The Curly Girl Method

Ready for hair that's strong and healthy? Want to get rid of the damage in your hair? Its time for the Curly Girl Method! The Curly Girl method will give you a good start to leading your hair down the path of healthiness and happiness. Follow these steps to begin.

1. Shampoo your hair for the last time. This will cleanse your hair of products that are not water soluble.

2. Now that you cleansed your hair, throw that shampoo away!!! I know it sounds harsh but shampoos contain harmful chemicals that can strip your hair with continuous use. Shampoos also contain silicones that can cause drying and breakage to your hair. If you do decide to use shampoo make sure that it doesn't have any ingredients such as silicon  that can cause damage to your hair. Here are a list of a few ingredients to avoid.

3. Use a silicone free conditioner to co wash your hair. Co washing your hair consist of using a conditioner instead of a shampoo to cleanse your hair. This may seem like it will not clean your hair, but conditioner works just as well as shampoo and it is less damaging. Make sure you rub your scalp with your fingertips (not your nails) to loosen all the dirt. Then continue to rinse.

4. Trim your hair. This will get rid of any split ends you may have so your hair can start off on a clean slate. As your hair grows you can get regular trims every 6-8 weeks. Constantly cutting your hair is not a necessity.

5. Detangle your hair while wet. Detangling your hair while dry is not recommended for natural hair. Your hair is a lot more manageable when it is damp or wet. You could also use a lot of conditioner in your hair prior to detangling. Make sure you use a wide tooth comb as opposed to a comb with smaller teeth.

6. Dry your hair with a old t-shirt, paper towels or microfiber towel. Do not rub your hair, pat dry it or scrunch your hair until dry. This is called plopping. Rubbing your hair with a generic towel will make it frizzy.

7. Moisturize your hair to protect it from dryness. A good method for this is the LOC method explained here.

8. Before styling your hair, make sure your products of harmful ingredients such as the ones in step one. Do research and see what other products could harm or help your hair. Research is an important step in the Curly Girl Method.

The Curly girl method is no easy task. Input time and effort and your output would be hair that screams “Love You”. Comment Below some tips you use for the Curly Girl Method.

Long Hair and Prosper,

Asia

She's Just Being Miley

By Jillian Mills

Should we accept Miley as a strong, feminist, independent icon for the women of today? Or should we be alarmed by her behavior? Miley Cyrus's transformation from teen pop-star, to an explicit and vulgar artist has caused an uproar in the media. Some may even say that Miley is a bad role model because she has acted out of character, compared to old Hannah Montana. Is this form of self liberation an act of rebellious independence, or is it an attempt to form a new identity? Whatever it is, Miley is putting on quite the show for her viewers.

In my opinion, Miley is using her sexuality to gain power in the media, since 'any press is good press,' but unknowingly, she is conforming to a patriarchal standard called enlightened sexism. Enlightened sexism is the male dominated belief that feminism has already happened, and that the media is free to exploit the female body once again -- inoffensively. By agreeing to this belief, and using her body and sexuality as a tool for power, Miley Cyrus is perpetuating enlightened sexism.

So although Miley is creating a new identity for herself, she is harming the consumers and women of today. Miley is normalizing and justifying the acts of enlightened sexism. Contrary to some hegemonic beliefs, feminism is has not completed their mission. Women are still not equal to men, and there is still a fight for equal rights that needs to be fought! Miley Cyrus is not a strong, feminist icon. Instead, she is hurting the work of feminism, in order to gain personal power

What's Miley Got To Do with it?

By Katherine Irene

I was totally indifferent to Miley’s VMA performance just because I never watched it on TV, and only heard about it through word of mouth afterwards. It wasn’t until we started this project that I really got more in depth with this issue and began to see how problematic this ‘new Miley’ really is. And the more and more we talked about it, the more we realized that it isn’t just Miley, either. It’s every single female pop star we see in popular music, and beyond. It’s systemic patriarchy, and most of us (myself included) don’t even realize it.

Female sexuality has become so normalized in society that we think it’s strange when a female singer or performer doesn’t dress sexually or acts provocatively, and we can see that reflected in the amount of albums sold for individual artists. For women in the media today, sexuality is a commodity, and must be sold for publicity and success. Yes, people were offended by Miley’s performance, and it was Miley’s—not Robin Thicke’s—name that was plastered all over the media following that performance. But all press is good press, right? There was certainly more buzz about her album after the performance.

Slut-shaming Miley or any other female pop star that acts provocatively only perpetuates the misogyny we see today in our media. It isn’t the fault of any individual, but rather an entire system that women must work within in order to be successful. But changing a system requires that everyone be aware of said system, and I don’t think we’ve reached that point in time yet. So my solution for now is to notice it! Notice these women’s behavior and question where it’s coming from. Would these pop stars choose to act and dress like this without the existence of this patriarchal system? We may never know the real answer.

Women in Pop Culture Degrading or Empowering?: Introduction

Women have always been portrayed in the media as provocative and sexy especially in the entertainment industry. Some people call it empowering others call it smut. Me and two associates Jill and Kathryn have recently did a project on women in the media, we especially focused on Miley Cyrus since she has recently began to find her self.
We also compared her to Beyonce since she is known as a role model to many people. The following three post are our opinion pieces on the issue.

Miley Cyrus and Beyonce: Feminist? Role Models for Women?

By Asia bka 7adyinred

Do I think Miley Cyrus is a feminist? Do I think Beyonce is a feminist? I think they both are. Anyone can be a feminist. Now the issue I see is neither of these women are role models for younger girls. Now most people would at least think Beyonce is a role model, but i do not agree. Both women have worn clothing that I would not want a young girl wearing, they both either have songs about things I don’t want anyone underage singing and both women have to much “sex appeal”  for young women. I think women my age can enjoy them without trying to be like them, but I wouldn't want any of the girls I mentor to follow in Beyonce or Miley Cyrus’s example.

Both these women can be empowering as feminist in the way that they are not letting society dictate what they deem as appropriate or inappropriate. This is fine I am happy for them but I feel like women are already objectified enough especially women of color. Women of color have historically always had the Jezebel stereotype. Sarah Batman was one of the first women of colored to depicted as a sexual being for others pleasure. I feel that when people have this misinterpretation of women of color it creates images to match these stereotypes. This is not ok.

As far as who is responsible for making sure these images to not impact young girls/ women in a negative way I believe it is a community. I say this because not everyone has a parent or guradian. It takes a village to raise a child. Teachers, mentors, older siblings should help raise children. I think anyone can be a good role model in their community, and should help girls feel empowered.

All and all I love both Beyonce and Miley Cyrus music. I just can’t see myself trying to be an image of them or telling my mentees they're good role models. I would help my mentees understand that these are not women I feel they should idolize. It is a communities job to raise a child, so if you are interested in mentoring or empowering women I have listed a few groups below.

Black Girls Rock
Girls Inc.
Big Brothers, Big Sisters
Heart to Heart Girls mentoring program
Divine Images Networking Inc,
Church Girlz with Curlz
The She is Project

If you have any to add please feel free to leave a comment. or if you have some discussion for the post leave a comment as well.