Tidbit Tuesday

DID YOU KNOW???

Today I let G handle Tidbit Tuesday. It only took us about 6 takes to get it...plus it was way past her bedtime...hence the tangents and eye-rubbing.

She wants to talk to you all about STYLE for just a minute :) And some random comment about me warning against using hot oil on the head. I don't remember saying that, but....ok...DON'T use hot oil on the head. Unless it's not-so-hot. :)



It's true! Life got MUCH easier during our adjustment time when I stopped trying to control the clothing. When she was 4+ we would have battles in the morning about her not wanting to wear what I picked out, and one day I thought "why am I doing this?" The child has clothes on either way. She is happy with her choices. Let's call it good and go from there!

Do you have a headstrong child who wants to choose his or her own fashion, even at a young age? Do you let him or her? Even if the end result makes you slap your forehead?

Something like a basket weave....

Remember how I said I wanted to do a basket weave on V's yarn braids a few weeks ago?  Well, I almost forgot!  But I was reading an old post and was reminded by myself that I was going to try that out!

So I did, and the result was pretty, although maybe not looking exactly like a basket weave:

One of the most fun things about yarn braids is that I didn't need to use any kind of pony holder.  I just took a few braids from each side and tied a knot around the braids coming from either side of her head!

What do you think?  It sounds like a lot of you have been trying out the yarn braids.  Have you done anything interesting to style them?  We LOVE to see your pics!

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

Here is the oft-requested instructional video on how to make the Fleece Comfort Dolls that we made for Social Service Sunday at our church, which we will be sending down to the Haiti Rescue Center, where they are helping the starving and the sick transform from this:

to this:

Many apologies for the crummy video. It was midnight and I had no one to help me hold the camera. So you get some nice shots of my sweatshirt and my lap as I try to hold the camera under my chin...not to mention my cluttered living room! Hey, now....some of that stuff you see there is waiting to be donated! LOL







Hope that was clear! If you are interested in sending these dolls to the Haiti Rescue Center as well, please let me know!

What I Am Is....

Sesame Street is really coming out with some awesome empowering songs!

This is totally worth singing with your kids. Go Will.i.am!!!

B has Beads

It doesn't happen very often, but one thing that I really love about locs is that when we feel like it, we CAN still put cornrows and beads in Miss B's hair.  I noticed recently that B had somehow ended up with quite a lot of green shirts.  She could easily go a whole week wearing a different green something.  So I figured it would be fun to give her some green beads to go with them!

The other thing I really appreciate about locs is that when I decide to do a style like this, I don't have to be worried about how long it is going to take me!  Pretty much anything (besides tightening) that I have ever done to style B's hair has taken me less than 30 minutes!  I LOVE that!

My plan for this style was to cornrow the front of her locs and then have the braids hanging down the back with the green beads.

It turned out mostly how I had imagined, but I still didn't think it looked quite right.  So I ended up taking all of her hair and putting the locs from the back with the cornrows from the top into pigtails.
It might have been cute If I would have put another layer of cornrows down the back with more beads at the bottom.  But I think the pigtail solution worked fine - and it was faster!

And as a side note.  Since Steph mentioned some parenting struggles the other day.  Have you all ever noticed how B frequently looks SO dry on her face in pictures????   I can't for the LIFE of me get her to keep her face lotioned.  It's like she never even looks at herself in a mirror!  We even have a chart in the bathroom for the girls morning routine that includes washing and lotioning their faces that she checks off with a dry erase marker every morning.  Hmmmm.......motherhood!

Katie

Tidbit, uh, Wednesday - I'm About to Lose Control and I DEFINITELY Don't Think I Like It!

DID YOU KNOW???

This morning, G insisted. INSISTED. That she wear HER ponytails as installed by HER, without any adjusting from me, to school. This crummy iphone photo doesn't do it justice.

It was all I could do to not force her to sit down while I redid the style. I was beside myself! Letting her walk out that door and get out of the car with her very lopsided, messy, horribly parted, locs hangin' out, lumpy low ponytails, was excruciating. I am praying it was just a one-time thing. I don't think I can bear losing Mommy-control of her hair yet, she's only 7!!!

Of course I could observe myself objectively being ridiculous for this behavior. I mean, eventually the child will be able to control her own hair that grows out of her own head. But, I am just not ready.

