Hair Time Entertainment, Down in Fraggle Rock

Sometimes, when I'm writing here at Happy Girl, I have to walk the line between preserving privacy and sharing helpful information. I debated a bit about publishing this, but I think it might be helpful to a few families struggling to entertain kids on hair day. Little B and Little R are acutely sensitive to what they watch on a screen. Difficult conflict, aggression, a mere hint of violence, profound loss, or any kind of mean-spirited behavior in any TV show, movie or cartoon will have them in tears in seconds flat. We once watched Mary Poppins and when the old banker took the coin from the little boy, they freaked out. Any time I went near the TV for months after they said, "No new nanny! No new nanny!"

I'd wager that most kids born in the US are exposed to television shows and movies, even if they don't watch them directly, from birth. I would guess that most of those kids quickly learn early to differentiate between their world and what they see on the screen. To some degree, most of us become desensitized to conflict and violence we see on TV. But not Little B and Little R, at least not yet. For us, almost every popular movie and a whole slew or cartoons are out of the question as potential entertainment. Most Pixar movies are out. Most Disney stuff is too. They flat out refuse to even try. To further complicate things, they've decided that a lot of the entertainment that they were okay with is now too "babyish." And frankly, as great as the Scholastic videos and Shaun the Sheep are, they get old after a few years.

While my kids don't watch a ton of TV, on the hair days when we have a lot of detangling and styling to do we really need some solid distraction. I was at a loss for something age appropriate and interesting when Joyful Dad suggested Fraggle Rock. Remember Fraggle Rock, Jim Henson's other great creation?

I had some vague, warm memories of Fraggle Rock, but couldn't name a character or plot line. We watched a little bit and it all came flooding back: Sprocket the Dog, Uncle Traveling Matt, Gobo, the Doozers, and the importance of radishes. The things I didn't remember are the interconnectedness and symbiotic relationships of the different groups, the gentle and important life lessons, and the fun. I thought it would look and feel really outdated. I couldn't have been more wrong. Fraggle Rock was made ages ago, but it's timeless.

The girls adore it. They are really interested in the Fraggle world. It's entertaining. It's even sort of educational. We happened to see stuffed Doozers at a toy store in Cleveland specializing in unusual and vintage toys and they were so happy get them. The Fraggle Rock Complete Series Collection was released on DVD a couple of years ago and is available at Amazon, but your local library may have episodes too (mine does). They are even a some full, season 1 episodes on You Tube. In fact, here is the very first episode for you and your little one to watch. Maybe it will make hair time a little easier for your child if you're facing similar issues - or even if you aren't. Enjoy!

PS A reader just let me know these are available for download on iTunes! Yay! Netflix too!

2011 Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sales

Dauvit Alexander, "Sale in a Sale Shop Selling Sale Signs", Creative Commons License

Thanksgiving is a time of reflection, gratitude, family, friends and food. It's one of my favorite holidays and all of those fantastic Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales are the gravy on my mashed potatoes, or the whipped cream on my pumpkin pie, or the, well, whatever, you get the point. I look forward to these sales on all things natural hair related and I'm happy to share the details with you.

These are the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales of 2011. I'll be updating this all week as sales are announced. Please note that all sale hours are in EST.

Aubrey Organics: 15% off your orders of $50 or more, 20% off orders of $75 or more, free shipping in Continental US on orders over $25, 11/24 to 11/27

b.a.s.k: 20% off + $5 US flat rate shipping. Code: THANKFUL, 11/25

Bee Mine: 30% off 1 hour only, 11/25, 12am EST to 1am EST. Code: 1HR30.  25% off for remainder of 11/25. Code: 25BEE25. 15% off 11/28 Code: 1528. All orders must total a minimum of $15 to receive the discount.

