My Chihuahua Bites!

I just can’t say this name enough!!! It is the name of my favorite nail color for the summer season, from the OPI collection. 

As a mom, my hands are constantly in water and I use to get frustrated with painting my nails. But in an attempt to not become a ragged mother of three who looses herself in dirty diapers and laundry, I stayed optimistic about a solution.

If you buff your nails, paint on the OPI base coat, then apply the color and be sure to finish with the OPI top coat. You are good to go for at least 10 days.

I am currently wearing this color on my nails and toes and it makes me smile whenever I catch a glimpseJ

I recently visited their website and it is soooo fun! Even the OPI nail polish company recognizes that we have all different skin tones and not one polish looks good on everyone. They have a gadget that allows you to change the skin tone of the hand and choose any nail color.  Take a look. www.OPI.com I guarantee you will not be disappointed!!!

Tip: painting your nails a natural or nude color will allow you to get the most out of your nail salon time, whether that be professional or at home. If your polish chips and it’s a nude color  it’s not nearly as obvious as if it were our featured “My Chihuahua Bites” color.

Being Afro in a Straight World: My Hair Truth

May 2006 I finally got the guts to cut my hair off. Well, cut off the relaxed hair. By this time I was 8 months pregnant and had 2-3inches of new growth. My plan was to cut off the relaxed hair and braid up the remaining hair. I needed to grow it out before I could consider a natural hairstyle…

I had it braided up in a style like this…..

I call this style halfway ins.  The stylist took human extension hair braided it in, to the end of my hair and pulled out pieces of the extension hair along the way. That way some of the braid is covered up and the style looks more hair like and less braid like.

I was comfortable in this style… I blended in, I could even wear my hair in cute little pig tails like the straight haired girls. I felt pretty. But I knew underneath was my truth, my hair truth! Sooner or later that was going to be revealed.

I did this style 3 times. I wore it for a total of 7 months.  This picture was the length of my hair after the first two months wearing the style

After 4 months

After 7 months…

I was soo proud of my length in this picture…. My friend I mentioned in my very first entry, Jilly Woo, (who by the way turned out to be a huge hair fan of mine) received 5 too many texts of this same picture, I was all too excited about my progress.

However the day of truth was coming…. I had made the appointment with the hair stylist and informed her of my process.  My hair was ready… but was I ready for my hair truth?

Happy Friday ... Enjoy your Weekend!

Today's entry is from my 'About me and the Blog' page. As I am new to the blogging world I wanted to make sure my intentions and hopes were clear.  I am utterly enjoying this form of expression, thank you for welcoming me.

Happy Friday!

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Hello Friend, Nice to Meet you* My name is Tina Scott.

I am a happy wife and mom living in the beautiful Northwest. I have been married to my BFF, Rob for 10 years and we have three beautiful children that inspire us everyday to be better people. In 1999 I won the title of Miss Washington and competed at the 2000 Miss America pageant and earned enough cash to pay for college...yay!!!  With my degree in Management from the University of Washington my husband and I started our own business 7 years ago. I certainly gravitate toward any sort of task that allows me to be in charge... We have been members of the same church for 15 years where we are fortunate to have established life long relationships.

I recently started blogging for a few reasons, 1. I am religious about making entries in my personal journal and have started one for each of my kids. So I think this is something I will enjoy. 2. I want to share my life with other people and learn from all the creative and smart people in our world. 3. I am currently on bed rest with my third child and have an abnormally amount of free time on my hands... I figured this is a good time to learn something new!!!

The, 'Being Afro in a Straight World', issue I am mostly blogging about for now has been a personal journey for me. Media, beauty, fashion have always been a passion of mine and sorting out a definition of beauty for myself has been both sweet and sour, but I've made huge strides these last 5 years. That growth is what I want to share you.... and maybe in my story you will find freedom for yourself.

