Check out this fantastic review of our hair show in West Bromwich!!  We had such a fantastic time there and thankfully it came across in our presentation.  Thanks to Crystal Afro for the post xxx

~*~

Despite November being a relatively quiet month I’ve been preparing myself for December to be all go!!
With at least 3 natural hair related events to attend, all based outside of London, I really feel like I’m taking on the title of this blog. So as I travel around the UK attempting to unite the Kinkdom, I’ll be reporting back to you.

 

The 1st event by Nature’s Parlour, took place last weekend in West Bromwich (which if you’re a typical Londoner like me meansBirmingham!)
I’d never been to Birmingham before, so I was very excited to have a little look around and then get to meeting some Midlands-based Naturals.

 

 

Nature’s Parlour was created by Xina Brodrick, and in 2007 launched an online store, selling ‘top quality natural hair and skin products’.
Nature’s Parlour stock various natural products, including brands from the US.
(Click here for Nature’s Parlour)

On the day those who attended were able to test, purchase and discuss the products available with Xina before sitting down to a presentation covering some of the essentials about Black hair care.

 

 

Xina began the talk by introducing herself and giving us a incite into her relationship with her hair to date. As a qualified Loctitian and a “Natural Hair Ambassador” (I love that term – finally something that describes what I wana be when I grow up) Xina has a wealth of experience and knowledge about Afro hair and how best to take care of it.

 

 

The presentation covered various topics, including “Why We Have Kinks & Coils”, good and bad products and tools, as well as routines and even tips on transitioning from chemically altered hair back to natural.

Xina is definitely not a fan of petro-chemicals, such as petroleum or mineral oil, and argues that although they can be fine to use in small amounts, why use them when there are so many natural alternatives. As she explains at the beginning of her talk, keeping our hair moisturised with water is essential to having healthy manageable hair. Because petro-chemicals effectively repel water, thus keeping it out, Xina, similarly to many other naturals, argues that they are not beneficial to our hair.

 

 

 

Instead Xina recommends 3 natural oils that are great for sealing in moisture and also penetrating the hair shaft and tells us a few key point we must look out for:

Xina pointed out that Avocado Oil in particular, is especially good for Black hair and skin in the Winter, due to our Vitamin D requirements and it’s high vitamin D content.

(Find out more about Avocado Oil on the Nature’s Parlour website:Click Here)

This made it extra pleasing to find a bottle of Pure Avocado Oil in my goody bag that I received for buying my ticket online.

In fact when I finally sat down on the train back to London and looked in my goody bag, I was very pleased at what it contained, including 2 full sized bottles of Blended Beauty products,Avocado Oil, and a sample of Hibiscus Rose Leave-In Conditioner by TLC Naturals (a new product line by Paige Ellean of the Care 4 Curls Blog, which I’ve read a lot of good reviews about).

 

 

The great thing about Xina’s presentation is that she clearly recognised the different needs of natural hair in locs vs natural hair worn loose, and shared tips specific to each.

I definitely had a great time in Birmingham and wish I could have stayed a little longer as there were many great topics of conversation being discussed before the presentation that I would have loved to continue afterwards, including “Why the preference amongst young people for extensions & weaves and generally straight hair?” and “What’s been lost between the older generations from the Caribbean and the generations that have grown up here – why haven’t the skills of hair care been passed on?”

It was also lovely to see Brummie-based UK Natural Lorien Haywho organised the Midlands Meet-up earlier this year, and to whom I owe a major thank you for giving me a ride back to the station. Thank You xx

*RDB = Refined, Deodorised and Bleached (i.e striped of all the goodness)

I’m looking forward to seeing the Nature’s Parlour ladies again this weekend (tomorrow in fact) at the Natural Notts event in Nottingham and meeting even more or #Teamnatural Midlanders.

You can read the original post here:  UNITED KinKdom: Natures Parlour Review.

What do you do after the big chop? That is the question many ladies find themselves asking after making the decision to become a natural. In this video sheacocoaluv breaks things down for us by encouraging the most important thing – CONFIDENCE! The answer to the question is to believe in yourself and your personal beauty, and love yourself and your evolving hair styles.

 Big Chop Motivation | Natural Hair TV | The Best Natural Hair Videos.

Xina Broderick, Natural Hair Ambassador & Owner of Nature’s Parlour, poses four questions for people with natural hair and would love to receive your video responses.

