Instaweek 8.27

Happy Monday! I had quite an active week and weekend. Here's what I got into:

- I'm still on the Whole 30 grind. I had a couple of weekend snafoos, but I'm still going strong with my veggie omelettes (no cheese!) and my Jamba smoothies. The plan definitely gets easier as time passes.

- I took a trip to Forever 21 this weekend to start stocking up on trendy & budget-friendly pieces for fall. I stumbled on the dress above left and wasn't sure if I should take it home, so I didn't. Weigh in below if you think I should head back and get it.

- This past weekend, I had the pleasure of participating in a photoshoot with some of my favorite natural-haired gurus. Had SO much fun! Popular Youtube vlogger Taren Guy participated in the shoot as well. We spent the whole day after our shoot hanging at the Afropunk Festival in BK which was a blast!

Taken from Taren's Instagram (@TarenGuy)

There's only one official weekend left in summer - how sad is that? Let's make the most of this upcoming week folks! Tell me what's on your summer bucket list!

Flavor of Friday: Curlism & the Natural Hair "Movement"

Nope, you're not the only one who didn't realize 'curlism' was an actual word. I too was in the dark about the bitter controversy over what people are calling the natural hair "movement". Let me first declare that I, for one, didn't decide to let go of my relaxed hair back in 2006 because of any kind of movement going on. I did it because I joined an African dance troupe (shoutout to African Rhythms at UPENN) in college, had rigorous dance practice on a regular basis and couldn't deal with maintaining straight hair at Philly hairstylist prices.

Me, circa 2006 (First time natural since childhood)

 Anyway, fast forward 5 years later and everywhere you turn there are girls chopping off their relaxers and rocking their curls. Hell, even I decided (after regretfully relaxing it last year) to chop mine off again and start from scratch. I think it's great that there are so many resources out there now for people who want to do it. But I didn't realize there were SO many strong viewpoints about who could "rightfully" participate in this movement. Well, one of my fave Youtube vloggers Taren916 decided to make a thought-provoking video about the controversy. After a few followers told Taren she couldn't rightfully be part of the "movement" because she's of mixed race and has loose curls, she sounded off with her opinions:

I thought this was interesting to highlight because I know for a fact that you guys are a mixed audience. I'm grateful to have all of you as faithful blog readers - from dark & curly haired gals to blond bombshells with bone straight hair. And I'm curious to know your opinion on this. Should there be such a thing as CURL-ism? Like racism, it separates people based on a physical feature - the texture, shape and size of their CURLS. Can't we all just get along?