I want this site to CELEBRATE the differences within BEAUTY. I want to highlight the POWER and INFLUENCE of WOMEN.  And that is what you will find here.. tips on topics from makeup to motherhood, from hairstyles to lifestyles. Stories that impart the strength of women while learning about the best nail color ever!

As an inter-racial couple raising bi-racial kids, today's race relations within our society intrigue me. I am regularly asking myself questions and meditating on answers that I think will help my kids understand their physical identity.  More than likely you will read some of thoughts on that topic here as well. 

I look forward to getting to know you through emails and comments. Talk to you soon,

xoxo

Tina

Being Afro in a Straight World: Get a new Image

Today I am posting a few of my graphics. Graphics that helped me redefine my narrow-minded perception of intellect and beauty.  I already knew this was everything I wanted to be … smart, successful, beautiful, attractive.

These graphics below, I would put in different places to remind myself of my newly expanded version of beauty and power.  When I would open my laptop, a black beauty would welcome me as my screensaver or on the cover of my weekly bible study notebook I put images of cute little girls with afros.  I also subscribed to Essence Magazine, where I was repeatedly shown bronzy glamour.  I also made new friends; I put myself in groups of people that made me uncomfortable. I look forward to highlighting those amazing women in upcoming blogs.

More importantly, I regularly read Psalms 139 and reminded myself that I am “fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful”.   

This renewal is not an overnight process it takes diligence and passion to be free from whatever is enslaving you.  This is my journey, but what is enslaving you? What holds you back from doing the thing you have always wanted to do? Take a step today toward freedom and be committed to it.

Being Afro in a Straight World: The 'white, black girl'

Let’s revisit the ‘Black power to the people’ entry….  Toward the end of this entry I made this statement. 

All of these thoughts were going through my head and I was embarrassed at my self-hatred and contempt. At this point I realized the depth of this change extended beyond simply getting a new hairstyle. I was going to have to address buried emotions of why I have been called the ‘white, black girl’ and my disassociation with my ethnicity.

Whoa!!! Heavy stuff tinkabinka…. What does that mean? I don’t know exactly, but I’ll give it a try. I think that if I were talking to a counselor they would listen to that statement… and say “Hmmm… tell me more.”  Realizing that the key to breakthrough lies within these three sentences. Soooo, let me say more. But before I do that let me say this…

Talking about race makes me REALLY up tight because discussing it is new to me. So please be patient with me as I search for the right words. My approach in the past has been, ‘ya I’m black but who cares, that means nothing to me.’  But I think I would be remiss if I didn’t address how my disassociation with my race has affected my hair journey. So Please remember I always want to bring unity and acceptance. I want to be a bridge of understanding that extends to all races.

*** The ‘white black girl' ***

Just writing that statement makes me cringe. I immediately feel inadequate, unaccepted and sooooo misplaced. And yet, so many people have called me this all the years of my life.   What does it mean? I wonder if Condoleeza Rice knows how I feel, as I search for respectable company, because as the saying goes, misery loves company.

I was raised in a good family with committed parents but we really didn’t discuss race. It usually was brought up when it was connected to us being in trouble such as …. ‘get your black butt to your room’ or if someone was being irresponsible 'they are so ghetto, just actin' black'… something along those lines..

So now, I am going through this hair transition that is bringing out my ethnicity and it’s causing me to address my self-hatred and contempt; because it is really hard to sport an Afro and not accept the fact that you are a black woman. And maybe, just maybe, that is why I was an easy target for the 'white, black girl' comments

I don’t think I have all the answers nor do I think I have explored the fullness of what I am stirring up here, but this is what I do know…I see all four of these images as equally beautiful, smart, sexy, capable, professional and successful.

.

And I know I could not have said that 5 years ago….

So while I admit there is more progress for me to make in this area of my life. I invite you to experience your own baby steps to self acceptance, whatever the particular issue may be.

