#CORNROWS ARE HARD TO DRAW IN MY STYLE

[milkfroggo]

2-3-25!

Ticid hairstyle changes, as a treat.

[tetraandtheapples]

Quickie Template doodle?????? Got bored halfway so his clothes don't have the same colouring style as his face/hair LMAO

This was my attempt at drawing cornrows first time.......... Ehgh???? Ehh?????????? My issue halfway was that he looked kinda bald but now I'm a bit.... he looks too hairy HEHAHAHA

Based on my discussion with @fishfrypi about Template's hair....... He was the one to first bring up Cornrows and I fell in love guh...... Template's whole deal is that he tries way too hard to NOT be like Error so I think while Error would have wild and crazy afro-ish/dreads maybe (undecided) (hobo core) Template would have this to keep his hair somewhat contained.... (I like to imagine especially whenever Errors get mad/emotionally strong their hair puffs up like static electricity..... This is also a way for Template to keep his hair tucked down LMAO)

Guhhhgh I have a lot more to say so guhhh below the cut.......

Oh yeah. Oh yeah that's right you pressed READ MORE I guess somepony wants to hear about my hair head canons. Head. Like head of hair? Haha geddit??? anyways

INK

Erm so I did actually draw him but I'm not very confident in bald people yet. Anyways spoiler alert he's bald..... More specifically Alopecia Universalis

Yeagh guh..... I think he would wear out a lot of wigs because of this and draw on eyebrows and such. He's never wearing the same wig two days in a row and is always experimenting..... Little creature. They're my favourite.

I think he would wear all kinds of wigs!!! Bright & Bold vs Normal and inconspicuous... depends on how he's feeling!!! Hair is very much an expression of oneself, and Ink has some issues with that I think..... He's a bit disconnected from reality in a way, literally viewing everyone around him as "fictional characters." (I am NOT letting people forget this factoid it's literally my favourite thing about him. I love you Ink)

I think he changes a lot about himself depending on who he's talking to, minus possibly Error who he goes and harasses with all of his weirdness LMAO. And I think the wigs are a way of representing that almost!!! He's an ever changing ball of goo.

Also. The reason why Alopecia Universalis and not just general baldness.... His eyebrows. No hair. He has to draw them on. Eyebrows are probably the main visual way we communicate emotions. Ink has emotion issues. Yeah. I want to kill him too.

DREAMTALE TWINS

Yeah this is going in no particular order just how they pop up in my mind. Also lumping these two together for reasons that shall be explored in a minute.....

These two! My favourites. Twins twins twins..... I love to see them as identical so their hair shall be, too.

I imagine their hair would be brown and a bit curly/wavy..... Trust the process gamers.....

These queens make it seem like their hair is much more clean than it is but no it's probably very dirty covered in twigs and shit. Tree boys.

I'm stuck between how long it should be.... Since they're very young I imagine not that long... But as they get older and Dream and Nightmare drift apart, maybe their hair length changes/differs?

Dream with the villagers gets imposed with male hair standards so it gets cut short, meanwhile Nightmare is neglected (nobody touching stinky demon hair!) and his hair is left to grow long........ More difference in their hair shows their widening relationship oooooooh writing!!!!! Metaphor alert! Metaphor alert! SOS! SOS!

DREAM & SWAN

So yeah uh blatantly stealing the hair apple magic thing from This Post. Because it's a cool concept!!!!!!!!! What the hell!!!!!!!!!! They're my favourites!!!!!!!!

So I think Dream and Swan's hair would look very similar.... With possibly streaks of golden blonde/black respectively. Maybe if you were to really, really compare Swan's hair would be a bit more straight and Dream's more bouncy/curly. (I know I've drawn Swan with total pitch black hair before. But. That was then.... This is the Future....)

And length is where I stumble a bit again!!!!! Because I am. Quite literally obsessed with the idea of Positivity representing stasis/tranquility vs Negativity representing momentum/drive towards change (Both of which are important for a healthy individual!!! I think I should say this.)

However I really really want Swan to have long hair vs Dream having shorter hair. Remnants from their upbringing maybe?

But for Swan is seems less practical to be running around with a whole set of hair... I imagine it would be especially easy for Swad to swoop in and nap him by it, which makes even less sense for him to have it around.... guh

When I do draw him with longer hair I love to image he plats it like so. Keeps it all tucked away under his hood so no Bird man can come in and yoink him away (and leave an obvious patch of burnt hair where he touched it LMAO)

Dream having shorter hair at least makes a little sense in my view.... He keeps it short because its what he's used to... But I also really love the idea of him growing it longer in remembrance of Nightmare and their shared history. He's definitely not as crazy as Swad is about living Dreamtale again! And knows logically that he would never want to subject Night to the abuse that went on behind the scenes..... But he would still like to have his brother back to reconnect and to try and make up for all of it.

