Geeky Girl's Guide to Life

Big Chop Story Time!

Published April 7, 2011 | By K Leslie

My friend Shannon, who I have mentioned in an entry previously here, has been transitioning for some time now.
Well, on Saturday I got a text (I got it much later than she sent it, as I am forever leaving my phone elsewhere) telling me she had finally big chopped! I was so excited for her. She shared some pics via the phone with me:

After hair wash

Before cutting

Both her and I were excited for the cut. She had been struggling with the texture of her hair (her hair is wavy, not curly) and quite a few of us (her friends) thought that maybe the relaxed hair was weighing down the natural hair. So imagine my surprise, when the next image is after the stylist got finished:

LOL

I was baffled.. and confused... and runamuck! LOL. I will let Shannon take it from here and tell her story.

Ok, this is what happened.

I woke up yesterday and I was like man, I'm going to go cut these ends off my hair now. So, I got dressed with my sister and was like I'll go w/ her to the Dominican shop. I then decided against it, because I was really wanting to go to an all natural shop. I figured they wouldn't know how to properly handle what I needed them to do to my hair.

I got back on here and messaged another person who's natural and has been for like two years now and told her about me going to the Dominican shop and she told me she had actually got her b/c done at a Dominican shop, so I was like cool. I'll give it a whirl. I went in and showed them my hair. I told them that I just wanted: a wash and a cut. I told them to just even my hair out and then I'll just go like that. I didn't want them to blow dry or anything. Not that I'm against blow drying. I blow dry my hair whenever I wash it.

So, they were like alright, and told me to sit down for my wash. I got my wash and waited some more. I finally got to the stylist who was going to cut my hair. I told her the same thing, to just cut it even. I wanted all of the straight ends off. She said alright, but I have to blow dry it. I was kind of skeptical because I had just spoken to my friend who specifically said they cut her hair wet when she went natural. But for me I was transitioning for a whole year, she had just went and did her b/c right away. I had a lot of hair at the time so I told her to go ahead and blow dry it.

Her blow dry was really a blow out. Which I REALLY didn't want. I was kind of upset actually. A big chop is supposed to be when you get your little afro. You're not walk out w/ a head full of straight hair lol. So, in that sense, I feel that my big chop was not traditional. I am not even sure if all of my relaxed ends are completely gone because my hair was straight when she cut it.

I did like my cut a lot. And my hair looks really healthy, but I did not like that I had a blow out during what I was looking to be as my big chop.

Poor Shannon. Was your big chop unusual? What would you do in her situation?

A flashback to high school. I am a stronger person now.

Published April 4, 2011 | By K Leslie

I was an incredibly awkward teenager. I was (am) short, I was (am) fat, and I was (am) bookish. I played the clarinet, I read all the time, and you couldn't keep me from a computer. People tended to make fun of me as a result. A lot of the black girls in school made it their personal mission to make my life hell. I was miserable my freshman, sophmore, and junior year. By my senior year I had realized something. I was going places, and they would be stuck doing the same thing that they were always doing. This is pretty much true. Quite a few of them have not done a thing with their life. They are doing the same things they were doing while we were in high school, while I have moved on, stronger, wiser, and more confident in me. Sometimes though, niggling insecurities make their way back.

My husband and I had date night last night. We went and saw the Adjustment Bureau, and then went to eat at Scotty's Brewhouse. We were seated behind a group of black women with long straight hair down their backs. If you are on my Facebook page, you would know that I had two strand twisted my hair. I untwisted it, put in a headband and clipped in a flower. I felt cute.

I heard the ladies giggling and snickering behind me, but I didn't pay much attention. As we got up to leave I turned around to say something to the waitress, and they were looking at me. The three whose back was facing me while we were eating had craned their necks to see me. They were just gawking at me.. and possibly my hair, Not entirely sure. I flashed back to that moment back in high school where they were cruel and mocking me. I came back to the present, and I smiled and they turned back around immediately. I just walked out.

Indianapolis is not a huge mecca of culture. It's very conservative and it makes me sad. To be different, gets you looks.

