Giveaway Closed

They say good things come in threes and we have been lucky lately to have two hair-positive, fun songs to share with our kids. I'm so pleased to present our third. It's Hairdos from Meredith Wright's Sweetbeatz. Sweetbeatz Soulful Songs for City Kids is a collection of 13 really engaging songs with titles like Playdates, Laundry and Pot'n'Pan Band. Meredith's song Hairdos celebrates all hair types and styles with great lyrics like these:

I love your hairdo
what'd ya do to make it look
the way it’s looking
I don’t know what you do
all I know it looks good on you

Braided twisted locked or buzzed
Swirly curls or peach fuzz
Fuzzy buzzy barely there
Crazy wavy I don’t care

Spiked and dyed shaved on the side
Pinned up in a beehive, mohawks, afros
beaded corn rows, pony-tails tied with a bow!
Ribbons lacy! Shake and shimmies in your hair
Whispy tendrils flowin’ blowin’ everywhere

Listen to Hairdos here:


Meredith Wright is offering one Happy Girl Hair reader a Sweetbeatz CD, along with temporary tattoos and a "sweetbeatz scribblerz" selection of crayons. This is a great addition to your little ones' music collection and would be perfect to put on when the kids just need to dance. You can read more lyrics and hear more songs from the CD at the Sweetbeatz site. Do check it out, it's really fun.

This giveaway is open to US residents. The winner will be selected at random and announced on December 3rd. All entries must be received by 11:59 EST, December 3rd.

To Enter:

1.You must be a Happy Girl Hair follower. If you aren't yet a follower, use the follow button on the top right of the page to join Happy Girl Hair.

2. Leave a comment on this post, please include your first name. 


Want more chances to win?

Write a post about this giveaway on your blog, or let your friends know about it on Facebook, or Tweet a link to this post. Post an additional comment for every extra entry you've earned.

Good luck!

A TV Reporter Goes Natural and Shares Her Story

This story from WPTV about going natural brought made me smile and get a little teary-eyed. West Palm Beach reporter Rochelle Ritchie talks about relaxers, extensions and wigs. She speaks with a dermatologist about traction alopecia, shares the story of a mom going natural to be an example to her 1st grader, and then reveals her own big chop.





Thank you to @Nicky791 for Tweeting this. I know I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

Random Things and Where Are You Jeanne O.?

First things first, did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Did you get any good stuff at the Black Friday sales?

We had a great, low-key Thanksgiving made delicious with this pumpkin pie recipe. The cooking time needs to be almost doubled, but it was the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. I enjoyed choosing some new products to try on Black Friday, but I think I spent more than I intended to on hair goodies. At least they were discounted. I can't wait to get my orders and share some reviews.

In Little B hair news, I took her Bantu knots out a couple of days before Thanksgiving because we just weren't thrilled with them. I kept the part lines and put some loose cornrows in instead.

After a day of that, we noticed that she had a little boo boo right at the edge of her hairline by the cornrow on the left. It was bothering her so I took that cornrow out so there was absolutely no tension on the follicles there and so I could add a little Neosporin. The hair that had been in that cornrow was a bit stretched and cascaded gracefully down toward her ear. It created a really nice line and contrasted well with the angle of the remaining cornrow. It's just a little tweak to a very simple style, but it isn't something I would have thought of without necessity guiding me.

Remember our last giveaway from My Natural Hair Store? Our winner, Jeanne O., hasn't contacted me yet. It's a holiday week and Jeanne may be one busy mama so I have a feeling she doesn't know she won. Jeanne, if you are reading, email me at joyfulmom@happygirlhair.com and we'll get you squared away. If any of you happen to know Jeanne, can you let her know she won?

Two Piggies, Please!

I can always tell when Little R is in no mood for hair time when she asks for two piggies. "Two piggies" means a center part with two pony tails. Long ago, her hair was short enough that this style style curled into sweet little pig tails. We called them piggies then and the name stuck, even though they are now quite long and very unlike pig tails.

