Tune In: Lee Ann Womack, I Hope You Dance

I love music! I love singing to it, dancing to it, writing it. I just love it. And for me, I listen to music in just about every genre. Beautiful music is available in different forms.

There's nothing better than hearing a song that actually speaks to you about something meaningful and makes you think. That's what this song of the day always does to me.
Lee Ann Womack tells us to take chances in life, enjoy it, and never put ourselves in a position to look back on it and wonder what you've done.

Here is the song and the lyrics. Enjoy!


I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking
Lovin' might be a mistake
But it's worth making
Don't let some hell bent heart
Leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out
Reconsider
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
(Time is a real and constant motion always)
I hope you dance
(Rolling us along)
I hope you dance
(Tell me who)
I hope you dance
(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
(Where those years have gone)

I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
Dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance
(Time is a real and constant motion always)
I hope you dance
(Rolling us along)
I hope you dance
(Tell me who)
(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
I hope you dance
(Where those years have gone)

(Tell me who)
I hope you dance
(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
(Where those years have gone)





I hope you dance today:)

~Bee

Quick Tip: Satin and Silk

Keep your hair protected nightly with silk or satin scarves and bonnets. Alternatively, invest in a few silk or satin pillow cases. Cotton strips moisture from the hair making it dry and more prone to breakage.

Black Hair Doesn't Grow: Dispelling the Hair Growth Myth

*pic from: http://www.hji.co.uk/hjimages/images/qhs1623/hji/medium/2002-afro-ponytail.jpg

There has been a horrible myth going around the black community for years now. This myth is that "black hair" can't grow long. Our hair is too "nappy" for that. We have "bad" hair. A girl that has hair past her shoulders must be mixed with something to have hair of that length. And, OMG, not only are you black, but African too?? You have the most undiluted form of nappy, bad, unable to get past shoulder length, hair. Slap a perm on them naps and keep in moving.

Bullcrap.

Your hair is not "too nappy". Your hair is not "bad". And your hair definitely can grow longer than your shoulders. The problem that exists in our communities is that we are so stuck in this defeatist mindset. We have convinced ourselves of these myths and won't make any attempts to even believe otherwise. We continue to dabble in unhealthy hair care practices as a community, thus failing to grow our hair, and perpetuating this image that black women can't have long hair. We look at our kinky hair as an unfortunate mistake that God made and discourage decisions to go natural. This negativity is getting passed on to our children from generation to generation, so much that little girls with kinky natural hair, are getting made fun of in school, while the girl with loosely textured or straight hair is praised for having pretty hair. Many black men are also led to believe these myths. At what point will we stop doing this and making our hair the black sheep compared to all other hair types?

People seem to believe that there is a gene that prevents black hair from growing long. Let me explain something to you about how hair growth works ( I touched on this in the Breakage vs Shed Hair post; refer to it for pictures and more details about each phase). Everyone's hair goes through a cycle of anagen, catagen, and telogen phase. Anagen is the growth phase, catagen is the deterioration phase, and telogen is the resting phase during which hair sheds. Most of your hair, at a given time is in the anagen phase. HOWEVER, this is not a synchronized thing. It's not like every single strand of your hair enters each phase of the cycle at the same time. They are all in different phases of the growth cycle. So, no, your hair isn't genetically programmed to say "I'm at neck length now. Gotta stop growing right here." That's not how it works. That's why every strand of your hair isn't the same length. One may have started it's growth cycle today, while another one may have started it's cycle a year ago.

But you say, "Bee! I know that my hair isn't growing! It's been the same length forever." Something I always ask people to consider, when they say that their hair doesn't grow, is: If your hair doesn't grow, then what are you relaxing? When you get a perm , you are relaxing new growth! If your hair wasn't growing, you would never have any new growth to relax. But yet, you clearly have hair that is growing, but your hair doesn't seem to get longer. It's harder for naturals to see this, because of the coily nature of your hair, but it's the same thing. Hair growth is not a stagnant process. Remember 80-90% of your hair is in the anagen growth phase.

Where genetics DOES come into play in determining length is determining the length of your anagen phase. Depending on your genes, your anagen phase can be between three to seven years. Now, recall that the average person grows about .5inches per month and thus, 6 inches a year. So what I am telling you is that, assuming that you have the shortest anagen phase of 3 years, YOU ARE CAPABLE OF GROWING AT LEAST 18 INCHES OF HAIR!!! So, you take a ruler and put that to your head and down you back. Or better yet, take that 18 inch weave and put it against your head. Your hair is capable of growing to the middle of your back!!