The difference between the past and now? I don't care. You can snicker, and laugh and giggle, and talk about me behind my back. It shows how childish and immature you are. To show you can't accept differences in people, shows how cruel, small minded, and harsh you can be. You have taken someone's beauty standard, accepted it as law, and mock anything that is different. You are nothing to me. You were never anything to me. So why should I care? I don't care. I've grown up... and I love me.

Why natural hair works for me.

Published March 31, 2011 | By K Leslie

Now that I am natural, it seems obvious to me that I should have gone natural YEARS ago. Relaxed hair never worked for me. My mom would take me to a hair shop every two weeks to get my hair done. Occasionally, the lady at the time (not my beloved Margie) would put French twists and the like, in my hair. Why would you put a French twist in an 11 year old tomboy's hair? That thing would last like 2 days, if that!

When I got older and sought out my own beautician, things became a bit better. Margie was great. She knew I was inept at hair care. She would give me a simple wrap. If I had some place to be for an extended period of time (like when I went to Europe) and she wouldn't see me she would braid my hair. See?

*Snort* Love this picture. Taken in London.

She was good to me. She was really nice and not condescending at all. I was (am) a book nerd with a word vomit problem, and she saw it as endearing.

But I moved.

I moved an hour away to be with my honey bunny. This wasn't gonna work. So I began my quest for a new beautician.

My mother's friends who live in Indianapolis gave me some leads. There was the one woman on the East side of town, who looked at me like i was psychotic because I brought in a scrapbook that had a picture of me of how I like my hair.

She used a curling iron. Margie never used a curling iron. She was awkward and standoffish, and it was one of those shops where a man comes in with a plastic garbage bag selling fake Gucci and bootleg dvd's. Uh, no.

Then there was the guy. The guy that told me my hair was a hot mess, cut off all my hair (AFTER I TOLD THIS MAN I COULD BARELY DEAL WITH MY EAR LENGTH HAIR, LET ALONE SHORT HAIR SHAVED IN THE BACK!!!), and when I asked him how I was supposed to deal with this nonsense, he told me to call him and make an appointment. This cost me $150 dollars for a relaxer and cut by the way. I just blinked.

A woman at work told me about her cousin. I decided to try one more time. If this did not work, I was going to shave my head, wear big hoop earrings, and mumble.

Cherilyn was (is) NICE. She is sweet, smart, and knowledgeable about her craft. I didn't feel uncomfortable, no one tried to sell me a bootleg dvd, and I just was happy.

Cherilyn was the catalyst for me going natural, and I hope she knows how thankful I truly am to her.

I am no longer scared to play in my own hair. I can actually do stuff with my own hair (when I am not lethargic), I am learning, and have learned, loads about my hair.

I will always be grateful to both Cherilyn and Margie. Both really sweet, down to earth people that helped me with what I needed hair-wise, when I needed it.

I have to do better!

Published March 30, 2011 | By K Leslie

Because I am unemployed, and I don't leave the house ~~EVER~~ very often, my hair care gets tossed by the wayside. I'll go a week without detangling (which is death with my hair texture), I'll try to make sure there is moisture in my hair. But even that falls by the wayside as seen in these photos I took last night.

slothiness at its finest.

Don't know if you can tell from the photo, but my hair is a HOT MESS. It's dry, it's just ugh. When I do have to go out to go to the library or get ~~cupcakes to feed my addiction~~ groceries, luckily the weather in Indiana is freaking crazy. It got up to almost 70 at one point last week. Today though, it is supposed to snow. We won't talk about that though. It will make my eye twitch and start to water. Anyway, it is cold enough so that I can wear a hat. So I stuff said hot mess under a hat and go.

NO MORE I SAY!!!

After taking these pictures last night, I decided to get proactive (the action, not the skin system) again. Before I went to bed, I slathered on coconut oil as a pre-poo. That is a start.

While I am talking about pre-poo, I have a question for you that deep condition overnight. Do you wear the plastic baggie caps overnight!? I can't do it. the "crinkle crinkle" sound drives me batty. As well as the feel of it. I tried to do it last week. I put on that awful cap and put my satin cap over it. Just walking around with it on makes me shudder in revulsion. Look at this face!!

