Protective Styles

I've diverted my attention to my travels for awhile but let come back to the true intention of this blog for a little bit and I will tell you guys a little bit about my protective style: senegalese twists.  It was quite an ordeal finding someone to do my hair but I really really wanted them for my trip so I wouldn't have to fuss with my hair, worry about things like frizz and shrinkage, having to stretch my hair, worry about tangles... you know, all the those great things about having natural hair (sarcasm).

Anyway, I got them done and immediately started to ponder if the trauma and manipulation your hair suffers from having braids/twists put in is really worth it?  Is it possible that it may offset the benefits of having your hair "put away" for a period of time?  Does it do more harm than good?  It's something to think about.

Anyway, I have had these twists in for 3 weeks now.  They were not installed by a "professional" so they're just barely hanging in but it's still a much needed break from dealing with my hair issues.  My boyfriend likes them and I've gotten quite a few compliments.  Best of all, I was able to enjoy my vacation without worrying too much about it.

Now as a far as caring for it, it's been very low maintenance.  Well, for the first 2 weeks, I was so distracted with my vacation that I forgot to or just plain didn't feel like moisturizing and sealing (my bad!).  However, I did get my hair wet with salt water and was forced to wash it.  I basically used the hotel shampoo, massaged it through my scalp and let the water and the runoff from the shampoo run through my hair while I raked my fingers through it to get it clean.  I then squeezed it dry, put in one large braid and immediately wrapped a tight towel around it to prevent frizzing.  I let most of the water soak into the towel for several hours ( I fell asleep), then I tied it down with my satin scarf for the night.   In the morning, it was dry, mostly frizz free and I had nice curls from my braid-out.

Since I returned from my vacation I have been spritzing with water or using my Curl Enhancing Smoothie and sealing with castor oil.  Last night, I filled my water bottle with water and what was supposed to be a few drops of tea tree oil but my hand slipped and I used way too much but I diluted it as best I could.  Tea tree oil is an antibacterial so it's a great way to keep hair and scalp clean and bacteria free.  I parted the hair and made sure to get all parts of my scalp directly and then I spritzed the length of my hair.  I still plan to wash it next weekend and hopefully keep them in an additional 2 weeks for a total of 6 weeks.  I do have to admit that the getting my hair wet and washing did cause quite a bit of frizzing although I took every precaution to prevent that.  But it needed to be done.  

And that's it!

I'm already thinking of what I'll do with my hair once I take these twists out.  I'm thinking henna and/or bentonite clay treatment (review), stretching it and maybe trying out a wash-n-go, something I have not tried in a long time.  I plan to purchase some Carol's Daughter products including the hair milk which I did a review on awhile back.  My "wash and go" is not a traditional wash and go.  It's done on dry stretched hair by adding a moisturizer such as the hair milk and activator gel to where the hair is "wet" enough that it curls a bit but without as much shrinkage.  I haven't done a wash and go since I had a TWA... it's been awhile.  I plan to try this because I'm exasperated with a the time consuming process of twisting my hair and twist outs don't seem to last long on my hair and I need something lower maintenance.  And I would like to wear my hair out more instead of in twists all the time.  This will just be a trial.  I'll let you guys know how this all goes.

Laters Naturalistas!

