Month: October 2014

3 step hair routine

Published on by maksu2013Leave a comment

  I’ve missed blogging so much!

Hey Guys!

I know I haven’t been on here for a while, but lets just go ahead and blame school for that. That being said, I’m happy to be done with midterms for a little while and to be able to blog and sew and just live again. The second reason I haven’t been here though is because I haven’t really known what to blog about, but that’s okay I guess. Anyhu I’m here now and I figured I’d talk about my hair routine.

So I have condensed this process over the years and I’m hoping to condense it further so if you have any suggestions please comment below 🙂

1. Pre-poo

Okay I won’t even lie I don’t do this all the time, but if I feel like my hair needs a little more tlc I will saturate it with conditioner and detangle about 30 minutes before I head into the shower. Detangling before I shower makes my in shower routine go by a lot faster. My current conditioner is the Herbal Essences Hello Hydration. It does the job, but I still feel like I might need a deep conditioner. I section my hair off into manageable twists

Processed with VSCOcam with a5 preset
The only four products I use

2. Shower.

On the days that I shampoo my hair, I rinse out the conditioner, go in with my Shea Moisture (shea butter) shampoo and scrub. I only go in once with the shampoo unless I really need it. Other times, I simply co-wash my hair. I take the twists down and further detangle with the help of the water pressure. I generally recondition my hair  for a few minutes, then rinse with cold water. I don’t know how true this is but cold water is supposed to help you lock in the goodness from your conditioner. I also make sure to rinse my hair by tugging and smoothing down sections under the water. This keeps it detangled and helps my curls clump better

Processed with VSCOcam with b5 preset

3. Post-wash

I can no longer be bothered to style my hair from its soaking wet state because it simply takes to long. Now I coat my hair with the Auntie Jackie’s curling custard and a Shea butter+coconut oil mix and braid my hair into two large cornrows. I find that its easier to style my already stretched hair or to at least work with damp hair because it more likely to dry. 3 step hair routine

As far as products go I generally do what works best or what I can afford 🙂 (student life). I really liked the shea moisture deep conditioner but I ran out and haven’t repurchased because its pretty scarce in Canada and also rather pricy. I also really like the smell of the Aunt Jackie’s curling custard. This is really awesome to me because some natural hair products smell too “earthy”.

 

Hope this was helpful/interesting for my sistas…peace out!

ps. I have a new “fro-tales” story coming soon so look out 🙂

I think of my Country

Published on by maksu20132 Comments

Processed with VSCOcam with c1 preset

Reflecting on Nigeria

I couldn’t count the number of times I rolled my eyes while listening to this young man mouth off about the demerits of Nigeria. By the time he described Nigerians as narcissistic I had just about had it. In his opinion, Nigerians are always quick to remind the world that we’re the “giants of Africa” but what do we have to be proud of? The smug look on his face spoke volumes to me. He was either trying to annoy somebody (eg. Me) or he honestly believed what he was saying and was daring the audience to disagree. I would not honor his desires then simply to spite him but I will speak my mind here.

As Nigerians we love to complain. Its a natural talent that we seem to possess. If we do well, we ask why didn’t we do better? If we fail, we ask why didn’t someone else stop us from failing. We complain about the corruption in our country like we invented corruption. We complain about our diversity like its the greatest curse. We would complain about anything as long as you give us the chance. What we fail to do however, after all this complaining is 1) look at what caused the problem  and 2)work to make it better.

Every time a Nigerian stands before me and tells me that we have no national identity all I see is a lack of understanding for where we as a country have come from. The country we now call Nigeria was a colonial construct that was set to ensure ease of colonial rule. The way Nigeria is set up was not for Nigerians to govern. It is a perfect representation of divide and rule because the people from one place to the next are so culturally different. It is hard to believe, with the sheer diversity of the nation that our people would mobilize to fight for independence; but we did. Our national identity should come in our shared history. We do not have to be Nigerian in the way that Americans are American to claim our national identity.

Every time a Nigerian suggests that secession of either the north or the south of Nigeria would solve all of our problems, I wonder how quickly we have forgotten the pain of the civil war. The lives of many people thrown in complete jeopardy because some people did what “seemed” to make the most sense. The north and the south of Nigeria have become very co-dependent irrespective of what some southern people might think. One would find it very difficult to survive without the other. The lives of civilians living in both parts would be horribly affected, and for what reason? Tribalism is our problem in the way some other countries have to deal with racism. As much as I hate to compare sites of inequity, I find this necessary in order to put things in context. Yes managing the power relations between multiple tribes is an incredibly difficult task but I don’t believe that it is impossible.

I am not naive. I know that there are many issues with Nigeria. I am often disappointed and frustrated with the people who lead us. I want more from and for the citizens. I expect so much from this country and it repeatedly falls below my expectations but I am not ashamed. I see potential in Nigeria. I am hopeful for a brighter day. Most importantly, I believe we have plenty to be proud of. There are Nigerians within the country and all over the world who are positively impacting the lives of millions. We are a resilient people who still find something to laugh about even in the darkest situations. We are smart, strong and we have such rich cultures. I don’t think that’s being narcissistic, it is choosing to acknowledge the positives when everyone insists on reminding you of the negatives.

picture by  willyverse