Natural Hair for Beginners

Hey Yall! My last post about natural hair got a lot of hits so I decided to post a new one. I've literally been natural all of my life, with the exception of two painful years, but for the majority of my life I've worn my hair with some form of heat in it. My curls are so curly that they begin to curl one on top of the other and intertwine, thus forming dreads after only a week. Basically, I didn't know what to do with my hair. But in my spare time, I've been browsing through multiple natural hair websites & I've comprised a list of tips that I've wished I'd had when I started going natural:

Tip # 1: Know your hair type. This probably sounds stupid. It's the hair that you were born with. Of course, you know your hair. It's long thin loose curls. Or maybe it's thick tight & kinky. That's all well & good, yet trust me I've tried to type "hair tutorials for mixed race curly hair"......and nothing came up. Lol! Use a website like the following for the curly hair classification system. After you've figured out your hair type using this website, verify that it is YOUR hair type by typing the hair type name into the search bar of youtube. Videos will pop up with numerous people with your hair type. I have type 3c/4a hair.

Tip #2: Learn the Terminology. What is a big chop? A co-wash? Figuring out natural hair terminology is crucial to figuring out how to care for your natural hair. Use this dictionary to figure out every term that you need.

Tip # 3: Know What Ingredients Make for Healthy Hair. Many girls who go natural continue to use the same hair products which they used before their transition to natural hair. This is not good! Actually, many of the hair products which you used before your transition to natural hair, may actually have ingrediants which remove mositure from your hair. With natural hair, you need moisture!! This website offers the best Q & A session that I've ever read. Very informing.

Tip #4: Explore the Wonderful Worldwide Web. There are numerous websites out there to help you in your journey to natural hair. My absolute favorite is curlynikki.com. She has great hair tips, tutorial, survival stories (haha) and ideas. She even has numerous guest bloggers that help to make the website awesome. Use Youtube! There are so many awesome hair tutorials on the web. Like I said ^^^, type in your hair type and work from there.

Tip #5: Find a good detangling method. This is probably going to be my worst tip, because it continues to be my biggest struggle. But hang in there ladies (and gents haha), like me, you'll be able to persevere. Youtube, youtube, search search search...that's all that I can really say. Yet this post is a good way to start.

For the time being, I'm still using heat...a little contradictory after I gave all of these tips, right? Wrong! haha. For now I'm studying as many natural hair methods as possible. Pesonally, I don't think that the winter time is a good time for me to try to keep my hair all natural. I've worn it natural for several days, but it dries out really easily since there is very little humidity in the air. I am constantly having to wet it. So as soon as the spring comes and it begins to get more humid I will take another stab at natural hair. Hopefully when that time comes around, I will have all the right products and knowledge to take care of my hair. I don't want to go completely natural (as in using no heat) for the rest of my life. But once the summer comes, because it is so humid and pressed hair instantly frizzes, I plan to not add heat to my hair whatsoever. Also, I want to make sure that I am properly educated on how to care for my hair and not damage it. But to all of you girls who are teaching yourselves in the winter, I salute you!

Good Luck!!

Awee Man!!

My last music post wasn't as big of a hit as I expected it to be so I've decided to take a stab at it again and amp my posts up with some pictures, links & more details. Here are some of my recent faves (both past & present). Enjoy & don't forget to click on the links!

Chuleria en Pote-Jadiel & Farruco: Here's to all of you reggaeton lovers! This is probably one of the most chill reggaeton songs that I've ever heard. It's a great start to your morning & a great cool down to your evening. It definitely hints to reggaeton's reggae roots as well.

Bang Bang Bang!- Mark Ronson, The Business International & Q-Tip: This song has been out for seven months now but I'm just now hearing it & hearing it & hearing it. It's on constant replay on my ipod. It has an addicting chorus & I love the part in French. Je Te Plumerai La Tete!

No Games- Serani: Once again I'm late....real late. Apparently this song was a smash reggae hit over the SUMMER OF 2010. But in my defense, all of the songs that I've covered so far are foreign made, so my excuse is that it took a long time for these songs to reach the states. Originally I heard this song in Zumba class. It was our cool down song. Then at the Unity Ball (more info on the unity ball in the post below!) I heard this song again and went on a desperate search rampage to find it. Twenty search entries with wrong lyrics, pulling up various websites & youtube links and a headache later, voila! Enjoy.