Probably something like this?? But more messy?????? Dream to me would seem like a very clean guy but actually is very disorganised and messy. He would roll around in dirt for fun if he could.

So I'm very stuck on their length..... Need to think about it some more. As for facial hair, I do like to think of the twins as generally clean shaven? Not that they shave per say but just don't grow facial hair LOL..... I am definitely not opposed to bearded twins though, I just need to see a beard design I actually like for them before I go fluffing them up HEHAHA.

Hmmm now that I'm actually seeing the hair styles I can actually see Swan wearing the short hair vs Dream with the long...... Maybe I just needed an image guh HEHEHEHE

SWAD

Swad..... My beloved...... My precious..... YOU'RE MY FAVOURITE did you know.

Swad hair I imagine is long as...... However in contrast to Dream's brown-golden hair it's just straight up pure blonde.... Glowing a little, too!!! Hell, I imagine it even floats a little around his shoulders like an aura, or halo of some kind.... ethereal LMAO (I could imagine him maybe with a few brown tips like his original hair colour, but they'd be very unnoticeable..... Maybe when the hair falls out it turns back into it's original colour gehehe)

This is where the twins' hair texture comes in a bit. Because I imagine apple transformative character design magic not just altering the hair colour, but also texture.... Where his hair was once maybe wavy, it's now fully curly.

I also like to imagine his hair is very very frizzy and heat damaged due to his general core temperature being off the charts.... It all curls around him, framing his face (egotist i hate him)

I don't view Swad as somebody who takes care of himself very well. He cares about his appearance, sure, but when actually practicing self care, he's kinda actually the worst.... HEHAHA. He lets his hair grow all long but that's okay because it all floats around him anyway. He doesn't wash it, but that's okay too because any bugs that try to inhabit his scalp instantly combust upon entering a 1m radius HEHAHA. I would be a little worried about sebum, but it's hard to tell.......

Reddit says not to try and evaporate the oils but only because it'll cause heat damage to your hair and skin.... Which wouldn't affect Sol in the first place HEHAHA (hottie!!) So it's hard to say really. Even if his hair was really oily I don't think it would be that noticeable, his hair already shines with or without oil HEHEHE.

NIGHTMARE

Nightmare. Now THIS One. He's my favourite.

Opposite of Swad time baby...... Where the twins' hair was kinda wavy, Swad's is more curly, Nightmare is dead straight..... Like a cloak.

I don't think it even behaves like hair anymore really. You could separate it, but it acts more like a cloak or window blind than actual hair. It sticks all together because of the slime.... Slimey man... His hair is literally "depressed" and flat lol

Like these two images, but DEFINITELY not as shiny...... It's very dull/matte, could definitely camouflage into the darkness/shadows if you didn't know what to expect. As dark and black as you can get with hair.

It's always Dreamtale where I get stuck on long vs short..... On one hand I think long would come a lot more naturally to Nightmare's whole design.... It makes him look less humanoid almost, hiding his form... On the other though, character-wise I could see him cutting it shorter.

I always thought of Nightmare Dreamtale to be a lot more.... royalty oriented than the others. Swad perceives himself as a God, sure, but Nightmare I think need to do little things to make himself feel better/"prove" he is in control of his life.... Him actually cutting it shorter in contrast to how he had his hair longer when he was younger (more weak and pathetic)..... I think it would be neat!!!! But sigh. ilu nightmare

KILLER (Honourable Mention)

Killer. My favourite of them all!!!!!

Okay this one is an honourable mention because I had. absolutely zero opinions about Killer's hair. Until. UNTIL.

Cowsmilkzz's design. Oh my god.

Oh my god

OH MY GOD

Absolute no notes. This is stunning. Killer skinhead was not something I knew I needed until I saw it....... I feel like if I saw Killer walking down the street coming in my direction I SHOULD feel the need to cross to the other side. Please go away. I don't wanna be mugged/murdered. Especially the face tattoo there are absolute no notes. A+++++

They seem to be more active on Insta so like please please pretty please. Go to their Insta and follow them there........ They post other humanoid skeleton art I'm absolutely in love with it's so cool. (I'm decently certain they've got one slot open for a commission!!!!! Wink wink nudge nudge) https://www.instagram.com/cowsmilkzz/ https://www.instagram.com/cowsmilkzz/ https://www.instagram.com/cowsmilkzz/

And yeagh guh. That's all folks........

