AMAA 2012 - The Event

The Red Carpet was supposed to start at 5PM and the awards at 7PM. We reckoned that since we did not plan to walk the red carpet (would we even be allowed to?) we would get there in time to be seated before the awards began. As my cousin and I bade farewell to my parents, my Dad yelled "Walk the red carpet o!" Daddy really?

We picked up a friend and headed to the venue. It was about 6:10PM when we got there. Another cousin joined us there. That was the Cookie Crew! My plan was to find a few natural haired women, interview them and go inside for the show. When we got there, the other half of the red carpet was just being rolled out! Literally! Then a guy announced "The Red Carpet is officially open!" And so it dawned on us that it was going to be a long night! The Red Carpet must have lasted three and a half hours because the award show did not start until about 9:30PM. WTH! *Yeah, that's what I thought!*

Left of the picture: The red carpet is being rolled out. Osarieme (my cousin) does not seem impressed

I turned on my Napp radar and went to work. My Osarieme and Irene (my friend) went star hunting. Ebele (other cousin) and Nosa (my Bro) hung out looking cool. The Celebrities we saw were really gracious I must say. They took time to shake hands when we stretched them out. They posed for pictures with us and they also said "thank you" when we were done. I was / am really impressed. All this while we were outside the venue. The bottom of the red carpet was really crowded and you could not tell the celebrities from the journalists and the fans.

Who is the Celebrity and who is the Fan? Everyone is on the red carpet!

We finally got into the venue after passing 4, count them, F-O-U-R security points. The fourth and final one was at the door to the hall. That part was kind of funny. Only one door was left open creating a bottle neck. I guess when people saw this they thought that seats were full in the hall and so folks started pushing to get through. And some celebrities started sneaking in people without tickets! Ha! Ha! Comedy o! One lady announced before going in "I beg I be married woman o make nobody press my body!" With that, people gave her some space, she went in and they started pushing in again. We got in and saw the hall was not near full. SMH.

The stage was nicely done. The hall was nicely decorated. The sound quality was good. Food and drinks were available for purchase which was a good idea. You sure do not want a hall full of hungry (and angry) people! We did not stay till the end of the show because some of us had work on Monday. We saw Yinka Davis perform: she is superb I tell you! We also saw some awards presented and we left there just after 11PM. They really need to work on better time management and that is all I will say on that matter.

For the most part, it was not bad. I hope the organizers are people who aim for excellence. If they are, then next year will be better. If not then ... Next few posts will feature some of the natural haired ladies I interviewed. Enjoy the pictures.

Mai Atafo of Mai Atafo Inspired and Fashion Editor for Genevieve Magazine

L-R: Irene (my friend), Eku Edewor of Studio 53, Osarieme (my cousin)

L-R: Cousin Ebele, Irene and Osarieme (The Cookie Crew. Don't ask)

My Bro (Nosa) and I

Segun Arinze being interviewed and I think he was "The Voice" for the awards

Ireti Osayemi-Bakare

Gbenro Ajibade who plays Soji on the show Tinsel

L-R: Osarieme, Tee Mac and Irene

Osarieme and Tomi Odunsi who plays Shalewa on the show Tinsel

Abiola Atanda also known as Madam Kofo and her signature Gele (headpiece)

Chinedu Ikedieze (aka Aki)

Uche Jombo

Lydia Forson. Our napp radars went off at the same time and she gave me the peace sign. I fainted then woke up to take this picture. She is so cool!

 Keep it natural!

Omozo

Antonyms of A Mirage: A book by African Naturalista

Atilola Moronfolu aka African Naturalista has published her book! Yay! This is a big deal because she is one of the natural hair bloggers based in Nigeria. Although the book is not about natural hair she reps it on the cover. Check out her blog for more details on how to purchase a copy.

Keep it natural!

Omozo

AMAA 2012 - The Beginning

After jumping up and down and screaming, I composed myself and started wondering what to wear. Most importantly: how am I going to style my hair? I had just been told that I got free tickets to attend the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). Yeah I know it is not the Oscars, so say what you like o, me I was psyched.

