Chronicles of a Natural Apostolic: You Never Know Who Notices You

Hello beauties! As you all read, Jen wrote a beautiful post called, me= good enough. One of my awesome friends, Mary, wrote the sweetest comment in regards to the post.

"Heeeey Kendra!!! I left a comment on Jen's blog in her hair post and since I mentioned YOU in my comment I thought that I would pass the message along to YOU!!! I tried to leave a comment on your blog but for some reason with your comment set up it won't let me!!! Anyways here you go!!! :)

JEN!!!!!! I am sooooo proud of you for making this decision!!! AND just for the record, I happen to LOVE "tightly curled hair!" I know, I know big surprise right? ;) LOL Honestly, I REALLY do think its beautiful!!! I love touching all the girls hair and playin with it and to me it is actually easier to do. Ironically, before I had read this post, I had just told the girls in my youth group, cuz I had just seen Kendra at Youth Alive, that one think I REALLLY liked and admired about Kendra is that she isn't scared to be just be black. You would think that with her being married to a white guy, that she of all people would try to have straight hair... BUT... She isn't scared of her hair. She wasn't scared of it not being all straight, she wasn't scared to have braids or twists or whatever and I REALLLY like that!!! I mean she came in with these cool lookin twists and rolls in her hair that obviousley no white girl would ever be doing, but on her hair it looked AWESOME!!! (Btw- you all better NOT laugh at me, BUT I did try to do one of Kendra's hair-do's one time. It didn't work at to well either...let me tell you!!! I told my sister...it didn't work out like Kendra's and she just looked at me and was all like...DUH!!!) So anyways, I'm really happy for you and proud of you!!! Btw- what do you guys think about hot sticks and hotrollers and curling irons? Do you think that is the same thing as when a girl gets her hair straightened? Its something that I think about from time to time(about myself) and would be interested in hearin what you all think! "

WOW! That meant so much to me. Sometimes I want to fit in and look like everyone else. I don't want to wear twists and braids and tightly coiled hair sometimes. But you never know who notices you - and that people may actually like it. She doesn't even know this but her comment just about made me cry.. To think that by me having natural hair means I am confident and
am unafraid to be ME!

THANK YOU MARY! I hope this helps all of my readers. People see you with your beautiful natural hair and they are inspired by you!

Chronicles of a Natural Apostolic: Playing in my hair

Wash day photos! I combed out my hair before washing it and got a huge fro!!
















Hmmm maybe one day I will actually wear my hair this way, who knows??

Chronicles of a Natural Apostolic: Raw Shea Butter Part I

This is just part one of my personal exploration with raw shea butter... enjoy!

Hello there my loves. I am very excited because today I made my first raw shea butter purchase!

It has been something I have been wanting to do for a long time, but I was confused about what to buy, where to buy it, what was too expensive, too cheap, real, fake... etc! However, I have been doing some research about shea butter and I would like to share it with you.

Beginnings of my decisions:

For one, as many of you know, I have 4C hair. My hair is very kinky (I don't use that word in a negative way) and frizzy. So I battle with frizz and dryness. I had gotten my dry scalp under great control, however it has been coming back lately.

To be honest, my hair has been very frustrating to me as of late. I feel like just when I had everything nailed down, my hair began to rebel and not like what I am doing. So I know something needs to change. To get some ideas and help, I began to search natural blogs and youtube channels to see what naturals with a hair type similar to mine use. What do you know? Almost every single one of them use Shea butter. So I decided to look more into this product...

My research...

• What is Shea Butter? It is a natural fat taken from the nut of the Karite African Shea tree. It is then prepared by cracking, roasting, grinding, crushing and separating the oils.
• What are the benefits when it is RAW? It contains minerals and vitamins such as vitamin A and E. In addition it contains essential fatty acids. In addition it is not processed and therefore contains no added chemicals. It is all natural, literally :)
• How does it benefit hair? It is said to give moisture to dry or damaged hair. It protects against weather damaged hair and repairs dry and brittle hair. It also restores luster to dull hair. In addition, it is quickly absorbed into the scalp to hydrate without clogging pores on your scalp

How did this knowledge influence my decision to purchase this product?
My hair is getting longer, I am becoming more educated, and I want to do everything I can to keep my hair healthy. So I decided that I am going to back away from "processed" products and opt for a more natural regimen. I will be using up the rest of what I have, but after that is gone, I will be going as natural as possible in regards to my products.
 

Where did you buy it?

 

I purchased mine online at amazon.com though the vendor Nature and Herb. They have a 100% positive rating over the last 12 months out of 7031 ratings. According to their product description,

 

"This is the raw and unprocessed Shea butter. It may be lumpy and hard. You can rub it on your hands and apply it directly on the skin. If it is not soft enough for you, you can put it into the microwave and heat it for a couple minutes. It will become soft.

