Looking good?

I love the Williams sisters. I know they get a lot of stick for the way they look. They are not everybodies idea of beauty (dont get me started on this) I think they are both beautiful women- I would kill for a full voluptous figure like Serena's! Having said that They do (in my humble opinion) sometimes wear the wrong clothes. Its like when you are young and you want to wear the same clothes as your friend- but you are completly diffferent shapes! I see it all the time. Nobody wants to be the fat/awkward friend.  They -especially Serena- are not pencil thin holywood types, and should not dress as such. I would love to see their natural hair. Remember when they first came out- cornrows and beads everywhere!! They would be leading the way. I simply dont know why they bother with some of those weaves!!

I know it is not sounding like I love them- but I really do. They are brilliant business women who conduct themselves well at all times. And did someone mention tennis. Its funny to watch the last few Grand Slams. They are simply dull without them.

I hope to see them continue to do well when they retire.......

Jah Bless

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Tolula Adeyemi

Tolula is a model/DJ/Actress  who was born in Nigeria, is based in London and now travels the world. It is a real fairytale as to how she started, she was spotted in Topshop when she was 17, and the rest is history..... She is a favourite of Vivienne Westwood ( not sure if thats a good thing quite frankly!) She clearly is a breath of fresh air on the catwalk. Tolula is a natural beauty, who I am seeing more and more. Long may that continue.

Jah Bless

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Foxy Features: Angel Smith of The Natural Lounge

I have not done  a Foxy Features post for a while- but this one is definately worth the wait.!!

As stated previously I recently stumbled accross an amazing UK blog called The Natural Lounge. Now it is my understanding that there is a little hating going  on between some of these blogs- but as far as I am concerned- the more natural blogs there are ouit there the better it is for all of us.

Angel very kindly spared me the time to answer a few questions.

1.      Congratulations on The Natural Lounge, I genuinley think its fantastic. What made you start the Blog?

Thank you!! Well I started The Natural Lounge as during transitioning phase I couldn’t find any UK blogs about Natural Hair, everything was American and whist it was amazing listening to how great their products were, I really couldn’t get them over here. Also I was pretty jealous of the meet ups. 
 2. You have had a few meet-ups since you started TNL, tell us how they have been recieved. (and whens the next one planned!!lol)
The first meet up was amazing, it was one of the first of its kind in the UK and took place in October last year. I had over 100 women with a massive waiting list. I had underestimated the amount of people that wanted to come so the bar could only hold 120 people. Naturals came out in force, it was amazing to see such beautiful hair. I had talks, a singer and goodie bags full of amazing treats donated by Natural Companies all over the UK. It was truly a day of inspiration. I don’t have a date for my next one because since that time there has been an explosion in the UK of natural hair blogs and meet ups I really don’t know when my next one will be. However it’s going to be good, I have even more contacts and more ideas so even I am looking forward to it! You can see the photos of the last event here.... http://www.angusdphotography.com/naturallounge

 3. In a paragraph, outline your hair journey.
   In short, I relaxed my hair for years until I noted a bald patch on my head. It was only then that I realised that this relaxer might be damaging. So I put in braids and transitioned for a year and in Jan 2010 I took it out, cut off the relaxed ends and there I was, Natural. Although (sorry I know you only said a paragraph) I wish I had done the Big Chop, suddenly having a full head of hair that you don’t know how to look after is pretty daunting, no matter how much you have read and studied.

 
4. What is your current hair regimen?
My hair is getting quite long now and is very thick, (it comes to my collar bone) So I only wash every 2 weeks. In-between I wear it in two strand twists, with a twist out towards the end. Or a bun if I can’t be bothered to do the twists. I moisturise daily and spritz when I need it. I make sure I eat lots of fruit and vegetables and am trying to drink alot of water.  

   5. Three products you cannot live without.

  1. Fro, Avocado and Mango Hair Cream – I use it to do my twists (on wet hair) I moisturise daily with it I love this stuff and I will always buy it.  http://www.thenaturallounge.com/2011/02/fro-avocado-mango-hair-cream.html 

2. Aubery Organics, Island Naturals Shampoo

 3. Aubery Organics Island Naturals Conditioner

 Lol yeah I love Aubery!