So ladies, STOP saying that your hair does not grow or it doesn't grow past your shoulders or everyone in your family has short hair, so you have short hair, or how you're 100% black or 100% African so it's impossible, or whatever other craziness we've used rationalize our hair woes.

Now that you know, what's your excuse? If you want it, you can have it. The question is, are you willing to let go of the bad hair care practices and properly take care of your hair to get what you want?

In the mean time, for those who are still skeptical (and even those who will still find a rational as to why these people have long hair), check out some of these ladies reaching wonderful lengths, for inspiration:

Sera2544-from Sierra Leone; waist length hair natural hair. She's longer now, but she shows her length at 3:50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2u0T8CimZ0&feature=related
Rustic Beauty-Nigerian, waist length natural hair. Also longer now. Good message in the video for the naysayers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDoSS_q9yy8&feature=related

Sylver2-African american, waist length relaxed. Great example of stretching relaxers. Also longer now. Doesn't show length but you can get an idea or maybe in other videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VviHw8FEB2Y&feature=related

Kami11213-African american; waist length relaxed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA87aFndkw4
Happy Hair Growing!

Bee

I'm going to kill this squirrel

For the last couple of months, a squirrel has been trying to drive me crazy. Seriously. It scuttles along my roof before settling in a particular spot where it scrapes and scratches. Imagine nails across chalkboard meets dragging chair across the floor and crunching chips.

Not cool....at all.

ANNNND it's rude self, has the nerve to wake me up every morning for the past week BEFORE 7am, with this nonsense!!! Then, it comes back throughout the day, doing it whenever it wants. It has even become stubborn. When I hit against the wall it stops, waits, does a little scrape, I hit it again, it repeats, and then keeps doing it as if to say "ha ha! you can't do anything!"

The squirrel must die.

Personal Hair Challenge for the Rest of the Year

So, I'm starting my own personal twist/braid and cowash challenge. I had my hair out a little more than usual, this past winter and I think I may have experienced a slight set back. No worries! I'll fix that.

My goal is to be nearing Bra strap length by my 2 year 'naturalversary' and I won't get there unless I up the retention methods. Thus, for the rest of the year, this will be my regimine:

Keep my hair in twists or braids and pinned up as often as possible.

Continue shampooing and deep conditioning once a week.
Current shampoos are Cream of Nature ultra moisturizing conditioning shampoo (sulfate free), Olive oil Creamy Aloe Shampoo (w/ sulfates when I feel like I have build up) and V05 tea therapy-vanilla mint tea (for occassional clarifying)
Deep conditioners: Aubrey organics Honey suckle rose(natural-probably won't repurchase), Pantene ProV Time Renewal Mask (cool), Organic Root Stimulator Replenishing Conditioner (don't really use, but will revisit again). Honestly, I'm still testing out some conditioners to find my fav. I always end with a cool water rinse to reseal the cuticle.

Cowashing once or twice a week with one of the many rinse out conditioners I have, in between wash days. I love Herbal essences long term relationship. Also like Giovanni Direct Smooth as Silk and Aussie Moist conditioners.

Moisturize as needed with whatever spray concoction I decide. Currently in my spray bottle: a mix of Aussie moist hair insurance, Giovanni Direct leave in, Wave Nouveau Moisture sealer, and bottled water. Definitely leaves my hair moisturized.

Oil the scalp as needed with jojoba oil and tea tree oil mix. Jojoba is an oil most closely like our natural sebum, and tea tree oil is a natural antiseptic and aids in preventing things like dandruff.

Monthly, Mayo/Olive oil w/or w/o egg, treatment, followed by moisturizing D.C.

Maintaining the twists/braids, while retwisting the edges every 2 weeks if needed, and removing each twist, removing shed hair, and immediately retwisting/braiding, once a month for the entire head. At this time, I may transition styles, replacing twists with braids, smaller twists as larger twists, and vice versa, etc.

Once every three months, I'll free my entire head of the twists/braids, and start a completely fresh set on lightly blown out hair.

Search and destroy for splits or single stranded knots as needed.


That's the plan! Pretty simple. This will be ideal for my fine strands, as it limits the amount of aggressive manipulation that I'll have to do, thus helping me to retain more. Plus, as I transition into boards studying time and rotations, this will be time friendly.

I'm about to be finished with my first month of twists, and will be detangling and retwisting each individual twist this weekend.

I'll update with any modifications and post pics as I go. I'm working on a collage for this first set of twists.

Oh yea! Feel free to contact me and ask me any questions. And if you'd like to join the challenge with me, let me know! And you don't have to be natural or a certain length to do this. Modify it to your own hair, and go from there. Let's grow together:)

happy hair growing!

Bee