Help Needed!!!!!

So I went through a 10 month transition. Cut my hair, fell in love with my curls...That was two months ago. I think my honey moon phase is over and I may have to start putting in some real work to figure out my hair. 2 months ago, wash n go's were perfectly fine...but uhm somehow the weather went from the 70s to the darn 50s and I don't know how I feel about that. I have really tried to keep my hair from harm but now, I am not sure what to do with this cold cold weather sneaking upon us. So, I ask all of you this, what do you do during the winter months to protect your hair? Some things I know I won't do include wigs, weaves, and braids. No offense but I'd rather work with my hair and learn my hair now so that I can continue to get to know what to do the this time next year. I have super, tightly coiled, fine hair. Suggestions on how to keep it protected during the cold cold winter months???? I'd greatly appreciate some feedback!


Lost Newly Natural

2 months post big chop

So I am about two months post my big chop and I have to say, it has not been as bad as I anticipated. I am pretty impressed with myself so far, I've been very attentive to the needs of my hair. I really love my kinky curly hair and it is just perfect. I am so in love. Ok so I will recap my last two months. I've straightened once and wash n go'd just about every other day. Thats it...

So length check: I am right on par with my length retention. I hope to continue to retain length. It is about time to get a trim!!! In the meantim, check my pic! I will post curly pics at a later date, yes I am a horrible curly but its all good! I got this!

To you other curlies, be encouraged, it is not that hard. The journey is much worth it. The journey to healthy hair is so rewarding and I wouldn't trade it for a thing...

True Happiness: Where does it really come from?

Recently, I have embarked upon an unfamiliar stage in my life. Usually, I am very sure where I am going. When I was in high school, I knew I was going to college. When I got to college, I knew that each semester I would be in school, doing work, taking exams, and learning. Now, I don't know where that next step is. Since school is over, I have no idea what is next...And to be honest, I am perfectly fine with that. Even though I am chartering unfamiliar territory, I am reminded by my boyfriend that I need to find happiness within this situation because otherwise, I am just going through hell and being miserable. Life has a way of being unfamiliar, especially when you are pushing through to the next level. I've been unhappy, I have to admit. But I had to make up in my mind that I, YMG, have to find happiness in my situation. So I have been doing little things to keep my sanity and happiness as each day goes by. I recently started a Gratitude Journal. I decided to do this as a result of seeing a fellow blogger discuss it on her page. So each day, I've been writing down thoughts and feelings, things that I am grateful for, and things I hope to accomplish in the next few years. I also recently subscribed to a Youtuber by the name of BronzeGoddess1

This woman of God has so much to say about life and gives a lot of useful advice. She posted a video the other day titled "Write it Down, Make it Happen." Click Here to Check Her Out
This video basically talked about a lady who wrote a book about speaking your blessings into existence. So this too, I've taken upon myself to do. Each day, I have written out things that I want to do, long term and short term goals I want to accomplish. This is a fairly new thing but I have to say, it is keeping me motivated and focused on sometime of goal, as opposed to waiting for something to happen. So with all of this, I've turned my happiness into something that starts from the inside and works its way out, as opposed to trying to make it infuse inside of me. This is how it starts. Searching from the outside, trying to make yourself happy will only result in feelings of inadequacy. I charge myself and all of you to find happiness on the inside and let it work its way out. Looking to others and other things will only make you feel as if someone/thing else has to validate your happiness. Don't wait for anything else to give it to you, because it will be easy for them to take it back...Find that happiness within, that way, it will be permanent and no one can take it from you.

"It's Like That"

1983...Years before I was even thought about, Run DMC released a song titled "It's Like That." This song was ranked number 40 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop. Imagine that...A song that talks about real world problems being one of the greatest Hip Hop songs...Hmmm. Check the lyrics for a minute.

Click link for video
Click here to see lyrics

So anyway the lyrics in the song are so relevant to what is going on today, in 2011. 28 years later, blacks still dealing with the same ish and hmm, apparently that's the way it is. But hold up, hold up. Why hasn't something been done about these issues plaguing the black community. The first verse talks about unemployment rates at record highs, hmmm, thats a problem today. Jobs are going and people can't work, people can't work, welp thats more crime to deal with, more issues of idle hands and we all know where idle hands lead. Crazy thing though, with all of the ideas of progression this government sells to us every single day, why have blacks been the bottom of the barrel with certain issues for as long as blacks have been in this country. Talk about the "American Dream." Well apparently, that is just for specific skin tones and the darker ones ain't it.

28 years later. The major problems in the black community are not just from society, if we could only get past the societal woes and pick ourselves up by the boot straps, I know we can all rise from what is plaguing the black community these days. Too much money out there for people to go back to school but no one wants to commit to four years to get a degree...We won't do that but we will go out and complain about being underpaid, not being able to change jobs because the money was good at one point. Like these lyrics say,
"You should have gone to school, you could've learned a trade
But you laid in the bed where the bums have laid
Now all the time you're crying that you're underpaid
It's like that (what?) and that's the way it is
Huh!"
Man, if we don't take advantage of this little thing called education, we aren't going to keep up with this moving economy and we will surely stay at the bottom. Regardless of what people think about getting a degree, that is one of the few things that will keep us recession free. Blacks have to make the move to keep up because otherwise, when those poverty reports come out, it will have Blacks with the most poverty because we aren't doing what we need to do to rise to the occasion. Yes, it is hard out there but if it was easy, there would be no reason to go for because everybody would have it. Go for your dreams. Shoot for the stars...Otherwise, people who do not have our best interest at heart will be out there, making our decisions for us...

"It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, not from our own time—for we are bound by that—but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time"
- T.S Eliot

Make it happen because it starts with YOU.