Slave to hair....SEWED SOME IN!

Ya'll have heard me talk about how "we" - both African American women and WOMEN in general of all races will alter our physical activity based on our hair!  I've read about the Brazilian Keratin Treatment (BKT) craze in one of the zillions of mags I read - one woman wrote about her experience.  How after having it done, you cannot get it wet for 4 days, no showering, no swimming, and....YEP no sweating!  This was a white woman, so its not just "us."  Before relaxing my hair I won't workout for the prior 2-3 days because increased blood flow to the scalp can make the experience less than pleasant....okay, okay, I'll just come out and say it - it'll BURN!  Lately I've been rollersetting my hair each weekend.  I swear, whenever I do it, I feel so beautiful, my hair is so soft and bouncy.  Then I consider going to the gym.  I usually say....lemme just HAVE the weekend (I do my hair Friday or Saturday) then the curls stay intact.  Monday rolls around and I say "Oooh my hair looks good still"  so I won't go!  I am in the process of growing my hair out.  Its almost back to the longest I've ever been able to grow it (which is between APL & BSL for those on hair boards/forums) back in my early 20's - and it was WORK then - and so far I am in love with it!  However, lately I've been feeling like its taking over my life!  At night, I debate how I'm going to wear it the next day...I carefully moisturize and place it in plaits, rollers or pincurls.  If the style is cute, I don't wanna work out the next day!  Then if I do....my scalp is sweaty and after 2-3 days it becomes itchy so I wash it.  For those who are not aware, typically black women don't wash their hair as frequently as women of other races because our hair is drier by nature.  So at best I'm wearing a style for THREE DAYS and lord knows I don't have the time or patience to rollerset mid-week!  I wasn't like this when I first started either journey (hair or weight loss) seems like it was easier.  Maybe because my hair was shorter?  IDK because I think longer hair is easier.  At least I can do a bun/ponytail and look presentable now.  I think maybe its because now that its longer, I love wearing it out! 

Anywhoooo, I'm just ranting about how I felt.  And I wanted a change for the fall.  So....I sewed some hair in!  That's right I pulled out my "bin o' hair" found some Virgin Indian Hair I bought a couple years ago but never used, did a lil research and installed it myself!  Normally I have a stylist do it, but it was such a spur of the moment thing plus I don't know who I trust to do it here (in my current city), and it's EXPENSIVE!  I'm sure with working out it won't last me the 3 months I normally keep it in, but only 6-8 weeks.  I've done weaves on other people many times - and they always look FIYAH if I do say so myself.  So I decided to do it myself!  I do need some practice I will admit but the finished product is gawwww-geous, and I feel free to workout as much as I want! 

Fitness...or Hair?

Today I attended a wedding of one of the ladies from my Woman's Bible Study Group.  I love weddings.  They always make me so happy and excited for the couple uniting in Holy Matrimony.  I'm at the age where everybody seems to  be getting married or announcing engagements, and sometimes it's exhausting - not to mention expensive; but I every single ceremony I feel blessed to have witnessed the couple's union.  Today was no different.

However...I set my hair on flexirods.  For those who don't know what those are, they are the long (usually 12") foam flexible, bendable rods (come in variable sizes) that can be used to curl or spiral your hair. I used them on freshly washed, wet hair and got these results (and for fun I included the outfit...all of which is in a size MEDIUM!!!!):

Well...I loved it!  It took me about 45 minutes or so to rod, 1 hour under the dryer and another couple of hours of airdrying (while I did my nails and feet) to complete.  Then...I removed most of the rods and pinned the curls up into place and slept carefully.  MOST Black women at one point or another in life have slept "carefully" i.e. on your forehead, in a chair, propped up by your hand, and I am no different.  I rotated between arms folded on my forehead with my chest elevated by pillows and keeping my head in the air by holding it with my arm.  Completely uncomfortable, but as you can see the curls remained intact and I felt it was all worth it as I received compliments at the wedding.  Sidebar:  I don't have the tolerance to do "careful" styles very often and best believe after the wedding I piled those bad boys on the top of my hair, slapped a bonnet on and laid down like a normal person!  But on occasion I do return to "careful" sleeping for special occasions like this one.