Beija-Flor Naturals: 15% off, 11/125- 11/28. Code: GIVETHANKS. Free shipping on orders over $50. Code: FREESHIPPING

Blended Beauty: 20% off 2 or more items. Code: Curlydouble. Use the code and be entered to win double your order, 11/25 - 11/28

Brown Butter Beauty: 25% off. Code: BlackFriday, 11/25

Butters-N-Bars: 20% everything, 11/28

Carol's Daughter: pre thanksgiving sale, ends on 11/24, 15% off entire order. Code: THANKS

Curl Junkie: 20% off orders totaling $50 or more (excludes pre-made sets/kits). Code: BF2011, 11/25 and 11/26

Curls: pre Thanksgiving sale, ends midnight EST 11/24, 25% off. Code: bethankful

Darcy's Botanicals: 25% off, Code: blackfriday, 11/25

Donna Marie: 20% off. Code: DMBLACKFRIDAY2011, 11/25 -11/28

Hair Veda: 30%-50% off everything + free shipping on orders of $50 or more, 11/25 -11/28

Jane Carter Solution: Buy Curl Defining Cream, Nourish and Shine, Twist and Lock, or Hair Nourishing Cream, get a different, free, full-sized product to try, 11/25

Karen's Body Beautiful: 30% off orders of $25 or more. Code: Blackfriday, 11/25 - 11/28

Little Penguins: 15% off, 11/25

Miss Jessie's: Annual BOGO, 11/25 - 12/31. BOGO at select Target stores and Target.com, 11/20 - 12/17

Oyin Handmade: 20% off + free shipping on all domestic orders over $60. Code: thankyou2011. 11/25 - 11/28

Pretty AntoiNet's: 15% off silk bonnets and girls sleep caps, free shipping on orders over $25. Code: BLACKFRIDAY, 11/25

SheScentit: 30% off. Code: Sheblfr2011, 11/25 - 11/28

Rachel Stewart Jewelry: 20% off. Code: XTIME20

I'm not sure exactly what I'll be buying this year. I think I'll stock up on some of my Darcy's faves and maybe try some Little Penguins Fresh Cream. I'll be trying at least one shampoo alternative too. I might get a couple of new sleep caps just to have backups. And I'm running low on Oyin Juices. How about you?

I was in Cleveland the other night, walking to an ice cream parlor when I came across this barbershop. It was closed up for the night, but softly lit inside. In my mind's eye, I could see it full of people and I wondered about all the conversation the black and white linoleum floor had soaked up through the years. I'm certain that many a joke has been cracked in there. I'd bet all the problems of the world have been solved time and time again as the barbers worked and the customers sat in those ancient-looking red swivel chairs.

Maybe I'm romanticizing it, but hair care - cutting and styling, is one of the few types of personal care we do in a truly communal environment. We go to barbershops and salons where we chat with our stylist or the other customers. We style our children's hair and sometimes style each other's hair. We advise and accept advice. We chat, goof, complain, and share our opinions and our lives as we get our hair done.

That's what I like best about hair care - the talk. It's not the intricacy of a braid pattern, or the pretty hair beads and bows. It's the communal nature of care that keeps me interested, whether it's in person or a through a virtual community like the one that gathers around Happy Girl. It turns a basic hygiene need into a chance to socialize, to relax, and if we're really lucky, a time to laugh and enjoy each other's company. I love that.

Happy Medium

Right off, I'll apologize for the amazingly awful photos above, especially the one on the left. This whole semi-retired blog thing has made me lazy with picture-taking. I did a cute style for Little B that I wanted to share. She wore it for two or three weeks. So when did I take a photo of it? The second before I began to take it out- after it had been washed. And what did I use to take that picture? My phone. I don't think I'll be winning an awards for my blogging or photography skills any time soon.

It was a nice little style, if I do say so myself, so I'll going to tell you how I did it. This is a simple style, as all of my recent ones have been. While I technically cornrowed her whole head, the cornrows themselves were fairly wide; I would call them medium-sized. That made us both happy because the style had some definition, staying-power and well, style, and it didn't take an age to do.

I washed and conditioned her hair, and for this one I styled as I detangled. I began in front. Placing the tip of my rat tail comb on the left side of her forehead, I parted diagonally back to the crown of her head. On the right side, I detangled and then parted off three rows, cornrowing down toward her cheek. Her hairline sits a little farther back on the left, so I only did two rows on that side. I used a heavy, moisturizing styling cream to form the braids and left them unbanded at the ends.

In the back, I made a center part. I then continued the line made by the diagonal part in front all the way to the nape of her neck. That gave me a wedge shape in the center right of her head. I divided that long wedge in two with a horizontal part. I detangled and cornrowed each section, making stacked cornrows. From there, I parted three additional wedges, dividing them in horizontally to match the first wedge, and braided a cornrow in each. In the end, I had eight stacked braids hanging down in the back, three more hanging on the right side of her head and two on the left.