We are in the midst of doing protective styling for her hairline, so I had to convince her to at least let me add something to the front to reduce the amount traction on that hair. I washed, conditioned and detangled her hair. I let it air dry until it was almost dry. I then parted down the center and clipped one side. On the other side, I made a part going along the entire outside of her hair line. I clipped the hair that would go into the pony up and out of the way, I loosely flat twisted the section I parted, starting at the back and ending in front. I repeated it on the other side, continuing the flat twists as regular two strand twists when I ran out of hair to add. I clipped the ends of the twists to hold them while I parted more hair.

Flat twist beginning in the back, at the center. 

I took the clips out of the hair that would make the pony tail and parted off an additional section just from the center part down to her ear. I gathered up hair for the pony tails and clipped them out of my way again. I then crossed the two twists over the center part so they made an X. I began flat twisting again with the hair in that second row I parted. when the flat twist ended, I just twisted the remaining hair. I brought the tails of the twists up to the rest of the hair and gathered them together in pony tails.

Little R was insistent on her two piggies, but I wanted to part that second row all the way around so the second row of flat twists ended in back. I also wanted to finish the whole thing with a sock bun in the center. A couple days after I did the two pony tail version, she agreed to let me switch it up.

I told her this would be cute for school photos. We missed them in October due to a vacation, but I wanted to try to sneak them in on picture re-take day. I did this the night before re-take day and preserved it by making her wear two sleep caps - a silk cap to protect her hair and then a Lycra cap over so her bun wouldn't move much. I also had to ask her not to stand or spin on her head repeatedly from the time I completed this to bedtime. We woke up the next morning to a snow day, so it was all for naught. Eh, that's okay, it was a fun style to do.

Black Friday Sales on Natural Hair Goodies

I don't know about you, but I have let all my favorite product run very low, or even out, knowing that there would be some Black Friday sales that would allow me to stock up again for a bit le$$.

Here are some the Thanksgiving weekend sales I've found:

Afroveda - 15%-20% off, free shipping on orders over $75. November 22-28th.

Bee Mine - Black Friday only, 20% off order $15 or more. Coupon code: BLKFRI26

Blended Beauty - 15% discount when you order 2 or more items through December 12th. Code: Christmas10

Brown Butter Beauty Black Friday only, midnight to midnight, 25% off everything.

CurlMart - 15% off through November 29th. Use coupon code: TURKEY15

Darcy's Botanicals - Black Friday only, 25% off. Use coupon code: NaturalCurls

HairVeda - Their sale is on Cyber Monday 11/29.

Miss Jessie's - Annual BOGO sale from November 26th to December 31st

Oyin Handmade - 20% off individual, full-size products on Black Friday11/26 (midnight to midnight EST only), enter code: blackfriday at checkout. On Cyber Monday 11/29, enter code cybermonday for a 20% discount on gift sets and minis.

Pretty AnntoiNet's - silk hair lingerie Select items are on sale and orders over $25 ship free, through November 29th

Thank God I'm Natural - This is the store associated with the book. Autographed copies of the book and  TGIN T-shirts will be discounted through the weekend. The book will be $9.99 and most T-shirts $15. You can read my review of TGIN here.

Qhemet Biologics - Black Friday only, beginning at 6:00am EST, 20% off and free domestic shipping on order over $70. Coupon code: softhair

And don't forget that My Natural Hair Store carries a wide range of great products and is offering HGH readers a 10% discount on orders over $25 until December 22nd. The coupon code is mnh1



I've got all kinds of tried and true favorites on my list, but I want to try some new (to me) things too like Oyin's Honey Hemp conditioner and Darcy's Deep Conditioning Mask. What's on your list? Oh, and if you know about some other sales feel free to chime in. 


Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Wish I'd Kept that Twist Out!

Nobody felt much like doing hair this weekend. We just wanted to snuggle up and drink warm things so we kept it easy, easy, easy. I took Little B's twists out with this result:

Oh, how I wanted to keep this twist out, but Little B had some build up and needed a shampoo wash. I didn't think we'd have time for a wash later in the week, so we had to say so long to this look. I washed, conditioned and very lightly finger detangled her hair. 

