Giveaway!!!! 32 CANDLES by Ernessa T. Carter

Let's end this month with a great giveaway! The winner of this contest will win the book -  32 CANDLES by Ernessa T. Carter. To read more about the book, go to 32 Candles or check out the video below.

For this contest, tell us about how something in your past changed your life forever. And how that event empowered your and if you use that experience to help you make better decisions today?

The winner will be chosen on November 20, 2010 at 10 pm. When the winner is announced, please check back to see if you have won and follow the instructions to have the prized shipped to you.  Thank you in advance for participating.


To learn more about Ernessa, check out the following links:



RE: Bay Area Natural Hair Gathering

Thank you Cassidy, from Natural Selection Blog, who hosted another wonderful Natural Hair Gathering on Saturday,  October 23, 2010.  Please take a look at the photos below from Saturdays event in Oakland, California.


 
 


 



 
The event was filled with laughter, product swaps, giveaways, great food, and familiar faces from the last gathering in SF.  I met some great people at this event, and heard some inspiring stories about what inspires these beautiful woman to continue to embrace their beautiful natural textures.  I hope to stay in contact with everyone from the gathering and I look forward to the next Natural Hair Gathering event! Thank Cassidy for all of your hard work with putting this events together.

Natural Hair Gathering event tomorrow!!!

The Bay Area Natural Hair Gathering event is tomorrow everyone!!  If your in the area, stop by and meet other naturals in your area.  Here is a reminder notice I received from the event host, Cassidy:

"Just a friendly reminder that the ROCK YOUR NATURAL event is going down in Oakland tomorrow from 2-5pm at Levende East (827 Washington @ 9th).  We'll be having a product swap, nibbles, and hair goodies for all! 

Yes, I know it is raining and still might be tomorrow, but you and I BOTH know that part of the reason its great to have natural hair is because a little bit of precipitation never hurt any natural.  :) Don't let the rain deter you--- come on out tomorrow!  Here's the top ten reasons you should come on out :)

Today is the last day to pay in advance with PayPal (send $12 payment to naturalselectionblog@gmail.com) otherwise its $15 at the door! 

See you all manana! 

Cb"


New Jewelry for Sale!

New Jewelry for Sale on the Naturally Beautiful Hair Website!  Check out the Jewelry for Sale page to see more...  
~ Karen

Very funny video! A must watch... :-)


Totally off topic. But too funny! Watch and share...  ~ Karen


To share this video, check it out on Youtube.

Braided Updo


I washed and braided my hair last week, and wanted the crinkled look. But I wanted to keep my braids in for a while so that my end result style would last longer. Because I had a ton of career related things coming up, I had to figure out how to keep my braids in, but still look professional.  So I sat in the mirror and just started twisting and pinning down my braided loc's. And this is what I came up with. I think it came out well. So here is a cool way to wear your loc's if you want to keep them braided for while.


QuellyRue Designs

Happy Friday everyone!!   What a great way to end the week on Naturally Beautiful Hair Blog with this spotlight on QuellyRue Designs on Etsy. This shop has some cute and colorful designs. To see more, click on the links below -

QuellyRue Designs 
Hand Crochet and Artistic Fancies

Natural Hair Styling DVD Giveaway Winner!!!!

Allyson, Co-Creator of Natural Styling Guide, has chosen a winner for the Natural Hair Styling DVD giveaway contest.

The winner is Joey, aka - Brandingsweets!!  Congratulations. Allyson has forwarded me the DVD, so please email me at naturalhairbeauty@gmail.com with your ship to address, so that I can send you the DVD asap.  Thank you everyone that participated in the contest.

Artist Brianna McCarthy

I have seen Brianna's work off and on for over a year now on the web, and have always really liked how original and unique her drawings are. Beautiful colors, features and emotion in each piece of art work.

"Brianna McCarthy is an artist who works in Trinidad &Tobago. In 2005 she exhibited work as part of the Trinidadian delegation to Venezuela for the Festival of Youth and Students XVI. In 2008 she showed a collection of drawings and paintings in a group exhibition at the Alice Yard in Trinidad and began an ongoing online exhibition of her work at briannamccarthy.blogspot.com. In 2009, her "12 Girls" was presented at Trinidad's Erotic Art Week, at the Brooklyn Bar Gallery. Brianna is currently working on a collaborative project, "Cc: Everybody" with artist, Rodell Warner. Cc:Everybody explores the modern dichotomy and interrelation between our public and private spaces and will be shown in Trinidad Erotic Art Week in July. She is also collaborating with The Cloth Design Company for Trinidad Fashion Week 2010 in May 2010.


