I hope you read every line.

lmaooo. I hate Tumblr.

(Source: madeupmonkeyshit, via flowersundefiled)

@4 days ago with 9520 notes

keep calm—moisturize

(via blackgirlcurly)

@4 days ago with 348 notes

justcallmepb:

tall enough. (directed by barry jenkins~the guy that did medicine for melancholy)
although there may be like 15 am/bf relationships in the u.s., this is sweet

@6 days ago with 6 notes

coiltechnique:

Straightened Natural Hair: Getting it Smooth and Keeping it Protected

Full disclosure: I straighten my natural hair no more than twice in a calendar year to prevent heat damage and to keep splits at bay, so I’ll be the first to admit that my DIY straightening technique is not the best. I’m usually able to get it pretty sleek, but I often need to employ the help of devices like old-school granny rollers, flexirods, and bobby pins to do fancy tricks like curls. No Farrah Fawcett-style feathering over this way. However, I’d like to believe that on my second try since I’ve been 100% natural (no chemicals or wayward straight pieces left from years of abuse), I’m beginning to improve!

What I used:

Tresemme Heat Tamer Leave-in Spray

Nexxus Heat Protexx heat protectant

Sebastian Potion 9 (the generic, GVP version from Sally Beauty Supply—honey, no paying retail price over here!)

Frederic Fekkai Glossing Cream (again, got this baby on sale at Marshalls)

The process: I started this straightening session by prepping my hair with conditioner, just to soften it up before I applied a clarifying shampoo. I used V05’s Clarifying Shampoo to remove buildup from all of the oils, butters, and styling products I use on a regular basis, especially since I usually wash with a sulfate-free shampoo.

Then, I did a quick protein conditioning treatment to strengthen my strands so that they don’t break during my heat usage. Finally, I deep conditioned with two moisturizing conditioners (mixed together—nothing time-consuming or fancy).

After deep conditioning, I let my hair airdry in braids for about a half hour, and then I applied the two heat protectant sprays, the Sebastian Potion 9 as a leave-in conditioner, and the Frederic Fekkai Glossing Cream for shine and moisture. I blowdried on low in sections, and then flat-ironed.

I’m not gonna comment on how long this took me, but please know that the time required for this process is also one of the reasons I only straighten twice a year.

Anywhoo, a balance of moisture, protein, and protection via silicone-laden products is the key to a stress-free dance with straight hair for the natural girl.

To keep it straight: I’ve been testing out an anti-humidity spray by Garnier, and so far, my hair’s been holding up. However, I haven’t done any real trekking across campus or multiple blocks (partly because I’ve recently graduated—yay!), so my hair hasn’t had the chance to revert as much as it probably wants to. Even still, because my hair is natural, it swells pretty quickly. So while it’s still straight, it has a LOT of body. And frankly, I don’t mind that, as it’s usually a key indicator that I haven’t gotten any damage from my little rendezvous with heat styling.

At night, I’ll either put it in a bun or throw some of those aforementioned rollers in, if I want the ends to remain curled. And for loose waves, you can do Bantu knots or two big braids. Options are fun :) Happy straight styling!

@1 week ago with 5 notes

"
Disliking hip-hop doesn’t make you a racist any more than liking hip-hop makes you not a racist, and I’m sure there are plenty of Stormfront enthusiasts with Rick Ross in their iTunes. If you don’t like Jay-Z because you just don’t like the way he sounds, or you’re sick of his cloying ubiquity, or you wish he’d talk about something other than where he’s from for five seconds—hey, I’m not mad, I don’t like Bruce Springsteen for the same reasons. But if you don’t like rap music—a genre that contains multitudes—because of a self-satisfied moralism, or because you’re scared of it, or because you wish those people would stop talking about their problems and get out of your television and radio and kids’ bedrooms: well.

And I’m not just talking about the American right, I’m talking about all the well-meaning white folks who’ve told me how they want to like Lil Wayne but lo, the misogyny, the violence, the drugs. But, but, I’ll say: Bob Dylan aced misogyny; the Rolling Stones sang about violence; the Velvet Underground knew their way around some drugs. Yeeeah, but it’s different, they’ll say, elongating that “yeah” with conspiratorial inflection: you know what I mean. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

Rap music doesn’t get unarmed kids shot to death, “it’s different” does. “It’s different” infuses “these assholes always get away” and gives solace to people who hear that sound bite and nod their empty heads in agreement. “It’s different” is the same logic that suggests a teenager’s skin color combined with the music he listened to means he had it coming, and it’s the same logic that lets a bunch of people feign outrage over a teenager’s use of the n-word to describe himself when they’re really just outraged that he beat them to the punch.

“It’s different” makes me shake with anger because it turns music into a dog-whistle to justify the murder of a kid who doesn’t seem all that “different” from me was when I was his age, not that different at all. I liked Skittles and hoodies and weed, too. And yeah, I’m white and never worried about getting shot for any of it, which is only the most loathsome excuse for not identifying with someone that I can possibly think of.
"

(you write pretty, jack) Jack Hamilton, “America Is Dying Slowly: Talking About Hip-Hop After Trayvon Martin” (Good)

(Source: thediscography, via justcallmepb)

@4 days ago with 3278 notes

this is really scary.

(Source: missbreyonna)

@1 week ago with 2 notes

coiltechnique:

Naptural85’s Stretched Twistout Method!

My set of posts on stretched hair might lead one to believe I don’t appreciate my kinks in all of their shrunken glory, so I’ll be more mindful of that…but don’t you just love when you find a trick or two that makes your natural hair look totally different?

Actually…who am I kidding?

Natural hair is the epitome of inconsistency. It’s so unpredictable—so much so that nearly EVERY style comes out differently. However, I’ve been playing around with this one particular method for a couple weeks, and I think Youtube guru Naptural85 has got a winner on her hands.

I had a little downtime during finals week, so I performed my usual routine to relax: watch videos on Youtube. I then came across Naptural85’s vid on achieving her best twistout ever and was interested in whether this technique (heh, shameless plug there) would work for me. After figuring that it seemed fairly easy to execute the style, I sprayed my hair down with a little water, used my Shea Moisture Yucca and Aloe Milk with a little bit of (you guessed it) Curl-Enhancing Smoothie for hold, and began flat-twisting my roots, twisting the length of my hair, and then rolling up each twist into a bantu knot. I let the style set for a day and a half as I worked on a couple of take-home finals. Later, I took the bantu knots down and cross-pinned each twist across my head to stretch it out a bit more for a few hours. The two pics on the side display the outcome! I wore it to my friend’s graduation party and it held up pretty well :) The first pic displaying how I set the style is a bit fuzzy, but you can see the parts that I made for each section, the flat twists, and the Bantu knots.

PS-Pardon the awkward and/or pained facial expressions—we’re focusing on the hair :-)

@2 weeks ago with 101 notes