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

February 27, 2012

Organizing Hair Accessories with Shower Curtain O-Rings

This has got to be one of my favourite tips for hair accessories ever! I've been using these for several years and, while going through Boo's closet today while doing some "spring cleaning," it occurred to me that I had yet to share this. I know many people are already familiar with using this cheap and easy way of organizing hair accessories, but for those who are not, may this make your life so much easier!

Pinch Part Two-Strand Twists: Easy Style for Girls AND Boys

Funny, after doing two posts on how to make parting hair go more easily (see "Tips and Tricks for Parting Hair," Part 1 and Part 2) I think I was over making parts, so this week we did an easy style that requires no parting hair. I call them "pinch parts" because that's exactly how we do them. I "pinch" a section of hair with my fingers, and form a twist out of the section that I grabbed.

Tips and Tricks for Parting Hair: Part 2

If you're arriving at this post without having read "Tips and Tricks for Party Hair: Part 1," please head on over there and check it out, especially if parting natural hair is new to you. In this post, I will be talking about basic part lines and how we use those to form every hairstyle we've ever done, as well as all of my tips for doing those basic parts on your child's head.

Guest Post: Striking a Balance in Transracial Adoption

(Guest Post by Rachel Garlinghouse of White Sugar, Brown Sugar)

While we waited to adopt our first child, I spent a lot of time researching transracial adoption and African American culture. I wanted to be the best mom possible to a brown baby, should we be chosen to adopt transracially. After we were placed with our first child, an African American girl, my dedication to transracial adoption education and black culture became an obsession. I hunted for African American Christmas décor (and would hold up a hard-to-find black angel and yell across the aisle at my husband, “I found a black one!!!”), clothing featuring brown kids, toys, greeting cards, artwork, and, of course, the best hair products.

Tips and Tricks for Parting Hair: Part 1 (Pun Intended)

At the request of many, many readers I've finally decided to try to document how we part hair in our household. No, it's probably not how you do it. In fact, parting hair is really unique to each individual person who styles hair, and can often vary in method, depending on curl pattern, hair type, and personal preference. That being said, I will do my best to share with you my strategies as they've evolved over the past several years when it comes to getting those "perfect" part lines. And by "perfect" I really mean "something that you and your child can live with." Or, at least that's my definition!

Stacey Canfield, Founder of Blended Beauty, Shares Her Family's Adoption Journey

(Guest Post by Stacey Canfield, Founder of Blended Beauty)

As a young child, I always knew in my heart that I would adopt. Looking back now it is hard to believe that as a child I knew this. But I think it was fate, and that my life was organized in such a way that the desire would simply grow.

First Annual Valentine's Day Hairstyle Parade

This is our first summary post of all of the heart-related hairstyles that have been posted on our blog (and Facebook page). Some of the posts will have links to full instructions, the others are shared photos from our Facebook fans. Hopefully everyone will be inspired to celebrate all the awesome things that natural hair can do!

Share the Hair: Valentine's Hair 2012

Well, here it is. The final post on the three Valentine's Day Hair 2012 feature. The first post was The Easy Version. Then we did an Advanced Version. Today we're featuring a "Share the Hair" version, where we will do a style similar to the Easy Version, but adapted for straight hair.

Valentine's Day Hair 2012: The Advanced Version

I'm so excited about this post. Seriously. I had a vision in my head of what I wanted this hairstyle to look like, but I never imagined it coming out this good! It ranks officially as one of my all-time favourites to-date. And to think that this style evolved from yesterday's Valentine's Day Hare: Easy Version, it just goes to show that you can work up to doing a really complicated style by just progressing up to it over several days.

Valentine's Day Hair 2012: The Easy Version

Today's post is actually part one of a three-part Valentine's Day series, where I will be doing a simple style, a more complicated style, and a Share the Hair version of the style. Today's post (as seen above) will be the simple, or easy, version of this year's Valentine's Day hairstyle.

Wordless Wednesday: School Valentine's Treat Ideas

just simple baggies of candy with cards attached, and stamped on the back.

Boo has her preschool Valentine's Day party this coming Friday, so we've been working on a few different treat ideas. We finally settled on the last idea, but these are all pretty cute and simple to do.

How We Remove Small Braids

We recently removed Boo's All-Around Cornrows with Bangs, a style that was formed with several small braids. These weren't microbraids, but they're definitely small enough to run into the every popular question, "How do you remove really small braids without it sucking up your entire day?" The short answer is, you don't. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't a few tips to help make things go more smoothly. Armed with patience and the right tools, removing braids can be simplified, with minimal breakage and without investing an entire day to their removal (depending, of course, on how many you have).

Family Friday: Black History Month 2012

Black history isn’t so much a "month" in our household as it is a lifelong educational process. But it sure is convenient that one month out of the year relevant experiences are much more easily found. Festivals, parades, theatrical performances, jazz festivals, and even book displays at the library put African American cultural information right out our fingertips. And for those living in areas without predominant Black cultural influences readily available all-year long, it would be a shame to let those teachable moments pass.

Book Review: "Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children"

I cannot think of a better book to kick off Black History Month than Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children, poetically written by Sandra L. Pinkney and photographed by Myles C. Pinkney. If ever you were looking for younger children that would facilitate a skin-tone dialogu , this book is a great place to start.