We planned to leave it in an afro, but I wanted a little something along the hairline to dress it up. We often do a flat twist or cornrow to make a hair headband of sorts. We done that a lot though, so this time I did a series of little free-form Bantu knots. I made a little diagonal part on one side which allowed me to set a couple of the knots back a bit father in a way that looked natural and not as though I just made a mistake in alignment. 

The little part and the Bantu knots that are slightly set back lend themselves to the addition of the headband (or two) crossed over for a bit of a woven look. I wish I could have gotten a better photo of this, but I had just clipped her gloves to her coat and she couldn't stop playing with them. Yeah, I'm the mom who insists on mitten clips. If you are too, I'd like to let you know that I found mine at Target last year for under $5 a pair. Ours are basic black but there are some very sweet patterned ones on Etsy. 

Honestly, I think this style is a little like trying a new recipe that tastes okay and everyone agrees was nice for adding a little variety, but not something we'd want to make again. Too bad I didn't find a way to keep the twist out. Oh well, next time. 

Winner! Winner! Winner!

We have a winner for our My Natural Hair Store giveaway! Our lucky winner will receive a Camille Rose Naturals body butter and an additional product of her choice from all the fabulous goodies at My Natural Hair Store.

Okay, okay, I'll get to it already. Today's winner is:

Congratulations Jeanne! Contact me at joyfulmom@happygirlhair.com by this Saturday (11/27/10), to claim your goodies.


********************************************************************************


Hey Everyone, are you happy you entered but sad you didn't win? Don't despair! My Natural Hair Store is generously offering Happy Girl readers a 10% discount on orders over $25 for one month. Yay!!! The code to use at checkout is: mnh1

Many thanks to My Natural Hair Store for sponsoring this giveaway!

What is Healthy Hair?

Hey there everyone! How are you? Are you up for a little sharing and discussion today? A reader ( Hi Kerry!) asked me to consider writing a post defining healthy hair. That got me thinking about how we each measure our own hair care success. I started to wonder about all the possible definitions of hair health. Each head of hair is unique, and maybe our ideas on hair health are too. Today, I'd love to hear your thoughts on your hair and/or your child's hair.

What do you consider healthy hair? 


Do you have hair care goals? 


How do you measure your success?

I'll go first. I like my girls' hair to be clean and well-moisturized. I like it to feel soft to the touch, but not coated in product. I consider it to be in really good condition when we consistently meet those goals, when split ends, breakage, and fairy knots are at a minimum, and we are retaining length. I measure success by scalp health too. Too-tight bumps, dry patches, or build-up are things I look to avoid.

If you are a regular reader, you know that the reality doesn't always measure up to my goals. But it is nice to have something to aim toward.

Okay, your turn!



PS Here at HGH, we've previously had a conversation about whether or not the word healthy can be applied to hair. You can check that out here (and be sure to read the comments).

A Few Braids and a Low Pony

I've been trying hard to do styles that protect Little R's hairline. She has a bunch of breakage and I'm trying to keep it contained and protected as that hair grows out. This week, I kept the style super simple while protecting that hair.

After washing, conditioning, and detangling I parted her hair from ear to ear. I then made three sections along the front of her head. In the middle section, I parted off small boxes in a brick pattern and braided each section. I didn't band the bases or ends, so I used quite a bit of pomade for hold.

The side sections each got one thicker braid. I brought the small braids from the center section together on the left side of her head and wove them together. I had seven braids and it would have been a seven strand braid had I remembered how to do one. Since I couldn't quite recall, I just loosely wove them through each other. What can I say? My memory is not what it once was. And that's the truth.

I took my woven braids and twisted them with the bigger left-side braid. I seem unable to stop myself from wrapping braids around braids. If someone knows the cure for this, please tell me. (Please!) I gathered all the loose hair in back into a low, loose pony tail. Before banding it, I took the woven then twisted braids from the left and the single braid from the right and tucked them into the ponytail. I banded it all together loosely with an Ouchless Pony O. I added a flower for decoration, but a corker, clip, or ballie would be just as cute.

For a little variety, we took the side braids out and slicked down the left side. I then held the small braids in place with a barrette. We left the right side and the back loose.

