Life Update #3 | CHON | Hair Grievances

Hey!

It’s Jante and I don’t really have anything to say other than a couple of things. I guess this can be a mini- Life Update #3?? I think so, mostly because nothing much has happened and I wanted to make this short.

| CHON |

I accidentally discovered the band while browsing YouTube and I listened to the track Book and I instantly fell in love with the sound (I played it on repeat like four times) and I never really found a band like them before. But, let’s be clear my music tastes do not vary at all. It’s actually pretty dead but I can say I've grown like the tiniest bit. A lot of the stuff that I liked 4 years ago ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT pertain to the taste that I have now. I mean my current Spotify playlists is a huge giant mess and I desperately need to delete songs on there that I do not like anymore, but given the fact that I have over 700 songs on one playlist that I’ve cumulated on there since 2011, I am going to need to dedicate a lot of time to doing so.

But according to my very quick Wikipedia search, they are an American band and the track I listened to is from their album Grow. I mean. I loved it. The track I mean. I have yet to actually listen to the album and develop my own opinion on it (I am currently listening to it and for me to truly decide on an album I need to listen to it beginning to end like 7 to 10 times). In all actuality, I discovered them like half an hour ago and I felt like impulsively writing a blog post and included them in it. Go figure.

| HAIR |

Yeah, that’s still a topic. I recently have been getting real annoyed with my hair only because it takes so much time to do upkeep on it. Like if it wanted to do a “twist/braid out" (I have my own method) it would take me 2 hours to just twist/braid my hair. And given the fact that I’m trying (yo but forreal) TRYING to be “healthier” and since that involves like running, my hair has not been lasting a long time sadly.

Which leaves wash n go’s as an answer right? Well, sure….if you didn’t wear a hijab. When I do just try to wash my hair and go, and I am in the unfortunate circumstance of needing to wear a hijab for some reason, I now have to somehow contain all of my hair to fit neatly underneath a scarf. That entails me braiding my hair into two very large cornrows and two braids near my hairline to contain my baby hairs, and by the time I take them out I am left with unevenly stretched hair all over the place. And it’s not a cute look.

So I’ve been looking to getting Marley/Havana twists installed in my hair hence, I don’t have to worry about the thing growing from my scalp for four weeks.  But that requires money and I ain’t got the bank account for that.

So we’re back to just dealing with my hair. My friend actually suggested I just twist my hair and I secure my ends with those tiny black rubber bands and I mean….that could work. So maybe I’ll be okay after all.

Alright. Yep. You really didn’t have to read this at all. I mean thanks for getting to this point. It’s cool. I didn’t really have anything pressing to say actually. But you know what it’s cool. Glad to have you here. Have a wonderful life man.

Sincerely,

Jante

Colorism | Corpus Christi | Chit Chat

Hey!

So this is Jante and I guess this is more of talky/opinion post on whatever I want today. Right now, I want to discuss colorism/natural hair/personal beliefs etc, while in between I feature pictures from my time in Corpus Christi.

And look, I already know that I’m going to get a lot of hate if I were to talk about feminism or racism because it is such a polarizing topic so colorism seems like the next best place to start. 

Colorism(n.): Prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group.

(Courtesy of Oxford Dictionary)

To be frank, from a very young age I always thought that light was beautiful and straight hair was beautiful and light colored eyes were beautiful. European features were ideal and I began to despise my African features including my curly hair, dark eyes, and wide nose. My brother Jameel got the long Arab nose, the sunken deep eye sockets, everything that made him look less "black" while I got all the uglier features.

Me and my sister at Pier 99

I failed to see my beauty and put that alongside me being an overweight child, with limited social skills (that I am still working on till this day), it made for an unhappy childhood and rough growth during my formative years of middle school and early high school.

I’ve realized that “natural” hair in the black community is coming back and I am very happy that many women are embracing and loving the hair that comes out of their head like yes, this is definitely progress. But I really hate that we hold ourselves back because we still want to put the European standards of beauty on the hair that grows out of our scalp.

Left to Right: Babbie (step-dad), brother, and brother

We are mainly going to be talking about colorism in the natural hair community for now. Colorism in everyday life and in the black community is just such a broad topic and I can do a series on it, I don’t know, we will see.

First, let’s say you go to YouTube to find a "natural" curly hair routine. Most of the time you would find curly hair routines on girls with curl types that range from 2c to maybe 4a. You want to learn more about curl patterns? Go here.

But no one wants to watch a video with some lady with “kinky” hair where there isn’t a definite curl pattern. Why? It’s not considered pretty. Basically, the rule of thumb to be a popular natural hair guru on YouTube is that people are going to watch your videos if you can lay your baby hairs down. If you can’t, you’re not going to make it as a huge YouTuber or natural hair care blogger in general.

Brother

My hair has a long story but I didn’t have a relaxer in my hair until I was 14 and it was mainly because I had no idea how to take care of my hair. I hated combing it out and just putting it in a ponytail and I yearned to have the ability to wear my hair down like the rest of my friends….even if I had a hijab on. (Whatever that’s a different story)

I did it and I really liked it for the next couple of weeks until I got tired of it and saw how lifeless it was. No movement, no body. It was dead and thin and it wasn't me but instead, I was faking it and in the end, I grew resentful of it and hated it. So for two years I grew it out and slowly trimmed it every month or so until all the relax hair was gone.

I was dibbledabblying with straighteners and experimenting with short hair cuts until when I was 19, I straightened my hair in Dubai and whatever happened it completely denatured my head of hair leaving only two inches of my hair from the root curly and the rest of my head pin straight. It left my hair damaged, just like it was when I relaxed my hair five years ago. In August of 2015, I cut my hair into basically a long afro that barely reached chin length when stretched out.

Anyways it’s been a little over a year and it now reaches past my collarbones. I’m happy with it now, it’s curly, it’s healthy and I am extremely satisfied with it.

Now my hair is what I would consider to be 3c to 4a curl pattern so I’m cutting it close but because I can lay my baby hairs down, I have “pretty hair.” And now add the fact that I am mixed with other things other than black and now I have this unwanted label added onto me like I’m some rare commodity.

It’s weird and honestly, when we talk about natural hair we need to stop labeling hair as “good hair” and “kinky hair”. No. ALL hair is good hair no matter how coarse, short, long or WHATEVER it is. It doesn’t need to have defined ringlets or curls for it to be beautiful. It can have no curls, no waves, just be as coiled and zigzag as it can be and just be as beautiful.

Anyways I think that’s all I have to say for now. Thanks for reading.

Mom

Sincerely,

Jante  

instagram | _abatty_