We decorated this by winding the tails of the cornrows around mini daisy barrettes and little dragonfly clips. Some days we went without any decoration at all. It would have looked nice beaded too. For upkeep, we sprayed it daily with a moisturizing spritz.

This style was part of an overall plan to make our lives a teeny bit easier, and between you and me I can't believe I had the forethought to do this AND it worked out according to plan. I knew we'd want to twist Little B's hair for some upcoming travel, so the cornrow style was a way to section, protect and stretch it before twisting.

When it was time to twist, I co-washed her hair with the cornrows in. After drying her hair a bit covering it with an old T-shirt, we settled in front of the TV and I removed each braid a section at a time. I added leave-in/detangler and combed through to remove any shed hair. I parted off small sections, keeping the major part lines intact. I twisted, adding styling cream as I went. It worked well and she had a head full of medium-sized twists in a couple of hours.

All these medium-sized sections feel just right to us. They produce durable styles and still leave us plenty of time to do the stuff we love. Are you a fan of sections that aren't too big and aren't too small?

Suck it Up or Get Thee to a Colorist? You Tell Me.

I was in the dressing room at Old Navy yesterday, trying on cheap sweaters, when I caught a glance at my face under those unforgiving lights. I looked like I hadn't slept in about a year. My gaze traveled up to my hair and I stood there wondering why my usually shiny red hair was looked so dull. I leaned closer and was horrified to see that my red hair was not so red anymore. In the blink of an eye I'd gone from having some gray hair to actively going grey.

I'm not a vain person. I've actually enjoyed my sprinkling of gray hairs for awhile now and vowed that I would just go with it, eschewing hair color and attempts to hide or minimize it. My logic went something like this: coloring it will lead to spending more time and money than I need to, I'm not high maintenance, and my red is a particularly hard color to match. Besides, I earned every strand of my gray hair, right?

But this was all decided back when my hair was cute gray, you know, a weird little patch here, a few strands there. Back then, it looked more like white highlights and it was kind of fun. Now, well, not so much. I just look old.

I would like to know what you would do if you were me. In case it helps you with your advice, I'll add that I'm (only) 38. If I seek a remedy for this, I will leave it to the professionals; I'm way too clumsy to color my own hair. I'll also add the combination of dark circles under my eyes and the gray hair was pretty bad, so more sleep might be helpful.

Taking all of that into consideration, would you:

• Advise me to find a good colorist ASAP.
• Tell me to suck it up, buttercup. 
• Suggest I get more sleep and see how things look in the morning.
• Urge me to invest in hats.

Are there any other options I've missed?

Adding Moisture to Styled, Natural Hair

A really good question landed in my inbox a couple of weeks ago. Christa wanted to know the best way to moisturize her daughter's hair when it is in a style. She asked,

What do you do for your girl's hair to keep it moisturized while in a protective style? The leave in conditioner I use on her hair works great if it's loose, but not so much in puffs.

It can be tricky to add moisture when the hair is styled. The most convenient way to do it is with a spray. That could be a homemade mix that is as simple as water and conditioner, or leave-in or as complex as a mix of water, oils, aloe and glycerin - or anything else you'd like. When making a homemade spritz for multi-day use, it is a good idea to use distilled water to keep bacteria growth down. It can be refrigerated too. A commercially prepared conditioning sprays is another option. Oyin Handmade Juices are a good example. I think cornrows, french braids, and flat twists are most efficiently moisturized with a spray.

Another method of delivering moisture is what I call the hug method. This is best for box braids, twists, and puffs. I put a small amount of leave-in between my palms and the place the braid, twist or puff in my palm and give it a little squeeze. That delivers just a bit of leave-in to each section.

If a style is in for more than a couple of weeks. I like to wash or co-wash the hair to cleanse and restore the moisture balance. I often use this method for twists or use a no touch method for washing styled hair.

How do you moisturize the hair when it is in a protective style?

PS - I just noticed that the sprayer on that bottle is pointing in the wrong direction. Somehow, it always wants to face that way. I'm always turning it around to use it, but apparently not to photograph it.