Whip My Hair...Now with Harmonica and Men -in Wigs

Jimmy Fallon, channeling 70s era Neil Young, was joined by Bruce Springsteen, dressed as an early 70s version of himself, to do Whip My Hair.

Enjoy!





Like Bruce Springsteen? He also played Because the Night and Save My Love with The Roots. You can find links to those videos here. Love Whip My Hair? It was sampled (along with everything else under the sun) on Girl Talk's excellent new album All Day, which is a free download available here (or listen to it here and see a breakdown of all the samples as they appear).

One-Sided Fishbone Cornrow Thingy w/ a Bantu Knot and...Um, I Dunno

Little B's new style has some one-sided fishbone cornrows, and a Bantu knot. I threw in some twists, and things set diagonally too. As a result, I don't know what to call it so we'll move right along to what I did and how I did it. Okay? Okay.

I co-washed Little B, which I later determined was a pretty bad idea because she had some build-up from a product we've been testing and I didn't notice until we were styling. (More on that another time.) Anyway, I detangled her hair and clipped the detangled sections as I went. With her hair detangled, I took the hair in the left, front quarter of her head out of the clips and parted it off from the rest. Within that quarter I parted off three rows. Two went along the outside part lines and the third was in the center, going diagonally toward the center of her head. With the three rows clipped, I was left with two small triangular sections of loose hair.

Using pomade, I cornrowed the center, diagonal row. I then parted one of the triangular sections of loose hair in teeny, tiny rows, going diagonally toward the outside rows. I cornrowed each of those. When I got to the tip of the triangle, I just braided normally for a few stitches since there wasn't room to cornrow. I repeated it on the other side, matching up the part lines as best as I could.

With my teeny, tiny diagonal cornrows done, I incorporated the ends into the cornrows I then braided in the remaining outside rows. I then gathered the ends of my three main cornrows together just where the center cornrow ended. I twisted it all down into a Bantu knot and secured it with a little rubber band. 

On the rest of her head, I parted medium-sized boxes and did regular two strand twists sans bands. We are dressing this up by putting ballies, barrettes, or flowers on the Bantu knot. I'd like you all to know that Little B came home from school Monday and announced that no one stared at her hair. She was quite pleased.

Giveaway Closed

I'm so pleased and excited to tell you that that the generous folks at My Natural Hair Store are providing one Happy Girl Reader with some fabulous goodies!

Our winner will receive:

• One Whipped Shea Body Butter by Camille Rose Naturals, in the winner's choice of Lemon Meringue scent, White Chocolate scent, or unscented.

• One additional product of the winner's choice from My Natural Hair Store. This is really cool because they carry products from Darcy's Botanicals, Taliah Waajid, Afro Veda, Curls, Aubrey Oragnics, and Bee Mine - just to name a few. 

Excited yet? I thought so.

Now, it's time for those of you in Japan, Brazil, South Africa, Canada, Spain, and all the rest of the world to get happy because this giveaway is open to readers worldwide!

A winner will be chosen at random and announced on Happy Girl Hair on Monday, November 22th. All entries must be received by November 21st, 11:59 EST.

To enter:

1.You must be a Happy Girl Hair follower. If you aren't yet a follower, use the follow button on the top right of the page to join Happy Girl Hair.

2. Leave a comment on this post, please include your first name. I'd love to hear which additional product you will chose if you win!


Want more chances to win?
Write a post about this giveaway on your blog, or let your friends know about it on Facebook, or Tweet a link to this post. Post an additional comment for every extra entry you've earned.


Don't forget to go over to My Natural Hair Store and check out their great selection!



PS Happy Monday!

Another Hair Day Lesson Learned

Over the past year I've learned a few hard lessons about what to do, and not to do, on hair day. It was with great sadness that I learned not to leave a favorite orange comb out. A huge vet bill prompted a careful scan of the floor and couch for stray rubber bands and Pony Os. I came to understand the importance of tucking sleep caps tidily away lest they be gnawed upon.

I thought I'd learned my lessons well. Today, I sealed every single bit of product, every comb, brush, and the accessories in a large plastic bin. I placed it out of reach, and more importantly, out of sight. But I neglected one thing. Little B needed tissues for her sniffles, so she did the smart thing and brought the whole box to styling time. I picked up every last hair clip today, but I left that nearly full box of tissue near the couch, briefly walked away, and returned to this:

Another hair day lesson learned.