Anyway...I'm digressing.  After the wedding, I already began thinking of what workouts I would do where I could preserve my beloved curls for at least 3 days!  Before embarking on this journey...this would constitute me to NOT workout until I changed my hair.  Yes...I was one of those Black women who would put hair before fitness.  I'm proud of the fact that I no longer do that as much, but every once in a while that old person who values a hairstyle so much resurfaces.  A HAIRSTYLE, one that can be replicated, redone, recreated as many times as I like will come before WORKING OUT, something that has to be done regularly to be maintained.  How ironic and moreover silly is that???  If you Google "Reasons Black Women Don't Exercise" the #1 reason is hair.  Harvard University even conducted a study that concluded this...its not just an urban legend.

I'm really proud of myself because I forced myself to NOT be that woman, but rather to be a woman who focuses on overall appearance and health...not just hair.  So as much as I didn't want to - I placed a hairnet on my hair to keep the curls gathered and got busy with Jillian Michaels.  Today I will do the same as well as jump some rope.

Who can relate to what I'm saying?  If not hair then what aesthetic thing will you put before working out?  Freshly painted toenails?  A spray tan that you don't want to streak?  What?

This Weekend: Date, Hair, Nails, & Church!

This wasn't a great weekend for me food wise.  For some odd reason I decided to celebrate my week's victorious loss with....Mexican on Friday.  And I got such a yummy meal. It was orgasmic.  Definitely not something I can have often, it was a tower of meat, tortilla, cheese sauce....but so so so good!   Then Saturday I had Subway for lunch - hello sodium, welcome back.  Then I went on a date that evening...I chose wisely but still...home-cooking is usually safer.  Nevertheless I am back on track...and still plan to lose this week.  No more celebrating until my birthday - at which I should be 153!  (that's the goal anyways....)

I painted my nails in a cheetah print pattern and I love the results.  I went on a date Saturday and wore a pair of large cheetah print earrings, cream blouse, black wide leg pants and cheetah print shoes.  I noticed the outfit fit SO NICELY!  Everything was a medium, but previously the wide leg pants fit nearly like stretch pants over my booty and thighs.  But now, they hang and go straight down, no curvature where they are adjusting to the fat thighs being shoved in them!  I looked very nice if I do say so myself.  Too bad the date was bad terrible!  The guy was SO SELF-ABSORBED!  He talked about himself, practically non-stop (I had to just interject here and there) and didn't ask me a single question.  Not one.  I mean - I talk a lot, trust me.  But if someone asks "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"  and you proceed to talk about each of your siblings in detail, their ages, what they want to be "when they grow up" and even their HAIR (one has dreadlocks like him and the sister just cut hers, toldja he talked a lot, why else would I know all of this already?!) - dontcha think you should at least return the question back to me?!?!?!?!  I mean if nothing else and you are unable to make pleasant convo, simply return the questions you are asked.  Sheesh.  I will not NEVER go out with him again, needless to say...the sad thing is - he will never know his faults.  I think he is one of those types that attracts women so frequently that he never had to develop a nice personality....not sure what his deal is, but I'm not going to be the one to straighten it out.  I kind've got that feeling when I first met him, but decided to go out and give him the benefit of the doubt.  EPIC FAIL.

But here are my nails and earrings, and my hairdo!  I had a flower clip in the side and had kind've a retro-pin up look going on in the front.  SO FREAKIN CUTE!!!!  Don't you love those days when everything is working for you?  Hair is right, skin & makeup glows, outfit is on point....well I had one of those days Saturday.  And even though the date was bad....I still liked getting prettied up.

Church was also very good.  The sermon was about God taking you through something you thought was impossible.  And when He does that for you, be sure to have landmarks and souvenirs so you can look back and remember where He brought you from and so you can testify and witness to others.  This is as the Israelites did with the stones after they crossed the Jordan river (Joshua 4:19-24).  Awesome message....God truly has brought me through many "Jordans" in my life...things I didn't think I could do, and definitely wasn't able to do on my own.

Well - that was my weekend...how was yours?