By the by if you love hair (autism) as much as I do please consider checking out "Sister, dear" by honey_bubbletea33 on Ao3!!! Fem human versions of the characters and it's amazing. I loved it. 10/10 read absolutely worth your time

[bugcartoons]

HEADCANNON FOR DNDADS SEASON 1!!!!!

(I will draw these eventually, but art college is just kicking my butt really hard rn, like my classes are fucking me up fr fr)

The longer the Oak boys are in the forgotten realms the pointer their ears get cause they are half elf and it starts to come through the more they learn about magic

Mercedes is also from the forgotten realms. It was an arranged marriage that Barry Oak still somehow managed to force but jokes on him, they are literally perfect together

Lark gets his spells from his dad and Sparrow gets his spells from his mom. Its like a genetic thing for what spell types you are inherently best at

Samantha and Mercades are like besties, both boho vibes with their arsthetics. Henry also (platonically) loves Samantha because Henry is a crystal girly at heart because of his wife but he wont admit it

The children all start the series in the same fit, aka their soccer uniform, but as soon as they get sold off they get different fits that match with where they end up in the world

Morgan is RIPPED. Like, biker girl, all leather, spikes, big red hair.

Glenn gets in a lot of fights at his mall gigs but Morgan would end them

Samantha will happily pick up Ron and he LOVES it. It makes him feel cared for and loved

Lark and Sparrow teach spanish to the other kids so they can yell cuss words on the field when there was a bad move or a bs ref call and not get in as much trouble

The kids are all actually really good friends but Grant and Terry Jr are def the closest

Everyone knew Grant liked boys years before Grant knew

Carol is such a business woman it isnt even funny. Slick back platnum pony, the blazers and pencil skirts with the office heals and a pair of really hot glasses??? Yeah 100%. She also had bright red lipstick and the sharpest eyeliner with those laminated eyebrows AND she also has pointy acrylics that are done every other week. She ALWAYS looks perfect and genuienly commands so much respect in the office she works in

Carol is a huge stickler for no shoes in the house BUT you also have to wear house slippers if you walk anywhere inside

Carol would be vegan if Darryl wasnt the main person that cooked meals but she loves him and knows he loves his smoker and grill so she happily goes along with it cause she likes seeing her husband happy

I know there are so many Carol ones rn but one more, she never cheated on Darryl. It was so heavily implied that she did with Darnel(?) but she never went through with it because she realized she loved her husband more then she thought right as she was about to cheat

Every now and again Grant will leave his videogames to help Darryl cook dinner. It is such a special thing to Darryl and those moments are usually when they both open up to each other

Terry Jr does a lot of different styles with his hair. Grant has asked about it before since he has curly hair and Terry Jr tried to teach him how to take care of twists, cornrows, dreads or literally just whatever style he has in the moment but since Grant doesnt have the same type of hair he just ends up getting confused

Grant tries really really hard to learn tho because he can see that Terry really trusts him with it and he wants to make his friend proud/happy cause it would make him feel proud/happy too

Funny enough Samantha also tries to teach Ron how to do her hair (Terry Jr learned that letting someone else do your hair is a sign of trust from his mom). Ron actually is a quick learner and eventually it just becomes their daily routien where he helps her with her hair

Darryl has curly hair

This might just be an opinion but Glenn is the most caring dad of the group by a lot

Rom cried when he found out he was gonna have a grandaughter

Glenn happily chills with Jodie in hell when Nick is with his mom

Glenn and Jodie dont really hate each other anymore. They pretend to hate each other a lot but are perfectly fine hanging out together considering how much they do it

One more lol, Glenn and Jodie are so dramatic for no reason. Literal theater kids without being theater kids

[e-adlirez]

If you had to change all the the Thea Sisters' hairstyles such that they will appear in the ones you chose for the rest of the series, what styles would you change them to? (No this is totally not me trying to see more art from you even though I love it what are you talking about haha-)

I mean if you really wanted me to draw you could've just given me a request FHSFSFOSHPFS /lh /j

This is a very difficult challenge in more ways than one-- I mainly identify the girls through their hair, I'm not that good at fashion and hair design (doesn't help their current styles fit so well already character-wise -m-), and I do like their hairstyles as they are hahaha-- but just because it's hard for me doesn't mean I won't give it the old college try >:3