And

Good thing he's cute.

Woe is She! A tale of Styling Distress

It seemed like a good idea, at the time. Late last week, Little B's milkmaid braids needed to come out. We didn't have time to wash, detangle and style her hair again, so I was looking for a quick solution. Flipping through our copy of Hair Dance!, I noticed a photo of a little girl with randomly parted little puffs. I haven't done a many-puff style on Little B since she was tiny and I thought it would be fun to see it with longer hair.

It was so easy to take her milkmaid braids out, spritz her hair, work some leave-in/detangler through, and restyle. Her hair was stretched, so I had to encourage the puffs to curl by using a curl definer and putting a Lycra swim cap over the puffs for a little while. When it was time to go to school, I took the cap off, further shaped the puffs with my hands and sent her off.

I should have looked a little closer. The puffs weren't quite ready. They weren't really puffy. They weren't even either. In fact, the whole look was a little jarring. At minimum, I should have evened the puffs up a bit and spent a few more minutes getting the hair to coil again. If I'd been paying close attention, I would have noticed that her hair is really just too long now to carry this style off. I could have switched to Bantu knots and they would have looked really cool. Oh, how I wish I had, because what happened next broke my heart a little.

When I picked Little B up from school, I could see she was upset. I asked what was wrong and she whispered that people were staring at her hair. More questions revealed that "people" really meant one person, and that one person was a certain little boy. Not just any random little boy, a handsome first grader with dark eyes and long eye lashes. A little boy whose mere proximity brings out Little B's giggles and goofy grin. Her little puppy love crush had stared at her hair, and her ego took a bruising.  She's used to people looking at her hair, commenting on it, and asking what her style is called. This was not that. Maybe he stared because he liked it, but it's kind of doubtful. It doesn't even matter, because Little B was hurt and embarrassed.

I've embarrassed my kids with my dancing. I've embarrassed them in other ways too. I think this is the first time I unintentionally embarrassed them with my poor style choices and then sent them off into the world to suffer the humiliating consequences alone. I wanted to cry. Little B did cry.

When we got home, I asked her if she wanted me to take the puffs out right away or leave them in for the long weekend. She told me to leave them but added, "I want these puffs out by Monday!"

Stephanie's Ponytail Review

A little while ago, a reader mentioned that one of Little R's style reminded her of the the picture book Stephanie's Ponytail written by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Michael Martchencko. Naturally, I had to check it out so I ordered a copy.

It's a really funny little story. It's not really about hair, but hair styling is the vehicle for a story about creativity and independence. It's also a cautionary tale about conformity. In this sassy little picture book, Stephanie asks her mom to put her hair in a ponytail. When she goes to school, the other kids laugh and point  and say her hair style is "ugly, ugly, ugly." Stephanie's response is, "It's my ponytail and I like it." The next day all the other kids come to school with a ponytail. Stephanie tells them they are copycats and that they don't have a brain in their heads.

And so it goes. Stephanie asks her doubtful mom to style a different ponytail each day and mom obliges. The other kids laugh, but the next day they all style their hair the in the same ponytail. Boys, girls, teachers, pets, and birds follow Stephanie's style lead. Eventually Stephanie is so fed up she announces she'll be shaving her head. The next day, she walks into a school filled with kids who have shaved their little heads bald. Stephanie turns and runs from the angry crowd - her regular ponytail swinging out behind her.

Little B and Little R were a little dismayed by the meanness of the kids who shouted "ugly, ugly, ugly" at Stephanie. They were outraged by their stunning display of hypocrisy. They were too distracted by that to find the ending funny the first time around. I laughed out loud though. The girls and I had a great discussion about individualism, self-expression, and about blindingly following a trend. I find a lot of value in the book for the conversation it generated. I appreciated the laugh too.

If you plan to check Stephanie's Ponytail out, be warned that some of the language might be harsh for those among us working on teaching our little ones to use polite words.

