Friday, March 9, 2012

Being natural in Florence, SC

This is a "beach wave" style.  Basically a big bantu knot out (I think 7 banut knots).  For each bantu knot I flat twisted the root, two strand twisted the end of the hair from the flat twist and then twisted the two strand twisted end into a bantu knot.  Went to bed and took the bantu knots out the next morning and voila!  I really like this style, but it only lasts for about two days.  It's done on dry hair (I lightly mist with water) usually on an old twist out and once the style is gone you can again redo something on the dry hair.  Style adapted from Naptural85.
Hey there lovelies,
Being natural in Florence has been not so bad of an experience thus far.  There are definitely, from what I’ve seen, a lot less natural women here (percentage wise) than compared to Columbia.   However, there are more than I expected.  Surprisingly, most of the women here who are natural are older women.  I feel like in a lot of other cities that I’ve taken inventory in of the naturals those who are natural are mostly younger women of our generation.  Unfortunately, there aren’t very many natural students at the university.  Even more unfortunate is that so many of the girls here wear weaves.  I mean, certainly to each her own, but I do think it’d be nice to see more women embrace their natural hair at FMU.  I have not had any trouble finding my favorite conditioners (and actually found one that I’ve wanted to try cheaper than in Cola) or my Cantu leave in which I always use when twisting my hair (twists and twist outs).  I have however had a hard time finding raw Shea Butter.  Now granted, I haven’t tried terribly hard, but there just aren’t many beauty supply stores here to look in.  I’ve tried one store and hopefully will try another this weekend.  So, what did I do to replace my shea butter you ask….Blue Magic.  That’s right, old school thick petroleum filled Blue Magic.    This new adventure is thanks to Brittany by way of Breana.  So Breana’s sister has been using Blue Magic much to her liking as a way of sealing in moisture for her twist outs and such.  And after a deep internal struggle about the idea of buying….that stuff, I caved and got a jar.  Trying to get the best one they had (chuckle), I bought Blue Magic Organics-Indian Hemp which claims to also have in it tea tree, jojoba oil and Safflower.  After I give this a few go rounds I’ll report back with some feelings about it. 
Anyhoo, just wanted to give an update on what it’s been like so far being natural in Florence.  Have a great weekend!
Tootles for now…..