My first homemade green smoothie

So Natural Nigerian always talks about eating healthy on her blog amongst other things. I love anything relating to healthy living but I must confess I am not completely there. I still drink coca cola on &off despite my resolution to stop and I don’t drink as much water as I should. Anyway, NN posted a liquidised veg and fruit recipe on her blog which I decided to try out. To be honest the idea of drinking vegetable didn’t sound appealing to me but another part of me was curious and intrigued.

So I got my ingredients- some green grapes, a green apple and spinach.

I washed and threw all into my dedicated blender for smoothies (which I have only made once, actually my sister did when she was visiting from the states a few years ago, SMH for myself).

I added a little water and blended the mix- looked like green gooey. lol!

  

I poured into my cup. (Sorry not so clear photos)

At this point I confess I was scared to taste the gooey mix… but then I took the first sip… OMG.. It was de-li-cious!!! I kid you not… ! I took the second sip- yummmm. Princess was already asking for some so I gave her in a mug. She was gulping it, saying " hmm yummy" lol. The apple and the grapes downplayed the taste of the spinach which totally helped. My only issue was I didn’t like the feel of the apple skin in my mouth so decided to sieve the drink!

Much better!!!  The quantity reduced drastically and I probably lost some nutrients doing this but oh well... I gulped my tasty drink down. NN has a vitamix so her fruits including skin blend smoothly, lucky her! Next time I think I would just peel my apple. I was going to make more the next day but um Baale and Princess have chopped my grapes finish. So back to the market to get some more grapes.

This drink is full of nutrients (according to NN- "antioxidants, chlorophyll, phytonutrients, fibre, Vitamins A, C, K, E, B1, B6, Manganese, potassium and much more!") and it is lip-smacking, what more do you need? Seriously, you guys should try it out; your lives will never remain the same again :)

Now to some interesting news

1. We are giving away two powerful books on the soulsistas blog. Do check it out as it ends Feb 12.
2. We are also running a love chronicles series in the month of Feb. We have lined up some guest bloggers to tell us about their love stories and their marriages. It was kicked off by Gbemisoke on Wednesday. This is one series you don’t want to miss.

God bless people!

Natural Hair Anniversary (Hairversary)

It is my natural “hairversary” today i.e 3 years since I did the big chop. Woohoo!!! Gosh it has been such a roller coaster but I am still going strong. Just recently, I made a commitment to consciously grow my hair especially around my edges which don chopped off due to constant braiding and weaves (sigh). I am getting to know my hair more and techniques that work for natural hair. I am also on a mission to grow my hair and retain length.




Aloted rocking a Bantu knot-out updo.
Self-Styled :)

 I am thankful for natural hair blogs run by Natural Nigerian, ilola and Coilybella (just found her a few days ago) which I stalk follow consistently.  I follow a few African- Americans on Youtube but these girls can like oppress someone with their long flowing natural volumious hair… phew!!! sigh! So it is very comforting to find my fellow Nigerians who are running things. (Not that Nigerians can't grow long volumious hair but for some reason I can't explain I feel the Americans have special hair genes.) You ladies rock. Learning so much from y’all. I was excited to find coilybella's blog as we have similar type of hair (fine-hair)and she blogs specifically for what she does to maintain "our" type of hair.

By the way, NN is organising a natural meet up in Lagos this Nov. So if you are in Lagos please check her blog for more details. I gather it is not just a meet up specific to natural hair but natural products and natural living as well.

I remember Vera hosted a radio talk show a while ago about teamnatural vs teamrelaxed. It was so hilarious and some comments from both teams were like wow..ok…slow down. Even though technically I am teamnatural because I have natural hair, personally I don’t see myself as a "conc" teamnatural as it is not a “if you are not for me, you are against me” type thing. I see myself as teamaloted as I do what's best for me :)

Ladies, and men…keep rocking you :)

Thots,
Aloted

PS. conc= concentrated

I have a new best friend- on blogville!

Most of you already know I have been natural for the past 3 years. If you don't then you can read all about that here.  Recently I have set hair/skin goals for myself and one of them is to use more natural homemade products on my hair/skin. As a result I have been doing a lot of research online about natural oils, how to make my own hair and skin conditioners, spritz, moisturisers etc. Not only is it ultimately cheaper, it is safer and healthier for me and princess.