Thailand Part 3

Our plans for our second day in Phuket were to go to Patong, which is basically the town center where you will find most of the nightlife: bars, nightclubs, etc. and lots of markets for shopping.  We did some shopping in Patong.  I only bought a couple of things for the reasons I mentioned earlier, that I am a  very bad “spontaneous shopper” and terrible at bargaining.  But J was very helpful to all 3 of us in getting the “Thai price” for items as opposed to the foreigner price.  Although J is clearly not Thai, he speaks well enough to charm and pressure the seller into lowering their prices.
We stopped at a tour company and scheduled a few tours for the first few days of our stay in Phuket including elephant trekking and a cabaret show.   The cabaret show consists of “lady-boys” in all their glamour lip synching, dancing, performing, entertaining like no one else can.  But first we had to go back to the hotel for our mid afternoon nap (damn jetlag!)
After laying down for a 1 hour nap, I woke up 3 hours later, about 10 minutes before our car was supposed to pick us up to go the show.  Of course I was all foggy-headed and nowhere near ready for the show and neither was J.  It took me about 5 of the 10 minutes to wake him and orient him to what was going on.  We got dressed in a hurry and made it down the catch the car to the cabaret show.
The cabaret show was fun.  There was some comedy, some traditional dances representing different countries from China to Brazil and some modern pop numbers.  There was  Cher impersonator and a Christina Aguilera impersonator.  But the most interesting part was being in awe of these “lady boys” and how beautiful some of them were and very much like ladies.  After the show there were photo ops outside of the auditorium.
I of course, a sucker for any photo op to commemorate my time and experience  while traveling, had to take a photo with the “lady boys”.  There was a crowd after the theater emptied and the lady boys were waiting for the attendees to come take photos with them (and tip them of course).  Some were more popular than others and many of them seemed a little desperate, calling onlookers to come take photos with them.   I took out my 100 bahts and approached to take a photo with one of the lady boys.  Immediately two others joined in and I was more than thrilled to take a picture with all three of them but then things took a turn for the worse.  I handed the 100 baht to one of the lady boys and heard an immediate onslaught of protests, saw hands reaching out aggressively and I knew something was wrong.  I couldn’t understand why they were upset but I figured it had something to do with money.  I looked over to J for help since I couldn’t’ understand what they were saying and I called him to come over and help me and he shook his head in refusal. It was a pretty awkward situation and I was starting to feel embarassed.  J called me over and I heard the protests get louder to the point of aggression as I dared to walk away to approach him.  “They want to be paid individually” he said and handed me 200 bahts more.  I hurried over and handed it to the other two lady boys.  They instantly transformed into the ladies they pretend to be, bowing graciously and greeting me.  I bowed back and walked away hurriedly.  J grabbed my arm and just about dragged me away.  He proceeded to lecture me on how money-hungry the lady boys can be to the point aggression and how you can find yourself in a dangerous situation very quickly when money is involved.  I wondered why he hadn't told me all this before. 
I tried not to let the incident sour my mood as we went back to the hotel.  J later explained everything so it all made sense and we had a long conversation about it.  A combination of female hormones and testosterone would logically cause people to be quick-tempered.  J was just trying to protect me and himself.  I was still glad we had gone to the show and I had gotten the photos since it was a part of my experience I wanted to remember.  Sitting out on the balcony listening to the waves again calmed my mind and we later called it a night. 

Travel Blog: Thailand Parts 1 & 2

Thailand Part 1

I took an amazing trip to Thailand with my boyfriend, J, a good friend, S, and her significant other, Jo.  You may be wondering how this came about in the first place.  At least that’s the question I get all the time.  Who thinks to take a vacation on the other side of the world in Thailand of all places?  Thailand is actually a popular tourist destination but maybe moreso in other parts of the world that are closer to Asia like Africa and Australia.  But for an American, it’s a long and arduous process to get there: a 24 hour trip by airplane!  I had never traveled so far in my life.

Well my boyfriend, J, happens to have lived in Thailand. He worked over there doing business for about 5 years after college and has not been back since he left about 3 years ago.  He recently graduated from a professional program and decided to take the opportunity before he got tied to a job to travel over.   Of course, he planted the idea in my head and I was ready to go.  Even after he decided we should go someplace closer instead, I had already gotten my hopes up about Thailand and I insisted we go.

How did my S and her boyfriend, Jo, come in the picture?  S happens to love to travel as much as I do  so when I told her about our plans for Thailand her immediate response was, “I want to come”.  Well a big part of the reason was that Jo had always wanted to go to Thailand.  Somewhere in life he had developed a fascination with Thailand and a love of the food.  So we decided to invite them along.

So  Sept 13th, we headed off across the globe on a 24 hour trip by plane.  I survived the flight but I was not prepared for the jet lag that ensued.  I mean I was literally falling asleep by 5pm everyday and waking up full of energy at 3am.  It drove me nuts!

But otherwise my trip was beyond awesome.  We spent our first two nights in Bangkok at a popular area calls Khao San Road.  There are few words to describe the chaos, craziness and livelihood that is Khao San Road.  When we arrived there after 11pm the street was crowded, vendors of all types selling goods, the smell of street food being cooked, seared, stir fried right here on the street.  There were young couples laughing and walking through the street. Lights, sounds and energy.  And this went on all through the night. 

When I awoke at 4 am unable to fall back asleep, J  graciously offered to take me out into the street to get food. Maybe the jetlag had woken him up too so he wasn’t too annoyed with my tossing and turning… YET. (more to come on that later).  The craziness from the night was still going on full force as we walked through the street and stopped  at a vendor selling fresh fruit juice that she was extracting right here on street from an array of local fruits, some with which I was familiar and some with which I was not.  I declined as I was more hungry than thirsty and we ended up at Burger King.  OK before you have a cow, in our defense, we wanted traditional breakfast food, not the pad thai and chicken skewers that were being sold on the street.  It felt a little too early for that.

I should mention that one of my favorite street foods while I was there was banana crepes.  Unfortunately there was none to be found that morning.  But a banana crepe was the first food I had in Thailand after we reached our destination on Khao San Road the night we arrived.  They were made from the batter right there in front of us, spread with Nutella and layered with freshly peeled bananas and then folded into a crepe for all of 40 bahts (that would be less than $1.50).  But I digress…

After breakfast, J and I took a romantic stroll away from the now dying-down craziness on Khao San as the moon was disappearing and the  sun was starting to peek it’s head up over the horizon.  We walked down another  street that had actual restaurants and looked almost Parisian, a far cry from the chaos on Khao San.  We would later have breakfast there our last morning in Bangkok before heading to Phuket.