Afro-Caribbean women have always been portrayed as strong, long-suffering, exoticised and picturesque beings against a backdrop of poverty, hardship, abuse and/or scorn. The range of emotional experience and expressions of our women in Caribbean art and culture have thus been limited to these circumstances. Her work exposes a new range of depth of expressions and emotions, which for the most part, are non existent in our recorded culture. Hopefully, her faces will add to, and possibly change the perceptions, relations and possibilities we hold for ourselves." - Source
 


To learn more about Brianna, check out her blog Passion.Fruit.

Get Minx!!

Minx nails are the latest thing. Stars like Rhianna, Beyonce, Katy Perry & many more are wearing this cool nail designs on and off stage. 

(pictures source)

On Midwesternfront, there is a great do-it-yourself video, for those of you who want to try and apply your own minx nails at home.  As stated in the video, you can buy designs from various beauty supply stores like Sephora.


And here is another video from Iamfashionweak

Kenya Johnson

I am happy to introduce you to  Kenya Johnson, who is a reader of the Naturally Beautiful Hair blog; has naturally beautiful hair; and is the designer and creator of OhNaturalHairDesigns T-Shirts.   Keyna took the time to write in to tell us about her natural hair -

Q: How long have you been Natural? If you transitioned from process hair to natural hair, what made you want to change?

A: I've been natural since 2007. I've transitioned from super short hair to braids, from wearing a relaxer to natural hair and many styles in between since the early 1990s. I stopped relaxing my hair in 2006 because I knew the chemicals were damaging my hair and scalp. My scalp was constantly flaky and dry and wouldn't respond to anything until I tried a medicated shampoo and stopped relaxing my hair altogether. When my scalp and hair started to look and feel better, I decided to get back to my roots, so to speak. I have been switching from natural hairstyles (two-strand twist outs) and two-strand twists/braids since 2007, and I enjoy the versatility very much. I'm learning more about various products I can use and different techniques to styling my afro/curly-kinky hair.

Q: What has been the most amazing or surprising part of your having natural hair?

A: The most amazing aspect of having natural hair is that it gives me much more freedom than before. With relaxed hair, I was limiting my activities based upon their impact on my hair. Would it rain? Will I sweat a lot? Would the curl fall out? Now, I just go and my hair follows. I'm a dancer with a community group in my city and sweating just comes with the job. Additionally, I have a daughter who is now 5 years old. When she was 3, she told me that she wanted "straight" hair like her friend at pre-school. Because of her, I designed and created a line of t-shirts that I am currently selling and promoting. My website is at http://www.ohnaturaldesigns.com/.

The fact that she inspired my t-shirts gives this little girl so much pride in herself and her beauty. She is bi-racial, and she sees herself in me as I see myself in her. I want to give her positive images of our beauty and self-awareness, and simply by wearing my hair the way I do does just that. She lovingly calls our hair, "crazy hair," and I LOVE that! She currently prefers to wear her hair in two-strand twists every day. When I take her hair out, she loves that it looks like mine does. For me, that's amazing.

Q:  What is your maintenance routine? What products do you love?

A:  My routine is the following: I wash my hair every 7-10 days with shampoo or just conditioner. I put two-strand twists in my hair every 2-3 days using water, Carol's Daughter Mimosa Hair Honey and Tui Jojoba and Shea Butter Hair Sheen for moisturizing and twisting product. I also use Pantene cleansing shampoo and Carol's Daughter Mint Rosemary shampoo.

Q:  What advice do you have for any one that is considering going back to their natural texture or getting their hair loc'd?

A:  My advice would be to talk to women who wear natural hairstyles or locs and see what they do to maintain their hair and talk about challenges. I would advise someone to look for the many resources out there (Facebook pages, blogs and websites) and let them know that no one has to do it alone. It's a huge step I believe because so much power has been placed in and on the hair that black women and girls wear. Wearing natural hair is extremely empowering. I would also let them know that trying different products is important to find the right ones for them; the same goes for hair styling techniques.

Q:  How can we keep up with you and your journey (for example: facebook, fotki, tumblr, twitter, and more)?

A:  My t-shirt website is at http://www.ohnaturaldesigns.com/. I tell my story about how I decided to create the t-shirts inspired by my daughter on this website and why the shirts and what they represent are special to me. My goal is to share them with as many women as possible, and I would write about how energizing it is to see that women are truly enjoying my shirts. Here is a video one of my customers created and posted on YouTube.


Kenya Johnson

Oh Natural Designs

Eric Jerome Dickey

I want to give a mention to one of my favorite authors. Eric Jereome Dickey is an amazing writer that gives his characters such amazing life that you feel like each person in the book is real. I have read about 8 of his books and can't wait to read more. Check him out on his website and on facebook:


You can find his books on amazon, book stores and even your local library.