Check out this fantastic review of our hair show in West Bromwich!!  We had such a fantastic time there and thankfully it came across in our presentation.  Thanks to Crystal Afro for the post xxx

~*~

Despite November being a relatively quiet month I’ve been preparing myself for December to be all go!!
With at least 3 natural hair related events to attend, all based outside of London, I really feel like I’m taking on the title of this blog. So as I travel around the UK attempting to unite the Kinkdom, I’ll be reporting back to you.

The 1st event by Nature’s Parlour, took place last weekend in West Bromwich (which if you’re a typical Londoner like me meansBirmingham!)
I’d never been to Birmingham before, so I was very excited to have a little look around and then get to meeting some Midlands-based Naturals.

Nature’s Parlour was created by Xina Brodrick, and in 2007 launched an online store, selling ‘top quality natural hair and skin products’.
Nature’s Parlour stock various natural products, including brands from the US.
(Click here for Nature’s Parlour)

On the day those who attended were able to test, purchase and discuss the products available with Xina before sitting down to a presentation covering some of the essentials about Black hair care.

Xina began the talk by introducing herself and giving us a incite into her relationship with her hair to date. As a qualified Loctitian and a “Natural Hair Ambassador” (I love that term – finally something that describes what I wana be when I grow up) Xina has a wealth of experience and knowledge about Afro hair and how best to take care of it.

The presentation covered various topics, including “Why We Have Kinks & Coils”, good and bad products and tools, as well as routines and even tips on transitioning from chemically altered hair back to natural.

Xina is definitely not a fan of petro-chemicals, such as petroleum or mineral oil, and argues that although they can be fine to use in small amounts, why use them when there are so many natural alternatives. As she explains at the beginning of her talk, keeping our hair moisturised with water is essential to having healthy manageable hair. Because petro-chemicals effectively repel water, thus keeping it out, Xina, similarly to many other naturals, argues that they are not beneficial to our hair.

Instead Xina recommends 3 natural oils that are great for sealing in moisture and also penetrating the hair shaft and tells us a few key point we must look out for:

1.) Olive Oil - N.B Make sure it’sExtra Virgin
2.) Coconut Oil – N.B Make sure itsPure and smells like Coconut(otherwise it’s RDB*)
3.) Avocado Oil

Xina pointed out that Avocado Oil in particular, is especially good for Black hair and skin in the Winter, due to our Vitamin D requirements and it’s high vitamin D content.

(Find out more about Avocado Oil on the Nature’s Parlour website:Click Here)

This made it extra pleasing to find a bottle of Pure Avocado Oil in my goody bag that I received for buying my ticket online.

In fact when I finally sat down on the train back to London and looked in my goody bag, I was very pleased at what it contained, including 2 full sized bottles of Blended Beauty products,Avocado Oil, and a sample of Hibiscus Rose Leave-In Conditioner by TLC Naturals (a new product line by Paige Ellean of the Care 4 Curls Blog, which I’ve read a lot of good reviews about).

The great thing about Xina’s presentation is that she clearly recognised the different needs of natural hair in locs vs natural hair worn loose, and shared tips specific to each.

I definitely had a great time in Birmingham and wish I could have stayed a little longer as there were many great topics of conversation being discussed before the presentation that I would have loved to continue afterwards, including “Why the preference amongst young people for extensions & weaves and generally straight hair?” and “What’s been lost between the older generations from the Caribbean and the generations that have grown up here – why haven’t the skills of hair care been passed on?”

It was also lovely to see Brummie-based UK Natural Lorien Haywho organised the Midlands Meet-up earlier this year, and to whom I owe a major thank you for giving me a ride back to the station. Thank You xx

*RDB = Refined, Deodorised and Bleached (i.e striped of all the goodness)

I’m looking forward to seeing the Nature’s Parlour ladies again this weekend (tomorrow in fact) at the Natural Notts event in Nottingham and meeting even more or #Teamnatural Midlanders.

You can read the original post here:  UNITED KinKdom: Natures Parlour Review.

What do you do after the big chop? That is the question many ladies find themselves asking after making the decision to become a natural. In this video sheacocoaluv breaks things down for us by encouraging the most important thing – CONFIDENCE! The answer to the question is to believe in yourself and your personal beauty, and love yourself and your evolving hair styles.

 Big Chop Motivation | Natural Hair TV | The Best Natural Hair Videos.

Xina Broderick, Natural Hair Ambassador & Owner of Nature’s Parlour, poses four questions for people with natural hair and would love to receive your video responses.

The questions are:

What inspired you to wear your hair natural?
What are the benefits of having natural hair?
What has been the major challenge regarding your natural hair? (Please also state the solution if you found one)
What would be your number one natural hair tip/advice for someone thinking about going natural?

Do a video response to this in YouTube, or upload your video to our blog beneath the “Natural Hair Questions Post” or post the link to your video to our Facebook page wall.

Rate and subscribe to our Videos
Like us on Facebook
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Subscribe to our Blog

Do you have natural afro hair? Are you thinking of having natural afro hair but don’t know how you would look after it? Do you wear a wig or weave over your natural hair and would like to wear it out but need some direction?

If you answer yes to any of the above questions then this is the event for you.