This girl has been choosing her own clothes, with only minimal input from me, since about age 4.5 or so. I just figured, during that early adjustment time, we were having enough head-butting. Head-butting about clothing was just not worth it.  So, she pretty much went out of the house looking however she wanted to. But she never cared that I had control from the neck up. I don't think it much occurred to her that she could say "NO I don't care for that hairstyle much, I don't want it. I won't be havin' it" until fairly recently. Because it has dawned on her that she can mess with her hair the very moment I drop her off at school and there's nothing I can do about it. So there have been more than a few times when I have picked her up from after-school care and clips have been removed and hair has been, like TIED to itself, in a bow-kind of thing, in the back, which I guess she thinks looks hip. When I see it I kind of just tilt my head to the side like Rain Man, mumble "Hi Shug how was your day poo, alrighty then" and just make a casual beeline for the head and straighten up the hair.

Is there something wrong with me?

Maintaining her hair is one of my joys. Styling it the way I KNOW it looks cute is like ambrosia to me. I love hair ballies. I love accessories...I mean not all overdone (anymore), but a couple here and there. Having her stick her hands on her head and block access to her hair while I'm about to put in an adorable clip or give her ponytails, because she is not in the MOOD for the style that day, is....well...

Because, darn her, she now has discovered that she has the right to have input as to her own appearance. Whenever she feels like it.

But I'm not ready!

There are so many styles left untried, bead mixes left unbeaded, ponies left untailed. But just coming up with cool ideas and then making them reality on her loc'd little head at my discretion has become pretty much a thing of the past. I have always ASKED her if she'd like me to do X style, but the answer up till recently has always been "YEAH!!!"

Don't get me wrong, it's not like this all the time. But this morning she was SO INSISTENT on those wacky ponytails (and it wasn't even crazy hair day!) I feel like I had a glimpse of fashion issues to come.

Sigh. I guess that is what we get when we raise our kids to be independent freethinkers. We get independent freethinkers!

I just wish there was a little on/off switch. :)

How have you handled letting go of total control over styling your young child's hair? Do you let them put in their own styles and go out sometimes? Is it painful? ;-)

A New WINNER!!!

I am sad and happy to announce that one of our winners did not respond last week to claim their prize.  Our contest rules state that you need to email us with your mailing address by the Friday following the announcement or we will pick a new winner.  I am very sorry to our winner who did not respond.

BUT it is kind of fun to let one of you other lucky readers know that you will now be the recipient of your very own NUDRED!!!!!

Thanks to Random.org our new winning comment is:

Robin said... 

Just tweeted this:

I love the @keepmecurly blog! (Hope, hope, hope I win a NuDred for my son!)

CONGRATULATIONS Robin!  PLEASE email us your mailing address by this Thursday or we will have to pick another new winner!

If anyone wants to check out what Lee (one of the other Nudred winners) thinks of her new Nudred, check out her blog!  

Inspiration from Willow!

So I have to say that I have noticed lately that I am no longer very cool.  I just don't seem to be able to keep up with the latest trends in fashion.  I really HATE skinny jeans and Miss B is desperately wanting a pair!  I also have never been a fan of the faux-hawk.  BUT with the latest release of Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair" video, I decided to restrain my own personal thoughts on what looks "good" and what looks "ridiculous."  Due to Willow's hair cut, every different style she sports in the video is some sort of Mohawk, so I have been inspired!

Let me tell you, it has paid off.  I gave B and V faux-hawk styles last night and they were thrilled with them!  V looked in the mirror and exclaimed "Mom, you are so creative!"  And then after she stared at herself for awhile she ran off to "Whip her hair" around really good!

I apologize that the pictures are really terrible.  I just seem to have my days, and yesterday was not one of them.  But I think you can still see how I did the styles.  For both of them I cornrowed their locs/yarn braids up the sides of their heads to the center and then secured them with a pony holder.  The only difference is that on V, I only did 3 cornrows per side, and on B, I did 6 cornrows per side.  Then on V I just left them hanging to one side.  On B I made large bantu type knots like the style that Willow has toward the end of the video.

I feel like I am always saying this, but I think this looks cuter in person.  Yup, I said it, I think she actually looks pretty cute in this style!

I was not as thrilled with the outcome of B's, even though it is a pretty close replica of the video style.  This morning I took the knots out and let her no crimpy locs hang to the side like V's and I like it better.

