I am in love with his art work, it is familiar yet original with the contemporary nature he presents his subjects. It is fresh with shape, he is a true talent that presents a complexity of emotions in his portraits. His art is delivered unprocessed by popular culture, organic in its appearance, I do look forward to his future work. This is one of his current series of art and he currently resides in London, England with his family, to see more of his work please visit him here.
BlackHair magazine is a UK based publication which covers a variety of hair styles including natural hair care and mixes modern and classic styles to produce fresh ideas. I will be subscribing to see what they have on the other side of the Atlantic, to visit them click here.
She is fierce and her features are magnetic and unforgettable with her signature TWA. Alek Wek was discovered in London in 1995 after fleeing her birthplace of Sudan in 1991 as civil war erupted. She has been modeling since the age of eighteen and is still as fierce as when she first started. She has modeled and has done campaigns with Issay Miyake, Moschino, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Ann Taylor, Ermanno Scervino, Saks Fifth Avenue, Victoria Secret, Nars and Clinique to name a few.
This journey has been so rewarding, I love my hair. It amazes me all the time of the shrinkage, the deceiving way it looks when braided and the volume I get when I set it free! The growth, the way it knots in on its self (yes I take the rewards with challenges), its natural sheen and the stares I get when I wear my crown and glory in public. At work most of my sister-colleagues have natural hair! I started noticing this a few months ago, I see locs and lose hair all over the place. Even if they wear weaves, wigs and braids, or flat iron their hair it is natural or partially natural which is a step in the right direction.
This was birthed through my frizzy hair that the Curls Ecstacy Tea Conditioner gave me! Thank God for inginuity! Last night while going through my stash I remembered that I had the Aubrey Organics Island Naturals Replenishing Conditioner. This conditioner is good as a deep conditioner but not as good as the Honeysuckle Rose, it is not as moisturizing but has amazing slip so I took an empty 4 oz bottle with a flip applicator and got to work. The results were great, my mixture smoothed, moisturized and defined.
I found a half empty bottle of the conditioner in one of my closets and set out to use it up so that I can get rid of any extra products laying around.
An essential way to maintain the strength and beauty of our hair is protein. It is present in numerous conditioners, and classic home made recipes.
I love to see Black Love, especially between a man and woman that embrace natural hair styles. It's so organic and free of gimmicks. Many of my 'natural hair' friends are in stable loving relationships and my single friends meet great men all the time. I didn't know what to expect when I decided to go natural but I am pleasantly surprised at the gorgeous men that love women who wear their hair natural! My experience with black men is that many of them enjoy having a woman with natural hair since he is able to see her true beauty and trust me men look at things like that, LOL!Happy Growing,
L
Natalie
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Over the past few weeks I have really embraced a minimalist approach to hair care although I'm still working on my routine and learning what my hair likes and dislikes, wow, it really is a journey. As 2009 approaches I'll be going into my third year natural with natural and organic products for the most part and some products that I still love for those sometimes occasions, I can't help myself. Over the weekend I bought Artisana Raw Organic Coconut Butter for my ends, this sounds delicious more so than the coconut oil. I will be writing a review on it over the next few months. Right now during the winter months my Kariderm Organic Shea Butter is really doing a great job.
My hair is really growing, I know I said I'll be posting pics so please be patient. Last week I put my hair up in a puff and it was puffing real nicely. A nice sized puff might I add. I'm lovin' my natural hair, what took me so long?
The holiday season means family, friends, good food, parties, being thankful and reflection. It is also the time to polish ourselves for the many social events planned. Grooming our eyebrows is a great way to frame and define our features and to polish up our look. I prefer to tweeze my eyebrows. Tweezerman really gets the job done and I swear by them for catching every hair and delivery well defined eyebrows. For the holiday season Tweezerman has just introduced special holiday edition tweezers to help us get in the festive mood.
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If you don't know who this is than let me introduce you to Oluchi. If you are still not familiar she is a Nigerian born model, who has worked in the industry for over a decade. Most times when she is photographed her hair is styled straight, so I was pleased to see her rocking a 'fro. She has worked with industry elites including i-D, Italian Vogue, Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Allure and has done numerous campaigns with Banana Republic, Victoria Secret, Gianfranco Ferré, Gap, Express and Ann Taylor. Visit her official site here.
