New Hair Fotki!

I've become obsessed with my hair and all thing naptural. After three days of hair information gathering, learning, and stalking girls with fierce natural curls, I've set up a fotki to document my long journey to the African tigress mane I was born to wear. Watch me work, hey!
You can visit here.

Hair Coup!

Yesterday was a milestone in my personal hair history. A terrible milestone. A hair coup d'etat. Here is what I posted to the nanowrimo message board:

SUBJECT: I CUT ALL MY HAIR OFF!

Did you see the subject? Yeah. It's true! *headdesk*

As of last Friday, I was rolling right along, nanoing like a champ. Then my great aunt died. And there was the funeral, and the house guests, and a big family Thanksgiving, and everyone making demands on my time, and getting scheduled to work every night until midnight at Blockbuster.

So... I determined that I would be able to work on it this weekend since everyone's gone home today and I have the weekend off. I had planned to get 10K today. I had not planned to CUT ALL MY HAIR OFF!

This is what happened: I spent the morning seeing everyone off. Then I need to take a moment to take care of my hair. Without getting into all the intricacies, I removed a braid style and washed it. Imagine my surprise WHEN MY HAIR FORMED A MASSIVE DREADLOCK! Yes, just one. (Yes, I'm black.)

After I spent two hours calling my hair stylist, drenching my hair in oil, conditioner, and other disgusting and greasy substances, I came to the conclusion that my hair was done for. I panicked at missing the whole day for my nano. I had a big cry. THEN I CUT IT ALL OFF! I went from shoulder length hair to 3 inches of hair in a teeny weeny afro. There are no words... only tears. *cries*

These are the things that I look like:
1) A swan hatchling
2) A refugee
3) A wood-chipper hair accident victim
4) A base-head
5) Don-isha King (Don King's daughter with shorter hair)
6) A puppy
7) GI Jane
8) A dude

Note: none of these things are flattering because I look a hot ass mess. For real. There are no words. *plays taps for dead hair lying in clumps on bathroom floor*

Lastly, as you can see, my nano is late and behind. I am going to give it my all to get across the finish line, but I feel like my plot is stalled. I know what is supposed to happen, but have no idea how to execute. Maybe I should cut all my main character's hair off? Help!

____________________________________________________________________

Okay, I could talk about this all night and day, but that would be soooo obviously procrastinating from my nano, and I have 15K words to write before midnight tomorrow, not to mention 2/3s of my plot to write. I did want to say thanks a bunch to my Sisterhood that stepped in to cry, pray and cut along, and that have helped me recover to see this as a good thing, the threshold to another long period of wonderful natural hair. Portia, Sara, Brittany, Mommy -- don't know what I'd do without you! Your spirit will travel with me when I get to a hairdresser to get it cut all even!

See below: a moment of zen!

A Good Hair Day

I'm no longer feeling trapped. I guess a new day brought me some empowerment, and a sense of hope. I've been mulling over my job situation and I came to the conclusion that I can't do anything at this point but continue to push forward and having done all I can do, stand. Whatever happens, happens. It's in God's hands now, and I am not trying to take that particular burden back. Good riddance.

I've got new hair! I braved the worse fog I've ever seen anywhere on earth this morning to drive to the salon, and boy am I glad that I did, because I look fabulous!

Post Theme: There's Hope by India.arie

Time to Let My Hair Down

Just a few things before I'm off to bed, since I have a big phone interview tomorrow morning...

1) First things first... my eminent hair crisis has been averted. I have consulted my war council, redistributed my very meager budget, and now have a hair strategy for the upcoming round of flights and interviews. No time to deal with bad hair days, and no chance of looking less than fabulous either. The appointment is made and my stylist is a life saver!!!

I will go from this... To This!










All thanks for this miraculous transformation go to my stylist, The Joan, without whom public interactions would not be possible, let alone interviews. It's technically civically irresponsible to be seen like this, so it's actually my duty as an American to have this taken care of. Congratulate me. No wait... just doing my job, folks. *shy grin, awkward chuckle*




2) Speaking of hairy, I watched the debate. I'm glad that the commentators were able to get them to pull the gloves off, even for a millisecond, because for a minute there I thought Obama and Clinton were going to play footsie the whole time, patting each other on the back and agreeing with each other's arguments. Obama was a cool cat, standing on the higher ground of his lead, and making HRC look petty for her plagiarism accusations. I felt vindicated when she sniped on him with that "change we can xerox" comment to a chorus of boos. I only wish the camera would have panned to the audience. All that was missing was shaking heads, fists, and furrowed brows. All in all, the debate was a dud for Clinton's camp -- no foothold in the race to lead again. The upcoming primaries are locked in a dead heat and that's that.

2) Stanford rocks! I saw the announcement today that Stanford is leading the pack for endowment funding reform by pledging to use a larger of percentage of it to subsidize its students. It will no longer charge tuition for students with a combined income of 100K a year or less, and no room and board charge for 60K or less in addition to an overall increase in financial aid across the board. Since Stanford has a huge endowment, but still trails Harvard and Yale, I do hope that their actions spur the ivy league to take a look at what they can shuffle around. At best, it could lead to a sweeping reform to make any college a feasible choice for any student that wishes to attend. It's too late for me, but at least someone will benefit! Go Card!

'Ahem': Needless to say, I will be actually opening and reading those fund raising letters that I get from The Stanford Fund from now on. I'm behind any school that pioneers a significant lowering of secondary education costs, especially my own alma matter!

That's it for tonight... getting my beauty rest so that I can knock their socks off tomorrow. Maybe I'll get a job offer before I even get off the phone!!

Post Theme: I Am Not My Hair by India.arie