OKAY SO let's go through this in uhhhhh order of which I made them, why not :3

So with Nicky and most of the other girls, I went with two options, and with Nicky I went with these two: a pixie cut so that pesky hair is just too short to be a problem, or literally my hairstyle on the regular at home. Seriously, I took a picture of myself in the mirror to get a ref, and I have my hair done up like this right now haha. It's very practical, which is very Nicky! Nicky's whole fashion sense is defined by the notion of "if I can't have a morning run with this style then what's the point", so Colette would probably rip her a new one for keeping her hair up like that all the time of all ways she could have it up. Which Nicky would probably find a win in her book :3

Violet is pretty, she is grace, and she likes to slay in a subtle way <3 honestly I just looked at typical hairstyles in modern Chinese culture (ya'll don't understand it's a very particular aesthetic flavor), and I found some I felt were elegant, refined, and understated enough for Violet to consider. The one to the left is just a stereotypical hairstyle for a Chinese woman in her prime, very luscious locks, very well-groomed, my mom had something like it for a while and she slayed <3

The second one is a bit newer-- it's based on the iconic C-drama half-up-half-down topknot, and probably would be heaven for people with thick hair who don't wanna put it totally up. I dunno, I think it's a neat idea, but I just love her canon fringe cut too much </3

Paulina's was tricky to research, because not only did I like her simple braid, but also because Peruvian women just love their braids! If anything they loved them so much that Paulina's looked so bare bones in comparison-- colored threads, ribbons, little bobbles at the end-- so much color and decorations! I didn't go overboard with it since Paulina would still prioritize comfort and her shy ass not wanting too much attention (/aff), but y'know sometimes loving yourself is adding some colorful ribbons and cute knotted threads into your braids <:]

(Important thing to note here, these braids are more suited to being draped behind the back rather than on the shoulders-- it was tricky conveying that in a short amount of time haha)

Colette follows fashion, and apparently Parisian fashion says beautifully messy hair is the way to go (which explains why her early design went so ham with the waves and curls on her hair haha). She'd also follow the main trends so I wasn't exactly sure what to do. If anything I'd lean more to the one to the right because it's more prominent and hey, the fringe-ish cut is now open seeing I changed Violet's hairstyle to have hair parted to the side :3c

Fashionable, versatile, and

As for Pam, uhhhh

I didn't wanna shoot myself in the foot by drawing curls at 1AM, and I had to take into account the fact that she wouldn't really want afro-ish styles because I dunno how that'd be practical when she's consistently doing stuff like baking and mechanic work, sooooo I went with the (rather popular) idea of giving her cornrows or dreads! Dreads in this case because again, lazy and I am staying up a whole hour longer than I was intending (I have school in the morning), it is a popular headcanon for a reason! Pam just looks really good with this kind of style!

Hopefully that satisfies your question, and don't worry about seeing more art from me, that's gonna come very soon with the trickle of requests coming in :3 /lh

[beewitch4]

PSA ON DESIGNING BLACK CHARACTERS

I realized that white people seem to think that in black character design, all you need to think about is dark skin. This is NOT TRUE. While a dark skin tone is important, there are two other very important things that come to mind:

1. Facial features

2. Hair

Black people tend to have different shaped noses in particular in comparison to other races. While a thin nose isn’t impossible, there are whole sections of Africa where that’s the norm, it’s important to take that into account when designing black characters. I know it as an “ackee nose”, I don’t actually know how other people describe it, but it’s not hard to find references. On top of that, if your style includes drawing lips, it’s worth noting that black lips tend to be fuller (though obviously you shouldn’t be drawing them so big it becomes a racist caricature). A black character with fine features isn’t impossible, but it is considered more “white” so keep that in mind if you want to avoid a whitewashing mindset.

For hair, there are two main things to consider: texture and style. Black people have hair in the 3-4 range, so think about what your character’s curl pattern is and how that would “fall”, so to speak. If you character has hair more in the 4 range and it’s long, it’s highly unlikely they would have their hair out all the time, as it would be hard to maintain, and would most likely be in a protective style, like cornrows, boxbraids, dreadlocks or sisterlocks--there are many choices. A character with a looser curl pattern in the 3 range might wear their hair out, or have a protective style, or a combination. It’s worth noting that the curlier hair is, the shorter it looks. There are also many short hairstyles that have nothing to do with braiding, and instead the shape of the hair. Again, find references for what kind of hairstyle you want.