Skinny Genes-Eliza Doolitte: I took a random chance with this song when it popped up on youtube's suggested videos list the other day & I completely fell in love. I am a big fan of Lily Allen. However, she hasn't come out with a cd since her last, 'It's Not Me, It's You." If you like Lily Allen or Kate Nash I can guarantee that you will fall in love with Eliza Doolittle. She has the sweet voice or Lily Allen, although she can't quite pack the punch that Lily does. But for the time being she's perfect!

In the Morning- J. Cole ft. Drake: So I'm pretty sure that I've made it clear that I'm in love with Drake and we are going to get married one day. With that proclamation of my love set aside, I luhhh this song! It is soo nasty, but addicting at the same time. This is another relaxing song (frankly, any Drake song is relaxing to me lol). In this one Drake teams up with up and coming Roc Nation signed rapper J. Cole, a college grad who is proving that he is talented both academically and musically. In addition to this song, J. Cole's entire Friday Night Lights mixtape is great and he also has another mixtape Cole World, which I haven't had the chance to listen to yet, but I'm sure is great as well. Btw I am super jeally that the two are touring Europe together for the next several months. Why Europe Drake!?!? Do they even know who you are there? Come back to America, NOW!! (<--- no offense intended, just a joke!)

SN: College is the perfect time to explore your tastes in music. I mean MTV has an entire channel devoted to University music. At my school there are lots of local bands who hold concerts downtown, parties with lots of fun music and so many new people to meet and explore their tastes in music (and maybe even influence your own tastes). Also in college, music= fashion. As a suggestion before coming to school, buy a shirt with your favorite musician, band, or artist. You're guaranteed to get compliments + it's a great conversation starter.

I am always looking for new music, so if you have any artists that you want me to listen to or include in my next post, feel free to drop a line in the comment box.

Enjoy!

Jackie

Go girl, it's ya birthday!

Hey there Everyone!

January 21 was my birthday! Yay! It just so happened that my birthday fell on a Friday & I only had one class, so needless to say, it was amazing! :) But before we talk about my birthday weekend fun I'm gonna back track to a couple of days before. The previous Friday was my college BFF Melanie's birthday so we decided to do something together. On Monday, we grabbed a group of our friends and headed to our favorite restuarant downtown, Doc Chey's. It was yumm and a good bit of our friends showed up to celebrate with us. Afterward Alex took us to get icecream at Ben & Jerry's & we jammed in the car to Whip My Hair. lol!

The next day, our basketball team played Tennessee so I headed there with Melanie, Natalie & another friend, Quatez. We lost by two points which were scored literally at the last second of the game...bummer! But on the plus we had great times & we had Cane's before...mmm. haha.

Now we can skip to the good part...back to my birthday :) So after a whopping 365 days of waiting Friday finally rolled around. It's a tradition at my school to head to the 24 hour dining hall minutes before your birthday to ring in your birthday at midnight! I grabbed the girls on my hall and Natalie and Melanie tagged along too. We crammed like 7 people into my roomates car and drove over to the dining hall. I was so excited that I was running around and jumping in the air like a little kid. But it was worth every second of excitement. Two of my friends met up with Melanie and I at the dining hall after the other girls from my hall headed back to the dorm. We talked about our home towns and then walked back to our dorms, waving at people who had left their windows open/blinds up in the dorms along the way (bahaha lame). When I got back to my dorm I was literally so excited that I couldn't sleep. Fb wall posts started flooding in & I was so excited for the events that were to come. But I forced myself to fall asleep around 2 so that I would have at least a tad bit of stamina for my class at 10:10.

Even though my class didn't start until 10:10, I was so excited that I woke up at 8 and couldn't fall back asleep. Spanish was my only class of the day & luckily it's my fave. I could dedicate a whole separate blog entry to my Spanish teacher. She is amazing! After class, I went to lunch with my roomie & then headed back to my dorm. I was a little upset. My roomie had to head back to our hometown for a wedding ceremony & Melanie was also heading back. Then I got a text from my friends in my hometown letting me know that they weren't going to be able to make it up to celebrate with me for my birthday. But, I wasn't about to get upset on my birthday. Luckily, I brought 16 candles and me & Natlie watched it and cracked up! No birthday could top Samantha's!

