Music Favourites

Hi there…or should I say “happy new year”? Are people still doing that? I know I have been gone for so long, I haven’t forgotten about the blog, quite the contrary. I have a lot of ideas for 2018, so #watchthisspace. I have been quite busy with my Master’s thesis, a girl has gotta get the degree in the bag. I am not done yet but I am close to the finishing line so I have been putting in a lot of work and that means a lot of motivation is required. I have been finding a lot of motivation from music, I am listening to everything, from pop, RnB, Gospel to Afropop.

Going Natural

If you’re considering going natural, please go ahead, team natural welcomes you with joy and pride. For those reading this and have no idea what it is I’m talking about, here’s what’s up. By natural, I mean natural hair. As you have probably noticed, African women tend to have thick, kinky hair that easily grows into an afro-this is their hair in its natural form. However, with the rising popularity of weaves and recently wigs, the afro has become a relic of the past. It is then not surprising that some people aren’t familiar with this topic. What also adds to this picture is the use of hair relaxers (chemical agents) that are designed to denature the structure of the natural hair to straighten it. A lot of Black women have their hair like this, that’s if they even rock it. As I said before, weaves and wigs are the rave, such that they are considered the standard look amongst Black women. I know a lot of women out there whose real hair I’ve never seen because it’s weave/wig (tricky to tell apart these days especially with the lace-front wigs) 24/7 all year round. Before I continue I should make it known that I’m not against these hairstyles, my problem lies with the idea that African women have that they look less beautiful in their natural hair. I refuse to believe it and I blame this on western trends that taught the African girl child that her hair needed to be straight for her to be pretty. This suggests that God erred in his creation and of course, cannot be true. He made us all in his image, and some us our kinky afros are a glorious reflection of him.

Outfit Spotlight

This was my look on Sunday. A long-sleeved white shirt/blouse. It has some hint of black which I paired off with my high-waist black skinnies. To top it off I added black suspenders. I’ve always thought about this look and would have loved to wear my black wide-brimmed hat as well but couldn’t as I had gone through the labour of using flexi rods to curl my hair and as such it was only appropriate for my hair to get it’s own spotlight. People loved the outfit, particularly the suspenders. Sometimes you have to go to the past in order to go forward. The black and white filter echoes the ‘retro’ essence of the outfit. This outfit was inspired by the outfit below that I found on Pinterest. I actively searched for it, I find the search function on Pinterest very useful as I can narrow down the outfit I’m looking for by specifying items in my closet. Since I mentioned my hair, I might as well talk about it a bit. So I bought flexi rods for my hair on Wish (the online shopping app) after my housemate had recommended it. The rods were delivered 2 weeks early to my surprise and excitement of course. If you have natural hair and enjoy taking care of it you’d relate. My hair is quite kinky (type 4B I think) so naturally it requires a lot of effort in order to maintain and curling it is one of the things I love to do. I usually do overnight twists without applying any curling hair products, so this means that my curling attempts lead to mainly just straight bushy hair with some loose curls. I actually do like it like that as it means I can easily transition to straightish hair that I can tie into a pony tail the day after my curls (if we’re calling them that) have faded. Here is what happened with the curling roads:

So it was much better than the twists but my research has lead me to believe that I need to use a good curl activator product and in addition, I need to change the way I roll the hair on the rods, it should be spread on the rod and not rolled in one place. There are so many videos out there but I liked this one the most. Once again, Pinterest was a good source.

https://pin.it/lwkx4o3lirx3wj

Lupats

Proud Black Woman

via Daily Prompt: Black

I am Black and I am proud. I embrace all things that come with this race, the good the bad and the ugly- yes even the ugly – it all moulds me into becoming the woman I hope to be. I am happy that I can actually be proud to be Black and I owe that to my forefathers who fought for freedom and independence from colonial rule. That independence was a door for future generations to live freely and be able to express and celebrate their culture. It saddens me however that I still live in a world where other people see this race as the lesser race. It pains me, even more, to see that there are fellow Black men and women who believe and live this lie.  A reminder to everyone out there, we were all created in God’s image. We all mirror God’s appearance with our different skins and God has a purpose for each and every one of us, and he created us the way we are as part of our individual narrative. As far as I know and believe, God does not make mistakes, so please do not let anyone lie to you about your value in the world. To my fellow Black brothers and sisters, embrace your curves, your kinky hair, your language, your heritage and above all your skin. Never let anyone make you feel any less than who God says you are. And to those who believe Black people are inferior, we forgive you. You need to learn to walk in love, we are all brothers and sisters from the same father, it needs to show through our acts.

Lupats (Proud Black Woman)

Why start a blog?

Well, why not? I’m kidding, as I can imagine, writing and sharing one’s life with strangers is not for everyone. I had always thought of starting a blog ever since they were all the rave in the early 2000s before everyone decided to start tweeting or Facebooking (is that what it’s called?) I always put it off thinking that I had very little to say or the admin part of it would just make me lazy. I’m sure whoever is reading this can relate, laziness makes us procrastinate and sometimes it robs us of realizing our dreams.

The next question is – why now? (I suppose)

I recently decided that I want to have a voice. There are a lot of people out there already sharing their ideas with the world, and I want to be part of them ( well, the ones that have a positive message). I always thought that I would wait until I’m older, wiser or when I have more time, but waiting for this to happen turns out to be unrealistic. I’ve noticed that the older I get, the busier my life becomes, so there’s never going to be the right time to start a blog. That time is now and so it suddenly hit me that I should take the leap. Just last week, I was doing some research into blogging ( I was supposed to be studying, but we all know how everything else becomes interesting when you should be studying). I decided to do some research first before making such a decision, and from the research, it appears that blogging is a big commitment. I wasn’t deterred by this, I would say that I was challenged. Additionally, 2 days after this, a friend of mine at church, was so impressed with my outfit (she asked if I always “dressed-up” every day, and my answer was YES) that she suggested I start a blog. This came as confirmation, thank you, Lord.

What will the blog be about?

I want to make this a place where I share my ideas through my experiences. My focus is on different interests – movies, music, my career path, fashion and more importantly my journey as a young Christian. I intend on posting at least once every week,  I don’t want to put too much pressure on my writing- writing can be stressful. I’m also looking forward to feedback and suggestions on topics for exploration and how I can improve the blog.

Final message

Here’s some advice for the dreamers: in order to realize your dream, you have to actually START. You have to start putting yourself out there, have faith. And always remember that: If at first, you don’t succeed, pick yourself up and try again!

Lupats