Royal Crown Blowdried Hair

A precursor before starting my yarn braids.

Morning Inspiration 10.28.11

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive the week.

If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75 percent of the world.

If you have money in the bank or in your wallet, you are among the top 80 percent of the worlds wealthy.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

Author Unknown

Morning Inspiration 10.27.11

To find what you seek in the road of life,

the best proverb of all is that which says:

"Leave no stone unturned."

Edward Bulwer Lytton

• What does this quote resonate in you?
• Are you searching for that one thing that fulfills you?
• Have you searched high and low and still can’t seem to place your hands on it?

Consider the above quote ~ Now ask yourself
  “What stone have I bypassed because it wasn’t large enough?”

As you travel your life’s journey looking under, over and around every large stone for that chance of a dream fulfilled, stop to look under the small stones too.  There you may unearth the seed of your dreams just waiting for you to uncover, plant and nourish it to grow as a mighty oak tree.

The Oak Tree

by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr.

A mighty wind blew night and day.

It stole the Oak Tree's leaves away.

Then snapped its boughs

and pulled its bark

until the Oak was tired and stark.

But still the Oak Tree held its ground

while other trees fell all around.

The weary wind gave up and spoke,

"How can you still be standing Oak?"

The Oak Tree said, I know that you

can break each branch of mine in two,

carry every leaf away,

shake my limbs and make me sway.

But I have roots stretched in the earth,

growing stronger since my birth.

You'll never touch them, for you see

they are the deepest part of me.

Until today, I wasn't sure

of just how much I could endure.

But now I've found with thanks to you,

I'm stronger than I ever knew.

Am I a Grammar Nazi?

Good Grammar vs. Bad & Slang



This is really a huge pet peeve of mine. Where should the line be drawn?  Now let me first say that I'm not perfect in this arena, but I strive to speak and write in accordance with the "arena" I'm in without overusing the ever popular slang talk.  Am I alone in this frame of thought?  I think NOT!

Just this morning I was reading some tweets and one in particular caught my attention so I clicked on over to read the referenced article.  I thought "WOW, this is so true.  I'll retweet it when I'm done.", but then I noticed a grammar error.  No problem, its minor.  Then another, and another.....STOP....I can't retweet this because it has too many grammar errors.  I decided that I would instead TWEET about my annoyance with the use of bad grammar and in the process, before I could post, I came across another tweet from AdviceToWriters with a quote admonishing us to:

Read Bad Stuff  Source: http://www.advicetowriters.com/home/2011/10/25/read-bad-stuff.html       

"If you are going to learn from other writers don’t only read the great ones, because if you do that you’ll get so filled with despair and the fear that you’ll never be able to do anywhere near as well as they did that you’ll stop writing. I recommend that you read a lot of bad stuff, too. It’s very encouraging. “Hey, I can do so much better than this.” Read the greatest stuff but read the stuff that isn’t so great, too. Great stuff is very discouraging."

EDWARD ALBEE

Did I just get "served"???  -->>
             SMH = Shaking My Head




Well, not completely, but enough to make me reconsider my TWEET.  The quote above is really about challenging those of us who choose to write, whether professionally or casually, to broaden our scope of reading in order to learn, not just from the masters of writing, but those that are up and coming "masters" as well. 

 I recall reading a few articles about this very subject over the years, did some online researching and found one in particular that I enjoyed.  This article, The Importance of Good Spelling and Grammar, sums up my viewpoint pretty well and gives some great examples.

In closing, 6 Things to remember and consider when writing and speaking, whether it be for a web site, a blog (business or personal), posting on FaceBook, Twitter or even the casual YouTube video poster:

1. Know your audience.
2. Appeal to the masses and not your own personal style when it's going to be public.
3. Use slang AND "texting abbreviations" in moderation.
4. Proof read.
5. Proof read (again).
6. Have someone else PROOF READ your writing before posting if possible.  :-)

Feel free to comment and voice your thoughts on this subject! [or even point out a typo or error :-) , I'd appreciate it and correct it.]



Natural Hair Old School Style: Royal Crown Grease

2nd Use Twist-Out

The latest craze for some in the natural hair world right now is twist-outs done with Royal Crown Hair Dressing (grease).  Is there some sort of "magic" to it's use with regard to twist-outs? Can the results be recreated with other products? Does it improve the curl definition? Should you even use "grease" in your hair?  I personally got the idea from a fellow blogger and YouTuber "jcokes7" better known as CoilyHeadChick and decided to give it a try. 

