A woman's Hair is Her Beauty

I recently cut my hair on my birthday and decided to get a buzz cut , something I thought was called a brush cut until I was looking for hairstyles on the internet.
I've always thought that all women should try to have short hair at least once in their lives after the age of 20. I think it is great for your confidence and forces you to be more creative and to go out in to the world fearless. It's great not to depend on your hair for beauty and to cover up your imperfections be they zits or a big forehead. Everyday I wake up I think "here I am , this is me and I look great". On top of all this it is easy to take care of , cheap and it is feels amazing to be able to come from a run and have your head under the shower while not worrying about shrinkage or how long it will take to dry.

Not me but look at her style and elegance

Over the last three years I have been trying to go natural and every time my hair had grown enough to make an impressive afro something happened to make me swing off the main course. The first time my mother lured me into relaxing it and as soon as I stepped out of the hair salon a street vendor who had seen me go in commented on how I had messed up and said I had looked better before. This brought a lump to my throat for a few days cause I knew he was right.  I let the relaxed hair grow out and I cut my hair bit by bit until I was left with just the natural hair and by May this year I was an expert at organic hair treatments and even braiding my own hair. I then went to visit a friend who was getting married and decided to get my hair straightened and to protect it from the heat I told them to put Keratin, which they did generously before blow drying it and then using a flat iron on my luscious afro hair. For the night of the wedding I walked around with so much pride in my shiny straight hair believing it was great to be able to easily alternate between big hair on one day and slick straight hair on another. Unfortunately after washing my hair for a week my hair still smelt like burnt popcorn and  I resembled a wet chicken cause some of it was kinky while a few chunks simply refused to curl back.



After a few months of braids and cornrows with the futile hope that my organic afro would be restored I concluded it was time to do the big chop. It wasn't difficult to go though and after a day I had adapted to my new look. The difficult part was walking into my classes with short hair and meeting people I knew, keeping in mind that the last time they saw me I had big black curls with blond highlights. I tried to keep a straight face like nothing was different but it is a drastic change and you think that everyone is thinking "what the hell happened!". On the positive side with the help of Tyra Banks and America's next top model I have been strutting my fearless look. I have had so many comments , well 4!, from people of no colour (ha ha ha) from Swedish people, saying I look great with my new cut, And unfortunately my mum and a few other people of colour were horrified when they heard or saw that I had cut my hair. The ticket man in the tvarbanan who is originally from Nigeria greeted me today as he always does and  then went on to say he hadn't recognised me because of my hair. Straight after that he said, sounding very wise as all Nigerians do "You know what they say,  a women's hair is her beauty. But your head has a good shape anyway".

Noémi Lenoir

So as much as I have had 'many' great comments
and stares, I have also had some negative feedback. I hope that women can learn to start feeling comfortable with their natural hair and short hair too. I always felt like I would look like a boy or poor and rural if I had my hair natural or short but I have come to feel that it looks unique, sophisticated, elegant, ethnic and cool. It's great to be versatile in any case, learn to work the weave and learn to strut that bald head, A Woman's Lack of Hair is a Powerful and Inspiring Beauty.

Me, going for full on bold next time

15 Minutes Away

One of the greatest feelings there are in life is being told that you can go check if your money has come through at the bank or western union. I love the fact that K'Naan sings about this and he knows and explicitly explains the feeling of having to wait for money. One thing I know is that I will surely help those in need cause I have been there down and out with only 13SEK left in my wallet.  Enjoy the song!

I GOT A FEELING

I've been meaning to write for a while but I have been busy with my thesis and when I haven't, I've been procrastinating.Overall I haven't experienced anything that has inspired me to write anything I would want documented.
A few weeks ago I looked out the window and saw a man smile and talk to a grave. He looked as though he had bumped into an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time. He spoke at length with such elaborate gestures that are rather unusual for a Swedish man as if to use every inch of his body to quicken the pace of filling in the grave on what he or she had missed out on.
I felt sad for a while and was inspired to write about death and how one minute people can be in your life and the next minute they could be as good as a figment of your imagination.But death is something I could ramble on about for hours and it just gets you down. Why write about it when everybody will experience it.

