Helping out

Vidal ain’t got nothing on him.

 

Around September of last year I attempted my first (and last) braidout. My husband helped to braid my hair, and after showing him one time how to braid, he proceeded to braid better than I could. I should have known it wasn’t a fluke.

Saturday I decided that I needed to go to the bowels of hell (aka Wal-Mart) get get some headbands. I tend to lose mine. He was hungry so we decided to eat while we were out.

My hair was twisted up, and I needed to untwist it. He wasn’t doing anything but watching a bad 1980’s movie, so I enlisted his help. “This will go much faster and get us out of the house sooner if you help.” He asked me what to do. I told him to just untwist them. “Do I untwist them all the way?” I was kind of confused by his question, but told him yes. He sat there and quietly and gently untwisted the back of my hair while I did the front. I got finished before him and just sat there and waited. “I’m finished.” I went to the mirror to go check. Dear God in heaven. He untwisted each twist, and spread the hair evenly over my head so that my afro was freaking adorable!

My husband is a 28 (almost 29) white male who never touched a head of hair on an African American woman before me. I just look at him sometimes, amazed at what he does. He just tells me “I’m just good with my hands.” I keep telling him that if he ever gets sick of being a network engineer, he should go to school to be a beautician. He just rolls his eyes at me and goes back to his movie while I get dressed.

I love this man.

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My hair after he got finished with it!

From the bottom of my heart.

 

 

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I wanted to thank each and every one of you that took my survey last month. You gave me a lot of great insight that I will be able to use to make this blog greater, as well as craft it into an independent study project. I am one of the smaller natural hair blogs on the web, but I am growing with all of your help. I appreciate every single one of you that stops by to read. I am truly humbled by the response that I received.

*group hug!*

 

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Helping out a friend.

Hi everyone. This, is my friend Shannon

(I had to put a pic on here with her drinking pepsi! LOL)

Shannon is a transitioning natural. She usually wears sew-ins or braids. She has straightened her hair twice in 9 months. The other day she got bold and decided to attempt a twistout. Something didn't go according to plan. 
In Shannon's own words:
"My hair was damp, I used water and a conditioner mix with the TCB Naturals hair and scalp conditioner." 
This was the result of the twistout:
How she ended up wearing it:
And this is how her hair turned out looking by the time she made it to work:
Yeah, wow.
Shannon and I both took a good look at her hair (well, as good of a look as I can take from pics..she lives in NY, I am in Indiana) and her curl pattern when she is natural is slight. She is more wavy than anything. So, I am asking you my Naturalistas, to help a sista out! What can Shannon do to produce a better twistout? This is the TCB Product she used. I know nothing about this. Do you think it is the way she twisted? Is it the products? Do twistouts not work well on wavy hair? Let us know!

Hair products and Helping with Leukemia and Lymphoma

Well, that is an odd title isn't it? I mean, even for me it seems a little out of place doesn't it? Normally you would be right, but today that is not the case. On Twitter (or The Twittah as I refer to it) I follow the trend #naturalhair.
That is where I met some of my readers and I also read interesting things that people are doing to their natural hair.
One day there was a post about getting sample sizes of products inexpensively. I contacted the person and they explained to me what was going on.

Shonika Griffin and her twin sister Rashida make up the team PB&J for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. They chose the unique way of selling product samples to raise money for their cause. I immediately ordered. 11 years ago I had an incredibly close friend pass away from Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I was 17. She was 19. I know how devastating these diseases can be and was eager to help their cause.

In that vein, I wanted to do an interview with Shonika. This was a unique fundraiser, and the way she was getting attention to her cause was unique as well. She agreed to answer the questions that I e-mailed to her.

1. Why did you pick this charity? 

We chose the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) for a few reasons


a. There was a bone marrow drive held in 2009 in the city (NYC) for a little 6 year old girl named Jasmina Anema. She was one of the only African-Americans that we had ever heard of having Leukemia. When she passed in January 2010, it really struck a chord with us.

b. We were on a mission to get healthy. We started running, but didn't really know anything about form, stretching, clothing, etc. LLS had a program called Team In Training that helped train people for endurance events. We thought that was great! We could get more fit and also run for a reason. So we signed up to run our first half marathon (13.1 miles)

We are running in honor of 5 beautiful ladies, including Jasmina

> 2. I think it is a great idea selling the sample sizes of the hair products. It gives us product junkies a chance to try out different things without breaking the bank. How did this idea come along?

 Now there are so many different products out there for us natural haired Divas. But even a sample size can run you as much as $6.00 and that's not including taxes and S&H. Who wants to decide between eating or buying one 2oz sample size? We thought this would give people a chance to sample a few different products without breaking the bank. With that same $6.00 you can get as many as 6 different products with us. And it all benefits a wonderful cause!

> 3.

 Who is (or are if they're multiples) your partner in helping you? How did you guys meet up? 


My partner is my twin sister, Rashida. She's my best friend. I didn't think it was possible, but training for this event together has brought us even more closer. When one of us feels like giving up, the other is right there to lift you up. It's a beautiful thing to have someone who is just as passionate and competitive as you are!! We always stick together (hence our nickname Team PB&J)
> 4.

 Do you have a website I can send people to? One where they can either donate or sign up for products that they would like? 


To make a donation, please visit our fundraising websites. Mine is www.tinyurl.com/shonikasanfran. My sister's is www.tinyurl.com/rashidasanfran. To order products, simply email us at shonikagriffin@optonline.net or rashidalgriffin@yahoo.com


You guys, this is a great cause. It is also a great way to try different products without having to shell out a ton of money. I hope that you guys will give Shonika and Rashida a ring....or an email.. You know what I mean. 
Tell them Leslie sent you. 🙂