The good thing about having a daughter is that she can be your guinea pig test subject. When I mix up my deep conditioners, I try it out on princess. Don’t worry I try it out as well (I can see all you defender of princess). The other day I mixed up coconut oil and honey to do a deep conditioner, I let it sit in hot water for 1 mins, put it on our hair , wrapped hair in cling firm for 20 mins, washed it off and then shampooed. Viola! Our hair came out really really soft and moisturised.

Ok I have digressed o as this isn’t the essence of this post. So yes from my research I discovered Natural Nigerian’s blog. Gosh, her blog is so informative and educative. I just learnt how to cleanse my face with the oil cleaning method (OCM) from her blog! OCM is amazing. The thing that also trips me is that she has a daughter as well so another opportunity to learn more stuff from her on how to take care of Princess' hair.

I have already told her on her blog she is my new blogville best friend but thought let me better shout it out on my blog as well, so she knows I am for real. Let the stalking friendship begin! :).

Natural Nigerian- thank you for taking time to blog and educate other Naturals about how to take care of their hair using your experience.

PS1- I think her tips can also work for team relaxed :D

PS2- I might share some of my natural hair goals and what I am doing with y'all later on.

God bless!

My natural hair journey

Two years ago today, I started my natural hair journey out of choice. My hair was natural “by force” from the age of 0 till 16 as my mother forbade my elder sister and I to relax our hair till we finished secondary school. After my final exams, I was so excited to relax my hair and that was one of the first things I did. But you see my hair is very soft and anytime I relaxed it my scalp would burn. I felt this shouldn’t be, but what else could I do to my hair. I started considering going natural but was scared to do it as I wasn't sure how I would manage my hair.

I gradually came to a point where I used to relax my hair twice/thrice a year. After a while I began to get tired of putting chemicals on my hair. I felt God gave me this natural hair, why am I trying to make it look different killing my scalp and hair in the process? I decided to check online, read articles, watched videos and bought a book on natural hair. I didn’t want to do the big chop and regret it.

I transitioned for a while and on that fateful day, Nov 1 2008 I took a bold step and did the big chop. I didn’t set out to do it but it happened (long story). Baale was not a happy bunny. I had been hinted to him I was going natural but I don’t think he took me serious. When he saw my chopped up hair in comb twists later that day he was in utter shock and didn’t speak to me for sometime. We have come a long way from where we were two years ago maybe because I have come to a silent compromise with him- I braid my hair and fix weaves some times. Those are the times I don’t hear any complains. I think he has come to terms with my natural hair (more like given up on me) but still hopes some day I go back to relaxing my hair.

Like Baale, some friends and family find it perplexing that I have gone natural. Some quietly wondered while some have asked me out rightly what on earth I am doing. Some people see it has your hair is unkempt. Well, I try to explain myself in one sentence because anything more than that might result into an argument. My hair is not a function of who I am, it is a part of me but I am not my hair. What I decide to do with my hair is my personal choice. The same way you have decided to relax your hair is the same way I have decided not to. I don’t judge you because you have relaxed hair. God loves us all and I doubt it is our hair that will determine where we end up when we die.

Some have even gone as far as saying, “if you like don’t relax your hair but if Princess wants to relax her hair don’t stop her”. LOL. My reply usually is to laugh and say I will tell Princess the same thing my mother said to my elder sister and I- “nothing touches your hair till you leave secondary school, after that if you want to put jerry curls on one side and tint the other side that one na your own palaver.” Hope that answers the question.

My natural hair journey in summary has been full of high and low moments. Frustrating days esp. when I can’t think of what to do with my hair. Right now I am considering chopping it all up and letting my hair grow again. Hmmm. Whatever the case I don't see myself relaxing my hair again.

I think it is safe to say that going natural isn’t for the faint hearted. It is probably against everything you know right now and what the BLACK/Africa media, culture, or society agree with e.g some African companies won't employ you because of it, some hairdressers will put their nose up and refuse to braid your hair, some will try to charge you more (happened to me). You need to make the choice for yourself and do your research. I am glad I have inspired one or two people in helping them make that final decision to go natural.

So today, I wish myself happy two years of going natural and will like to give a shout out to all the natural hair bloggers (as at the last time I checked) I know. It is a narrow road we are on (if I may say so myself) and only a few travel it so we should be celebrated.

Standtall, tygernity, favoured girl, tolatino, jaycee, archiwiz, FFF, Scarlet, doll.

If u are a natural girl like me, hola! For my relaxed hair friends as well, I love you too. Muah! ;)