I admit I'm slow to get to things, but I do get to them in the end. Sometimes the route I take is interesting as it is convoluted. Keep reading and you'll see what I mean.
I've been living in Scotland for just over 4 years now, and it's been hard for me to maintain my hair. When I lived in
Texas, my late mother found a black hairstylist where we lived in
Bedford who was practically on our doorstep.
I've been letting
Niameh Freeman of
Girty's Creations (now in Euless, TX) do my hair ever since.
Niameh has done my hair for over 10 years, and if I could've, I would've not only brought her along to Scotland to do my hair for my wedding, I would've paid for her visa and immigration. But I ain't
Oprah so I ain't got that kind of cash (not to mention it's too damn cold!). Don't worry. My mane was looking good on my special day :)
After arriving in Scotland, I did find a
Sally's Beauty Supply right next to
Glasgow Central Station that I could get to on my way to work. They have a tiny selection of black hair products, but tiny is better than none.
Approximately a year after I started working in Glasgow, I found the only person I've let style my hair and the only man (apart from my husband) allowed to touch it. And that's
Jerry at
Ten36 Hair Design.
So where am I going with this? you ask. Problem solved, right?
Yes...and no.
I can "manage" my own hair, but since I chemically straighten my hair, there comes a time when The Naps Strike Back. I like to get my hair professionally done to help me maintain my mane. When I lived in Texas, this was easy. But getting to Jerry in Glasgow ain't so easy. After commuting there everyday during the week, Glasgow is the last place I want to go to on my days off or on the weekend. Besides, if any of y'all are familiar with exchange rates--it ain't cheap when comparing dollars to pounds. I'll visit Jerry maybe every 6 months whereas I would visit Niameh 3 or 4 times a year.
I've been wanting, for a long time, to do something different with my hair where I wouldn't have to relax it so much, if at all. My mane doesn't look half bad after I wash it and let it air dry, it looks like Niameh's (see photo above), but if I try to pull that look off for more than one day, ain't nothing gonna cut through to my scalp short of a flamethower.
Way back in September...of 2008...I received a comment on my
Sistah in Scotland blog in response to my post,
"Black Hair...and other Scottish nightmares."
The comment was from
Mixed Chicks Believer. When I first read the comment, I nearly deleted it for spam because it sounds like a flat-out advertisement. You can read the comment
here.
But it didn't take me long to figure out that this is some good information, so I filed it away...for later.
OK, now fast forward
two years later to Sept/Oct 2010. The hubby and I were in Texas to go to the State Fair (more on that in a different post). I had also timed it so that my hair was ready for a touch up! Now, go look at the picture above. BTW, this photo was taken
after I had met
Drea and
CWB, so Drea saw my hair "pre-Niameh." That is to say, I wore it up that day. This was taken a few days after Niameh did my hair, and my hair was lookin'
foine.
Well, here it is over a month later, and while it's still lookin' good, I want to give my hair a break from relaxers and do something else, like wash 'n wear. And that's when I remember the
Mixed Chicks.
Actually, I tell a lie, but only partially. I was surfin' the 'Net doing some research on a future novel. I'll tell you now that it's going to be a historical, paranormal erotic romance where the heroine is descended from slaves bought to England.
I was doing some research on
Dido Elizabeth Belle...
...when I came across the following link:
http://www.intermix.org.uk/icons/icons_15_dido.aspAs you can see, this site has a lot of interesting info. I decided to "take a look around" and went to their Health & Beauty section and saw the article
"Mixed-Race Duo Make Perfect Combination." The article says they are still looking for a UK distributor...which reminded me of the comment about my post! I figured the article I just read was probably out of date--and it was--because
Mixed Chicks DO have retailers in the UK:
Mixed Chicks UK
http://www.mixedchicks.co.uk/index.phpI love the
instructional video. This mixed chick in the video (one of the founders) actually looks like someone in my family! But I doubt it.
http://www.mixedchicks.net/instructions.html
International Beauty Care is the one place close to me where I can buy retail if I don't do the Internet thang:
http://internationalbeautycare.co.uk/Anyhoo! I've just placed my order over the Internet and I'm waiting for it to arrive. Considering that Royal Mail is throwing ANOTHER postal strike (wankers!) I may be in for a long wait.
Nevertheless, I'll let y'all know if
Mixed Chicks works for me.
Zetta
http://www.zettabrown.com