My first attempt using the RC grease was on hair that had reverted from being blown out and flat-ironed and had several other products already in my hair.  I simply moistened my hair with a water-mix I created with some SheaMoisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie and water. The results were nice.  My hair was soft, however, because I did it so late at night, it wasn't completely dry when I got up in the morning.  No worries though, I rocked it out.  (See below)

1st Twist-Out with Royal Crown Hairdressing (grease)

As you can see the definition wasn't as well defined, but does the definition come from the grease anyway?  Unlike the second attempt I actually separated the untwisted twists to get more fullness and coverage since I did the twists rather big for my personal liking. (27 to be exact)

2nd Twist-Out with Royal Crown Hairdressing (grease)

Immediately after Untwisting, without separating

After coming home from church, 5-hours later.

After church -- It was a little windy.

My second attempt was done from freshly shampooed hair with SheaMoisture Restorative Conditioner as a leave-in and Royal Crown Hairdressing.  I was a little concerned that it wouldn't be dry again, but it was and the results were absolutely BEAUTIFUL!  My only complaint is the pointy-straight ends in the front section of my hair.  That's always an issue for MY hair though and not related to the RC at all.   I didn't separate the untwisted hair in order to help the style last longer without re-twisting at night.

So let's answer my original questions:

Is there some sort of "magic" to it's use with regard to twist-outs? 

No

Can the results be recreated with other products? 

In short, "Yes"!  There are many other styling products on the market to assist with curl definition, but by far the price of the Royal Crown Hairdressing beats them all.  So when you want to be a budget conscious consumer, there are some old school products still on the market that will tickle your fancy if you give them a try.  :-)

Does it improve the curl definition? 

I would say "yes" and "no" to this question.  First, I would say "no" because in and of itself I don't believe it improves curl definition.  On the other hand, and this is from my own experience, is to say "yes" because what this product does do, due to it's thick consistency, is help to hold the individual strands of hair together to keep the "frizzy" look away.

Should you even use "grease" in your hair?

The use of hair grease on our hair dates back many, many years.  For most of us, our mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmother's etc. used hair grease.  However, in this more modern time and knowledge about product ingredients "natural hair wearers" tend to stay away from all types of hair greases.  Your choice to use it or not should depend solely on your own personal preferences and experience in what works for YOUR hair.

I will certainly continue to use "grease" in my hair, although, I have another hair grease I plan to go back to using on a regular basis so stay tuned for that in the near future.

These results are specific to me, let me know how it works for you.

PEACE, LOVE & HAIR GREASE! 

Finally getting serious about blogging!

I've been talking about starting a blog for quite some time.  There were some things holding me back though.

• Fear
• Time
• Lack of Clarity

Why Fear?  As easy going as I am and can be with friends and strangers alike, I'm no different than most in my desire to not make a mistake or just plain old look like a "fool" in front of folks.  Those that are closest to me know that I strive for perfection in the things that matter the most to me so I didn't want to start this journey of blogging and fail.

Time, or lack thereof, has been and will continue to be an issue for me because I can, and usually do, always find other things to fill my time.  But more importantly I didn't have the time to devote to blogging because I was in school.  Though I haven't completed my degree yet circumstances have forced me to take a six-month break from completing my degree.  This upset me greatly, but being a woman of faith, I eventually began to see this as a blessing from God.  There are a lot of things going on in my life right now that I needed to devote time and energy to and if I were still taking classes my stress level would have been through the roof. So...I'll take advantage of this break and get started writing my blog and getting to know you all.

I'm a person with many interests so my lack of clarity isn't a bad thing, it's just in keeping with who I am. A word that I've used to describe myself on more than one occasion is "chameleon".  The definitions I like the best are:

• A person that has the ability to be social with anyone and any setting and still fit in.
• One who has such wide interests they can relate to anyone.

These definitions describe me perfectly and interestingly enough, it was while typing up this post that I decided on the new name for my blog.  While I enjoy time alone, I also enjoy the company of many people who are very diverse in their personalities and social interests. For this reason alone I have had a difficult time determining a focus for my blog and as such, I will keep it as random and varied as my personality. 

I'm sure this blog will be reshaped and refocused over time, but I hope you enjoy the journey with me!  :-)