Homemade Natural Flax Seed Hair Gel

All Natural Flax Seed Hair Gel Recipe

In keeping with the need to use as many natural products on my natural curls as possible, I'd like to share the recipe for a natural Flax Hair Gel. I love the firm hold that comes from this gel.  It's firm, yet softens hair nicely while also adding shine.  I absolutely love it.  In fact, I love it so much and I'm trying to to find a way to thicken it to a more stable gel consistency like that of a thick aloe vera gel or any hair gel you'd find at your local drug or beauty supply store. 

So I decided to try something different one time when I made my Flax Hair Gel.  I decided to add pectin to the mix.  Guess what? It didnt' work!  I thought I'd get something close to a Jello-like consistency upon completion.  Nope.  Not a chance.  I just got a gloopy mess of I don't even know what!!!  Has anyone out there tried to make a thicker flax hair gel?  If you feel like sharing, please do! I'd love to hear how things turned out or if you had any success with this.

In the meantime, here's a basic recipe for All Natural Flax Seed Hair Gel:

Ingredients and Materials Required


Distilled Water (2 Cups)
Flax Seeds (1/4 Cup) (I use organic flax seeds)
Stocking (knee-high)
Wooden Spoon for stirring
Tongs (or a utensil to extract the gel from the stocking)
Container or jar with a lid (sterilized)
Essential Oils for natural fragrance and healing properties (optional)

Ingredients:

Just two simple ingredients.

Oxygenated distilled water.

My Natural Hair Journey: A look into wearing afro textured hair naturally and with PRIDE!

To most of us, our hair makes a huge statement to the world about us.  It's  often referred as your "Crowning Glory" and most of the time I hoped to feel like a queen when my hair is styled right and flowing nicely with the breeze.  That is of course, with the help of  long flowing extensions from a weave, braids or wigs. Since as far back as junior high school I remember wanting to wear extensions of some sort or another.  The fact is, I did.  I tried so many different looks with curls, perms (aka relaxers), braids and weaves. In particular weaves.  Sadly, I don't have that many pictures from those times. In more recent years though, with the help of cell phones that take pictures and digital cameras, I've been secretly trying to catalogue my hair looks.  Over the years I think I became so hooked on weaves and extensions, that the thought of anyone I know or even strangers seeing me without long fake hair was terrifying.  Imagine not being able to face the world as yourself?!! The thought seemed horrid to me.  Yet, there I was, caught in that trap of not being able to be myself, year after year.

For so many reasons, likely dating back to slavery, many women of colour are embarassed to show their naturally kinky-curly, coiled hair to anyone. I mean who could blame us? The media was not very welcoming to women of colour who chose to show their natural hair either.   With the message to "Tame" our hair constantly around.  In fact I recently read an article about Oprah's hairstylist suggesting our hair textures must be tamed. That to me, makes it worse when you have others of colour encouraging that we tame our kinks or cover it up all-together.  There is something seriously wrong with this. There were, and still are, images of black women with long straight flowing hair in fashion magazines and don't forget those music videos, with long luxurious looking hair weaves and extensions!  I like to think of it as the Pocahontas or Poca Effect. Believe me, I know all about it. i truly love the look too. You'll see in my video that I've done it too. I've so been there and done that. I think I've finally seen the light and overcome being a part of this web of damaging deception.  It is now time to get hair wise!

In my personal quest to live my life authentically, I've come to realize that I've been missing out.  Missing out on connecting with my beautiful kinky hair.  All of these years, I've ignored it and essentially hid it from the world, when I should've been celebrating it.  Heck, I should've been flaunting it.  I was under the impression that for years, I could never have long hair. Just one of the many myths about our hair type. I believed that black women couldn't have naturally long hair unless they were of a mixed heritage because that's what we were all told. This now angers and saddens me that I could've been so blinded by lies are we all are in so many different ways in the world.  Boy, all of these years lost on truly loving my hair.  I've made so many stylists richer. Some of the stylists out there are the worst for endorsing these myths.  Sometimes, they're just plain old jealous and don't want to see their clients achieve growing long, healthy looking hair.  Hence the wake-up call for me. I trusted her to care for my hair and she may have hurt it and me in more ways than one.