That’s everything I can think of for now, and to be clear, this post is based off my own experience and is not straight out of god’s mouth or anything. If someone has other things to add on black character design, or another race, feel free!

[softgrungeprophet]

So many people had this hairstyle! And yet???

Would also like to add that 360 waves (or 180, etc), which are very similar to this hairstyle (but more modern), are also very much Still A Thing in black hair culture specifically (and the white ppl who try to emulate that culture), and a lot of black spidey and marvel fans have made jokes and references to this in their own drawings and discussions of the Green Goblin (whether Norman or Harry)—about his hat/hood being a durag, drawing him with hair pomade or brushes, photoshopping waves onto the goblin, etc.

So like even now, post-plastering hair to your scalp like they did in the middle of the 20th century, similar wavy and curly hairstyles definitely still exist!

If you have trouble envisioning the classic Harry Osborn look on a real person I think you should see what young Tom Lehrer looked like.

[theparanormalperiodical]

7 Horror Movie Tropes You Didn’t Know About - And What They REALLY Mean

The other day, I went for a rather wet walk with my mother.

It was the complete Kent experience: there was a field of rather aggressive cows, there was a mid-morning loo break in a lockdown-squandered pub and there was an overpriced bag of fudge at the end of it.

But in the middle of the hike - just as we passed through a rural farm - my mum pointed something out.

The cornfields still hadn’t been harvested.

I looked around and realised we were in a picture-perfect Halloween scene.

October had just turned, pitching crisp leaves across the farm tracks. There were dark clouds brewing in the sky. And the thick, stretches of cornrows completed the image.

And I couldn’t help but wonder-

*insert Sexy and the City reference*

Why are corn fields such a staple of horror film scenery? Is it the sign of a rural location? Is it the height and depth of the stalks suggest creeps and creatures lurk within?

Let’s go deep into the maze of our favourite horror tropes. And see if we make it out alive.

The Evil Clown

This trope twists a staple memory from all of our childhoods and plays upon the dark reality of predators in our society. But it also draws upon real, monster clowns: ever heard of John Wayne Gacey? He was one of America’s most notorious serial killers and sex offenders who donned an alter ego as a familiar children’s entertainer to cover his heinous acts.

It’s been leveraged in countless films, from IT to All Hallow’s Eve, all of which subvert the traditional, bright-coloured garb for gothic, Victorian style. But the colour palette only adds to the fear of strange, older men that slap on an alien disguise and hang around groups of children.

The monster clown sits amongst other takes on childhood nostalgia, from vintage toy jumpscares to the plain ol’ possessed girl. That being said, most kids - hell, most people - aren’t fond of clowns. Nevertheless, it still snatches something from our nostalgia and corrupts it.

The Crazy Girl No One Believes

Aside from the occasional anomaly, you don’t often get many killer clowns. A majority of tropes exist exclusively behind the camera lens. Unfortunately, all of the one’s involving women are far too often all too real.

A bit like this trope.

She’s hysterical. She has no clue what she’s talking about. She’s just doing it for attention.

Or maybe, they just ignore her instead of coming up with some outdated response to her cries for help. It wouldn’t be the first time a woman’s opinion was overlooked.

The Invisible Man is a great example of this: convinced she’s suffering from PTSD and severe anxiety, the friends of a woman that just escaped from an abusive relationship send her to a mental health facility when she claims her ex is following her. And is now invisible.

No Mobile Phone Coverage

I’m not sure anyone predicted how reliant we would all become on mobile phones. I’m writing this blogpost whilst simultaneously watching a YT compilation of the BBC’s Ghosts.

Back in the early noughties, no bars on your flipphone was a classic sign shit was about to go dowwwwwn. But these days, this trope is more realistic than ever.

Despite this symbolic nature of having no reception in a rural, unknown location and therefore having to rely on potential-serial-killer randoms, it also chimes with the reality of terrifying events. During terrorist attacks like 9/11 and the 7/7 London bombings, mobile phone coverage reportedly dropped as a result of high demand on mobile networks.

Not being able to contact the emergency services or your loved ones during such a traumatic, scary moment probably defeats any other horror trope that made it to this article.

The Girl That Runs - And Then Falls

It’s hard enough being the crazy chick no one believes. But when you do happen run away from the monster you’ve warned everyone about, you suddenly lose all ability to maintain balance.

