SMILE STAND UP SHINE

CHARLES 'Teenie' HARRIS Legendary Photographer, Honored At Carnegie Museum

I LIVE AND WORK IN LONDON NOW, BUT I SPEND MOST OF MY LIFE IN EUROPE (FRANCE LUXEMBURG). I AM BORN IN CAMEROON , I CAME TO FRANCE WITH MY PARENTS WHEN I WAS 2 YEARS OLD. EVEN THEN I ALWAYS FELT THAT I AM AFRICAN BECAUSE MY PARENTS RAISED ME THAT WAY AND I AM GRATEFUL FOR THAT. TO GROW UP IN EUROPE ESPECIALLY IN FRANCE IS DIFFICULT BECAUSE WHEN I WAS YOUNG THE ONLY POSITIVE BLACK FACES I SAW ON TV WAS AFRICAN AMERICAN. IT WAS ALSO THE MUSIC THAT MY PARENTS WAS LISTENING WITH AFRICAN MUSIC. STANGELY I LOVED WATCH OLD AMERICAN MOVIES EXCEPT WHEN IT FUTURED BLACK PEOPLE. I WAS YOUNG BUT I WAS TEACHED, BY ONE OF MY AUNTIE, AN AFRICAN AMERICAN HOW IT WAS DIFFICULT BACK THEN FOR BLACK PEOPLE. AND SOME OF THE DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE ETC..... WERE TO PAINFUL FOR ME TO WATCH SOMETIMES I JUST AVOIDED THEM.

OK YOU WILL SAY WHAT IS THE RELATION BETWEEN MICHAEL JACKSON AND CHARLES" TEENIE" HARRIS ?

FIRST BOTH OF THEM ARE TWO BLACK AMERICAN ARTISTS THAT I LOVED AND IF I LINK THEM IS BECAUSE TEENIE HARRIS PICTURES OF BLACK PEOPLE DURING THE 40S, 50S AND 60S ARE SO AMAZING. INCREDIBLE TO SEE THIS PEOPLE SMILING ,BE HAPPY DESPITE THE FACT THAT THEIR LIVING CONDITIONS WERE OUTRAGOUS (SEVERE DISCRIMINATION, SEGREGATION AND RACISM). BECAUSE I DON'T LIVE IN AMERICA SO I CAN'T SEE THE EXHIBIT I HOPE THEY WILL PUBLISH A BOOK AND COME TO LONDON.
WHEN I SEE THIS PICTURES, I THINK OUR PEOPLE ALWAYS SMILE, OUR PEOPLE ALWAYS STAND UP AND OUR PEOPLE ALWAYS SHINE NO MATTER THE CIRCUMSTANCES. THEN I CAN HEAR MICHAEL JACKSON SINGS " SMILE" AND THAT'S IT. GOD BLESS.

CHARLES "TEENIE" HARRIS

FOR MORE INFORMATIONS GO TO:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/28/charles-teenie-harris-honored_n_1116731.html?ref=black-voices

http://teenie.cmoa.org/

LOVE LOVE COOL AFRICAN POP MUSIC

JUST DISCOVERED THIS KENYAN FEMALE SINGER HER NAME IS AMANI SHE IS SINGING IN SWAHILI
AND ENGLISH.



I HOPE YOU WILL LIKE IT.

MY SISTER SPOILED ME TODAY

SHE IS FOLLOWING AN EVENING COURSE ABOUT JEWELLERY CREATIONS. SHE SEEMS TO LOVE IT. SHE OFFERED ME HER FIRST CREATIONS. I AM VERY PROUD OF HER.
YOU KNOW SHE SHOULD SPOIL ME BECAUSE I AM DOING HER HAIR ALL THE TIME AND I WILL SHOW YOU NEXT TIME HOW BEAUTIFUL THEY ARE.

SORRY FOR THE BLURRY? PICTURES.