Modern Milkmaid Braids

I am so tempted to pretend that I summoned some impressive powers of planning and forethought to make Little B's milkmaid braids look modern and angular. Sadly (for me), I'm not that clever. They just turned out this way - but I do know why they have a more modern look. That's something, right?

I washed, conditioned and detangled Little B's hair, clipping sections as I finished detangling. In the photos below, it looks as though we started with stretched hair, but we didn't. I started with a regular braid and added hair from one side as I went around, making a sort of cornrow/Dutch braid mix. I used the same technique to make these braids as I did to make Little R's, with a couple of differences. I did an off-center part to start the braid and I didn't use a brush to smooth Little B's hair, I just smoothed it with a little pomade in my hands. I thought I was going to need to do two rows of braids, but I had no problem getting all the hair into one braid.

When I got to the end, I just continued to braid and tucked the end into the beginning of the braid. I didn't need to band her braid at all. I also tucked in a few stray bits with bobby pins. I hide the part with a flower clip.

You'll notice that these braids sit much father back from the hairline than the braids I did on Little R. Placing them higher on the head is what creates that sharper line and crisp edge. Little R's look almost draped along her hairline. I like the way the look can change with something as simple as braid placement. Some time, I'd like to switch it around and do the classic style on Little B and the modern style on Little R.

I really like this one on Little B. It shows off her pretty little face. Hang on a sec, the girls are calling in that hesitant way that tells me they did something wrong that they can't fix or cover up.

Little R just told me, "My this fell out." This is her flower clip. Along with her clip, a whole bunch of bobby pins and hair had popped out of her style. Ditto Little B. I asked what they they were doing and they told me they were "jump roping." They don't have a jump rope upstairs. I don't even want to think about what they might have been using. I think I need to revise my estimate on how long these styles will last. ;)

Classic Milkmaid Braids

Milkmaid braids are thick braids that wrap around the head. They can be long braids simply wrapped around the rest of the hair, pinned, and finished in a low bun. They can circle head incorporating hair as they go. They can messy, classic, or sleek. There are few rules, which means there is room for lots of variation.

I washed, conditioned and detangled Little R's hair. It was barely damp by the time I was ready to style it, I spritzed it a bit with plain water. I made an inch long center part to have a starting place for my braid. I rubbed some of Oyin Burnt Sugar Pomade in my hands and worked that into the hair all along her hairline. I spread a little more over the top layer of hair to smooth the hair and weigh it down. I used a Goody Ouchless brush to gently brush her hair so the pomade was even distributed and the hair was smooth.

Starting at the top on the left side of her head, I braided a few stitches. I picked up the hanging hair and married it to braid on the stitches that went from the right toward the center of braid. I braided underhand as in cornrowing, but I took hair from both the side and directly under the braid. It was a cornrow/Dutch braid hybrid. Like so:

The section I am adding hair to in this photo will be braided under the current middle section. Then the section on the left will be braided without additional hair. 

Working counterclockwise, I went all the way around her head. When I got back to the part where I started, I banded the end of the braid and tucked the tail into the first few stitches that started the braid off. I bobby pinned a few little bits of hair that escaped and added pomade to the tiny curls along her hairline that didn't get braided.

The result was a classic milkmaid braid that drapes nicely along the sides. I decorated it with a little flower clip to hide the spot where I banded it. I'm not sure how long this will last. It does protect that broken hair we are dealing with along her hairline, so I hope we get four to five days out of it.

I like how old-fashioned and sweet this looks on Little R. Little B also got milkmaid braids, but hers are more modern and angular. Intrigued? Stay tuned....

Someone is Going to Have a Warm Head!

Thank you to all who entered the giveaway for a great satin-lined hat from Curly Zebra! Aren't giveaways fun?

Let's congratulate Lisa, winner of a Curly Zebra hat of her choice!

Lisa, please email me at joyfulmom@happygirlhair.com by Friday, November 12th to claim your fabulous hat!

I'd like to thank Curly Zebra for sponsoring this giveaway and making hats that are a both cute and helpful for all of our curly kids. Didn't win this time? Go check out Curly Zebra anyway, they are offering free shipping in the US and Canada on orders of three or more hats.