The Great Escape

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time there lived women who loved to adorn themselves. Taking time to look at oneself from head to toe with their own eyes was the way to start the day after prayer. As time went on and new things came into civilization, the mirror was introduced. After women completed their morning rituals (prayer, getting children ready, caring for their parents and the likes), they would adorn themselves in the mirror. Adorning had a different meaning for different people. For some adorning meant cleaning their body, for others adorning meant cleaning, rubbing on oils and applying perfumes and for another group adorning added hair styling to that adorning process. 

Today, adorning has taken a different path. Due to the paradigm shift in womanhood, motherhood, career, marriage and so; adorning is not quite the foo-foo frilly girly girl stuff it used to be. While spending two hours to get ready for the day is not on the minds or in the schedules of today's woman; there should be some time set aside to simply adorn, care for and prepare yourself as you go out into the world to do whatever pleases you. 

Family, career, spirituality, philanthropy and care for others are extremely important to many for varying reasons. However, nothing is more important than self. Self can sound so selfish. Well, because it is. Incorporating self first is priority one as you prepare for tomorrow today, right now. The story of the flight attendant instructing passengers to place the oxygen mask over their nose first in the event of an emergency remains a favorite analogy to many in encouraging others the importance of putting self first. 

The same can be said when making an effort to face the goals, task or challenges of the day. Putting your best foot forward every time you can is essential to doing your purpose or finding it. Putting your best foot forward begins or concludes with raising your arms to care for your hair as you enter the world of co-existing.

The misnomer that beauty takes a lot of time discourages many who are involved or is overwhelmed with the hustle and bustle demands of preparing for the day. This blog is to inform you that it does not take a lot of time. Taking the time to adorn yourself has many benefits. Some examples of those benefits are as follows:

Time will give you time.

1. Combing hair, 2-5 minutes
2. Washing your hair, 5-10 minutes
3. Learning how to care for your hair is a great stress buster, 5 min. to 2 hours
4. Curling your hair, 5-45 minutes
5. Blow drying your hair, 5-30 minutes
6. Braiding your hair, 5 min. - 2 hours

Some benefits to doing your own hair:

1. It can save you time from to and from travel time to the salon
2. It can save you time on the wait time at the salon
3. It shows your children who are watching your rituals that self-care is important
4. It affords you a chance to examine your entire body and notice if something is not right (i.e. lumps, bumps, moles, skin irritation, body odor and so on)
5. It shows your mate the importance of self-care

While taking the time to adorn yourself may seem like a waste of time, it is not. Refrain from ignoring all that you consider beautiful about yourself. Do not allow the frustration and confusion of not knowing how to do your hair, keep you from it. Take the time and make the time to learn your hair. Invest wisely. Understand that you only purchase 3 items to care for your entire body. Soap, lotion or oil and deodorant. Both are done with the use of a face cloth, loofah mitt and hands. Hair care should only consist of 3 items as well. Shampoo, conditioner (optional) and a styling agent (oil, cream, spray, gel, leave in conditioner and the likes). Hair can be styled with up to 3 things: comb, brush (optional) and your hands!

The impact is real today.

The great escape for many began at the onset of slavery. Not just for the slaves but for the masters, their spouses and offsprings as well. The "man's" main focus was control over all for the sake of land, money, and lust. The "man" or the master was not interested in hygiene or care of self. He knew that they key to mental and physical slavery was to deny self-care. Self-care connects one to their spirit. His goal was to break that spirit for control and money. That type of mental abuse and neglect carried over and was incorporated as a way of life for many. 

Sometime during the 1920's through 1970, people were no longer running. People were learning and embracing their culture and its practices. From the coiffed hairstyles of the 20's through the 50's to the Afros, cornrow braids and long hair of the 60's; people were loving and embracing the hair that made them unique. 

When was the last time you did this!

The momentum of the run has returned with the introduction of fancy marketing as companies and people brand themselves. Their goal is to promote their products and themselves by selling a possible solution to your fear of your hair and desires to look a certain way. The tactics seen on social media, print and TV are directly responsible for you not wanting to do your hair yourself. Self-esteem, lack of self-knowledge and history of your lineage also play a vital role in how you see yourself. 