[ http://www.youtube.com/embed/JnX5vliBPDw ]

The questions are:

What inspired you to wear your hair natural?
What are the benefits of having natural hair?
What has been the major challenge regarding your natural hair? (Please also state the solution if you found one)
What would be your number one natural hair tip/advice for someone thinking about going natural?

Do a video response to this in YouTube, or upload your video to our blog beneath the “Natural Hair Questions Post” or post the link to your video to our Facebook page wall.

Rate and subscribe to our Videos
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our Blog

Back in September a reader sent me a link to an online feature by Elle called ‘The Expert Guide to Afro Hair’ – Have you read it? With the event and everything else I have not had time to read it until today.

 

 

 

Gosh it was annoying. They had apparently spoken to industry experts about how to care for our hair and as I read through it I was shaking my head thinking “is this really the best advice? Are these really the best products? I hope no unsuspecting sista or young girl is reading thisâ€

Anyway then I got to this section where it said “Having your hair professionally relaxed will make it easier to style straight and into neat curls. “Relaxing is great; it creates styling versatility†says Ursula Stephen, Rihanna’s hairstylist.

*Big Sigh* Are we really still getting messages like this. Is this article saying that our curls are a mess and the only way to have curls is if they are all neat and perfectly formed.

My thoughts are, whenever you are reading this or any type of hair advice always think to yourself who is writing this and why? Perhaps they were just writing this to highlight some products and expensive ones that that. What is their opinion of beauty? In magazines such as this its usually quite narrow meaning they usually feature people with a certain dress size and a certain height.  Remember that this is a magazine that the majority of the time doesn’t even feature black women let alone ones without relaxer. So always be careful where you get your information from.

Saying that relaxing your hair makes it easier to style is quite sad and it represents a type of ignorance of the different forms of hair and beauty. Thumbs down to Elle for allowing such a statement.

If you want to read it click this link
THE EXPERT GUIDE TO: AFRO HAIR

 

This post was originally posted here:

The Natural Lounge: The ‘Expert’ Guide to Afro Hair – or not

 

 

The Ten Best Oils For Natural Hair « Thank God I’m Natural.

 

Hello all!

My name is Tynesha and I am the newest intern for Xina!

Blogging isn’t that new to me as I have attempted to do a few about irrelevant things but I think that this blog will be a lot better and more relevant.

So back to the point.

I am currently going natural myself and currently have kinky twists in right now. I used to relax my hair but because I didn’t look after it properly, my hair started to fall out quite a bit when I was washing it. When that started to happen I thought I was going to go bald! I was panicking, checking for patches as I was drying and straightening my hair. So I decided that I didn’t want to be in that state anymore, and that’s what made me decide to go natural (well that and the fact that I have started university and I cannot afford to be paying £40-£60 every 2 months to get my hair relaxed!)

So I am doing a natural story for you all to show you how I am currently coping with my transition from relaxed to natural hair.

Now I thought at first that it was going to be really quick and easy (a bit like putting the relaxer in your hair) but I was very sadly mistaken and it turns out, that patience is a virtue! So I am being very patient with my great hair.

I have watched a few YouTube video’s about people going natural and putting in kinky twists, etc and they are all really good. I will put a few links down below or if I forget most likely in the up and coming blogs that I will do. They are really useful and I recommend everyone to try out kinky twists before locking.

Now I am not saying don’t lock because that would just be wrong! Like how can you not want to lock your hair?! Oh for those who don’t know what locking is, some people call it dreads or dread locks (even though you will all know what it is, there maybe someone who doesn’t know and I am just clarifying just in case). But kinky twists (depending on how you do them) look slightly like locks (but they don’t look as good as locks I must say) so you can get a feel of what locks may look like, etc. Well that’s what I think personally, there maybe some of you that will disagree with what I am saying, which is understandable. But I know that from having kinky twists, I definitely want to have locks and keep them!

So knowing Xina is a great way to start this transformation. She sells the right products, she speaks with confidence and truth about looking after both hair and skin, and she is genuinely an all round great human being. So working with her is great (plus if I am super nice maybe I can some discount of her products? Maybe? Just a tiny bit)! We will see any ways. I don’t mind paying full price but maybe it could be an incentive to do great work with her! Hmmm…. I will have a look into that.

But any ways back to the point

So yeah, this is the start of my hair journey (well my hair journey blog any ways) and I will write to you all soon and shortly you shall all see me soon (as some YouTube clips will be coming up shortly).