 6. I think its great the way you support British companies who make natural hair products- do you think this scene is improving? ie are there more British based companies comming through? or is it the same as when you started?

 On my website I do reviews of British Product companies because I want to encourage people to really support our sistas. It’s also better for the environment if we buy locally! Many of the products I have reviewed are smaller companies just starting up and some of the stuff has been amazing. I really think as the natural hair scene gets bigger, more and more companies and even salons are jumping on the bandwagon. Soon we will be spoilt for choice so yes more companies are coming.

 
7. Finally, you are getting married soon, congrats. My hair was relaxed on my wedding day. I got married in Tobago- by the time I was walking down the 'Isle' I had sweated it out. To this day my hair is the ONLY thing I would have changed about that day. What are your plans for your hair on your big day?

Awwww Tobago, My friend got married there and I remember how lovely it was, what a beautiful choice. I currently have NO IDEA what is going to happen to my hair on my big day, in fact I am going to be spending alot of time looking at styles to get ideas. It will be natural most defiantly but I want a veil and a tiara so I don’t know what style will work with both.

 If any of your readers have ideas I would love to hear them.

Hair Inspiration:the Big Fro edition

I luuuuuuuve the FRO!!

I am gonna killdem with my fro as soon as the sun shows its face here in the UK,

I cannot wait.

Jah Bless

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Hair Lust

I am loving this hair- look how healthy it looks. Ultimately that it what I am striving for.

Jah Bless

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Hair inspiration: The Le Coil edition

As usual I am scouring the net and I came across Le Coil- I have not looked at the site for ages- I consequently spent HOURS on the site. It always has the most beautful pics of everyday naturals from around the world. I love it.  Go and check it out for yourself.

Hope you enjoyed the pics.Have a great day

Jah Bless

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Beautiful Black Women

Erykah always looks good! 

 Keep doin what u doing E

Some more inspiration..... 

Jah bless

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Hair inspiration

I gotta get me one of these!!

More inspiring pics.

{Source:Google Images}

Jah Bless

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Hair inspiration

Just a few pics to keep us inspired! I am feeling 'BIG' hair at the moment...

 {source:Google Images}

Jah Bless

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Ty Bello

Toyin (Ty) Shokefun Bello is a Nigerian musician. Her music is eclectic: urbane, groovy and soulful; and is laced with hip hop, jazz and R&B.

She is a University of Lagos economics graduate. She was a member one of Nigeria’s most celebrated urban gospel band- Kush made up of her, Emem and Lara.

Her debut album, Green Land, took over two years to write. The video for Green land has been hailed as one of the best ever from Nigeria. She shot the video herself. She wrote the title track, for her countryfolk to levitate from a place of despair to a place of hope. In Ekundayo, the song narrates a conversation between herself and Mrs. Ekundayo (the proprietress of Ekundayo Children's Home, an orphanage in Isanlu, Kogi State). TY’s album was produced by Mosa Adegboye, a talented young Nigerian with as much hope in our Green Land as TY herself. Green Land was released on North Avenue Records.

TY is also an internationally acclaimed portrait photographer. Toyin Bello stages an annual photography exhibition to raise funds for orphans across the country. She is also a Director of Link-a-child; an NGO dedicated to propagating information on orphanages in Nigeria and soliciting sponsorship on their behalf.

Some of her songs include Freedom, Never walk alone, Funmise, Atoned, This man, The dance, Ride wit me, Vital voice, etc

Info taken from here

This video is full of beautiful people.

Enjoy

Jah Bless

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I need to learn this!!

Beautiful!!

Jah Bless

Fatou N’diaye

I cannot understand a word of the following video- but you can see how beautiful she is. She seems so genuine when she is talking- Lovin that natural hair too.

Fatou N’diaye was born in Senegal in 1980 and moved to Paris with her mother when she was 8. She was disvvered by photographer Oliviero Toscani in 1997, and she did some modelling, before realising her dream as an acctress. She has quite an extensive filmography, most movies are TV movies.

