and quiet well might I add.

http://www.curlynikki.com/2014/06/dandruff-or-dry-scalp-natural-hair-care.html

Remember love your kink

Kadella

LOC or LCO Methods

Hey guys,

We all know that hair isn't alive (well if you didn't you know now), well what we comb and style and colour and what not, is not alive but dead.
What is alive is the hair follicles in our scalp. With that being said, we still need to take care of our hair because whatever problems we have with our hair will travel down to our hair follicles.


Our scalp secretes natural oils that coats the hair strand to lock in the moisture that it needs (our bodies do amazing things yeah?).  The problem with us curly and kinky hair people the oils does not make it all the way down to the tips of the strand because of all the curls and kinks are blocking it and our hair gets dry and brittle and then tends to break, so what do we do?


We need to add in the moisture and the oils to lock in the moisture for ourselves... bummer!
Now when I attended the Cher Mere talk on natural hair the lady said something that stuck with me. She said "when your plant is dry and wilting, you do not run out with some oil from your kitchen and rub down the leaves" I thought this was funny but she has a point. Oil does not moisturize your hair, water or water based leave in conditioners does. Oil locks in moisture or blocks out moisture. This is very important to note when putting in products into your hair.

You straight haired gals and guys have the problem of too much oil and moisture in your hair and have to always be washing it out because all the oils gets it limp and heavy right? That in and of itself is a problem but i'm a curly head gal so imma deal with the curly headed problems ok.

Here is a great article on how to deal with moisturizing your hair from Naptural Dany.
http://www.napturallydany.com/2015/02/moisturizing-natural-hair-loc-vs-lco.html


I hope this article helps and have you trying both methods to see which works for you.
Always remember though, love your kink!
Kadella

Product Review

Hey Divas/ Divos,

I haven't posted in a bit because I've been testing out a product and I wanted to tell you guys all about it.









  I attended Cher Mere's lovely event on the 15th of October on natural hair ( I learnt a lot I must say, you will hear all about it in other articles as we go along) which was to promote their new natural hair product line. They have two sets, one line for thin hair and another natural hair product line. Luckily my mom has really thin hair so I def got to test the thin hair line of products on her while I got to test the other on myself.

Now not all products are made equally and I will always suggest that you try different products and brands until you know what works for you. It's only been a couple of weeks but the results I'm looking for in my mother's hair I must admit won't happen until some time has passed. So we will see how that works out for us but for now it has her hair looking healthy and fully moisterized and for that I'm happy.

 I like my hair to be a certain texture i.e. soft. I'm accustomed to packing my hair with product to get that texture but the lecture they had convinced me of the less is more method so I tried that for the first week and by the second day I definitely had to put more product in my hair to keep it at the texture I wanted. This made me realise that ok, my hair needed a little more than what I put in the first time. The second week I applied the product not by section (as in I parted my hair in four sections and applied the product) but path by path. This way I knew for sure my hair got the right amount of product needed. It is day four and I still have no need to put any more product in my hair just spritz some water in the morning and I'm off to enjoy my day.

I can say try it for yourself and see if it works for you.

Don't forget... love your kink!

Hair Types

To understand your natural hair, you first have to understand that there are hair categories. Now there are many, many ways to categorize your hair as well some people don't believe that they can categorise their hair. I, however, believe that it helps to figure out some sort of perimeter.

In this post I'm just gonna show you a few charts from websites and their articles that go with them to help you visualize and hopefully help you understand where your hair is considered to be on the scale.

Curl Centric has a wonderful article on types of hair- check them out.
http://www.curlcentric.com/hair-typing-system/





Loreal did a scientific research on hair types as well, check out their site.
http://www.loreal.com/media/news/2016/mar/diversity-of-hair-type


Kiss My Curls has a curl scale, check it out.
http://www.kissmycurls.com/all-about-hair/my-curly-is-unique/




I hope these sites help you understand the various types of hair.

Whatever type your hair is, I hope no matter what that you love your kink.

Kadella

My Hair Journey

I can't start a blog about natural hair without first talking about my own hair journey. Growing up we didn't have all the information on natural hair as we have today and if we did I don't think my mom would've had the patience for it.

I had the type of hair that not five minutes after it's combed it would look like it wasn't. My mom and my sister had the great honour of combing my hair for me, mostly because I couldn't care what happened to my hair.


My mom always threatened to loc my hair and my dad always kicked against it. Going into secondary school my sister decided to straighten my hair. That worked for awhile and from then it became a slippery slope of random hairstyles as slowly but surely control of my hair came into my incapable hands.


It went from straightened, to cut short and jerry curled, back to straightened. Finally I got the locs and that, my friends, lasted for four years.

From there it was cut short again, texturized, and many others. One of my favorite hairstyles was a Mohawk straightened and dyed red down the middle ( I definitely threw some people with that).

Finally I learnt the proper way to take care of my natural hair and I've been natural ever since.
Now there are days when I'm fed up of hair on the whole and want a rest and my research showed me that that's ok.
My hair is now part of my self  expression because I've learnt how to love my Kink and hopefully you can too.

Welcome

Hey everyone!

My name is Kadella Taylor and I am a Mass Communication student at the College of Science Technology and Applied Arts Trinidad and Tobago. This semester for one of my courses I need to start a blog. 

Hair Natural is a blog on all things natural hair for women of colour.

 From home made remedies, to hairstyles, to personal hair journeys, you will find it all here. 

Not a hair person? no problem, neither am I but you got hair so I guess you still need to deal with it and wouldn't be great if you can do it yourself without having to pay a hairdresser every week or month?

Come learn about all things natural hair, I know you will enjoy it.

Always remember to love your kink.

Kadella