God Bless

Tynesha

! ! ! ! ! ! N A T U R A L H A I R I S G R E A T H A I R ! ! ! ! ! !

Nature’s Parlour is spearheading a national network of natural hair, beauty and wellness shows to include not only England, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland too.

The first expo is to take place in Leeds on 25 September 2011.  Other shows are scheduled to take place in Manchester & Birmingham this year.

Nature’s Parlour is looking for top notch vendors for the Expo – this could mean YOU!  Please contact info at naturesparlour.co.uk  if your business falls into the following categories:

by Terez Howard

If you think that natural hair is naturally dry, you’re wrong.

I didn’t always agree with my above statement.  I once visited a Brooklyn, NY, natural hair care salon, and I lamented over my dry hair.  I asked the stylist what I could do with my dry coils.  After she washed, detangled, trimmed and styled my hair (I tell you this because she got to know my hair personally after those four hours), she told me that my hair was not dry.  She advised I continue my same hair care regimen.

Not dry?!  I did not believe that for a second.

Flash forward four years later.  I read in Mireille Liong-A-Kong’s natural hair care book that our coily texture actually produces three times the amount of sebum than other hair textures.  That sebum is the oil the scalp produces to naturally lubricate hair.  So, why oh why do we feel the need to slather our heads in mineral oil-rich grease?

Because our curls and coils give that sebum a hard road to travel.  One reason that straight European hair shines brilliantly is because that sebum flows from root to tip effortlessly.  Sebum experiences a roller coaster of twists and turns on natural black hair.

Actually, your scalp is overflowing with natural hair oils.  It’s just that your strands, especially your ends, are thirsty.

Quenching the thirst with 3 basic moisturizers

How can you quench your hair’s thirst?

1. Water

You might have heard that too much water in black hair will cause breakage.  Just the opposite is true.  Think about it.  Plants can’t live without water.  Animals can’t live without water.  We cannot live without water, either.  Why would moisturizing our hair with a natural element we need for survival be detrimental?  It just doesn’t make sense.

Fill a spray bottle with purified water and mist your hair as often as needed.  You can add a few drops of essential oil to the bottle for some extra moisturizing power.

2. Base & Essential Oils

Essential oils are distilled liquids from the stems, leaves, bark, roots or flowers of a plant.  Although they are termed “oils,†they do not feel oily.  These highly-concentrated oils instead are easily absorbed in the hair and scalp.

Various essential oils carry different purposes.  For instance, rosemary oil stimulates hair growth.  Sage oil combats dandruff.  Lavender oil treats an itchy scalp and even head lice.

No matter which essential oil you choose, remember to always dilute this powerful substance in a base oil, milk or water.  An overabundance can cause itching and burning in your scalp.

3. Shea butter

Not everyone likes the smell or consistency of this unrefined butter.  But countless naturals don’t mind those unpleasantries when they experience soft, manageable hair.  Wet natural hair quickly absorbs shea butter applied in small amounts.  Keeping the pores open, shea butter not only moisturizes strands, but protects them from pollution and free radicals in the environment.

Its healing properties are five to 17 times higher than other seed oils, and those healing properties restructure dry, damaged hair.

You can melt shea butter and apply the warmed butter directly to damp sections of hair.  Use it sparingly to avoid flaking.

About the author

Terez Howard, who has been researching natural hair for 5 years, endeavors to help ladies learn more about their precious tresses by writing natural hair care articles.

Looking for mid week conditioning rinses for your child’s curly hair?

Finding products that sync with kinky hair is sometimes a challenge. But there will always be the right products and styling techniques that can flourish your hair.

Curly Q’s Coconut Dream Conditioner provides maximum moisture for your angel’s dry tresses. Coconut Dream Conditioner is guaranteed to soften the kinkiest curl, moisturise the driest lock, and detangle the most unruly tresses. Great for all hair types,including coarse, dry, damaged, and chemically treated kinky, medium or coarse curly hair.

Have you ever used hair extensions? I have. I used to put my hair in extension every winter to keep my head warm! I used human hair because it was noted to be of better quality the nylon alternative and I did often wonder where the hair came from – thanks to Mixie for bringing this article to my attention because I now know.

I now have a natural style that I’m very happy with which doesn’t require extensions or much maintenance.

Rarely seen in public without her hair extensions, singer Jamelia has made a TV documentary to find out the truth about where the hair sold in the UK really comes from.

Click “read more” for the full story. Once you’ve read the article, be sure to add your comments below.

read more | digg story