How do you feel about faux-hawk or mohawk styles?  Do you ever feel like your kids are now cooler than you????

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

DID YOU KNOW???

That I'm really late with today's tidbit?

I guess that's hard to miss, eh? Well today's tidbit is not so much a tidbit as a whole ginormous chunk of LOVE :)

Seriously, did you know that my church's kid's worship service has voted to help Haiti for this church year??? I was stoked when, of all the social causes out there, they chose helping children in Haiti as what they wanted to raise money for this year. This is the collection offering taken during the family/children's worship service in between the two adult services. Last year they raised $1,500 for Solar Cookers International.

I have helped to spearhead this project and we are going to split this year's collection, half goes to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC.org), which is partnering with several grassroots organizations in Haiti. They will hopefully be offering a work trip to Haiti early next year that our youth group wants to go on.

The other half of the money will go to an organization dear to me, that I've been following for some years now, "Real Hope for Haiti." Many of you may know their blog, HaitiRescueCenter.com. They are a small, family run operation that is doing BIG THINGS for their rural community in Cazale, Haiti. If you want to see what they see every day at their Rescue Center and Clinic, just watch this video and check out their blog. They post very often, sometimes daily. What you will see and read there is difficult, sometimes, but it's reality.

Here is a professionally done video about the Clinic and Rescue Center:

Real Hope For Haiti from Corrigan Clay on Vimeo.

I have started a church blog for this year of raising this money, so that people can come and see what we are doing, learn about these organizations, and hopefully also donate money to add to what our kids give during church. The money will be split and given to the organizations at the end of the church year. I really want to see this fund grow, so I can share it with the kids on Sundays. I can tell them "25 people came to our Helping Haiti blog and gave $50 to add to our collection! Yeah!!!! Here are some of their comments!" Can you imagine their faces when they see the power that exists in the world to do good....that people from all over care as much as they do?! To turn their weekly $20 into $40 or $50 or more? Yeah!

I am also heading up what we call "Social Service Sundays," which we do 4 times a year with the Religious Exploration classes. The kids do some kind of project for charity, something simple like making biscuits for the SPCA dogs, crafting fleece blankets for the local children's crisis nursery, stuffing Christmas stockings for Toys for Tots, etc. This last time we made easy fleece knot dolls for the kids in the Rescue Center to use for comfort. Something soft to cuddle and suck on if they are sick in bed. Our kids L.O.V.E.D. making them. So much that they asked to do it at home, too! (If you are interested in this project for your church or school, let me know, it's super easy. It would be great for any children's hospital or orphanage or any such place)

If you are so inclined, please check out the blog, leave us a comment, follow if you like, and  maybe donate even just a dollar. (Click on the red heart in the sidebar). You will be taken to our church's donation page and you just need to make sure to select "Haiti" when you donate. ALL the money goes to Haiti, every cent. None is kept for the church.

Thank you so much!

A Dreadiversary

Ok the name is a bit odd, I'll give you that. But this post is about Christine and she calls them her "dreadies." Dreadlocs is a legit name for locs, even though me and G just say "locs," so DREADIVERSARY it is!

I read Christine.

Christine describes herself and her family:


Take one homeschooling mom with dreads and a nose ring, add a hot bald dude, five kids via birth/adoption, a bunch of special needs, an RV park ... yup, that's us.

But she is SO much more than that. Even though that is pretty intriguing in and of itself. I found Christine's blog as a link from Corey's blog, of whom I'm also a faithful reader. As I was reading Christine's blog, I noticed a picture of her Haitian daughter. I was like "huh." Then later I saw a pic of her Haitian son and I said "HUH!" And I said "no freaking way, could it be?" and then "it's gotta be....what a small small world." As it turns out I met her two kids in Haiti a few years before when I was there to visit my daughter before her adoption was complete. Her two kids were staying someplace temporarily and I happened to be there when they were. I had video of them, photos....and I was SO HAPPY to see that they were in such an awesome home. If you read Christine for any length of time, which you should; she posts about such cool and awesome and interesting and deep stuff, you will find that she is a wonderful advocate of therapeutic parenting (this is her YouTube channel link) , and shares her knowledge freely and helps a lot LOT LOT of people.

If there were one short post that illustrates to me how wonderful hairtime is in terms of the closeness and bonding that can take place, especially for kids who are attachment-challenged (one huge reason for keeping kids NATURAL, so you have the chance to do hair together), it would be this one.

