Moment of Transparency

Daily dose of motivation

SimplyCare.

I began this journey skeptically. Excited and enthusiastic, but extremely skeptical. I felt as if I was entirely too late to bring myself into the natural hair community. So I sat on the idea, for about two years. Every now and again I would think about starting, but never did. Then a year ago I began this blog as a means of saying " Ok self, I am going to do this.

It's time" I threw myself into blogging and to introducing myself to the natural hair community. It was great. I had things that I wanted to achieve and ideas for this company.

The thing is my foundation was shaky, so as I would climb and progress things began to get a little wobbly. A foundation built on skepticism and "I think I can do this" is like eating soup with a fork. You're not really going to get anywhere. I felt that this market was so oversaturated I didn't know if there would be room for one more.

I began to drift away from blogging and I would touch base on twitter every now again. There were a lot of things going on in the natural hair community that I just was not a fan of. I began to think, do I really want to be apart of this. I am such a creative person and hair was beginning to take over my life. So much so that I began to do less of other things because I was so wrapped up. So I stopped.

I thought when I stopped that maybe I would start picking up other things, which I did. Honestly, not like I should have though. That was a big issue with me feeling like in order to succeed at one thing, I could only concentrate on just that. I saw my artistic side falling behind and I did not approve. What I didn't understand was why, because I had great ways to merge art and hair with SimplyCare, but it never left my notebook or my sketchbooks.

I became too much of a thinker, too much planning and not enough action. My boyfriend told me that I have too many great ideas and that I just need to do them. Sometimes I spend so much time
thinking about the whys, hows, and whats that I never really get anywhere.

Work. Beast Mode. Grind Time. Just Do It.

I was beginning to just go in circles.. new idea, plan, didn't execute, new idea, plan, didn't execute...

I began to think about SimplyCare and it's future. I didn't really see it going anywhere. I felt like as a brand it was stuck in the mud. It didn't stand out like it should, it didn't really show my creative capacity.

I wasn't happy with two of the things in my life that are supposed to make me the happiest.

So even though I blogged a couple of times here, I decided to concentrate of picking up the pieces on the art side of things. I went over to my personal art portfolio website and I was just completely disgusted. I said "Self, why did I think that this ever looked good ?" I completely trashed the old design and started from scratch.

I came up with an awesome new way to brand myself, bought the domain name and stayed up all night redesigning my website. I kept on working on it throughout that week as well.

The finished product ? www.thisartistworks.com

This artist works ? Check!

I am completely in love. I was so proud of myself. I had an idea and I executed it from start to finish. No breaks, no "I'll come to this later's".. Just plain beast mode work. This really helped to re-center my equilibrium. I now had a new home for my artwork. Plus a brand new space for something else that I am cooking up! Let's just say it is the perfect marriage of hair and art.

I feel myself less stressed now. Once I did this, I definitely knew that rebranding SimplyCare was the
right thing to do. I decided that I needed to do a complete overhaul. From the rooter to the tooter. I began to look at my brand and what needed to be done to revitalize it. I began doing research, reading, and brainstorming ways to bring my brand back to life.

How it all began.

I can't really explain how except the feeling you get when you do something so important to you that it validates the reasoning for other changes. Does that make
sense? I hope it does. While  reading Tory Johnson's book Spark and Hustle, this one sentence put it all into perspective for me. "Like yours, my businesses aren't exempt from competition. There's no shortage of books on small business, but you're reading this one." So simpl and so powerful. This statement  really gave me the extra boost that I needed.

On my book list and also my mantra.

There's definitely no shortage of personal and hair care companies, natural hair based or not. Yet, you're reading this blog, you're interested in what I have to say. So the same goes for my products. There are too many heads in this world(7 billion I believe) and probably 3x that amount of cosmetics companies. Maybe I'm exaggerating but new companies are sprouting up every day!


Rebranding SimplyCare and reworking my personal art site was really weighing on me and I had no idea.  I feel such a huge relief.

Rebuilding my foundation starting with a rebranding. I feel stronger already.


So on April 20, 2013 I will introduce you to Native Love. A place where I intend to pamper your hair and body while enriching your mind. Artistic and educational. It's more than just hair.

