Chocolate Hair / Vanilla Care : Natural hair care for kids, adoption, and family life.

May 25, 2013

Half Afro Up-Do (or Afro Hairstyle for the Active Girl) #Hairstyle #NaturalHair

If you would have told me when I styled my daughter's hair two weeks ago that this would be the hairstyle for which she would receive the most compliments I would have laughed. Seriously, it's so easy, I really didn't think was anything special. Yet everywhere we went she was showered with sweetness over how adorable her hairstyle was. Those that know her had to double takes because they were certain that I cut her hair. Nope, just a simple way to get the look of a haircut without having to make the commitment. And if you have an active kid who's always rolling around on the floor, this is a great hairstyle for protecting the hair around the head, while still enjoying the beauty of the free curls on top (and without all the lint, fuzz, and/or animal hairs)!

Removing Glitter from a Protective Hairstyle #NaturalHair

Glitter has often been referred to as "the herpes of crafts," an analogy with which I whole-heartedly agree. Especially when it gets into a protective hairstyle that we had planned on wearing for several weeks (or longer). In the photo above, you can see that a week after I set my daughter's super cute threaded mini Bantu knots, she came home from school with glitter everywhere: On the knots, on the scalp, on her face, her clothes, everything. And as sweet as apologetic as her teacher was about all the glitter, sometimes it's difficult for people to understand that we can't just go home and wash her hair. Having taken a few hours to remove this hairstyle when it finally came out, that's just more more hours than we have on a regular school night (and that's not including washing, detangling, and restyling). As an alternative, I manually removed the glitter from the hair and scalp, without washing, while still preserving the hairstyle for another few weeks.

Removing Threaded Bantu Knots and Bantu Knot-Out #Video #NaturalHair

After almost three weeks of wearing her awesome mini threaded Bantu knots, we finally had to take them out. Not because they weren't looking fabulous (they were!), but because we had our Mother's Day fauxhawks that we wanted to get photographed in time for our "Mama and Me" feature. So we said goodbye to the threaded knots, but not without documenting how we removed them.

Letters to the Dead: Goodbye Rainbow

Funny, when Boo first pitched me the idea of this whole "Dead Letters" thing earlier this year, I never expected it to take off as much as it has. Yet, here we are in May and it looks like even Boo's kindergarten class has joined in! Each child had a chance to write a goodbye letter to Rainbow, the class's butterfly, who tragically passed after a very short life.

Share the Hair "Mama and Me" Mother's Day Edition 2013 #MothersDay #NaturalHair

Welcome to our third annual Mother's Day "Share the Hair" edition! Featured below are more than 20 moms and their children sharing similar hairstyles and/or accessories. Our "Mama and Me" feature is intended to celebrate our family relationships, especially as we bond over hair. Many thanks to all of the families who participated this year, and may the mothers, caregivers, and moms-in-waiting have a fabulous Mother's Day!

Mother's Day Teacup Treats and Reflecting on School Moms

One of the biggest fears I had when Boo started kindergarten this year actually had nothing to do with her. It had to do with me, and the fact that I'm an introvert. The whole idea of having to chat with other moms, whom I didn't know, didn't sit well with me. I'm not a fan of small talk. I prefer silence over making something up just to have something to say. Very often that is perceived by others as my being aloof and/or snobby. So with the beginning of the school, each day of drop-off and pick-up I faced the possibility that my "not-being-chatty" was likely going to offend someone.