I have talked about this product quite a few times but have never reviewed it before. This product is amazing and for the most part when someone uses it they agree. It is very concentrated and thick in consistency. This product can be used as a pre-treatment, moisturizer, scalp butter, body butter, and night treatment. I use this product primarily as a moisturizer and if my hair needs a little extra moisture I add some at night as a night treatment and wake up with well moisturized hair! I love this product, It's the real deal and works amazing on most kynky, coily, and curly hair textures. During the summer it is too heavy for my fine strands so I've discovered the Burdock Root Butter Cream also from QB, this is a great line of products.
A product that is multi-purpose gets me excited and this one is! It is a great pre-shampoo treatment, conditioning agent, styling product, and detangler all in one. When I first used this product I applied it section by section and combed for even distribution and I noticed my hair detangled sooo easily. My hair was also well conditioned and shiny, this is a great product.
I was surprised when I first used this conditioner for my co-wash. It has a thin consistency compared to most of the conditioners I use so I wasn't expecting anything spectacular but still was willing to give it a try. First it has a herbal-perfume scent that may be too much for someone that is scent sensitive and I did notice that because of its thin consistency it was messy, I guess I have to find a technique to keep my bathroom clean when I use it.
The term product junky is used so often to describe someone that has what I would view as an obsession with hair products in an attempt to find the perfect product or combination of products that will deliver "perfect" hair everytime, this miracle product is never found. The product junky never wins since they always think their is a better product or that the latest products will cure their search for perfect hair but that day never comes.
Hair Strengthener
To all the Miss Jessie's addicts www.naturallycurly.com is having a sale on all Miss Jessie's products. Buy one and get one free, you dont have to include an extra product they will automatically add in your freebie of the same product ordered, have fun shopping!
I have been using neem oil for the past 3 weeks and let me first say it stinks, the smell is annoying and unfortunately I can't describe the smell better or compare it to something that is familiar. When you use the oil the smell penetrates anything it touches so wear old clothing and use a towel or face cloth that is worn.
One of the main concerns naturals have is frizz. I know all about it and here are a few tips that will help reduce frizz from your hair:
I love red on lips and I love to play it up especially during fall and winter. It is a classic colour that works well with just about any hairstyle and easily moves with you from casual to formal dress attire . I thought I'd show you some products in my make up drawer. My favourite red lipstick is Ravishing Red by IMAN and my favourite lip gloss in red is High Drama also from IMAN, with these I'm good to go. I choose reds that have golden to neutral undertones, I have a caramel golden complexion so these red tones compliment my skin well. If you have a chocolate to deep complexion cool to neutral reds work well with your skin colour, a wash of red like High Drama from IMAN and Benetint Lip Balm from Benefit are great. For a lipstick try Guerlain Kiss Kiss Extreme in Rouge Infini 120. For olive to light skin tones try a neutral red like MAC Russian Red. Neutral to orange undertones compliment this range of skin colour, some other reds worth noting are:
I just bought a jar of shea butter for 20 bucks from my local health food store. Why? Well, first I researched the distribution of shea butter and not all shea butter can be trusted as pure and organically grown. I chose Kariderm Shea Butter because it is Canadian owned, they import their own shea butter eliminating a third party, you will pay two and a half times more on average but the retail price incorporates Kariderm's standards of high quality shea butter that it asks of its partners. Also, they ethically produce their products with the women of Burkina Faso, the women of the Songtaaba women’s association (www.songtaaba.net). These women are guaranteed better working conditions and higher wages for their work. Their are many projects in process at any given time that focus on hygiene, production and development of new products.
I'm bad, real real bad, I have to admit that I used the Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose Conditioner again and I LOOOOOVE it. I clarified 3 weeks in a row before using the shampoo and conditioner to get rid of all the build up and I have seen an improvement in the condition of my hair. I bought the Honeysuckle Rose shampoo to use with the conditioner and they are amazing. All I have to say is clarify, clarify, clarify before using all-natural and organic products. The conditioner is not suppose to be used as a co-wash on my hair. If you remember I ranted about this product a month ago. I was on the no-poo trial and after weeks of build up I tried to do a co-wash with it, bad move. Now I know, I'll do better, and I also got the Island Naturals shampoo and conditioner from Aubrey Organics which I will review for sure. 