NOLLYWOOD NEWS (FROM GHANA) ADAMS APPLE CHAPTER MOVIE

I AM A PROUD AFRICAN WOMAN FROM CAMEROON BUT LIKE ALMOST EVRY AFRICANS I AM A HUGE FAN OF NOLLYWOOD MOVIES.

NOLLYWOOD IS THE EQUIVALENT OF HOLLYWOOD FOR AFRICANS. EVEN IF NOLLY DOESN T HAVE THE SAME INTERNATIONAL EXPOSURE IT IS AN INDUSTRY CREATED BY AND FOR AFRICANS. IT TELLS OUR STORIES. A LOT OF PEOPLE LIKE TO CRITISISED BUT I DON T REALLY CARE CAUSE I KNOW THAT THEY HAVE VERY LIMITED RESSOURCES AND THEY ARE STILL IMPROVING. and I DON T LIKE TO COMPARE APPLES AND ORANGES.

ADAMS APPLE 10 CHAPTERS MOVIES IS A GHANEAN SERIE IN 10 PART? YES 10? ONE OF THE PARTICULARITY OF NOLLYWOOD IS THE DRAMATIC STORIES WITH 2 3 4 OR MORE PARTS.
I ALREADY BOUGHT PART 1 2 3 I AM LIVING IN LONDON. I REALLY LOVE IT. IT IS ABOUT A FAMMILY COMPOSED OF A WIDDOW AND HER THREE DAUGHTERS IN TODAY GHANA. YOU CAN FIND THE FIRST 3 PART ON AMAZON. ENJOY OR DISCOVER WITH AN OPEN MIND OF COURSE.

MY HAIR STORY EPISODE 8

EPISODE 8 WHEN FOOD AND CULTURE ARE RELATED TO YOUR HAIR

WHEN MY HAIR BECOME COMPLETELY NATURAL ,SOFT AND EASY TO CARE. IN THE same time I was spending SOOO lessssss money because All I need was in my kitchen. So when I was doing my FOOD shopping It was also for my hair. Eggs, olive oil, vinegar and honey when I discovered that it was better than my basic conditioner or rich cholesterol. Everything was just fine until I had to travel to my country, Cameroon.

IN the beginning I wasn’t worried because I knew I will find eggs (fresh and organic), and honey (sweet and organic) at a very cheap price and for the vinegar I was planning to use lime juice even if it would give me some dandruff. BUT the olive oil it was so expensive over there. (the price of a month of frozen fish and you can’t spend this money on your hair with people who have very little to live with) . AND because I was so satisfied with my hair texture I didn’t want something who can ruin it, NO WAY.

It had been so difficult to get where I was . So I decided to find an equivalent of olive oil. I asked to people and they all said to me, olive oil was the BEEESSST in the world blah blah blah…….
THEN I realized that most of the time people think that everything in Europe is THE BEEESST even when most of the natural resources come from AFRICA. In my mind I thought I need just to find an oil with a light texture like olive oil so I used cotton oil. In Cameroon we cook everything with it. IT happened to have the same effect than olive oil, my hair loved it. BECAUSE my hair were entirely nappy, long and thick at that time (I was natural since two years), I need a very thick oily substance for the mask. THAT’S when my grand-ma told me that when she was young THEY WERE USING PALM OIL TO SOFTEN THEIR HAIR.

I was surprised because I told her that I never see someone around us using it She replied me that people now prefer to used ” the white people products”.
PALM OIL in Cameroon is used for almost everything for cooking, natural healing and beauty treatment, it is the oil ,especially the one made traditionally by excellence and also the one people can afford because everyone know someone in the village who produced it. IN Europe it has a very bad reputation despite the fact that it is the most used in food and beauty industries. BUT in Cameroon nobody believed it. EXCEPT for the hair, people use it for everything. I used the palm oil as a conditioner mixed with a yolk.

