During Black History Month, Two Naturalistas Are Making Herstory!

Recently, my daughter and I decided to start a podcast.  We are both Ivy League graduates.  I attended Yale and she attended Harvard for our Master's Degree and we both attended Columbia University Teachers College for our doctorates.  On our podcast, we explain how we ended up going to the same graduate school for our doctorates in one of our episodes entitled:  Ivy League Realities As Black Women.

When I started working on my doctorate, my daughter was two years old.  She used to be on campus, when my husband would bring her there as we also had a near newborn son.  Now, to have the opportunity to speak with her in the podcast forum, is a  joyous gift!

 

As two naturalists, we discuss various topics including Birth and the Myth of 35, Money and Scarcity Consciousness, Educating Our Children and Why It Takes a Village, Health Care Reform Through Self-Empowerment and of course the truthful reality that the Natural Hair Revolution has happened. There are other episodes (eight in total) and more to come as we will focus on love and marriage (33 + Years and Counting for Valentines Day and Black History Month before the end of February and many more episodes in the future.

I hope that you enjoy this new venture.  The media primarily limits discourse to politics, these days, but there is so much more to discuss.  We have opened a window into our mother daughter dialogue and we hope you enjoy the Ivy Roses Podcast and find it worthy of your time. You will find all episodes here: https://soundcloud.com/user-13174018 as well as on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher. Be sure, after listening to comment/rate/review (depending on the platform of your choice) and subscribe.

My Journey After Unlocking Continues For A New Beginning!

As many of you know, from my prior blog post about this, I decided, on a whim, to let my locks go, after having them for over 25 years.  I can't explain it but I just didn't want them anymore. This video provides some insight into my reasoning.

I guess unconsciously, this decision to unlock my hair was partially due to my concerns about Mass Incarceration and how I thought that at the end of the Obama Administration, he would release the prisoners who were incarcerated for low-level drug and other non-violent offenses, through pardons and other legal approaches under his purview.  When it didn't happen, I was rather devastated.  I attempted to flesh out these thoughts a bit as this video recording was created on January 20, 2017, and explains my thoughts about this, and more.

Consequently, I sat with a rat tail comb and some detangler and began the process of taking out my locks, one by one. It was a long arduous process and 3/4 of the way through, either because I was exhausted or sentimental about my locks, I began to question whether I was making the right decision.  However, it was too late.  My locks were in front of me, in a bag, on the floor, in the form of piles of hair.  I stopped and decided to keep the hair that formerly comprised my locks and have it to this day, in a container that I brought from Egypt.  There were about 15 or so locks left, dangling from the crown of my head, when I decided to stop.  I had no idea of how I would style my hair with now much shorter hair, as I lost length when I took out my locks.  So here is my attempt at styling after the unlocking.

So now, just over two years  later, I have four of those 15 plus locks left.  I decided that they must fall off naturally as I will not cut them. You can't see them in the photos but they are there, in the back, in a bun. The others gradually fell off as they became thinner at the root as I barely twist them. It is fun as I continue getting to know my natural hair as it grows from my scalp.  I loved my locks but I realized, as I released them, that inside of each one was shredded hair, that would normally fall off, but I retained it all by twisting the shedded hair into long, lovely coils, hence locks.  Now I want to see exactly what will happen next. So I hope you will follow me on this journey, as I plan to share more about what has transpired with my hair, in the future.  For now, this is naturally me, the shorter hair version.  As always, my belief continues to be that Natural Is Cool Enough!

Lastly, in the midst of these changes, I have also co-created a podcast with my daughter, in which one of our newest episodes is about natural hair, our hair journeys and the Natural Hair Revolution.  Check it out and feel free to review, rate, subscribe and share.  I would love to know your thoughts about this new venture!

The Natural Hair Revolution

You can also find it on Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-13174018/the-natural-hair-revolution-has-happened