We Won! Baltimore PD Will Revise Controversial Portions of Appearance Policy

THE POLICY HAS BEEN RESCINDED!

We have to wait until January 15th for the new policy but the ban on natural styles is no longer valid. They have advised all senior officers NOT to enforce that part of the General Order. So… I am going to continue the petition until January 15th, just in case the wording of this “new” order is not to our satisfaction.

WHAT A GREAT START TO THE NEW YEAR!!!

Thank you from the Baltimore PD to all the people who have emailed, called, written letters and campaigned to right this wrong.

Nappy women get things DONE!!!

A very happy ~Dee~

Click here to review the entire discussion thread and stay updated on this issue on Nappturality.com. 

When Daddy Does Braids

Today, I found myself doing research to pull together sources that would help people transition from their processed hair to natural hair. It’s a topic that I’ve been procrastinating on because, quite frankly, there’s already sooooo many good resources out there that I don’t necessarily feel compelled to reinvent the wheel by writing an article from scratch.  

Anyway, while I was doing my research, I ran across this site called It’s All Good Hair, which promotes a book by the same name, written by journalist Michele Collison and talks about being style challenged and having to learn how to do her daughter’s hair. Also on the site, I ran across this cute short hair story entitled “When Daddy Does Hair.”

Here’s an excerpt:

But when I tried, the girls’ hair would never stay straight. It never looked neat and it was frizzy around the edges. All I had to do is show Kamaria a brush and she would start crying. One day I read an article about a braiding class at Prince Georges’ Community College and I signed up for the class. The class was full of beauticians who were trying to learn how to braid. So I was one of the slowest people in the class. But I don’t regret it all. I can’t do a lot of fancy styles, but I can do some simple plaits and some braids. Click here to read more…

Although some of the information on the site is out of date, it does list some additional print resources about nappy hair and also has a link to a photo gallery that sports some nappy hairstyles for kids. There is also a link that takes you to a list of retailers that where you can purchase the book It’s all Good Hair.
 

History of Cornrows

What a wonderful find. This website, The Transformation Geometry and Iteration in Cornrow Hairstyles, takes you through the history of cornrows as an ancient African artform that crossed the Atlantic with the slaves and somehow managed to survive to the present day.

  

There are a vast variety of traditional African styles, ranging from complex curves and spirals to the strictly linear composition of  this 1939 Dan style from Côte d’Ivoire. The date of this photo, 1939, helps remind us that cornrows were invented long before the civil rights era in the the United States.

The slide show is full of pictures and also provides a video tutorial on how do do cornrows. Now I’ll warn ya, the tutorial sucks. This site also attempts to show you how the patterns used to create the styles are based on mathmatical equations and such. Ok…I’m extremely math challenged so one look at the grid design softward, and it made me break out in hives. Well, not really but that’s just too complicated for me. Nevertheless, I think the history slide show is well worth a visit to the site. Enjoy!