Thanks for sticking me with this long.

You Mad Bro ?

Quick question. 

Where did this hate all stem from?

How come we began to hate and degrade certain ingredients and or products ? Was there proper research and review involved, or was it just following a new natural trend? (Which leads me to another question, How natural is natural ? Ah, another blog post for another day.)

Well, maybe hate is a strong word. There is definitely a strong negative emotion to what goes into a product and how it will affect our skin, hair, and health.

When did we all become so enlightened. Who is driving this Ban on Certain Ingredients Bus?

BOCI Bus ! Are you on the right Bus ?

Where were you when you first read that you should NOT be using silicones in your products ?

How did you feel when you turned a product onto its back while standing in the middle of product junkie heaven and parabens or minerals screamed out as you skim the ingredients.

HOT POTATO, you slap that big bad product back onto the shelf before someone sees you and thinks you don't care about ANYTHING, ever in life.


You know that feeling when you've felt so negatively about something for so long you forget what originally caused the rift ?

Well if not now, maybe you will after we get through with this series.

I seriously want to know what the big deal is. I need to know the who's, what's, when's, where's, why's and how's to my question.

Quick Question. What is all the fuss about ?

Our Big List of No-No's 
1. Silicones
2. Parabens
3. Sulfates
4. Petrolatum
5. Mineral Oil
6. Alcohol
7. Lanolin

 Well, let's dive in and school ourselves. We're going to get to the bottom of these and see which one really does huff and puff and blow our house in.

Pencils up ! 

We're tackling Silicones first !

So, You Want To Go Natural... A Series.

So, you've decided to go natural... now what ?

What is the next step ?

What are some things you should know ?

What are some items that you might need ?

How do you take care of this hair ?

Where can you can go for inspiration, guidance, tips, tutorials, advice, reassurance ?

Look no further ! I present to you a long overdue series to answer any questions or concerns you might have!

This is a big step that you have decided to take, so hat's off to you for beginning a new journey.

One of the first things when going natural is deciding whether or not you will do the Big Chop (BC) or journey through a Transition first then a Chop.

Transitioning Hair

Big Choppin' and fabulous !

 A well known stylist has stated that any transition lasting longer than 6 months is just encouraging breakage. Although there are plenty of people who have completed transitions as long as two years. Some may have had breakage, some might have not. In my own personal opinion, I feel that a transition should last around 6-8 months for a few reasons.

1. 6-8 months of transitioning gives natural hair time to grow out if one isn't  comfortable with a TWA or even a medium TWA.

 

 

Beautiful transition !

2. Dealing with two or more textures for longer than that time frame may bring about stress and frustration. All of that frustration is stemming from dealing with the straight permed ends and the coily roots. These feelings of frustration, disappointment and stress could cause a transitioner to make the decision to relax again.

3. Opting for a short term transition could help to avoid the "relapse". (Deciding to cut your journey to natural short and reach for a relaxer.)

Although styling options are not limited for longer transitional periods, sometimes they might look different on relaxed/natural transitioner than on a head of a full natural. Sometimes that leads to discouragement or more frustration. This only reinforces why when transitioning, opt for a shorter timeframe.

I believe that one needs to learn what their natural hair needs to thrive instead of having to worry about how to match those relaxed ends with your fluffy natural hair. Learning with your hair as it grows and playing in it is a great way to educate yourself. There could be a case of getting fed up with those stringy ends around ruining the frolicious party. They aren't really welcome in the first place, so give them the axe !

Tamiko is so gorgeous !!

Once that decision is made, it's really half of the battle!

Some things that you; the transitioner (and newly natural) should know is that this is a journey and should be treated as such. It's not a race, it's a marathon, so please pace yourself accordingly and drink plenty of water.

You should also know while it's okay to love another natural's curls/coils/kinks, it's not okay to covet them. Be in love with your hair ! It's your crowning glory, especially made for you.

Still a little confused about Transitioning and the all too feared Big Chop ? It's cool, I'm going to break it down for you in the upcoming posts !

Have any questions?

 Leave them below and I will do my best to answer you ! 

Fan Big Chop Photos

*(I would like to say THANK YOU to all of your for being so patient with me! I apologize for my lack of posting!) *