Plastic caps = this

If you are like me, and can't stand it, what do you do to deep condition your hair. I would love a hutiful hair steamer, but that is like a Christmas present or something. I can't just drop money like that. I'm unemployed. We are on a budget .

The house is a disaster and the dogs (two chihuahuas) are getting into fights, so I must dash now. But before I go, I wanted to show you some music that I have been digging on lately. It is a group called Ahmir, and they remake songs. I found them on Youtube initally, and quite frankly, you have to be damn good for me to purchase your music. They are damn good. Check em out.

Here is a little taste of them:

This features Traphik AKA Timothy Delaghetto.

Other Natural Hairs

Published March 28, 2011 | By K Leslie

What are some of your favorite natural hair blogs? What are some of your favorite blogs period?

School, Accessories, and Hair Length.

Published March 23, 2011 | By K Leslie

First off, a non-hair note: I had to go to school yesterday. I know that is an odd statement, seeing as how I am IN school, but 99% of my classes this semester are currently online. Let me back up a second. This semester I am at two schools. The majority of my classes are at IUPUI. All of these classes are online. I got lucky this semester with that. I hate physically going to class. Let us also not forget that I am a computer information technology major, which means I generally get stuck in classes that include only guys. Last semester I had a class of all girls, but it was an English course I needed for the technical communication certificate that want to get.

However, Math 153 and I have been having issue at IUPUI. I discovered that Ivy Tech has a comparable class. Plus it transfers over to IUPUI. So I am taking it there. I went to Ivy Tech for my associates degree, so I knew what to expect. It has been a bumpy ride over there. The administration is kind of horrible. But I just need this class and one more math class (which I plan to take online) and I am done there. FOREVER!!!

Anyway, I had to go up to IUPUI yesterday for a couple of reasons.

There is a job fair next week, and I want to go. However, I have only been to one job fair in my life. Said job fair was not hiring for IT positions. Boo. Plus, I didn't really know how to act or what to do at a job fair. This clarified a lot for me. Shout out to Laura Bernal in the Academic and Career development area of IUPUI for hosting that. Needed it!
I had an appointment with my academic advisor to get my classes set up for summer and fall semester. Shout out to Danny King who worked my schedule like a champ! He kind of looks like Bobby Flay...except Bobby Flay's eyes are like a washed out denim blue. Danny King's are bright blue. I digress

Anyway, come to find out, I GRADUATE MAY OF 2012!!! I am almost there people! Then we shall party like it is 1999. Or, if you were in my 9th grade French class, we shall party like it is mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf!!!!! I may go back for my masters one day. But for now, my bachelors IS IT!!!

So, my friend Melissa, has an Etsy shop located here. She is a crocheter (like me), but unlike me, she has put her talents to use. Recently she has learned how to make hair accessories, Like this cute crochet flower

She will add either an alligator clip or a barrette for you, making this the perfect hair accessory. Gotta love it! While she only has the one flower in her shop, she is making more, and if you message her, she can customize flowers for you. She also can make a rose, which shows you how much I know about flowers, as I thought this was a rose. She also does crocheted hair kerchiefs, and scrunchies, which I think would be really good to pineapple your hair with.Melissa can also crochet the flowers onto a headband! So stop by, say hi, and let her know I sent you!

Each day I am noticing more and more how much longer my hair is getting. It has been a long time coming. In November of last year when my hair got chopped it was SHORT.

My beautician put my hair in these cute little coils, She was trying so hard to make sure I didn't cry I think. I didn't do short hair. At all. Usually anytime anyone came near me to cut my hair, I cried.

Now, I am here:

Sorry they are of poor quality, they are off my phone.

I can't wait to see where my hair goes from here!

Death.

Published March 16, 2011 | By K Leslie

There has been a death in my family. I will return to write in a couple of weeks.

First day of the challenge.

Published March 10, 2011 | By K Leslie

Last night I did not pre-poo. I just didn't have time. I have been kind of running ragged making sure the house is in decent condition for my dad. It is, with the exception of my desk. My desk looks like a bomb blew up on it. That won't be helped until after the semester is over.