In the end, It is important to beautify and adorn yourself. Both are vital to your existence as a human because again, they enhance and connect to your spirituality. Love yourself as you be yourself. Be open to growing and learning about yourself and your hair on a daily basis. 

Remember, "Beauty is, as beauty does, as beauty gets!"

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Filters

Adorning oneself is innate.

In the world of beauty, there are quite a few things to be said about it. Let's see for example, "Beauty is as beauty does; as beauty gets." "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." "God does not ugly and he ain't to fond of pretty either." The list goes on. As you could imagine, of all the things that are to be said about beauty, the popular saying that "beauty comes from within" is one that resonates with the masses. This blog ndogo aims to vibe with inner beauty.

No bath like a vichy!

I don't know about you, but I can recall a time when women making themselves beautiful was liken to preparing a fine cooked meal.  Ya know? You talked about what you were gonna cook, who it was gonna be prepared for, what grocery store you would go to, the recipe, the preparation, the serving and the response! In the history of women beautifying themselves, the beautification process was similar. Let's see, there were rituals of milk baths, dead sea salt soaks to Calgon taking us away to vichy showers and sea kelp masques. Women would compliment that cleansing ritual by wearing support under garments to enhance their figure to look svelte or voluptuous. At times, they wore gloves, pumps and so on to take their beauty to another level. 

Classic "Beat Face."

Make up application went from dramatic as Marilyn Monroe or Dorothy Dandridge look to classic and timeless as Audrey Hepburn or Lena Horne. Now the hair, ahh the hair. A hairstyle is to a woman's image what tableware is to a fine prepared meal. No matter how good that food is, no matter where you bought your groceries from and no matter the recipe, if the food is not served properly on a clean table, with clean plates, flatware and glasses; nobody will eat it. The same can be said for a woman's beauty when the hair is compromised! Regardless the clothes, perfume, body type, shoes, nails and makeup; if her hair is hit, everything else is compromised.

In the American cultural of "getting ready," women did what they had to do to ensure a delightful presentation. For, adoring hair to women was as innate as brushing teeth, thoroughly cleansing the va-jay jay and arm pits! It was vital to our image back in the day.  We did what had to be done. Fast forward to today. Sweet Brown's "ain't nobody got time for dat," seems to be the theme of "getting pretty."  I understand times have changed. Nobody wants to spend all that time getting cute. 

But think, have you ever heard an artist say, "Ain't nobody got time for drawing?" To me beauty is exquisite, intricate, unique and individualized; like art.  In order for beauty maintain it artistic value, it needs some tending to. Beauty also need to be appreciated. Appreciation of beauty will be simply defined as things that one can do done daily to appreciate the beauty they have. Things we can do daily to appreciate our beauty today are the same things we had did in the past, like make time for it. 

The epitome of inner and outer beauty. The
incomparable divine Ms. Lena Horne.

We made time for beauty in "real" time. In the day and time of "ain't nobody got not time for dat," beauty does not get tended to. No sir-ree. Instead, beauty gets filtered. Regardless of how popular selfies are now, no amount of filtering will be able to hide the reality of neglect and un-appreciation of beauty. Filtering can not hide reality. 

That is right, at some point you will be seen in real life. Reality will return as the "go to" source for where people will turn when they want to see beauty. Yeah buddy, the days of Stepford Photos are coming to an end, while the return of reality is near. The social network world of filtered photos will be replaced with the reality of what one sees in real life. "Real life" will get you your "likes" "unlikes" and "comments." Real life will reveal the truth about one's beauty. Real life will reveal who is unkempt, fake inflated and filtered. The screens of television, computers, tablets and cell phones that are connecting us via the world wide wide web will fade to black. No more face time, Skype and Tango. We will have no choice but to return who and what is before us in real time.

Kim Kardashian

I am all for the beauty that technology brings. I am all for what technology allows us to share at our leisure at the touch of a thumb. Yet, I cannot ignore the super duper advantage we as humans have over all this technology and what it allows us to do with beauty... see it in real life!