Ok so that is Christine.

Now, about her locs! She put them in one year ago, hence the Dreadiversary. She LOVES them, and has written them a love letter, in fact. She has what I guess I'd call organic locs with a freeform twist. They do seem to be separated. I really don't think she wants to pigeonhole them with any kind of naming, though. The thing she cherishes most about them is their wild freedom to do and be...WHATEVAH!

Christine has very straight hair, and I think she mentioned it was quite fine. She put these locs in with NO WAXING. Just washing it clean, letting it separate on its own, then ratting and palmrolling each naturally-forming chunk. She did a video on it here.

I have a secret. I want to have locs. I want the more rolled, cylindrical looking locs, but I don't know if it's possible to have them like that. I have very thick straight hair and it's kind of oily (noticeable oil after 24 hours) but it does have a cowlicky wave to it when it's just hanging there. I did recently get some layers in the ends so that it does "something" while it's just hangin'.  This is me this morning:

I really spend ZERO time on my hair. I don't want to blow dry it, curl it, flatten it, froof with it, poof with it, or anything. Here is my morning hair routine:

Shower. Shampoo. Condition. Scrub with towel. Rip a brush through it. Put sunglasses on as a headband or take an elastic to work with me to put in later.

Amen.

Of course you are probably thinking: STEPHANIE! Are you nuts, if you have zero time for your hair NOW, how are you going to maintain locs? Especially if you want those rolly looking ones?

Well, I dunno. But I DO know that someday my kid is going to be much more independent and may even want to try maintaining her own hair, and may one day even CHANGE her hairstyle (gasp!)  and someday I'm not gonna have any more locs to maintain on a regular basis unless:

A) I live with her or near her (at age 7 I think all kids want their moms to live with them forever, but...um yeah. Age 14? Probably not so much.)

or

B) I pimp myself out as a forlorn empty-nester who just wants to get her hands on someone else's hair to care for. I will walk around with a tackle box full of beads and snaps at the ready just in case.

So, I forsee idle hands in my future. And I'm STILL not going to want to style my fairly boring thick straight hair in 5 or 10 years, any more than I want to style it now. But rolling and ratting and twisting my hair into some new re-invention of itself? Now THAT sounds much more interesting.

Plus (and here is the kicker) it's a totally great way for me to have a reason to put beads and such decorations in my hair. Loc charms with the dingleberries hanging from them? Oh yeah. That will be me.

So, someday! I recently watched a video at KnottyBoy.com of a stylist putting locs into a guys hair...he had red hair with some definite wave and frizz to it. She used tons of wax though (I am still trying to figure out what HAPPENS to all the wax that people with locs put in their hair!). They are located in Vancouver, BC. As in Canada.

So like, road trip, maybe?

Have you ever entertained the idea of locs? If so, do you think you will do it, forreals? If you did it, how? Loctician? Yourself? Do you love em?

Christine sure seems to!

 

WINNERS! WINNERS!

A lot of you were working really hard to win this prize I really wish we had enough of them to give to everyone!  But unfortunately we only have 3.  Check back again for more giveaways! We have other brush/comb type products we hope to review, and more to do with hair bling. And we are always open to suggestions for items we may not have thought of, so feel free to email us!

Now without further ado, drum roll please.......................

And the winning comments chosen by random.org are:

1) Sean's Ladies said...

I shared about it on my blog (second entry)
http://gatheredfromafar.com

2) Ali said...

I am following your blog.

3) Lee said...

I advertised your blog on my blog! www.familiesrbuiltwithlove.blogspot.com

CONGRATULATIONS to you all!!!!

Please email us at keepmecurly@gmail.com with your mailing address so that we can get your Nudred in the mail right away!  THEN be sure to send us pics and feedback of your result.  We have heard some people have not been as satisfied as others with the results of the Nudred and I am sure all of our readers would LOVE to know what you think of it!  

Little E Has a Haircut!

I think I have mentioned before that I find Little E's hair to be a tad frustrating.  It is very fine and thin, there just isn't a whole lot there.  What she does have is all different lengths because of all of the new hair that is constantly growing in, and I also think due to breakage, her hair seems to be very fragile (although it appears quite healthy?)  Her hair detaches from her scalp with the slightest pull, it is crazy!  It is stick straight in the front, where it is also quite short, but in the back it has a slight wave that doesn't look straight or curly and just kind of looks like blah!  It was also getting quite long in the back.  Why is it so long in the back when I have given her several hair trims over her lifetime JUST in the back and NEVER in the front???