Jah Bless

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Hair Envy!

I am truely grateful for the hair the Creator has given me and I do not covet anyones elses hair (well I try not to) Anyway the images below inspire me- I love thick natural hair!! it makes me smile!!

Enjoy

Jah Bless

Naturally

Amel Larrieux

I have really appreciated this lady's voice since the Groove Theory days. there is just something about it that relaxes me. I have been reading alot about her on other sites about her hair care regimen- she is a natural who lokes to share. She is a massive braid out fan and so am I ( this week!)

Enjoy

Jah Bless

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Stylish

I am not fussed about the catwalk- but I am loving this.

Jah Bless

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I Love This!

This is such a beautiful pic.(taken from here) The hair, the sentiment, all of it.... Do you agree?

Jah Bless

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Its in the words....

 Amen.. 

Jah Bless

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YahZarah & The Foreign Exchange

I first of all have to thank my Girl Sensibly Stupid  over at  stupiddopegalaxy for introducing me to these guys.

I am now hooked and they have both been on rotation in my car. It has been my 'clean the house' music for that last few weeks. I am soooooo sick of comercial rubbish, its great to listen to some REAL music every now and again.

YahZarah used to be a back up singer for Erykah Badu. She was born and raised in Washington DC. In 2000-01 she took the name YahZarah which means "Queen Mother is the brightest star".

Did someone say beautiful!?!?

YahZarah has released two albums: Hear Me (2001)  and Blackstar (2003) and EP The Prelude (2008)

The Ballad of Purple St. James (2010) Has just been released.

Click here to listen to a taster of her latest album.

The Foreign Exchange. Wow is all I can say. Although the last album, is 2 years old it is still fantastic (imo) I am eagerly awaiting the next album. I will keep you posted.  The FE are Phonte and Nicolay originally from The Netherlands. They met via the online hip-hop community Okayplayer.com in 2002. After trading files through Instant Messenger for over a year, Nicolay (living in his native Holland at the time) and Phonte (a Raleigh, NC resident) completed their debut album before they ever met each other in person. The album, "Connected," was released in 2004 to positive reviews, and was praised by legendary DJ's such as Jazzy Jeff, King Britt, and DJ Spinna for its inventive mix of hip-hop, R&B, and electronica

 Their sophomore album, "Leave It All Behind" (2008) found The Foreign Exchange much closer in geography (Nicolay becoming a resident of Wilmington, NC), but located much further from their hip-hop origins. On the strength of their exhilarating live show and several nationally programmed music videos, "Leave It All Behind" became the group's most successful album to date, culminating in a Grammy-nomination for the album's first single, "Daykeeper".

Info peeled directly from here

Simply Wicked!!

Jah Bless

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Janet cuts it all off!!

I do try not to jump on bandwagons and post what everyone else is- but I couldnt help myself on this one. So the weave is all gone! I like it.  It interesting however that the 'Black' press have been generally quite positive about this. The Daily Express has these photos under the headline 'Bad hair day for Janet' mmmmmmm. Can she only look good when she looks like them............

What say you?

Jah Bless

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I Like it!

I saw this and it touched me, not sure why. There is just something about it....

I know its probably an old pic, but enjoy anyway.

Jah Bless

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Beautiful...

I saw this over on The Feel of Free. Something kept me looking at it for ages.

What do you think?

Jah Bless

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Minnie Riperton 1947-1979

 Minnie Julia Riperton is probably best known for her 5 octave voice range and the song 'Loving You'. She came to mind as I was watching a documentary about breast cancer recently. I did not realise  that is how she died. It is an issue quite close to my heart at the moment as a good friend and colleague has just finished her chemo for the disease. She has been an absolute soldier as far as I am concerned. She came to work everyday-except when she had her treatment, then she was back straight afterwards. She just shaved her head to save 'the fuss'. She just gets on with it. I admire that.

Anyway, I digress. Minnie had an amazing voice and as it happens,  always had amazing hair!! enjoy the pics.

She was very photogenic, no matter the occasion, that smile was meant for the camera!

   Pics taken from here. also lots of excellent photos and info on Minnie.