Come to “Your Natural Hair” to hear Xina Broderick talk about growing, maintaining and styling your natural hair. She will talk about the myths which surround natural hair and will also discuss product ingredients – what to avoid and what to use. There will also be a selection of products available for sale.

Original Facebook Event post is here:  Your Natural Hair.

Contrary to the persistent idea that natural hair offers no versatility in styling, this section will show you that natural hairstyling is only limited by your imagination. You’ll see that a skillful stylist can turn coils of any texture, long or short into jaw-dropping coiffed heads.

We always look for new styles so if you are one of those gifted people who can style their own hair or makes a living as a professional stylist, please send usyour styles.

Original article can be found here:  Natural Hairstyles | Going Natural Articles.

Back in September a reader sent me a link to an online feature by Elle called ‘The Expert Guide to Afro Hair’ – Have you read it? With the event and everything else I have not had time to read it until today.

Gosh it was annoying. They had apparently spoken to industry experts about how to care for our hair and as I read through it I was shaking my head thinking “is this really the best advice? Are these really the best products? I hope no unsuspecting sista or young girl is reading this”

Anyway then I got to this section where it said “Having your hair professionally relaxed will make it easier to style straight and into neat curls. “Relaxing is great; it creates styling versatility” says Ursula Stephen, Rihanna’s hairstylist.

*Big Sigh* Are we really still getting messages like this. Is this article saying that our curls are a mess and the only way to have curls is if they are all neat and perfectly formed.

My thoughts are, whenever you are reading this or any type of hair advice always think to yourself who is writing this and why? Perhaps they were just writing this to highlight some products and expensive ones that that. What is their opinion of beauty? In magazines such as this its usually quite narrow meaning they usually feature people with a certain dress size and a certain height.  Remember that this is a magazine that the majority of the time doesn’t even feature black women let alone ones without relaxer. So always be careful where you get your information from.

Saying that relaxing your hair makes it easier to style is quite sad and it represents a type of ignorance of the different forms of hair and beauty. Thumbs down to Elle for allowing such a statement.

If you want to read it click this link
THE EXPERT GUIDE TO: AFRO HAIR

This post was originally posted here:

The Natural Lounge: The ‘Expert’ Guide to Afro Hair – or not

The Ten Best Oils For Natural Hair « Thank God I’m Natural.

Hello all!

My name is Tynesha and I am the newest intern for Xina!

Blogging isn’t that new to me as I have attempted to do a few about irrelevant things but I think that this blog will be a lot better and more relevant.

So back to the point.

I am currently going natural myself and currently have kinky twists in right now. I used to relax my hair but because I didn’t look after it properly, my hair started to fall out quite a bit when I was washing it. When that started to happen I thought I was going to go bald! I was panicking, checking for patches as I was drying and straightening my hair. So I decided that I didn’t want to be in that state anymore, and that’s what made me decide to go natural (well that and the fact that I have started university and I cannot afford to be paying £40-£60 every 2 months to get my hair relaxed!)

So I am doing a natural story for you all to show you how I am currently coping with my transition from relaxed to natural hair.

Now I thought at first that it was going to be really quick and easy (a bit like putting the relaxer in your hair) but I was very sadly mistaken and it turns out, that patience is a virtue! So I am being very patient with my great hair.

I have watched a few YouTube video’s about people going natural and putting in kinky twists, etc and they are all really good. I will put a few links down below or if I forget most likely in the up and coming blogs that I will do. They are really useful and I recommend everyone to try out kinky twists before locking.

Now I am not saying don’t lock because that would just be wrong! Like how can you not want to lock your hair?! Oh for those who don’t know what locking is, some people call it dreads or dread locks (even though you will all know what it is, there maybe someone who doesn’t know and I am just clarifying just in case). But kinky twists (depending on how you do them) look slightly like locks (but they don’t look as good as locks I must say) so you can get a feel of what locks may look like, etc. Well that’s what I think personally, there maybe some of you that will disagree with what I am saying, which is understandable. But I know that from having kinky twists, I definitely want to have locks and keep them!

So knowing Xina is a great way to start this transformation. She sells the right products, she speaks with confidence and truth about looking after both hair and skin, and she is genuinely an all round great human being. So working with her is great (plus if I am super nice maybe I can some discount of her products? Maybe? Just a tiny bit)! We will see any ways. I don’t mind paying full price but maybe it could be an incentive to do great work with her! Hmmm…. I will have a look into that.

But any ways back to the point

So yeah, this is the start of my hair journey (well my hair journey blog any ways) and I will write to you all soon and shortly you shall all see me soon (as some YouTube clips will be coming up shortly).

God Bless

Tynesha

! ! ! ! ! ! N A T U R A L H A I R I S G R E A T H A I R ! ! ! ! ! !

We came across this TV show called Afro-City!   Not much in the way of hair care, but we think it’s fun.  Check it out and let us know what you think.

Have you ever wondered how you can accessorize your hair with a beautiful scarf?

Well here are three simple ways:

How To Tie A Turband 3 Ways from LEAFtv on Vimeo.

This is a great way to decorate your hair whether you have locs, loose natural hair, transitioning or plaits!

How do you accessorize your hair?