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In the name of all things humane,

Natural Hair Wars

With all these lovely new hair care products and regimens surfacing so are new terms. One in particular is ‘co-washing’. Now if you aren’t big on natural hair, or natural hair care products, you still may have never heard this term. Well I’m here to just shed a little light on what exactly the purpose of co-washing is. In the simplest definition, co-washing is the act of washing your hair only with conditioner. Yes, that means without using shampoo. The thing about shampoos that makes it harmful to your hair strands is the fact that most of them contain sulfates. So although it may do a thorough job of cleaning your hair it is also striping it of the natural oils which can lead to dryness and breakage. And thus that leads us to the co-washing process.

 As a disclaimer co-washing does not mean just double or triple the amount of your normal conditioner and poof your hair is clean. No. You have to use the first round/second round of condition as you would shampoo. Before you even get to that part, you have to make sure you know what conditioner is going to work best for your hair, and make sure it doesn’t have silicones. Why no silicones? Of course you would want to know that. Silicones add shine to hair but over time this causing a coating to build up on your hair and that results in your hair feeling heavy while becoming dull at the same time. Not good. So be careful.

 The actual co-washing process is similar to regular hair washing. You section your hair and apply a strategic amount of conditioner and start from your scalp while massaging your wait down. Doing this will allow for all the beneficial oils to stay put while the dirt and nasty residue are removed. It’s very important that you massage your scalp and rub the conditioner in to assure its cleaning the hair. Once you’ve treated your “co” conditioner as a shampoo it’s time to regularly condition your hair. This would be the part where you focus the product to assist you on detangling. If you feel you have used a bit more product than usual, you can always repeat the process to ensure you’ve sufficiently cleaned your hair just like you would with shampoo.

 The thing is you don’t have to stop shampooing completely. If you know co-washing isn’t for you or your hair type, then try using shampoo’s that are sulfate free and have a more natural selection of ingredients. Also, although I personally co-wash I still usually shampoo once a month with a sulfate free shampoo. I do this just to ensure my hair doesn’t hold on to any excess products I may have used throughout the month, and by cutting down my shampoo use I safeguard my hair from being completely stripped of its natural oils.

 If you’re curious about how to co-wash, or what to use to co-wash I suggest you further your research using Google or even YouTube. There are a bunch of DIY conditioners and hair cleansers that are so great to use. Not to mention many bloggers have tutorials on how they co-wash and what products they have purchased to help with their process.

I believe that’s how the infamous quote goes. There has been a lot going on with our Earth. More recently than before the concerns of Global Warming, our deteriorating Ozone Layer, and overall damage to the Earth has become a controversial topic. With the concern of our homeland at the fore front (just a couple years back) companies decided committing to “going green” was the best way to continue pushing sales while showing they cared too. Now that the “hype” has segued from the lime light a bit it seems some of these brands haven fallen short with their commitment. You may be shocked by the brands that have stayed true vs the ones that have not. 

So 76 well known brands from across the boarders joined Greenpeace on what they call a Detox Catwalk. This is supposed to show which brands are more or less toxic free. This “Catwalk” started in 2013 and each year Greenpeace checks in to see how the brands are doing, the ultimate goal is for the brands to be chemical-free by 2020. After checking in the top three companies are H&M Group, Inditex (which is the mother company of Zara), and Benetton. A few did poorly which included Limited Brands (owners of Victoria’s Secret and others). The only one who completely failed was Nike. I found this shocking in particular, because Nike’s brand is about being healthy, living healthy, and making healthy choices. I feel this looks extremely bad on Nike’s behalf to be such an active health brand but choose to neglect its commitment to eliminating hazardous chemicals from its attire.

 Hello everyone,

I am always talking about investing in oneself and how important it is. However, I’ve realized I have not gotten too into depth about what that means. Now of course there is the obvious answer, which is taking time out for yourself and putting money into yourself; but there is another side to this investment. If you look around a lot of cultures invest in their own people, but a common factor of this is the African American community lacks that support from one another. The lack of knowledge is the biggest problem, as an African American myself I find it extremely hard to find out about more black owned business (until now). We have to bring knowledge to our homes, our children, OUR FAMILIES. If we don’t support one another, how can we expect support form someone else? This country is at war with it’s own people, and we are looking from help from everyone else but we need to stand in unity with our own first. Things that can help us are knowing where black owned businesses are located, teaching our children they are important as well as their dreams, taking time out to be aware of ways to keep our money with our people, and taking a step towards ending hatred for our own so we can be the example without being the hashtag. Let’s Stay Woke. Yes, all lives do matter, but currently Black lives are being challenged and we need to remind them we’ve been here, well be here so stop threatening our safety. Negative energy will only transfers into more negative energy, we cannot keep the violence going. We have to positively make a change. Below are a few resources I was fortunate to obtain from Sharee De Vose [@myshareeamour (on twitter)]:

Some people have mentioned that they don't know of any Black-owned businesses in their area. Here's a list of apps/resources that may help you (some apps may only be for Android, not sure):

· WhereU

· Tuloko

· Purchase Black

· The Small Black Business Directory

· Black Trade Lines

· Spendefy

· www.egrassrootsbusiness.com

· www.bbnomics.com ("100 Black-Owned...")

· www.2millionjobs.com

· www.blackbusinessnetwork.com

· www.blackeconomicdevelopment.com

Although I've found these resources, I have not used them all (so I can't speak to how helpful each is). You can also search "Black Business Economics," and other keyword combinations on Google to look for more sites and lists.

Happy spending! ‪#‎SupportBlackBusinesses ‪#‎Ujamaa ‪#‎Ujamaa365