The trope obviously attempts to keep up suspense during a dramatic scene. It succumbs into our frustrations as the serial killer closes in on the young, limber, virginal college student after a soapy shower scene sticky with the male gaze.

But more than that, I’m pretty sure this is another misogynistic take on women in film. As in women literally cannot run without falling over. Not only is this known to play on sexual violence, I’m pretty sure it also mirrors the Final Girl trope.

We will get to her later.

If you were being chased down by a vampire-murderer-cult-leader, your adrenaline would kick in and effectively unleash your fight-or-flight mode. This natural ability to survive an attack is often associated with the male body during horror films, especially as the final girl typically takes on male characteristics to survive the threat at the end of the film.

Watching a girl fail to successfully run away is an indicator that she is a damsel in distress and certainly cannot live up to the male standards of fitness.

The Final Girl

She’s probably the most famous - no, scratch that, infamous - feature of the horror genre. Entire books have been dedicated to analysing her struggle, but here’s what you need to know.

🎃She’s a good girl - AKA a virgin - and is therefore superior to the bimbo-esque, deserve-to-die friends she surrounds herself with.

🎃She only survives/takes down the monster at the end of the film by assuming male features.

🎃OR she gets saved by the strapping male protagonist like the pathetic woman she is.

It’s a bit like a wish-list for everything the ideal woman should be.

Either an innocent young girl that validates the male audience as the saviours, or she unlearns her pesky female traits and just lives up to being “the better sex”.

Death By Sex

The final girl makes it through 90 minutes. Her friends, on the other hand, barely make it past the 20 minute mark.

That’s because they’re sluts. They’re whores. They’re b*tches.

That being said, death by sex isn’t just considered a punishment for being a bimbo, nor does it suggest young people are distracted by their desperation to get laid.

It’s also believed to have its origins in the 1980s, with the AIDS epidemic. It’s a metaphor for when sex sometimes resulted in illness and death. The scaremongering probably echoes the tactics of sex education that promoted celibacy and created an even bigger culture of blame on the LGBT+ community for HIV.

Creepy-Ass Cornfields

Corn mazes are a staple of the end of summer and beginning of autumn, fitting the timing of Halloween neatly. But cornfields also match up with the trope of a vast, dead forest that the characters always happen to get lost in.

They’re endless. They conceal what lies within. They’re miles away from civilisation.

Many horror novels and films have directly tacked onto the cornfield storyline, such as Children of the Corn.

Is there a trope that I missed?

Make sure you let me know down in a comment. If you liked this post, make sure you like and reblog.

Want to hear somethin’ spooky every Saturday? Make sure you hit follow.

[mercityart]

Gotta be honest, really tempted to just say fuck it and go with the design I like most n just style it different n shtuff. I like option A for eyeless jack, though I could be biased due to being proud of drawing it bc twas hard to do.

But also, I see him as being poc, and considering his environment and being quite smart I see him as choosing a stylish but low maintenance hair style like box braids, locks, cornrows, etc. He wouldn't have to worry about his hair as much.

Whilst option C is pretty hot ngl, it makes him seem like he gives absolutely 0 fucks in regards to appearence or hygiene, which, I mean, everyone loves a seggsy scrungly man's, but still!

Idk man, I'm lost. I want y'all to enjoy the character and simp for him like I do but I also want to enjoy drawing the character and option C was my least favorite to draw. I want how I view eyeless jack to be perceived properly.

But I'm super insecure in this regards bc I see my mutuals versions and people I look up to's versions and see how cool they look and how iconic their designs are. I don't think my designs are very memorable and I really want to make an impact.

[entrance01]

Highlighter and Bronzer: Constant Dualities in Makeup Culture

As written by a makeup user

Makeup is highly polarizing subject to the people who wear it, refuse to wear it, and resign to wear it, and speaking honestly? It can get hard to keep a singular, straight thought about it. Personally speaking at least.

A lot of the topics mentioned were usually written separately, and that’s fine. One person posting how makeup praises European features isn’t wrong! Just like another post saying how makeup fetishizes black features/trying to pass as “racially ambiguous” also isn’t wrong! These two separate camps, among the others I will touch on later, can both exist in the same realm. It’s just our job to see both sides and how either and both affect people.

I know this is far from being the first makeup-critical post nor its last, but throughout my years on this hell site, I have stumbled across numerous articles and thoughts. They are all wonderful and are written with more insight than I could ever, but this compilation is (mostly) for me.