For a mask that I keep overnight, I mixed it with honey and yolk. IT REALLY makes my hair very soft. SOMETIMES I just put 2 table spoons all over my scalp and my hair, do the massages then leave it for more than hour or sleep with it. Then I wash my hair very easily the day after. IT IS like my hair had eaten and the oil washed out most of the dirt. THEN I only have to put the conditioner.
IN CAMEROON I DISCOVERED A LOT OF OLD RECEIPES.

EPISODE 9 MAKE PEACE WITH MY HAIR AND HOW INTERNET CHANGED MY HAIR LIFE

1 TBLE SPOON OF HONEY 1 TBLE SPOON OF PALM OIL 1 EGG YOLK

THE MIXTURE

THE MASK APPLIED ON MY WASHED HAIR

END OD THE APPLICATION WITH MORE THAN 30 MIN WAIT BEFORE COVER IT

I KEEP THE MASK ALL THE NIGHT

MY HAIR ABSORBE ALMOST ALL THE MASK

I RINSE IT IN THE MORNING

MY HAIR STORY EPISODE 7

EPISODE 7 WHEN SURPRISES AND MIRACLES CAN HAPPEN.

THE FIRST THING I NOTICED when I started this routine was the fact that my hair had still the relaxed structure three months later even my new growth seemed to look very soft and relaxed. IT was very strange, I didn’t expect this.
For someone we need to relaxed every two month, you can imagine the surprise. DAYS after days, then months so in one year my hair was looking like it was “relaxed” but in the same time my new growth were very soft. About one year and half later I realized that all my hair became “nappy” or in their natural soft state. EVEN THE RELAXED PART. VERY STRANGE BUT I was HAPPY because they were SOFT, SHINY, QUITE LONG and STRONG.

AND ALL THIS HAPPEN WITH ME not spending almost nothing. And I was applying a cream based with coconut oil mixed with jojoba oil and some African herbs from my own village made by one of my relatives. After washing my hair I put this cream and style it with thread( back to my childhood again but for good this time) for two or three days, it became more soft then I style it with braids.
I need to confess I am lazy with my hair it was never about showing them in an afro because it’s too hot for me or show how long they are, I looove to have my neck free, SORRY. MOST OF THE TIME I wear in braids or thread them. It’s only when I go to a party or an important meeting (like job interview, and yes I got all my jobs that way) that I let them free. I prefer to protect them and cut the ends occasionally.

TO SUM IT UP if you don’t want the big chop YOU STILL CAN BECOME NATURAL AND TRANSITIONING IF YOU FOLLOW THIS RULES UNTIL YOUR HAIR CHANGE THEIR STRUCTURE FOR GOOD.

IT HAD WORKED FOR ME.

NEXT EPISODE 8 WHEN FOOD AND CULTURE ARE RELATED TO YOUR HAIR.

MY HAIR STORY EPISODE 6

EPISODE 6 WHEN AND HOW I STARTED TRANSITIONING

AFTER READING this article I was a little bit skeptical because I thought that If all I need was in my kitchen, all this time, SO WHY ALL THIS PAIN AND ALL THIS PRODUCTS every year. And how my mum never knew it and let us endured this pain. BUT MY MOST FEAR WAS THAT if I use this method, I will go back in the past with my hair making me scream. At that time I had just relaxed my hair 2 weeks earlier. And what about my next new growth, what will happen if I stopped relaxed them? PLUS in the article, even if she stated that our hair will be free of chemical and grow beautifully. She never insisted about the softness too much.

I decided to talk to my sister about the article and she told me we need to try, because if we remembered our hair was quite good and soft but the problem was the pain we felt when washing and combing. I agreed with her.
I was ready to do anything but NOT TO CUT ALL MY HAIR: “NEVER, NEVER”. AFTER a long discussion, my sister and I decided to follow the new technique. At least if we are not happy, we could go back to relaxer but we will not cut our hair. SO NO BIG CHOP FOR ME.