After sitting around bored waiting for the night to come, me & Natalie headed over to the nicer dining hall to eat with some friends. We ended up sitting with one of Natalie's friends and met new people! Yay! Afterwards, Natalie & I made a last minute decision to head to our school's gymnastics meet. They competed against Auburn (and won! woot!). They were AMAZING! I think that they are probably the most talented team at our school. There were two girls on Auburn's team that were great on the mat as well. One girl, who was black & hispanic like me (woot woot!), performed to a fusion of hip hop and reggaeton, which hit home for me :) I was really glad that we decided to head to their meet.

Then the real fun came! My friend Alex wanted to take me downtown to one of the clubs called Bad Manor. Me & Nat got dressed up real cute & headed to his dorm for some pre club fun and picture taking! haha. Then we headed downtown. They played Fancy (Drake ahhh), Stereo Love, and even a remix of the Red Hot Chilli Pepper's Otherside so you know I got it crunk! They were playing all of my favorite songs. woot woot! I had so much fun dancing like a fool. I even saw some of my other friends there too. It all seemed to fly by. It was probably 1 out of 2 of the best nights I've had in college so far.

Side Note: For girls who are going to the club. Here's all that you need:

PMILK

P=phone
M=money
I=id
L=lipgloss
K=keys

There is really no need for anything else. & please don't chug a giant purse with you. It's totally unnecessary & your shoulders/back will hurt by the end of the night!

& back to my birthday....so the next day my parents and brother came up from my hometown to celebrate with me. I brought Natalie along with us and we headed to Olive Garden. The Olive Garden in my college town is really beautiful. Rather than having the appearance of a restaurant it resembled someone's nicely furnish home. It was nice to spend time with my family. We spent our time amusing Natalie with our funny family jokes & stories and singing to Craig David on the ride there. I had a really good time!

After Olive Garden we headed back to campus to help set up for my school's Unity Ball. I'm in the Black Affairs Council's Cultural & Social Progamming Committee, which hosts various programs throughout the year. The Unity Ball is held annually in order to celebrate the anniversary of the desegregation of my school, hence the name unity. It's a formal event and most people dress like they're heading to prom.This year it was co sponsored by three other commitees so we had a really turn out of people. At first I was slightly skeptical because we hadn't sold a lot of tickets. However, it was a pleasant surprise when tons and tons of people walked through the door. The decorations were beautiful, there was a section to have your picture taken, a dj, & dinner was served. Best of all the people that came were MULTIRACIAL!! If you knew me before college, you would know that my group of friends from my hometown is very multiracial and we pride ourselves upon that. So it was great to see a group of people that reminded me of my closest friends from home. I had so much fun dancing with all my friends. The dj was awesome and played an awesome mix of hip hop, top 40, reggae, and even salsa!! I taught my friends how to dance the salsa to Celia Cruz's 'La Vida es un Carnaval' (and afterward me & Natalie even had an impromptu salsa lesson in my dorm lol), we danced the electric slide to my parents' favorite song (Taste like Candayy), danced to my new favorite reggae song (No Games) and Melanie taught us how to do the wobble. I was actually sad when the night was over.

Overall I had a great birthday weekend & I doubt that anything could top it :)
Thanks to everyone who made my birthday great ;)

Until later!

Jackie

New Classes & Zodiac Signs

Hey Yall!
Today was our first day of second semester! I must admit that it went much better than planned. At first I was slightly concerned because my biology class was going to be huge. When I walked in there were over 200 kids sitting in the classroom. Yet surprisingly it wasn't that intimidating. Thank God for that. Then I was really surprised when I walked into my Stat class & it was the same thing....over 200 kids! Natalie & I headed downtown to go shopping today which was fun too.
The next thing that I want to talk about was this whole change of Zodiac signs thing. I know this is going to sound completely contradictory but I've always been a strong believer in God & I use him as my go to whenever I'm in troubling situations. But I must admit that I also use zodiac signs, karma, and fortune cookies as a second choice in decision. But this whole new revelation that the zodiac signs have changed due to the new alignment of the earth just throws everything off. So I'm a Capricorn now? I like Aquarius better! Capricorn sounds more like Candy corn and Aquarius is just so feminine sounding. I have no idea what to think now.

Well have a great day!!

love love love

Jackie :)

The Game! Yay!

