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

April 30, 2012

Guest Post: Teaching Young Girls to Care for Their Own Hair

(Guest Post by Dominique-Alexis of Natural-Hair-Care-Info)

(Today happens be a very special day for Domnique-Alexis; we'd like to wish her a very happy 17th birthday! Dominique Alexis wrote her first guest post for us back when she was only 15-years-old. Since then, she's started her own blog and just spent this last weekend covering the World Natural Hair Health & Beauty Show in Atlanta, GA. May she continue to be an example and inspiration to young naturals everywhere!)

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I love caring for my little sister’s natural hair! I love thinking up new styles, I enjoy watching her hair flourish and grow, and I like sharing pictures of the results with new naturals! However, as we get older, the day that she will have to care for her own hair gets nearer and nearer. The fact that her hair is pretty long and super thick made that seem impossible just a short time ago.

T-Shirt G!veaway W!nners Announced

Three lucky people who entered last week's giveaway have been chosen randomly to receive their choice of one of our new Chocolate Hair / Vanilla Care t-shirts. Was one of them you? Winners will have 48 hours to contact me to claim their prize per our Sweepstakes Policy.

Family Friday: Lights, Camera, Action!

Yes, that's me up there in that pic. Looking at the photo, it seems so unreal. Those who know me in person, please pick your jaws up off the floor. Those who don't, let's just say that blogging greatly appeals to my very introverted nature. That being said, being in front of the camera *gulp* speaking instead of typing was well out of my comfort zone. However, it was for a really great cause, and I'm all about helping parents. I also hoped that stepping out of my comfort zone was a fabulous teachable moment, showing my daughter that I'm willing to take risks and not always do things the "easy way."

W!n a Chocolate Hair Vanilla Care T-Shirt

There's still time to enter to win a CHVC t-shirt of your choice. THREE WINNERS will be chosen! Sweepstakes ends at midnight EST Friday 27 April 2012. Head on over and read through the instructions, you can easily earn up to 11 entries to increase your chances.

Review: MossyRockDesigns

I have been familiar with the work of Katie Bradley of MossyRockDesigns for a few years now. We belong to a few of the same online adoption groups and I've seen her paintings featured on other blogs. But what really drew me to her art were the stories that each painting tells. Using ink and water colour, Katie's work doesn't so much capture a moment in time as much as it conveys a whole story from beginning to end. The ability to create an ethereal sense of both movement and time in a static work of art is a gift that far outweighs mere technique, which is why I feel the need to share her remarkable talent with all of you.

You Asked For Them: Chocolate Hair / Vanilla Care T-Shirts and G!veaway

I want to start this post by thanking all of you for being so supportive of our little blog these last couple of years. We have worked hard over here, documenting everything we do with the hopes of helping others along their journey. So when some of you (especially Angie *waves*) made a point of letting me know that T-shirts would be something you'd be interested in having, I just had to wipe tears from my eyes. Seriously.

Trimming Yarn Extensions to Look More Even

Yay, I finally got a chance to edit this photos! Now I can share how we trim our yarn extensions to give them a more even look. This step is not absolutely necessary, but I've had several people ask about how I get the yarn all the same length on the ends, so I thought I'd do a bit of an explanation. I'm sure others have different methods for doing this, but this is what works best for us.

Wordless Wednesday: A Fancy Explosion Box

I feel like I should start calling these "Cricut Wednesdays" instead of "Wordless Wednesdays." Or maybe just "Wednesday" and skip the whole "Wordless" part. Anyway, we love our obsession, and even more so recently as Boo and I spent an entire week crafting this birthday present for her friend J's Fancy Nancy birthday party this past weekend. It's an explosion box. No, I didn't write instructions as there are a million tutorials online as to how to do these. Our explosion box, featured below, included stamps, pockets full of surprises (money, tattoos, stickers), and a cute purse with a gift card sitting in the center.

Yarn Twists with Organic Parts

After having to do an emergency take-down of Boo's "fancy" hair style the other day due to "hot spots," we followed up with some yarn twists that we're hoping will last us several weeks. Boo's been a trooper about sitting for hair lately; I really wanted to do something that I know will last a while so that both she, and I, can have a break. So we did a marathon day of yarn twist extensions yesterday, with the plans of styling them "fancy" for today's planned Fancy Nancy birthday party for a friend. And after all of that, the party was postponed/cancelled due to illness. *sigh*

Dealing with Itchy "Hot Spots" on the Scalp

After investing a bunch of time last week doing Boo's hair for Easter, with the intention of having her wear it for two weeks, including this weekend for a Fancy Nancy birthday party, we've had to take the whole thing out. As luck would have it, Boo was complaining of an itchy "hot spot" (a few actually) underneath the cornrows in the back of her head. Removing those few cornrows to investigate would require removing the entire style, and as much as it was inconvenient for us, that's exactly what we did.

Wordless Wednesday: "Spring Chick" Treat Boxes

We're on spring break this week, which means Daddy's home for the week and Boo is attending Vacation Bible School, instead of her regular preschool classes. Last week Boo's class had a party for their last day of school before the break. Enjoying our favourite crafting obsession once again, Boo and I made "spring chick" treat boxes for everyone in her class. They're similar to the treat boxes she made for Valentine's Day, but instead of making an appliqué chick, we did a cutout of of the shape and glued yellow paper on the opposite side before assembling the boxes. We stuffed the boxes with "grass" for a nest, and chocolate eggs.

Submit Your "Mama and Me" Share the Hair Photos for 2012

Wow, I cannot believe a whole year has nearly passed since our first annual "Share the Hair: Mama and Me Mother's Day Edition." I'm so excited to be doing this again this year! Now that the beautiful Easter hairstyles have been shown off, it's time to start thinking about what hairstyle we can do to share with our child(ren) to celebrate Mother's Day.

Basket Weave Cornrows with Rope Twist Headband

Boo's really taken a liking to "themed" holiday hairstyles (mostly the Valentine's Day heart and the Halloween black widow). So when Easter rolled around this year she requested an "Easter basket, with a bunny and eggs" for her hairstyle. For church? No, I don't think so. So we met in the middle: I gave her a basket weave of cornrows with a rope twist "handle." She was happy.

Why We Call Her "Boo" (with Video)

I've received a lot of emails asking me about Boo's nickname. Some people think it's a reference to To Kill A Mockingbird, others think that it's racially motivated. Yet her nickname has such innocent origins it never occurred to me that it would become such a hot topic. And like most nicknames, it grew over a period of time based on numerous things. But most of all, it was Boo's thrill-seeking, love of being spooked that really made it stick.

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Boo and the Easter Bunny

Was just looking back at past Easter photos and found the only Easter Bunny pic we have of Boo, back when she was a mere 3 months old:

Guest Post: Preparing To Bring Our Son Home from Ethiopia

(Guest Post by Lisa Maxfield of justlove127)

Hey all! I am so excited to get to share with you today! This is my first time ever being a "guest blogger," so I hope I meet your expectations. ;) My name is Lisa and my husband Matthew and I are getting on a plane in a few short days bound for Ethiopia to meet our son, Caden. Eeekkk. Even typing it makes my heart jump. We will be there April 7-10th and, although we have been to South Africa before, we have never been any north of that so it really is all new to us!