 

Golden Shea butter is the classic Shea butter many are familiar with. It is yellow in color, has a fairly strong smokey order and is imported from the African nation of Ghana.."

 

I paid $5.99 and shipping was free! I should be getting it in the mail sometimes next week. Stay tuned for an update on how I like it :)

Chronicles of a Natural Apostolic: Making Modest Additions

Hello lovely ladies!

So I am on a "save as much as you can and be more frugal" mission. Some of the things I am doing differently are:

-No clothes shopping until next year because I want shopping to become a privilege and because we are saving up to go on our first missions trip to India next year!

-I don't buy any new hair products until I have finished what I have. I have great staple products and don't want to become a product junkie.

So with that said, another thing I have been doing is making my own unique modest additions! I see the cutest headbands and clips all the time. But generally they are over priced. So I have been trying my hand at making some of my own.

sweet swirls



I made this one with a plain black elastic headband, black and cream felt, black faux satin material and rope pillow trim. I just made this one today to match my outfit for church tomorrow!

dainty lady



I made this one with a plain black elastic headband, black faux satin, black felt, black buttons, cream ribbon and cream feathers. This one is very cute for those all black outfits. Personally I love cream :)

feathered belle



I made this one using a clip, gold/brown buttons and brown feathers. This was made for two brown fancy outfits I have. I wanted something a bit outrageous ;)

prim&proper



I made this one specifically to match a pink and black dress I have. I recycled a black bow headband (the bow started coming off). So I pulled it off :) I used a sheer black fabric and baby pink lace. It makes me feel so girly!

cheetah feavah



I recycled the cheetah print bow from a headband. I glued it onto brown felt then embellished with buttons and ribbon then glued it to a clip. It's a fun addition to liven up an outfit!

royal sailor



I made this to match a black and royal blue Jackie Kennedy jacket. I used royal blue and black felt for the base. Then I topped it off with black ribbon for a delightful girly touch. Glued it to a clip and done! It's an adorable little piece in my opinion!

charlotte anne



okay I know random name but when I look at it I feel like it needs a special and pretty name. [insert little girl imagination] so I made this one using faux satin, black felt, black ribbon and a cute broach I found on clearance at Michaels. It is glued to a clip. This is one of my favorites. When it's on it looks like a cute little hat and I feel oh so pretty :)

So I hope I have inspired you to get creative while saving money!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Chronicles of a Natural Apostolic: Funnies I Have Made

I am giving you a chance to laugh at my expense today! I was reflecting on a few funny things I have done since I have been natural. Maybe you have done some of these things too!

1. Protein treatment gone bad:

When I first went natural, I remember wanting to do a protein treatment on my hair. I heard a little bit about how some people have protein sensitive hair. But I didn’t think mine would be. So as usual, I decided to create my own treatment in my kitchen. Mayonnaise and egg! Well sad to say- about 45 minutes after my fabulous deep protein conditioning treatment, my hair was matted and a tangled mess! So if I ever want dreads- I know how to accomplish it quickly! Lol!

2. Chucks in my hair:

I have a hair tip on my blog about using banana to deep condition your hair. I was so excited when I read an article about this; especially because I had some bananas in my kitchen that were turning brown. Although the directions on the article clearly expressed to fully squash the banana’s before putting them in your hair- I somehow missed the fully memo. Besides I figured, banana should easily come out of your hair! Needless to say, an hour after this treatment, I had a TON of banana bits in my hair. And did I mention I had to leave for outreach 10 minutes after I rinsed my hair? It was a nightmare. I am sure some of my church family thought I had really bad dandruff that day!!

Another time I did a treatment with coconut milk. I didn’t know that you have to strain the coconut bits out of the can before using the milk. And what do you think was the end result? Yup- coconut all up in my hair ya’ll! Lol

3. Fro disaster:

My hair loves to be in its natural state – afro! So somehow, no matter how beautiful my hair was the day before, if I don’t tie it up, it will revert to a lovely afro by morning. I do not say the word lovely with the connotation you generally associate with that word! By the way… So I remember wearing a wash and go one day. It was so beautiful! That night I figured that I didn’t need to tie it up. Wrong idea because I woke up looking like Frankenstein!!! It was horrible! I had to co wash just to get it to move! It was like a dried up jerry curl that was highly flammable. Dry stiff and motionless! Haha! Silly Kendra! I should have known better!

This journey has its ups and downs. But sometimes, it helps to just laugh about some of the things we have done along the way!

Do you have any funny stories to share??! Don’t be shy!