08.27.08

The ups and down

Posted in at 7:22 pm by queent

Some days its hard…

This was me on a Sunday evening at a local sport bar with some of the ladies from my book club group. TnE
We we’re a group of women ranging from our early twenties to early forties, attractive, dressed from going to the club to just chillin’ on a Sunday afternoon. The sport’s bar is one of the city more known sports bars and reputedly draws in a 20 – 35 black crowd on Sundays. On this Sunday I was amazed by the actions of guys there toward some of my girls and I. my brothers really need to rediscover what it is to try to respectfully get a woman’s attention.

Without going in to all of the details of all of the disrespect and lack of appreciation for my natural ‘do, I’ll just say unless a man/boy is looking to see me ‘forget that I’m a 5’5” lil woman and you’re a little boy in a grown man’s body’ and proceed to try to come at you like we’re not 5 steps away from HPD, quoting Lil Wayne’s line “long hair, short hair, don’t care” is probably not the best idea in the world.

Fortunately some days its not so hard, and its days like this one: SaviMommy3rdgrade
that are a demonstration that a natural ‘do is still appreciated. When I left the house this morning, my sweetie told me what I was wearing was a good look on me. At work I had a number of (non-black)people stop to compliment me, which is always nice. However when the lil ole (non-black) lady stopped me in the bookstore to tell me that she saw me walking through the parking lot and had to tell me how pretty I looked, I was flattered and amazed and saddened just a little. Of course the compliments made my day (hey what woman doesn’t appreciate a compliment) but it saddened me that I was viewed as that dull, hippie chick at the sports bar, but in the real world I was viewed simply as a well put together woman.

Another day, another journey…

Permalink Comments

07.31.08

Ever hear of a word called ‘Service’?

Posted in natural at 10:32 am by queent

I emailed Oyin Handmade on July 23rd to ask about the Shea Butter that I was supposed to receive with my sampler pack. I got an automated response from them immediately letting me know that it should take about 2- 3 days before they can response. Ok, no big deal I thought. I understand businesses, even small ones are busy. It’s been over a week and I still haven’t received a response. I will NOT be making another purchase of anything from them every again. I don’t care how good your products work or smell or anything else, customer service precedes all of that and theirs is awful.

Permalink Comments

07.24.08

This is what I call a productive lunch

Posted in at 1:38 pm by queent

blender

Hamilton Beach hand blender - $20 at Walmart

headband

Stretchy headbands - on sale $1.69 for 3 at Walgreens

market

Discovering a new herbal store right near my house

Permalink Comments

07.23.08

A little behind, but here

Posted in at 2:09 pm by queent

I’ve been thinking about writing but man I’ve been busy as always. I need a clone! I need to take some recent pictures. My hair is really growing and I’m so happy. But it’s starting to move into that weird stage right now where its not that cute short do, but its not anywhere being long, so it’s a twa that Im not all that in love with. In love with the ease of care, just not the overall look. So I’m considering twisting it up for a lil bit to let it grow. We’ll see, I’m still tossing the idea around in my head. It’s been a challenge to find stylists that focus on natural hair care. Tameka is great, but she’s booked out pretty much six months out; so is Monique. I’m gonna have my sweetie see if maybe one of them can fit me in sometime but in the meantime I’m on the hunt for my first natural hair care stylist.

Let see what else is new? I whipped up a batch of the moisturizer I’d wanted to make about 2 weeks ago. When it was done, I wasn’t happy with the consistency of it. It’s really solid and a little more oily than I expected. So I’m going to whip it to make it more like a body butter, that why it’ll be a little more pliable. I haven’t made the time or effort to pick up a stick blender to finally get it done. Maybe I’ll stop on the way home today or on lunch tomorrow and grab one. Goodness knows my face could use it. While we talking about my face, I’d read up on the Accutane side effects pretty well…or so I thought. I discovered the very hard way this weekend that while on Accutane, you cannot get any kind of facial skin anything done; this includes waxing. I had zebra stripes on my face Sunday and Monday of healing skin (scabs!) and yes I went to work like this. Thank God I’m not an overly vain woman or I would’ve been self conscious all day. By yesterday the scabs had peeled mostly away on their own and I removed what was left (I wouldn’t have touched them if they were sticking to my face in anyway, I certainly don’t want to do anymore scarring to my face!) Lesson learned: no waxing or facials or scrubbing of any kind until at least a month after I stop treatment.

My Oyin products FINALLY came. I’ll tell you, I was not happy with their delivery time at all. A little over three weeks total from time of order to redelivery at my door. So I really was ready to use it and keep searching for something good. Then I used the products. I don’t love everything, but I like it all.

Let me break down each sampler:

Hair care Sampler:

Honey Hemp Conditioner – I love this conditioner. It’s not as thick as the leave in I had been using before which leaves my hair less heavy and ultimately dries faster
Greg Juice leave-in spray – I don’t have any feelings either way about this except it smells good. My hair demands liquids every day, lots of it and I’d blow through this product far too fast for it to be worth my money. It says it can be combined with water, but I don’t really see the point for doing that. Water works just fine for me.
Shine & Define coaxing serum – This is a good product when my hair is dry and I’m looking to boost the shine a lil bit. It’s suppose to be good for hold, like twists and whatnot so I honestly haven’t had an opportunity to use this for its uses. I’m going to store it in the fridge for later use and reevaluate later.
Whipped Pudding – This is so amazing, it’s truly my favorite. First of all it smells amazing, and not just an immediate out the jar smell. All day long, I can still smell my hair. Now that’s in combination with the conditioner because that smells pretty good too, but this stuff right here make you edible. Secondly, it’s a great hair AND body moisturizer. It’s got the perfect amount of moisture and its perfectly whipped. I’ll be a long time customer for this alone. Bad shipping and all. .

Oyin Body Set:

Honey Wash – Another favorite of mine for the dual reasons of the Whipped Pudding. It smells fantastic and it’s a great body wash and shampoo. I don’t wash my hair often, about every two weeks, but when I do, it gets my hair clean but not feeling devoid of all moisture.
After Bath – I like this especially the smell and it’s good for me because of the Accutane drying my skin out, I can seal in moisture with this. It’s an oil though so of course it’s oily…lol I think it’ll make a great massage oil, and I haven’t yet used it as a hot oil treatment on my hair so I haven’t yet given it enough of a shot.
Whipped Shea – So doing this evaluation made me realize I didn’t even receive this product. I’m not happy about that realization either. While I will continue to use Oyin because of the products I love, I am about to contact them about this right now.

Over all, I’d still recommend trying them because the products really are good, however I hope to see a little improvement in shipping and delivery. That’s all folks; I really will post a little more soon. I’ll have some pictures shortly because man has it grown!

Permalink 2 Comments