Melanie Goes Natural

Oh, it is oh so painful and stupid. I keep telling myself that oh it wasn’t really that bad, let it go, let it go, you’re fine. But I just can’t. I feel so awful. I just want to shut my brain off for a while until it finds something else to obsess over. 

When people ask me what I do in my free time, I feel like I give some diluted or watered down version of the truth. If I were to be completely honest my free time is fairly limited and consists of twerking and interpretive dance breaks between studying sessions and being lost and hoping my data limit hasnt been reached and my google maps will save me. 

So, I have neglected this  blog horribly... I plan to keep it up a bit more in the near future. I was working abroad and now am back stateside in grad school again and just trying to find a new normal. So here I am.

Here is a video of my Host Country Hero, Palmira. She is a community volunteer and activist for people living with HIV/AIDS in her community in Mozambique. S...

Nothing abut today was particularly distasteful or unpleasant. But it is just one of those days where I feel depressed and tired. It's like any time I have a free moment and try to clear my head, something not happy pops back into my mind to remind me that I am sad. I just feel alone. I know there are people all around me and that I could call home, but I still just feel alone. I feel like I am just so disconnected from people. I think it all started with rumors and gossip happening that I found out about and it really did kinda break my heart. And some other stuff happened. And today I was thinking about the different degrees and types f heartbreak that happen and remembering the few but various types of heartbreak that I've had. I remember someone telling me that I hadn't had my heart broken. But if you idea of heartbreak only includes the kind tha involves having a significant other then you are naive my friend. I know that my heart has been broken just not by a significant other. It's been broken by friends, family, death of friends or family. And I know it because I still feel it. It never completely goes away and sometimes if the right buttons get pushed or something you find yourself being swallowed back in by that pain if you let it. Time doesn't really heal, it dulls it enough for us to move on a bit because we have no choice really and you just move forward with the hope that other things happen and take over your mind in order to quicken time's dulling of it all.

Hanging with my favorite little homies!!! 

So, I went around my neighborhood yesterday and found some eucalyptus trees! So, it looks like I have another natural hair oil that I can make use of here. It's also an essential oil!!! So perfect, now I can accompany it with coconut oil for a killer hair combo. It also prevent insects!!! Hella awesome considering the flies I attract with my coconut and peanut oils! So excited. Also, I'm so excited that I have almost officially ( minus about 3 days) been natural for 2 years!!! 

Sometimes the world just gets to be too much no matter where you are and we have to decompress a bit in whatever way possible in order to just keep sane. Not even to be in tip top shape, but just to feel ok. I found myself at that point today when I woke up. Just not feeling ok. And that's ok as well, it's normal and a part of life which is already quite the fucking rollercoaster. Anyways, random tidbit from me for the day. Keep on keepin' on people. Keep calm and persevere. 

Among many cool things that happened, I met this natural product vendor based in Swaziland, who had a combo olive oil and coconut oil spray for hair.. Oil here in Mozambique especially the ones I usually use in my hair are hard to come by and not always available and forget about shea butter. It was like seeing water after trudging along in the desert for a bit. I had recently bit the bullet and decided to buy this peanut oil I found because it was the only thing available. So needless to say. I have been graced by the natural hair gods, ha!

chillin' in my hut, 21 months of growth

I'm pretty sure that you can cause heat damage to your hair from just being outside in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is fucking hot here. All the damned time. I was not prepared for it and neither was my hair. Between the heat here and the anti-malarial drugs, it's a miracle that my hair grows at all. It is really hair to balance my hair's moisture here. And now, it's what people call winter here, which is just a windy summer day basically and now my hair is even drier due to the wind. This is ridiculous.

Hey ya'll! I've been out for a minute. But I have been testing out a new method out here in the wilds of Mozambique. Ever heard of Moringa? It's basically the most amazing plant in the world. In my community/public health work, we teach people how to use moringa to enhance the diet and meet the daily recommendations of vitamins, etc. It has nearly everything you need. Not only do I include it in my diet. I include it in my hair's diet. I simply put leaves of moringa in the olive oil I use in my hair. My next goal is to start experimenting with moringa oil, I'm expecting to see awesome results due to the high vitamin content of this plant.

7) Do not give in to the Mozambican women here and wear my hair like they want me to. I am an individual and have the right to rock whatever styles I choose.

So, I moved here to Mozambique 6 months ago and my Shea Moisture conditioner is quickly being used up. So what is a girl to do? You can request it in a care package, sure, but surely there are other healthy, cheap options for natural girls living in freakin' Africa, right? Ofcourse. I have quickly become a fan of using simply coconut and olive oils. And for shampoo? baking soda and whatever oil you prefer. Conditioner? Well, luckily we have apple cider vinegar available a town over! For daily maintenance, I typically use a spray mix of water, coconut oil and olive oil and honey.I think it's working. I generally flat twist my hair and wear it under a scarf daily and just take it down whenever I feel like it. I like it stretched out most of the time. I am not ready to accept shrinkage.I'm sure I will once my hair is longer, but until then...Stretching my hair is a must. Next month I will have gone 18 months natural... I'm so proud of my hair progress so far!

So, I have not updated in a while, but here I am 1 year later, living in Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer and am so happy with the progress of my natural hair. Best decision ever, especially because I live in a hut in sub-Saharan Africa with no running water, ha!