Jah Bless

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The Amazing Angela Plummer

Angela Plummer

For this months Foxy Features we have an amazing lady from North London (woo woo!) who I first saw over on BGLH. She jumped out at me as what she does is soo unique.  I have to say I didnt think I would ever appreciate Hair Art, but Angelas stuff is so unique, that I felt compelled to contact her straight away. You can see by the accomplishments list on her site, how good an artist she actually is. I wont spoil it for you I will let you see for yourself.

Q1. Your work is amazing. I have never seen anything like it-how did a girl from North London get into this?

Im sure so many ladies can relate to this story LOL!

I grew up in North London and started braiding my own hair at the tender age of ten, the reason I started braiding my own hair was due to the painful experience of a typical West Indian ritual, the weekly braiding or even worse twice weekly torture and trial of washing and braiding the afro kinky locks of my hair.

The ritual consisted of my mother combing and pulling on my hair causing me to jump with pain, and then proceed to tap me really hard on my forehead with the comb in order for me to keep still (or better know by West Indian’s as konking or chopping me in the head!) One day after this weekly ritual of Jumping and chopping, I declared to my mum “This is the last time you are braiding my hair!” and so from that day every two weeks I braided my hair myself. Over the years I developed a very distinctive style of braiding which is both unique and creative as it turned out my mum was aiding me on this Journey in life.

AFRICAN WARRIOR

This Adornment was made for empowerment

Q2. Was/is your work well recieved by those around you?

When I first started 2001, I was once told that doing Natural Hair alone “I will not become anything in the industry” I don’t know if that was a negative or positive thing to say to me, but I turned that comment into something positive and every day since then I always turn a negative into a positive. I guess I can say that I’m a walking example of never letting other people's negative views hold me back for this industry is a hard one, it can break or make you. If I had listened to all the negative things that were told to me I would not be the person that I am today being true to myself and expressing myself through my Art.

To this day I still face negativity

Q3. Do you think there is a natural hair revolution going on in the UK or is it just a fad?

  Hell yes, bring on the NATURAL HAIR REVOLUTION AND KEEP IT MOVING.When I first came into the Hair industry I would braid / cane row a lot of ladies hair that was relaxed and who once said “that there would never go natural” now those same ladies have discovered the beauty of there Natural hair and would never relax their hair again some of them have even locs there hair

We still have a way to go in terms of embracing natural hair.

NUBIAN GLADIATOR

This Adornment was  made to reflect strength

 Q4. Tell us about your own hair-Have you always been natural?

No I have not always been Natural, as a child I had my hair relaxed and curly perm just so my beautiful mum could stop knoking me in the head with the comb at that age I did not know any better, the only reason why my mum aloud me to relaxed / curly perm my hair was because she could not take me wining and moaning anymore,soon realized I had done the wrong thing,  I went back Natural around my twenties

Three products you could not live without

1 Morris Roots Natural Hair Care Range

2 Sahara Single Bible

3 Coco Butter

Below is a question I get asked all the time, just thought you would like to know.

The story Begins

Angelas creative process

Bonus Q. Describe the creative process in making your braided pieces.

I always visualise my styles / creations, then I work in one of two ways. I free style the collection improving on it as I am going along or I will sketch the styles first then put the collection together according to the sketch. 

NUBIAN QUEEN

  This two piece Hair Adornments highlights the essence of beauty

THE STORY ENDS 

Thank you soooooo much Angela for taking the time out of you busy shedule to answer my questions. Your journey is a unique one, and I for one will be following you from now on. Check out the website below, or on the sidebar.

 Jah Bless

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KELLY Moreira

This young beauty was born and raised in France. She is relatively new on the scene and was signed by for Elite model agency in 2009. She is simply stunning.No more words.

Enjoy

Jah Bless

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Mariam Malenty Baldé

Mariam Malenty Baldé is a dancer who has appeared in the stage version of The Lion King in Germany for almost four years.

She is half Guinean and half Nigerian, she speaks fluent French and Portugese.

Mariam is a trained Balerina, she can sing, she plays the Violin and she acts! Multi talented sister!

Find out more about her here

Jah Bless

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