So after a whopping year and a half one of my faveee tv shows ever, the game, came back on tv! Yay! It came on at ten last night on BET and I swear the entire 10% Black population of my school was watching. Facebook statuses were being updated left & right about it. When it finally came on I was soooo excited. The show has changed A LOT, but is nonetheless still awesome. SPOILER ALERT!! But for those of you who missed out, here's what happened so far:



Melenie & Derwin: At the beginning of the episode Derwin's baby (who is so adorable) comes to live with Derwin & Melenie. Tasha Mack makes these comments about the baby's light skin & straight-er hair and jokes that the baby isn't Derwin's. So Melenie calls a friend who is practicing her residency in genetic & has the friend conduct a paternity test on the baby. Derwin tells Melenie that the baby is not his and he becomes infuriated & punches a whole in the wall. Then the friend calls Melenie back again to tell her that she made a mistake conducting the genetic test and that Derwin IS the father. Now Derwin is furious with Janae & Melenie has to come clean and tell Derwin that he really is the father. Here comes the drama!!



Tasha Mack: Tasha Mack starts the season off with a new love interest, Donte', who is 106 & Park's Terrance! Wth? 1st of all they were making out in almost every scene & he is like 1/2 her age...can someone say cougar!?! Gross!Then it's Terrance, as in Terrance and Rocsi from 106 & Park. He's not an actor. lol. I kept expecting for him to step off to the side & be like, "the number 6 song of the day is...." lol. What happened to Rick Fox? He was more attractive (Terrance looks like an ugly version of Trey Songz) and age appropriate for Tasha Mack. This is going to be interesting.



Malik Wright: So Malik starts the season being more of a man whore than usual. His new love interest is Meagan Good, who is also the love interest of a lawyer? or sports associate? that Malik is making business deals with. So Malik is two timing his own business partner. In addition, Tee-tee, who isn't Malik's assistant anymore, but owns his own mobile chicken stand discovers that his new gf is now also having an affair with Malik. Even before Malik slept with Tee-tee's gf there was a lot of unnecessary hostility between Malik & Tee-tee. All of a sudden Malik is this big jerk. All the hostility was unnecessary!



Kelly & Jason Pitts- Kelly now has her own reality show in which she does absolutely nothing but bash her ex. Jason on the other hand, appears on a sports show and is further bashed by Kelly. Out of all of the characters, Kelly and Jason were the most disappointing. What happened to Kelly's jealously of Jason's new relationship and her desire to fall back into love with her husband? Now they're just flat our enemies. & if Kelly's tv show were a real one, I'm not sure if I would want to watch it.



Overall



Likes

1. The drama- although it was unnecessary at some points.

2. The fact that it's back on television. lol.

3. Sheree's wack ahh cameo when Derwin was in the club. That means something to talk about on the Real Housewives of ATL. You already know she's gonna act like she had an emmy award winning role. Lol.



Dislikes

1. The fact that BET stretched a 30 min sitcom into an hour long drama filled excessive commercials. In my classic voice, "UH-UH"

2. The game is a lot more tense then it used to be. There's too much hostility & drama between all the characters. It seems like all the characters hate each other. Hopefully it will die down as the season goes on. The game used to be a show that i could sit back on the couch and watch not something that I have to sit up straight & be tense with.

3. The new hairstyles: Melenie = too much weave. Kelly's mohawk=yuck!

4. The new Brit Brit Pitts. Why is she darker than both of her parents? Do I sense another paternity test in the future? lol

Snow!!!!

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

Hello Lovers!