Eurocentric Beauty Standards and Modern Black/Brownface

What do we see when we open Instagram or look up makeup artists on Youtube? Most probably the same cut and crease. The same extensive bronzer. The same cut cheekbones. The same C-shaped highlighted area. And you get the point! But what does it mean? Am I just ragging on the go-to, tried and true looks? Well yes. I hate seeing a lack of creativity, but I want to look deeper into what these artists are choosing to accentuate; what they are choosing to accentuate or hide; what they are choosing to do with their natural skin colour.

One tumblr user (that has since left this site) said, you can’t divorce beauty culture from white supremacy. And they were right. A lot of IG/YT tends still uphold whiteness as a kind of ideal! This perpetuation could be as innocent as contouring tutorials telling viewers to give themselves high cheekbones; a small, straight nose; deeper set eyes; “melon seed” jaws; etc., to an industry-wide problem like Snapchat/IG filters lightening skin tones and companies not providing a ful, broad range of foundations and concealers.

It really wasn’t until, like, what? 2017? where Fenty Beauty made a foundation line with a thorough and broad spectrum that covered almost every skin tone. And that is a travesty! What were you telling these women (and men)? “You should be going lighter than your actual skin shade”? But what’s more insidious than that is actually going out and making skin brightening products for women, especially in countries where colorism is more pronounced –like Central and South America and Asia (especially South and Southeast Asia).

The latter is not just an instance of not a lack of representation (and yes, I acknowledge that we ought to see more darker skinned actors and celebrities and so forth) but is something that can affect the livelihoods of people. Without a doubt, people treat you differently if you look a certain way. It becomes easier to navigate through society! Job prospects open up once you fit these standards, even if they are racist; one non-makeup example is how black women are expected to straighten their hair for jobs, have something like 1A to 2C hair, while other manageable hair styles that are more unique to women with 3A-4C hair (box braids, cornrows, etc.) are seen as inappropriate. But at the same time, non-black people go and appropriate these looks.

As tumblr user estoma6mp (now, luzonbleedingheart) mentioned in their (now deleted) post, what is overlining/plumping their lips and taking the styles of black women other than imitating blackness/modernized blackface? Look at Ariana Grande. The Jenners. These parties “tan” and “bronze” to achieve… I think a certain “racial ambiguity” as well as… just stealing the creative thoughts of African American (and also Latinx) women. It’s…. the coveting and commodification of “ethnic” features and styles for the sake of seeming fashionable and clout while also resting comfortably knowing that you can take off all the bronzer at the end of the day.

The Sexualization of Makeup and Children and the Infantilizing of Grown Women

The names of products and shades are undoubtedly important in creating an image and a connection in the minds of consumers. Like, what does “Killawatt” put in your mind, in my mind, other than something super bright and fluorescent like concert lights? But not all makeup will have simple names like “rose” or “peony” for lipsticks. Those don’t have enough edge. It doesn’t sell sex. But should makeup have to sell sex?

As marisatomay said in her post, makeup companies shouldn’t be naming their products after sexual terms. She goes to list names like “climax” and “super orgasm” and puns like “glow job” that may seem far fetched and almost like a strawman, but no. Those are actual names. Just look at the lip gloss selection from NARS’ site: Orgasm, Super Orgasm, First Time, Strip Tease, Triple X, are just a handful of names. There are so much more I’m not mentioning! I wouldn’t be so opposed to this naming convention if it weren’t for the fact that there are plenty of young girls who are looking to makeup as a form of expression.

Now, whether children and young teenagers should be using makeup is another point of debate. If a child wants to play with makeup and draw flowers on their face and add glitter, that’s fine! It’s all in good fun. But the moment you have girls as young as 7 or 8 becoming makeup artists, contouring, beating their faces, making themselves look like they are in their 20s, that’s where things get concerning. Like, we should let children be children and allow them creativity, but creativity with makeup is hard because the line between having fun and feeling like you need to conform to certain looks/have certain knowledge about making yourself look “beautiful” is getting more and more blurred. It’s already terrible to see elementary school children think that they need to look a certain way, wear makeup a certain way to be seen as pretty, but the makeup industry isn’t just exploiting these young girls’ insecurities. They also exploit the girls themselves. When we see brands posting closeup videos of young girls putting on lip gloss, lips parted, it evokes a certain image.

