Sunday Musings
This is a pretty late Sunday Musings edition, but I’m just getting home after running some errands and and such, but it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve written one of these posts, so I thought I should share some other insight other than fashion.
After going to a tutoring session this afternoon, I realized that I’d been parking on Chicago’s legendary Maxwell Street.  I’d parked there a couple of times before, but I never took notice of the street name.  I was a bit surprised since the Maxwell street that I knew as a wee child was that of street markets (which have now been moved) and now is more UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago)-friendly fare.  However, I did see a few historical statues and this informational “guide” on Maxwell street:
Plus, this statue of this sensibly stylish lady sitting down and resting with her groceries at her side:
Good times.
Here are some other tidbits about my now lazy Sunday:
What I’m Reading:
The Virgin Suicides. Chalk it up to another book I put in my “should have read, but never got around to it” category.  I’d actually almost begun watching the movie, but I decided that perhaps I should read the book first instead.
What I’m Listening To: Illy Jilly from Philly, Ms. Jill Scott. I’m just really watching all of her videos and feeling a sense of empowerment as I take care of the rest of my chores for the evening.  Here is “Getting In the Way”:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiR6sU1igKM]
I hope you are having/had a fabulous Sunday!
The Hair Diaries
It seems like the articles on the subject of black hair have been coming out of the woodwork in the past few days. First, this article in the New York times titled “Skin Deep: Black Hair, Still Tangled in Politics” and then this article from Time magazine “Why Michelle’s Hair Matters”.  There are also some wonderful summaries of these articles over at Jezebel and Afrobella.
For me, these articles couldn’t have come at a better time. Not that there was any new information in the articles that I haven’t read before, but it was more about reinforcement.  I’ve been self-reflecting as I’ve been going through what can only be called a “hair slump” this summer. I’ve gone from wearing my hair in it’s natural state to having it straightened and back again, but truthfully, I don’t want to deal with it at all.   Right now, my hair is in it’s natural state, but I’m leaning towards going back to straightening it. See what I mean? And now I’m at the point where I woudn’t even mind doing a Solange and starting all over.
Learning to love every part of your of yourself can be difficult; and I’ve found that learning to love my hair unconditionally can be even more difficult.  I’m getting there, slowly but surely. And now, I no longer become upset when my hair doesn’t cooperate with me.  Looking at the picture above (this is before I “tamed” it a bit) , I’m starting to appreciate the thickness and the different textures. I’ve grown confident in wearing my hair in it’s natural state to work, fancy restaurants and during walks and not caring less if I get passing looks and glances on the street. I’ve stopped caring if my natural curl pattern isn’t as “defined” as I wanted it to be and I’ve stopped trying to find the miracle product to make it so. And I’ve stopped caring about what it means if I go back to straightening my hair vs. wearing it natural and what that might imply to others. It’s my own choice.
I’ll admit, it’s been a long journey so far and I still have a long way to go. I think for me, the most important thing is that I’ve learned acceptance.
My Instagram