Originally I was supposed to start school on Monday. But on Sunday rumors began swirling left and right that snow was on the way. Luckily mother earth allowed my parents enough time to drive me to campus and back home before the snow came. And boy oh boy did it snow. We received about four to five inches of snow Sunday night. Where I am from it rarely snows. Normally we receive snow once every four years. However, last year it snowed so far this winter season it has snowed twice...in a period of two weeks. It snowed the day after Christmas as well as Sunday night. However, because of vacation and returning to college, I missed the snow both times in my hometown.
Yet there was plenty of snow on campus. Sunday night my roommate, next door neighbor and I were watching the Real Housewives of ATL (our normal Sunday night tradition) and on a commercial break, we peaked outside to see the snow. There were huge white flakes pouring out the sky. We were so excited that we all started screaming and jumping on the top of our lungs and our RA ran into the room and told us to be quiet because it was "quiet hours" (yet, I doubt that anyone was being quiet or sleeping during all of this). We (+ some other girls from my hall) all jumped into our winter clothes and headed out to see the snow.
Sunday night was lots of fun. There were over 100 students playing in the snow on the hill outside of my dorm. Students took the tops of storage containers, cardboard and whatever else they could salvage to sled down the hills. We threw snowballs at each other, made snow angels and wrote on cars in the parking lot. That night was probably one of the best nights of my college life thus far. When we came in from playing in the snow, we all received an e-mail letting us know that school had been canceled for Monday. Yay!
The next morning my friend Natalie and I woke up early to take pictures around campus. We walked around our dorms, North Campus, and at the football stadium. Natalie attempted in vain to make a snow angel. It was hilarious. The ice was crunchy so she could barely move. Her snow angel ended up looking more like a snow cheerleader. We watched an upperclassmen who had a kayak slide down a hill and crash into a fence lol (he was okay).
Although the snow was fun, things began to get serious. Although the snow melted during the day, it froze that night. We walked to the dining hall to eat dinner and people were slipping left and right in the ice. Thank god that everyone who I saw slipping in the snow was able to laugh it off and wasn't seriously injured. School was canceled again today (Tuesday) and tomorrow (Wednesday). Today I spent the day inside with friends. I'm beginning to get bored & am actually ready for school to begin. Lol!

I hope you enjoy this & if it's snowing/sleeting in your area please be careful but have fun!

xoxo,

Jackie

New Songs for the New Year

"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks, and invents."
-Ludwig van Beethoven

Hey Yall!!

I hope that your new year is starting off great. I got several albums for Christmas (Trey Songz' 'Passion, Pain, and Pleasure,' Rihanna's 'Loud,' and Ryan Leslie's 'Transition' and 'Ryan Leslie.' There are some great songs on all of those cd's so I decided that I should share some of them with yall (+ some other great songs).

1. Cheers (Drink to That)- Rihanna This is a great care free, "efff" you sort of song. Even if you don't drink, I'm sure that this song will make any bad day feel great!
2. All My Love- Ryan Leslie This song is a classic example of Ryan Leslie's greatness. Ryan never ceases to amaze me with his catchy lyrics, beats, and charisma which is translated throughout his songs.
3. WebCam & Te Ire a Buscar- Farruko. Newcomer reggaetonero Farruko's songs are a true example of classic reggaeton, a fusion of reggae and spanish music.

hmmmm......

"Live life looking through the windshield, not the rearview mirror."

I'm slightly concerned about heading back to school. :( After spending the past several weeks with my friends, who all attend different colleges than mine, I've realized that I'm not exactly "in love" with my school like so many of my friends are. Plus, I can't help but to think about how much fun my life was before high school. But I know I've gotta move on. & however much I think I hate my school, I've signed up for this semester and I'm in it to win it (no matter how much I like/dislike it). I'm keeping my eyes on the prize. Anywho, here are some updates for the week:
1. Two of my friends got married this week? This was probably the most bizarre and ratchet wedding that I've ever been in, yet I've enjoyed it nonetheless. Two of my friends, who are not dating but have been bffs for a long time, decided that they would amp up their friendship by getting married? Well to make a long story short, my friends decided that a real wedding would be a hassle and mess up parents' tax returns, financial aid etc. So they decided to have a just for fun wedding in one of their backyards. Well, the "bride" ended up getting sick the day of & not showing up to her own wedding, so an impromptu bride was immediately found to replace her. I was [reluctantly] a bridesmaid. We danced down the aisle to Rihanna's 'Only Girl', vows and scriptures were read off a laptop, and the bride and groom placed gloves on their hands to symbolize their commitment. Ten years from now, I'll laugh about this [even more than I am now] haha :)
2. Happy New Year! January 1, 2011 ends one of the best years of my life which began with a rockin 18th birthday party, a once in a lifetime drake concert, a fairytale cotillion, an amazing senior week (and senior day), a graduation filled with enough memories to last a lifetime, and ended with a fresh new start [and beginning of happy endings] at college. So it's no surprise that I left this momentous year with a bang! I headed to a friends' house and was reunited with many of my friends from high school who I hadn't seen since summer. Then I headed over to a close friends house [with another close friend who doesn't know my other friend]. If I haven't lost you here, I had a great time. We watched the ball drop and swapped stories about our new lives in college.
3. New Obsession? stumbleupon.com is amazing! You just type in the topics that you want to explore & BAM! The site pulls up all sorts of websites which the website thinks you may find enjoyable. Try it out :)

Well that's all for now!