My ticket: "Regular Single" means we sat up, up (Nose bleeds section LOL)

Of course I was going to use the opportunity to go Napp hunting! I was interested to see how many other natural haired women I would encounter at the event. Surely after Viola Davis rocked the red carpet at the Oscars with her TWA (Teeny Weeny Afro), I could expect to see some natural haired ladies rocking it at the AMAAs. The next post will talk about that - right now it is about my hair.

I decided on a textured afro. Hmmm! What is that right? It is either a twist-out or braid-out or coil-out or Bantu knot-out that is styled into an afro. So it is not your regular normal afro. I dampened my hair with some water and twisted my hair in chunky twists. I used gel for hold: I knew that I was going to be moving about and would probably sweat so I wanted to get maximum hold and longevity and definition. I also put Bantu knots on the tips of each twist so that my ends would curl up a bit. Check out this blog post for more details. I did all this the night before and planned to take out the twists only when I was ready to dress up for the event. 24 hours should be enough time for my hair to dry and set.

Chunky twists with Bantu knots at the tips

Time to get ready! I took out the twist and quite liked the way my hair turned out. The definition was nice. I brushed in one side and was ready to go.

Some texture accomplished and my ends were curled and not straight.

Smile of satisfaction

Look ehn Lagos can be hot and humid even at night! Within about 2 hours my definition was puffing out and my textured 'Fro was turning into a "not-so-textured-fro". I mean come on! *frustrated tone here* What must I do to keep definition in this Lagos? Maybe I should have done smaller twists: not micro but smaller. Maybe I should have picked out the Afro more so that it was bigger and would have shrunk instead of loosing the definition. Thoughts.

So here is what my hair looked like at the end of the night. Trust me, that ain't no textured 'Fro! But one of the awesome things about being natural is that anything can be turned into a hairstyle. It was the not-so-textured 'Fro that got the most compliments! Figure that one out! *Cheesing*

Left: Textured 'Fro at the beginning. Right: Cousin of the textured 'Fro at the end

Keep it natural!

Omozo

Stretching Hair - Threading technique

So let's talk about using thread to stretch out natural hair. We have a blog post on using it as a hairstyle: read it here. Some people call this technique "African threading" or "Ghana Braiding or Plaits", some call it "Nywele" (which is Swahili for "hair"). In twi, it's called "Engina-gina hc" (not sure how you pronounce it). And it is called "Irun kiko" in Yoruba. The Damn Salon in Atlanta promotes threading as a "100% heatless way to stretch natural hair". You can use Chinese thread or sewing thread or thread used for weaves for this.

The length of time it will take you to thread your whole head will depend on the length of your hair, the number of sections you want to do, and whether you will be wrapping each section completely with thread or leaving spaces as you wrap the section. Your sections will look sort of like twists if you leave spaces as you wrap your hair.

Threaded hair with spaces making it look like twists. Picture from Cherish My Daughter blog

Threaded hair with sections fully wrapped

Using thread is quite simple actually. It is, of course, best practice to put leave-in conditioner on your hair and properly seal with oil or butter of your choice and detangle your hair properly before threading it. Do not use too much oil or butter because it will make your hair slippery which can affect your threading process. You can thread wet or dry hair. You will have to experiment to see whether dry or wet threading works for your hair. Remember that you still have to handle your hair carefully whether threading wet or dry hair.

So how is it done? I think it is better to see it being done than to write about it. So here are some videos showing you how it is done.

The more you use this technique the better at it you will become. So do not be discouraged if it takes longer when you do it for the first time. We would love to see and post pictures of your hair before stretching and your hair after stretching with thread. Please send pictures to onaturals@gmail.com. Many thanks!

Right side shows before using thread to stretch hair and Left side shows after. Picture from Naturallycurly

Keep it natural!

Omozo

Eki celebrates 2 years of being natural

We interviewed Eki here. If you check out the interview, you will see that she started with a small TWA (Teeny Weeny Afro). She has been natural for 2 years this April and we are joining in the celebration by showcasing this awesome twist-out she did recently. Check out more pictures and details on her blog ore meji. For all you newbies out there, take heart and be encouraged. You will get there so keep practicing healthy hair care principles. Check out our various healthy hair care blog posts here, here and here. Enjoy!

Keep it natural!

Omozo