That day, we did J’s least favorite thing to do in Thailand: visit temples.  S and Jo insisted on seeing all the temples, which isn’t exactly my cup of tea either.  I’m more of an adventure and nature kind of gal myself but it was an OK experience.  I felt bad for poor J who ended up playing tour guide, orchestrating the taxi commute, and everything else.  But something tells me he kind of enjoyed it too.  All the taxi drivers and other local Thais we ran into were so impressed and in awe of how well he spoke Thai and his familiarity with the local culture and “lingo”. 

Of course by 5pm I started to get very very sleepy and almost irritable.  That jetlag would stay with me through the trip and the first few days of my time back in the US unfortunately.  But my first day in Thailand went off without a hitch.  On to day 2.






Thailand Part  2

The morning of our second day, I was able to sleep a bit later.  We met up with S and Jo and decided at my suggestion that we find a place to have breakfast on the street I had mentioned earlier that had an almost Parisian feel.  We easily found a restaurant with outdoor seating and sat down for breakfast.  I had  traditional eggs and toast.  (Don’t crucify me, I would eventually delve into traditional Thai cuisine just not right now).

We planned out our day:  a trip to yet another temple and then catch our flight in  the afternoon to Phuket.  J and I tolerated the temple visits and even took some pictures.  We got back early enough that I decided to walk around Khao San Road and do some shopping. I have to admit I’m not good with shopping.  I am extremely indecisive and have difficulty making good decisions on the spot.  For me, "buyer’s remorse" is the usual result of spontaneous shopping and knowing that, I tend to avoid it.  Also I was having trouble with the local currency and knowing how much is too much to pay for something when you’re under pressure.  Plus, bargaining is a must when shopping in places like this.  They  always give you an inflated price with the expectation that you will bargain them down.  I am always fearful of not bargaining enough and paying too much or going too low with my offer and insulting the seller or just looking stupid. I may have been overthinking it a bit.

Anyway, I managed to buy a tee shirt with the logo of a local beer and also a bathing suit.  Naturally the bathing suit did not fit as I hadn’t been able to try it on and buyer’s remorse ensued.  I quickly got over it with the excitement of our trip to Phuket.

It was an ordeal packing up all our stuff again, checking out and lugging our luggage down the  bumpy crowded road to catch a taxi to take us to the airport.  Our flight was mostly uneventful however and we arrived in Phuket on time.  After a long drive to our hotel, we checked in, were led to our rooms and I was happy to find that it was everything that I wanted.  We opened our curtains to a beautiful view of the pool and the ocean.  Sitting on the our patio we could hear the constant sound of the waves crashing on the ocean and it instantly relaxed my frazzled mind.  Of course I had to jump on the bed…(I’m still a kid at heart)  and reveled in how soft and cushiony the bed was.  We would take many unintentional late afternoon naps on this bed… and by naps I mean 3-4 hours of heavenly slumber only to wake up in a panic  because we were supposed to meet S and Jo for dinner or get ready to go out someplace.  Oh well, blame it on the jetlag.

Anyway, this evening was the first of those naps.  We woke up 4 hours later at 10pm (we were supposed to meet up for lunch to 8pm).  So J and I ended up going to one of the hotel restaurants and made it there just in the nick of time before they closed the kitchen.  We sat out and enjoyed the night breeze.  I ate a quesadilla (Hey, don’t judge, I was too hungry to experiment with unfamiliar food).  We went back up to the room, sat out on our balcony listening to the sounds of the ocean and eventually went back to bed. And so ends my second day in Thailand.

Travel Blogging

I am revising my blog or rather broadening its scope to include my love and passion not only for my hair journey but for travel and photography.  Travel and photography are two of my greatest loves.  I've considered doing an entire blog dedicated to travel and photography but unfortunately I don't get the opportunity to travel enough to be able keep regular postings that are interesting and informative.  Therefore for the time, I will include blog postings about not only my travels but places I've discovered that I wish to travel to in the future whether relatively local or halfway across the globe.  I will even try to relate it back to what this blog is originally about which is my natural hair journey.  That shouldn't be difficult because often when I'm about to travel, one of my first thoughts is "what will I do with my hair?".  Not out of vanity but because I require convenience when I travel.  I am generally pretty low maintenance and prefer to be even moreso when I"m on the move.  Get up, shower 5 minutes and I'm off to conquer/discover the world around me.  That's my passion!  For that reason protective styling is almost a must.  So you'll have the opportunity to find out what low maintenance styles I choose to do on my natural hair when traveling and how it holds up, plus how people abroad respond  to it (you'd be surprised how intrigued many people are by Afro hair!)
My first travel blog post will be about my recent trip to Thailand (first time ever to Asia).  I have some awesome pictures to share, recommendations and some stories that may intrigue you.  Stay tuned!