Thursday, February 8, 2007

Musings...

It has always struck me as completely absurd how much time and money we spend removing the curl from our hair only to put it back in.

I am not unlike Zayunu. My hair grows like weeds and when I'm cutting it, I have to be at that all the time! Short hair is really too high maintenance for me. As much as I always loved the look, I was forever growing out of whatever style I had chosen.

Her hair looks like my mother's did. How many times did I wish I had inherited that set of problems? But I know and you know that if that was the hair I'd always had on my head and known nothing else, I'd have grown up hating things about it and wishing it had characteristics of other people's hair. That's just how we are as humans.

And we all know it's tough to get much sympathy about our hair growing too fast. No one ever sheds a tear for you when you complain about your hair being too fine or too soft or too curly either.

I love wearing my hair curly too, but when I do, I have to wet it every day and it takes lots of time and loads of product to get and keep the look. Then it's still incredibly unpredictable at that. Will it frizz? Puff? Pouf? 'Fro? Don't get me wrong - I would sport the cute 'fro any time, but my hair seems determined to pay homage to Mr. Frederick Douglass. And I am not ever feeling that look any day of any week.

How natural is it if I have to spend hours of styling time and apply gobs of product to achieve and maintain the look? Chemical-free? Yes. Carefree? No.

I don't expect that SLs or other types of locks are maintenance-free, but from the research I have conducted thus far, I am pretty certain that I will spend less time on my hair daily and weekly and that I will be able to style it without such heavy reliance on products...I am decidedly not a product junkie and I am looking forward to that.

2 comments:

Sis. RJQueen10 said...

To my long-winded soul blog sister mate,

I like this posts. It made me laugh, especially your reference to Frederick Douglass. How do you include the links like that to Zayunu in your posts?

You are correct it is difficult for me to muster up sympathy for your hair "growing like weeds" issue. However, after you explained how you grow out of hair styles I was able to have compassion for your hair issues. Of course, I "think" I would love to have your hair problems. But in retrospect, now that I am learning so much about my own hair, I am finally loving my hair for exactly how God made it.

I love the thoughts you explored in this post, thanks for having it and thanks for sharing!

Sis. RJQueen10

Okay, let me see about the twins, they are getting into stuff they should not be bothering, an indication that they need and want some attention from me.

blackrussian said...

Thanks, the Frederick Douglass comment is absolutely true. I took one last pic before I got my SLs put in, but I am TOO VAIN to put it out there! My "Miss Diana" 'fro is bad enough (you haven't seen that one yet). I took them on the same day. "Mr. Douglass" is the look I had before the blow-out. "Miss Diana" is the look I had after. It would give y'all a good laugh, but I think it's just not worth it.

(I'm not actually FROM The South, but "y'all" is absolutely one of my favorite adopted words!)

About my hair growing quickly...it still does, but with my SLs the coil is getting tighter and tighter since I'm not stretching it out everyday with combing and styling. So, even tough I can feel how much new growth I've got at the roots, I have no idea what to expect in terms of how long it will take for the growth to show at the ends.

There are several ways to link text to a specific site (or any page within that site). This is what is easiest for me.

First I go to the part of blogger where I can create or edit posts. I open the post I want to add the link to, or if it's a new post, I'm already there.

I open a new window with the site I want to link to. I copy the address from one of two places.

If I am linking to the entire site or a page within the site (that I'm on), I copy the address from the navigation bar where the URL shows at the top of the page. You can use the mouse (or the Shift + arrow key) to highlight everything that follows "http://", then roll over it with your mouse, right-click, and hit copy. This saves the address to the clipboard.

You can also rollover any link on a page. If it says "http://..." and/or changes color when you roll over it or your mouse changes from an arrow to a hand, it is a hyperlink. Right-clicking on your mouse will give you options. One of your options should say 'copy' or 'copy shortcut.' Choose either option, it doesn't matter.

In the example we're using, you could copy the address to Zayunu's page from her site {that you opened in a new window}, or you could roll over the colored link on my site and right-click from there. I often do this when I am lifting a link from another blog or website. It keeps me from having to wait for a new window to open and cluttering up my desktop.

Then, go back to your post. Highlight the text you want to link. For example: "Zayunu". Next click on the link icon on your toolbar. (The little picture that looks like a globe with a chain over top.)

This will give you a pop-up window. Right-click on the line for the URL, and paste the address you have copied.

The bar will already have "http://" in it. If you pasted that to your clipboard and it shows up twice, erase the first one. You don't need two.

Hit "ok" and you're in business! Your text should change color and become underlined to show that it is now a hyperlink. I always test them to make sure they go to the right site or part of the site before I save it or publish my post.

That's it and you're done!

It seems like a lot of steps when you're reading it, but once you've done it once or twice, you'll find it takes less than 3 minutes!

Hope I didn't break it down into too many steps for you. I worked ever so briefly in a technical writing dept. and they train you to write every single step.

Needless to say I found it infinitely tedious and boring and didn't last long at all!