In May 2009, I went to see a stylist that I'd been seeing for about a year or so. I had been somewhat pleased with her work, particularly her weaves.  She'd once told me I look much better with long weaves so that further secured my notion to never be seen with my natural hair.  Although, the salon was actually a barber shop and it was often very painful for me to go and get my hair done with all of the men in there seeing my short and natural kinky hair. I would always feel a sense of panic or anxiety going into the salon that would last until I walked out of the salon.


The last time I saw her, she did a perm (or relaxer), then a weave.  The big issue was an incident that occurred with the very last relaxer I had and will ever have.  She was applying the relaxer to my hair and a huge strand of hair coated with relaxer had slapped me in my left eye.  She did nothing. She just kept quickly applying the perm to my hair. I needed a second to wipe and wished I could've rinsed my eye, but I didn't get that chance.  Again, she continued working on my hair, not allowing me the chance to go to the washroom to rinse my eye.  It was a horrible experience.  When I got home I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed, praying that I wouldn't go blind at all. To this day, I have serious vision problems in my left eye.  I never ever went back to that salon.  I've only been to one other salon and that was in June 2010 to have only a weave applied to my hair.  That too was not necessarily the greatest experience, but at least I didn't end up with lye in my eyes. I've never been to a salon since.  I will never ever have any chemical treatments done on my hair.  If I go to a salon again, it will be one that specializes in natural haircare. it must feel comfortable in every aspect or I leave. Period.

For me, I decided in December 2009, that I would do my BC (big chop).  I cut off any relaxed part of my hair right down to my natural kinky roots.  My hair was very short and of course, I cried.  I felt so unattractive and bare.  My two small kids stared at me with surprise and wonderment.  I took pictures, knowing that maybe one day I'd look back to compare growth. When I went to that salon in June of 2010, my hair was still natural, hiding under yet another fancy weave.  But last fall I'd decided that that was it.  Enough is enough.

I'm now embracing and loving my natural hair.  I'm going to try to catalogue my natural hair care and growth journey as much as possible. I hope that maybe I can inspire someone out there to do the same.  I know that for me, I've enjoyed watching videos on YouTube of other naturally curly women doing the same. I think it's important to do this.  Sharing and spreading the knowledge and experiences are so important. I would like to also do the same.  I will share, as best as I can, my experiences, knowledge, recipes or even techniques with you all.  I am not a hair expert or stylist, again, these will be based on my own experiences and things I've learned along the way from other sites or women.  There will be no stealing of information from anyone.  I will clearly state where I get information from (with permission of course).  So come along with me and let's tame the world's outdated views about beautiful kinky-curly and afro textured hair. 


Here is a link to a video I made showcasing only a couple of unnatural looks and several natural ones. I love my natural hair!  More to come as my hair growth progresses.  Peace to you all natural lovelies!

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=c437be221e1b926ec6a0af&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Ashley's Natural Hair Journey at OneTrueMedia.com

A montage of the start of my natural hair voyage.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

When There's More to "The Customer Is Always Right"

Hello,

I am not much of a blogger.  As a mother of two kids under 5, it's just been so difficult to find time, amongst all of the countless other tasks to do, to write an effective blog, or just to blog, period!  Since I'm also working diligently to start a business, it's even more difficult.  However, I felt the need to write about an experience I had yesterday at a business in Toronto, Ontario Canada.

Now I live at least an hour and a bit, from Toronto, so it has to be worth the drive, gas (as we all know, not cheap these days!) and any headaches for me to go there. I am on medication and feeling queezy so I didn't even feel like leaving my house to drive in the rain. So here's the deal.  I needed to go for a brow wax.  Yeah, who drives over an hour for a brow wax?  Well, there's always a sucker, it seems.  I guess it was my yesterday.

A couple of months ago I was searching online and came across The Brow House in Toronto.  I was impressed with the fact that they do your eyebrows according to the way that YOU want them, or so that was one of their claims. So that alone drew me in.  With them, you have to pre-pay for at least 3 visits, which costed me at least $75 upfront. I know, $75 for 3 brow waxes?  They must be nuts!!!  and, in my opinion they are! But I must be even more nuts for paying it!!! I managed to get through two visits.  The young lady that did my brows did such a great job, I can honestly say that I thought I'd finally found the person that will make my brows look spectacular.