People come, people go, thats life. It's also part of life that people don't have to be dead to come and go. Neither does someone always have to talk to you for you to know that you are still friends and that they still care.Thinking back to the man I watched through the window I think back to the few good friends I have had in my life who I rarely talk to. It's not easy to find someone you enjoy spending time with and who you don't have to think twice about being who you really are with.Often we settle for who ever will talk to us and appreciate the fact that there is someone there to remind us that we are human and that we are not a ghost in limbo observing the lives of others.But it's those people who make you forget you are human and accept whatever or whoever you are at that moment who you really appreciate and feel and know that they are your friends. No words can express this friendship because its true and pure and something pure can never be defined. People can only find a way to call it words they understand but this never fully grasps what it is.

Today I met a man I could talk to at length about a number of things. We had one of those odd conversations you think back to years on and appreciate the brief moment you had with someone you know and don't try to ever see again. He shed light on something I always wonder about and that is "the feeling".
I've always argued with my friends about what the feeling is and whether we still have it or not but none of us really knows what it is.We can just say whether you have it or not.
I asked the man about how he got along with everyone where he stays and he said to me
-Listen you know who can talk to and who you can't. I don't talk to everyone here. I leave some people alone. I talk to him and I talk to him.It's not like that guy has done anything to me but you just have a feeling about who you can talk to or not, you know what I mean? Do you ever get that feeling? the feeling when you know you can get along with someone and the feeling where you know you should just leave someone.-

I hope I knew what he meant but whether I did or not I know what what he said to me meant.

The feeling isn't something that someone can tell you that you have or not. It's something only you know.Without it it can feel tiresome to talk to someone, I find myself avoiding people sometimes, you could think it's because I am not so sociable but I'd rather take it as me not wanting to waste my time playing roles and pretending to have the feeling with someone. Of course I can't only talk to people who I have the feeling towards but I have now learnt to acknowledge and accept that although I may not have anything in common with someone or may not find them interesting I don't have to avoid them. I can let time pass and take in the non feeling so that the rare times I find someone I have the feeling towards I can recognise it instantly embrace it and enjoy the good company.

Mary Roach: 10 things you didn't know about orgasm | Video on TED.com

Mary Roach: 10 things you didn't know about orgasm | Video on TED.com

Las Chicas del Can - El negro no puede (Waka Waka)

BACK TO THE fUTURE

A long long time ago before the Internet controlled our world and planes had never crashed there lived a young vibrant rat in a far away village , on a little Island between Africa, Asia and America.This little rat, named Despise, was the happiest little rat a happy little rat could ever be. For Despise knew no predators in his little village, he knew no hunger nor disease. This little village called Nuclear Weapon was a bit peculiar for everybody in the village was different, there was only one rat,one dog,one cat,one person,one bird and the list goes on.There was only one of each and each was different but one fact made them all the same and that is they were all the same. They ate the same food, slept in the same place, did the same activities everyday, listened to the same music which they made together,knew the same people and felt nothing towards each other but pure happiness. Life was pleasant in Nuclear Weapon, everything happened perfectly everyday that there was no way to differentiate one day from another. Nobody was born and Nobody died.Each little different body just ate, sang and slept and they never had to feel content because they knew nothing else.

One unusual day on Nuclear Weapon there arrived a ship and on it came out a big Rat named White house. It was a little lighter than Despise and a lot bigger. It spoke with a deep voice and when it sang the whole of Nuclear Weapon vibrated in a way it had never done before. The leaves began to fall off the trees as White House walked around looking for a sign of life. He sang to himself a song everybody could hear from the edge of Nuclear Weapon. It was so loud and fierce the hairs rose and their happy little hearts froze. Altogether they decided to look for what ever was making such a disturbance and it didn't take much time for them to spot White House as he was pitching a flag of America.

'Hello my dear friends" White House roared. ' i am so happy to discover this place with plenty of food and lots of happiness'. 'In America we do not have all this, I bet if you came we could be like you and everybody could be happy too."
Nobody responded, they all stood in shock as they listened to this strong Rat who resembled Despise,only he was more fierce and more forceful and in his walk and his speech and he had come with this flag , this different music and change. Blood started to rush through every body's veins faster and as it reached their hearts they felt an excitement they had never known.They began to know things they had never imagined could exist like future and possibility, difference and power. It was all to much to learn or understand that they all just stood there digesting their feelings.

White house walked around placing flags everywhere and singing his song. When he came across food he sat and ate and ate and talked about how he had never eaten such good and nutritious food before. He ate so much he finished half of Nuclear weapons food for the day but no one uttered a word as they just watched and digested their feelings.

Zamina (Waka Waka, time for Africa) Original Version