We decided to use in the beginning :
2 eggs + 1 ble spoon of olive oil for the shampoo.
1 ble spoon of olive oil for the application on hair before the shampoo.
1 glass filled with half water and wine vinegar after rinsing.
1ble spoon of a conditioner mixed with an egg yolk to put after washing completely our hair. We leaved it for an hour or more .IT was a little bit amateurish but I was confident in this process, I don’t know why, maybe because my hair was still freshly relaxed. But what will happen when my new growth will appear?

NEXT EPISODE 7 WHEN SURPRISES AND MIRACLE CAN HAPPEN.

HALF WATER/HALF VINEGAR WHEN I FINISH TO RINSE

1BLE SPOON OF OLIVE OIL ON MY HAIR AND SCALP,MASSAGES AND WAIT MORE THAN 20 MIN/1HOUR FOR BEST RESULTS

I USE A 1BLE SPOON OF THIS BASIC CONDITIONER 99P BUT I LOVE THE TEXTURE OF THIS ONE

MY HAIR ARE VERY CLEAN AND SHINY AFTER THE EGG/OIL SHAMPOO

I APPLIED THE CONDITIONER/YOLK MIXTURE

I KEEP IT ALL NIGHT

I RINSE THE DAY AFTER

THEN I THREADED MY HAIR AND KEEP IT FOR MORE THAN TWO DAYS. WHEN I TAKE THE THREAD OFF MY HAIR ARE SOFT ,SHINY AND MORE" STRAIGHT".

LOVE LOVE COOL AFRO POP MUSIC

I DONT KNOW IF YOU KNOW THIS ARTIST BUT WHEN I AM WRITING MY POST I ALWAYS LISTEN TO HIM. HIS NAME IS BEZ. HE IS FROM NIGERIA. ENJOY.

MY HAIR STORY EPISODE 5

EPISODE 5 WHO IS GILETTE LEUWATT ?


YOU KNOW I ALWAYS BELIEVED THAT THE SOLUTIONS OF YOUR OWN PROBLEMS ARE MOST OF THE TIME WHERE YOU COME FROM.

How I was so right about this, especially when the solution for me came directly from my country, in CAMEROON (Africa). Everything started with an article in AMINA magazine. I need to add that this magazine is the almost equivalent of Essence for African women in France. I also used to work there when I was in university (yes a long time agooo).
This article was about a Cameroonian cosmetologist who create a brand of product for African hair based with plants, oil and herbs from Cameroon. She also open an institute to treat baldness and African hair in Paris. She was before a banker but during a frequent holidays spend in her home village she just realized that woman who lived there had more beautiful hair than the women in the city and in Europe too. She also noticed that the frequency of alopecia was more prevalent when you relaxed your hair or wear a wave.
ALL THIS I ALREADY KNOW IT but what caught my deep interest was the fact that she stated 5 important things for me:
WE NEED TO ACCEPT OUR HAIR THE WAY THEY ARE BECAUSE there is always a reason in nature who justify how your hair are LIKE EVRYTHING IN THE WORLD IS UNIQUE,
BALDNESS IS NOT IRREVERSIBLE
STOP USING ALL CHIMICAL even product like SHAMPOO because its take off all the sebum produced by your skin and you need it.
AND THE MOST SURPRISING, EVRYTHING YOU NEED FOR YOUR HAIR IS IN YOUR KITCHEN ( what you eat is what you put in your hair and skin) Nobody can drink a shampoo or eat a relaxer because we all know these product are poisons.
WE CAN HAVE LONG, SOFT and BEAUTIFUL HAIR WITH a basic light oil, egg, honey and vinegar IF WE WANT. NO NEED TO GOING BROKE especially if you need the money for something else.

NEXT EPISODE 6 WHEN AND HOW I STARTED TRANSITIONING.

http://www.gilletteleuwat.fr
GILLETTE LEUWATT