So yesterday was my appointment for the 3rd initial wax job.  I made sure I left early, but on the way my kids got hungry and after all, it was lunch time.  I couldn't just drive straight there without feeding my kids, although I have to aadmit, I was going to, hoping that a snack would hold them over until after my appointment.  No go, we stopped and had so quickly that it's a wonder we didn't all choke on our food.  I was already stressed knowing that I had but a bit less than a half hour to get to my appt.  If anyone that drives in Toronto knows, the DVP is notoriously congested.  After getting through that, when I finally made it to the shop on Queen St. E, I hustled to quickly park and cross the street without me and my children getting killed.  There are some crazy and impatient drivers in Toronto without a doubt.  Luckily, one kind driver allowed us to safely cross and other drivers followed suit.

When I got inside, after trying to get my energetic kids to sit patiently, I was asked if I had an appt. before I even approached the desk.  I said yes, my name is ....to see blah, blah, blah.  The assault immediately began.  The receptionist said, "Your 11 minutes late.  We won't be able to take you."  I was stunned.  I apologized, said I'd be willing to wait, and then I got a dirtly look and a roll of the eyes from her.  Then the owner, who happened to be there working on a client proceeded to attempt to humiliate me by going through her policies regarding lateness.  When she asked where I live and I told her, she cared even less knowing that I drove more than 1 hour just to get to this cursed appointment.  I let her say her peace, in her shop full of racist, uppity white women, who were all snickering at me as if I were a criminal. Yes, I said it!!! I''m a black woman and you know what folks?  This sh*t is still happening everywhere, even in a multi-cultural and ethnically diverse city such as Toronto!  I was so ashamed to suddenly be a Torontonian.  I may currently live somewhere else, but have lived in Toronto since I came to Canada from South America 30+ years ago.

I was so frustrated between trying to quiet my kids and keep them seated, that I said that I'd like my money back please (since I'd already pre-paid a couple of months ago).  Then they refused at first, and after a couple of minutes, gave in to that.  So they weren't willing to let someone else do the work.  Oh, and through all of this, the young lady that did my brows pretended to make herself busy by sweeping and couldn't even look me in the eyes.  I went over to her and told her how disgusted I was and that I wouldn't be returning.  She did nothing but mouth the words, "I'm sorry".  So that was it.  If this were that show "What Would You Do?"  she'd be the one that turns her back on a bad situation.  You know, the person that's not part of the solution, but a big part of the problem.  It was shameful and pitiful.  All of this for being 11 minutes late and black too, apparently. Of course they would adamantly deny race was at all an issue, but trust me, from where I was standing, it was. My apology and offer to wait for others didn't matter and that's how I know it was both personal and racial.  Not only should a customer not ever be treated this way, but this is no way to treat any person. But a mother of 2 willing to drive this far for a waxing, that did nothing wrong but arrive 11 minutes late and support this business, deserves a little more respect.  No, it isn't right to be late, so be punctual, but it also is not right to treat people worse than the dirt on the ground outside. Even my kids, as young as they are, knew what they'd witnessed wasn't right. 

As a woman that's working on starting a business, I am taking all of my negative experiences with businesses and learning from them.  It blows my mind that there are some businesses out there in existence that just don't deserve to be.  That are taking money, time, and positive vibrations from us.  I say call them out.  Let the world know people!  Beware of this business if you wish to have any waxing or plucking done, anyone!!! It just isn't worth it to support a business with no ethics that only care about that almighty dollar. 

Until next time all...Sending Love and Light.

Changes

Hello,
We've decided to take a different direction for The Green Banana Blog.  This blog will not be devoted to Earth Power Aromatics.   Although a blog will still be written by me, Ashley for Earth Power Aromatics, it will be found at http://www.earthpoweraromatics.wordpress.com. 
So, The Green Banana Blog will instead be geared at addressing not one particular thing, but many topics.  With a vast array of topics.  I will liken it to a steam engine. A means of written liberation.  I'll go as far as to call it a release blog.  The oportunity to release information, emotions, opinions and knowledge, etc.  This will be done in as kind and fair a manner as possible.  This is also the opportunity to spread knowledge and information on the status of our beloved planet earth. 
So I welcome you to share your knowledge, information and comments.  Thank you.
Ashley P.