Anyway - I have also mentioned in the past that because Little E's hair is so fragile we don't style it on a daily basis.  Most days we just spritz it with water to tame the bed head and give it a quick brushing and leave it.  Maybe with a clip on the side to hold the hair out of her face.  Trouble is, I LOVE cute hair, and this just isn't very cute.  Take a look:

This is the longest her hair has ever gotten and while the length is fun for doing different styles (like the one below that we did right before we chopped it all off)  I decided, once again, to chop the bottom off and try to get the hair in the front to catch up!

I was also hoping that a shorter hair style would make it appear more full.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  What do you think?

Don't forget that the Nudred Giveaway ends TODAY at 12:00 PM EST!!!!!!!!  Just a few hours left to get more entries!  Be sure to check in tomorrow for the announcement of the winners!

Katie

GIVEAWAY!! - Nudred!!

We are THRILLED that the Nudred company has given us 

3 Nudred sets to GIVE TO YOU!!!!!

It has been a little while since we had a Giveaway so hopefully you all remember how this works.  Just follow the rules below and be sure to leave a SEPARATE comment for EACH task that you complete!  You have until NOON EST Friday, November 5th to leave your comments.  We will then choose the 3 winners by random generator from the comments left on THIS post.

Don't miss out on this wonderful opportunity, each Nudred and Nu-Potion set is worth $30!

To enter this giveaway please leave a comment on THIS blog and answer THIS question:
Who would you use your Nudred on????

____________________________________________________________________

If you would like to earn EXTRA entries do one or all of these things:

1)  Go to the Nudred website and tell us what interesting info you found that wasn't included in our review.  

2) Head on over to our Keep Me Curly! Facebook fan page and become a fan. Leave a comment stating that you are a fan. (or that you already were a fan)

3) "Share" our Keep Me Curly! Facebook page with your friends and come back and leave a comment letting us know what day you "shared" us THIS week.

4) Follow @keepmecurly on twitter Come back and post a comment that you are a follower and leave your Twitter ID. (or that you were already following)

5) Tweet any unique tweet announcing our blog or the giveaway with @keepmecurly in it! Cut and paste your tweet (not tweet id status) and post as a comment. You can get 1 entry for EVERY new and unique tweet!

6) Become a follower of our blog or subscribe to our blog through an RSS feed. Simply post a comment saying that you are a follower. (or that you were already following)

7) Subscribe to Katie's youtube channel and come back and leave a comment stating that you are a subscriber. (or that you were already a subscriber)

8) Leave a comment on one of Katie's youtube videos. Leave a comment HERE letting us know the title of the video you commented on.

9) Go to Steph's Snapaholics website and leave a note in her guestbook. Come back and leave a comment HERE letting us know that you signed the guestbook.

10) Place an order at Snapaholics between 11/1 and 11/4 Noon EST. Leave a comment including your order number and order date.

11) Grab our badge! If you add our badge to your blog leave us a comment saying that you are using it with a link to your blog.

12) Advertise our site or this giveaway in a forum or other blog! We would really love it if you wrote about our site or this giveaway on your blog. If you are passionate about natural hair care, or Katie's youtube videos have been really helpful to you, or if you love cute hair things, talk it up on your blog! Earn TWO entries for doing this one! Simply post a comment saying that you are talking about us with a link to the forum or blog, then put (first entry) then comment again and write (second entry).

13) Get a friend to talk about us or our giveaway on THEIR blog, earn two MORE entries! Just leave us a comment with a link to THEIR blog and tell us that you encouraged them to participate. Then make sure they enter the giveaway for themselves too!

________________________________________________________________________

The winners will be announced on Saturday, November 6th. It is the responsibility of the winners to contact us at keepmecurly@gmail.com to let us know their mailing address. IF the winners do not contact us by Friday, November 12th, we will choose new winners.

Who can participate? We are sorry but this contest is limited to readers within the continental U.S.

*** If you have any questions or if you have comments that are not related to the giveaway please feel free to email us at keepmecurly@gmail.com or leave your comment on yesterdays post. In order for this giveaway to work we have to ask that you do not leave any other comments on this post if they do not follow the guidelines of the contest.***