Today though I pre-poo'd/ deep conditioned my hair using coconut oil, and put one of those plastic baggie hair things over my head. I have hated those things since I was a kid. They irritate me badly. But I kept it on for a couple hours as I did homework, answered e-mails and did laundry. I forgot my husband told me that the people were coming over to clean the gutters and I actually answered the door in that thing. Poor guy.

I showed and conditioned as I usually do, and took a little bit of time to detangle my hair.

Now? My hair feels really soft. It felt softer than it normally does after I get out of the shower. Maybe there is something to this after all.

Flat twists and coconut oil.

Published March 9, 2011 | By K Leslie

Since my gel problem has been solved, I needed to find a hair style that I wanted to try. I keep flashing back to my relaxed hair days and my unruly attempts as styling my own hair. I can't wield a curling iron if my life depending on it. I always got this really weird dent in the end of my hair. I never really had any creativity as far as styling my relaxed hair.

Because of this, I am leery of trying anything over the top or over dramatic with my hair to start out with. I think my first order of business is going to be doing flat twists in the front of my head. I will take pics and show you how everything goes. If I end up doing it well, I will make a youtube video of it.That is kind of where I learned the technique, but all the videos I went to were really low quality. I have decent camera equipment here, so maybe I can do a better one.

In other hair related news, I have decided to join the Coconut Oil Challenge over at Hairlista's Inc. I am incredibly late to the party (it started in November of last year) But it can't hurt. The rules are simple(taken from the site):

-Deep condition or prepoo with EVCO at least 2x a wk. You can do this however it works for you, you can condition w/ heat or w/out before you wash, you can do a hot oil treatment and keep it in overnight, you can also use the plastic cap and steam effect overnight with this if you'd like.

-Moisturize with your moisturizer of choice and seal with EVCO nightly or however often your hair desires it.

-After washing hair use EVCO as a leave in** Caution- use just enough to lightly cover hair, becareful not to use too much, maybe a dime size amount**

I can do that, easy peasy.I already use coconut oil as a prepoo. I think I am going to go ahead and start tonight. If you end up joining the challenge, please let me know! We can be friends on Hairlista. I don't know much about the site, I am slowly exploring it.

You guys have a great evening!

Feeling accomplished this morning.

Published March 7, 2011 | By K Leslie

Hey guys.

I hope your weekend was stellar. Mine started out with the intent to pamper myself, but I just didn't get the time. If you follow me on twitter (@mrsckugs) I had pre-pooed my natural hair with coconut oil, and I was going to deep condition, detangle and attempt to style my hair. None of that came to pass really. I was just too busy. I had school work, my dad is coming for a visit, so I had to get the craft room presentable so that he had some where to stay.

In hair news, something kind of exciting is happening in Indianapolis! They are having a natural hair workshop! Here is the link for the information: http://indianapolisnaturalhair.eventbrite.com/
One thing I am not keen on is the price. I will probably go, but 35 dollars seems a bit steep. That is probably just me though. Any of you that have attended these workshops before, please let me know if it is all in my mind. A twitter friend of mine and I were talking about attending together. And we once again grumbled together about the price.

Something that both my husband and I noticed the other day. When I got out the shower, with my dripping wet hair, he gaffawed and told me I am the proud owner of a mullet. Not cool dude.

You can't really see it well, but you get the point.

The longer my hair gets, the more mullited (yeah i made that up) it looks. But it only looks like that after I have gotten out of the shower. Once it has been styled, you can't really tell, but it bothers me just a tiny bit.

In other news, I finally have Gel! I met a friend at Justice to get my ~~crack~~ Girl Scout Cookies and right next door is a Sally's beauty supply. They were having a sale on Eco Styler Gel. So I got the one with Olive oil in it. Now I need to find a cute hair style that I want to do.. and possibly some time in which to do that hair style.

This was the fun part of my day. Now I must go and work on Math, as I have a test tonight, and it is making me want to bang my head against a wall. A WALL PEOPLE!!! I hope you are having a great day and a great hair day!