Being Afro in a Straight World: Detoxing the 'creamy crack'

September of 2005 I learned I was pregnant and figured since I was going to be going through a ton of new physical changes I might as well throw my hair in the mix as well.  Not sure if this was the best plan, but it was the plan I chose.

At the time my hair was damaged from relaxers. The back of my hair was breaking off and falling out and the rest looked very thin….. I started to research on how to go natural and learned that I needed to start with as much new growth as possible (hair that was not relaxed). I had just had a relaxer or, taken a shot of the creamy crack, so I was starting at the very beginning.  Within 6 weeks I had my first bit of kinky new growth. I started to try new things such as braiding my hair in cornrows and then taking it out for a 1980’s crimp look… as seen in the picture to the left.  My mother has been so diligent over the years to braid my hair so the first several times I had her put in my cornrows… but I knew I would eventually have to learn.  

In the picture below I did them myself!!!  I added hair in to my cornrows so that I could braid through the ends and crimp those as well. Even though i do not do this anymore I am very glad I took the time to learn how to braid a cornrow!!

I wore this style for a bit while I was growing out my relaxer. But then Debbie Gibson called and asked for her hair back so I moved on….

Well… kinda..

I discovered the ‘Fall’ or the ‘Half Wig’ or simply put a hair piece.  I am pretty sure I still have one of these synthetic concoctions stored some where in my hair closet… What this is, is a hairpiece with combs on the interior at the front and the back. The idea is that you clip this on about 2-3inches from the front of your hairline. So the big deal is making sure that transition from your hair to the wig hair is seamless. In this picture I am about 4-5months pregnant so it must be Januaryish of 2006. 

By now, I have about 5 months of grow out and was determined to stay the course.

Meanwhile, I am daily being challenged with ingrained images of what I think beautiful is, and slightly depressed because I know that I do not measure up….

I also needed to address these buried emotions of acknowledging the fact that I am a black female..... and what that meant to ME. 

Being Afro in a Straight World: You Look like a 'black power to the people' person.

Fall of 2005 I started thinking about what I would look like if I were to wear my hair natural. And I had a flashback….

(In 2000 I sat in the salon chair of a hair extension specialist. This white man has been in the hair industry for over 20 years and made a name for himself by being cutting edge with hair extensions and weaves. At the time, I was considering getting a weave and he said to me. “Tina in 5 years you will be wearing your hair natural….afro’s and twists and twist outs.” I laughed in his face !!!!  and thought that hair will never be taken seriously or considered beautiful)

So now here I am pondering the idea and I remembered that conversation.  A few weeks later, my younger sister Onnie casually walked into my house with a hood on. After several minutes I pulled it off and said… “what is going on underneath there.” To my astonishment, she had cut all of her relaxed hair off and only natural hair remained. The new growth hair was twisted and the ends dyed blonde…..My face exclaimed “Yikes, what the heck are your doing? You look like a black ‘power to the people’ type of person.” I was taken back for a few reasons… 1. Because of the drastic change. 2. Because she didn’t discuss it with me, she just did it. Later she told me, she did that because she knew I would never approve.

Now the real question is why did I have these passionate thoughts? Thinking that in some way she had crossed over… over to what? To being black? She was already black! And now she was simply choosing to wear her hair in its natural state. Did the choice make her ghetto? It did make her look more African. All of these thoughts were going through my head and I was embarrassed at my self-hatred and contempt. At this point I realized the depth of this change extended beyond simply getting a new hairstyle. I was going to have to address buried emotions of why I have been called “the white, black girl” and my disassociation with my ethnicity.

My sister just recently sent me this picture and she and I chuckled together because I look soooo much better with my hair natural than I do with this straight hairstyle. Who woulda thought!?? I certainly would not have…..

However, I want to make sure I am not coming across as natural hair absolutist.  I think all hair styles, hair colors, hair lengths are beautiful. But I do think every woman should love her natural prettiness and seek for her own afro glam beauty and confidence even if that means she does not look like the latest magazine cover girl.