Thursday 8 December 2011

IN THE TWINKLE OF AN EYE

Within the twinkle of an eye so much can be lost. You can lose:
Your salvation
Your purity
Your virginity
Your innocence
Your beauty
Your wealth
Your sanity
Your health
Your loveliness
Your openness
Your kindness
Your strength
Your life
Your intelligence
Your attractiveness
Your reputation
Your freedom
Your fame
Your status
Your ten-year plan
All you’ve spent your whole life building

All it takes is that one moment, and all is gone. Incidentally, most of the aforementioned are self-created, which is why we should think twice before taking that action, getting all cozy with that lady/man, hurling angry words, angrily hitting someone, going to ‘that place’ etc.
The rest are losses we have no control over which is why we should set our priorities right. The bible enjoined us to lay up our treasure in heaven, where moth and rust can’t corrupt it, nor thieves break in and steal (Matthew 6 vs. 19-20).

Remember all it takes is the twinkle of an eye, to lose all you hold so dear.

Wednesday 29 June 2011

Battling for your soul

As I'm typing now, I'm listening to a quickly compiled playlist of gospel songs. Someone just came into the room singing a secular song, of which I find the tune very nice, but the lyrics are not 'it', and my mind struggled with tuning out Don Moen's "I will sing" for that. It immediately occurred to me that daily, no, at least every minute, we face a battle for our soul.
The things of this world is so loud, trying to drown out the Voice of the Spirit. Just yesterday, I overheard a preacher saying that the Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He never pressures you. He waits to be invited in to comfort you, to assist you.
The things of this world are usually big, loud and 'seemingly' strong.
The devil struggles for our soul. He wants us to buy into his idea of riches, pleasure and the good life. It's left for us to say a million 'No" to the wimp, backed by the power of the Spirit.


May God grants us the grace and strength to win all our battles, so that at the end of time, we would have a huge grin on our beautiful, flawless and immortal faces (I'm smiling already).

Written 13/03/2011

Frutilicious hair

I got back from the office with a bag filled with fruits and guess what my younger sister asked me; she asked if I bought them for my hair!!!
Now that's crazy!!!
Why would she say that?
This reminds me of a natural-haired friend that just came back to Nigeria for her compulsory 1-year service, whose mother kept on nagging her with "you wouldn't use all the food in the house on your hair".
Fortunately, none of the fruits I purchased ON THAT DAY were to be applied on my hair.
Truth is I try to eat fruits to keep my hair healthy, strong and glowing. But then I'm not obsessed about my hair.
I also eat fruits with the strong desire to have my vitamins replenished to have a healthy body, boundless energy, good health...okay, and yes, healthy hair.


This natural hair journey has been quite interesting.
I've had my I-feel-so-pretty-with-my-coily/curly-hair moments, and my I've-got-to-raise-my-chin-high-and-feel-beautiful-despite-people's-poor-definition-of-beauty moments, and I'm loving the way my feelings soar high, and then take a deep dip.


I've learnt so much about hair, both natural and relaxed within these few months of going back natural. I wished I was armed with this knowledge years ago. I'll have had one of the healthiest relaxed, and uniquely styled hair in Lagos. But better still, I wished I'd gotten this info earlier and gone natural much earlier. Then I'll probably have MBL hair by now.
I still don't regret going relaxed 'cause I'd to experience both sides of the world to understand the pros and the cons.
Although I know how easy it is to grab the 'creamy crack' (so named by those lovely natural-haired Americans) and place on my hair on those days my hair decides to develop a mind of its own (btw, we're getting along almost perfectly well now...lol), I'm not sorely tempted to 'cause I've been there and made a DECISION TO LOVE the hair that grows directly out of my scalp.


I'll just like to talk about fruits, food and hair.
If you want soft hair, you can blend banana, sift it so as to avoid white specks on your hair, mix with olive oil (aka EVOO) and use as a deep conditioner.
You can susbstitute the banana with avocado fruit, or mix the them up together.


If you want shiny hair, mix about 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) with cool water and rinse your hair with it (it would be the last thing afterall other things such as washing, co-washing, conditioning etc.). It also gives an added bonus of detangling the hair.
I tried it today, and got super-shiny hair that my friend at work commented on my hair being shiny and said I most have used a lot of oil. I told her I used very little oil (my hair didn't feel greasy at all), and went on to tell her about the 'tada' of ACV.


To maximize hair growth without losing any cm of your 1/2 an inch monthly growth (this is the maximum for everyone), amongst other things, it's imperative you have a clean scalp. Your scalp needs to take the breaths of life. A lot of ladies with curly/coily hair have realized shampoos are quite drying to the hair (the worst culprits are those with sodium Laureth Sulfate), even the non-SLS ones aren't totally innocent. Consequently, a lot of them choose to wash like once, or twice a month, with shampoo, while making do with conditioners before their monthly wash. Still, a few others do go 'no-poo'. One very important product for those who co-wash (wash with conditioners) only or shampoo seldomly is BAKING SODA. Yes, good old baker's baking soda!!!
 Baking soda cleanses the scalp and hair from product build-up and dirt (it also absorbs the smell in fridges...infact you need to a research on the uses of this special product).
I've had moments when my hair was clean from dirt after a shampoo session (I'm not on a 'no-poo' regimen), but then I'll scratch my scalp and find I'd products that had built up, which I needed to do away with for a super-duper-cleany-cleansed scalp. I then either mix the Baking soda with my shampoo and water (I've learnt the art of mixing my poos with water to minimize the risk of dry hair) or most times I just mix it with good ol' water and then feel as the build-up lifts up magically. Then I rinse with water, and I'm good to go.


I'll stop here for now, but I hope you've learnt a bit of how food and fruits help our beautiful manes.
Wishing you a fruitilicous hair and week.
Ciao.

written 26/1/2011