On the other hand, however, I’ve also seen makeup palettes that are very reminiscent of childhood. Saffron-Sugar wrote on her blog, that a lot of makeup also has an “unpleasantly infantilizing tone,” and I agree! Like, which makeup company hasn’t collaborated with Disney? Mermaid, unicorn, faerie, and even dessert themed products are omnipresent. This by itself isn’t that much of an issue –these are cute aesthetics, and I can get behind some of them—but it really patronizes a lot of adult women. These circumstances emphasize certain connotations with regards to (perhaps feigned) girliness.

While I said makeup can sexualize minors and expose them to unwarranted sexual tension, makeup can also sexualize that same young, innocent image in women. It’s the idea of recapturing girlhood and innocence and purity. It’s sickening because it kinda adds this “barely legal” culture –where men wait for girls to turn 18 as if legality is the only thing that differentiates a girl from a woman. And this is disgusting.

Empowerment and Societal Coercion and the Industry that Doesn’t Care

I’m glad to be living in a time and a world where I can speak my thoughts openly and find ways to be myself, but… I think it’s also this individualism that gives us all an overinflated sense of self. It’s difficult to openly criticize our behavior, our actions, as consumers and as people in a capitalistic society because so many of us do take these as personal attacks. As if we were exempt from reflecting on ourselves and have free reign to perpetuate harmful ideology and phenomena.

So…. It was, like, 2012? 2013? Where we got all these “eyeliner sharp enough to kill a man!!” and “blind them with your highlighter!” comments and posts. The idea, if I recall everything correctly, was that… a lot of girls, a lot of women, were emphasizing that they weren’t wearing makeup for anyone else other than themselves. And I think that is a wonder idea. It’s nice that you can make a hobby out of this, but I also know that there are plenty of others who are less than enthused about makeup.

I don’t hate on the women in the above scenario, totally don’t! But they can’t go around yelling how something (especially makeup) is a choice when to many others it isn’t. Plenty of women feel like they need to wear makeup in order to better navigate through society. As a personal anecdote, I know that I have been treated far better as a person the moment I “glowed up” and tried to coordinate outfits better/put on makeup in a more conventionally attractive manner/adhering to certain beauty standards. I know that in some service jobs such as waiting tables, the number of tips a waiter gets can be determined by her makeup. And let’s not even go into mental health professionals and their patients wearing makeup! It’s unrealistic the amount of time women has to spend on our appearances just to be treated like “normal.”

And the thing is, the makeup industry doesn’t care if you’re either woman! These million-dollar companies, founded on the institutional control of how women look and behave, are getting money from both camps. Advertisement will be sprinkled with buzzwords such as “empowering” and “girl boss” but those are empty words when all they want is to bank on these trends and women’s wants and/or insecurities.

 And here’s the part where I struggle to conclude all my thoughts. Like my previous post about art commissions and business, this is nothing more than a rehash of what people before me have said: I just wanted to compile everything in a more accessible post for myself, rather than scroll through my makeup tag on my main blog. But I guess I need to have some form of closure for anybody who has actually stuck around to get here (and thank you for doing so!).

All of the circumstances mentioned are… quite separate from each other all things considered, but they are all part of a larger, more foreboding culture that makes women feel like they need to look a certain way (even if they think they are being unique and creative). Indeed, makeup is a form of expression and creativity for a lot of women, but to just blindly act without any insight on what you are consuming, what you are doing, and why you are doing it, is honestly irresponsible. Like any other part of culture, a part of media (especially social), we need to see who is benefiting from our actions and who is getting hurt.

[levymcgarden55]

[ID: 4 digital drawings. They are of Kipo, Lio, and Wolf from Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts. All of them revolve around Lio doing Wolf's hair.

Image 1: An uncolored drawing of Lio braiding Wolf’s hair. He’s sitting on the edge of a bed with Wolf on the floor in front of him and Kipo sitting beside Wolf. Kipo is excitedly looking through a box of hair clips. Wolf’s hair is half done with one side still in a fluffy afro while the other side is in several small braids. Lio is focused on the braiding, and Wolf looks aside at Kipo with a raised eyebrow and a smile.

Image 2: Colored busts of Wolf with different hairstyle. In the top left she has a big afro with a pink barrette holding it out of her face. She looks at the viewer with a slight frown. In the bottom left she has her hair in small cornrows. On the left side they go toward the back of her head, except for one thin braid that hangs by her face. On the right they go across the top of her head and into a cascade of braids. Each braid has five blue beads at the end. Wolf faces the viewer and looks aside with a bashful smile.

In the center, Wolf’s hair is in thick cornrows. They go from front to back and into a single thick braid. She looks to the left with a sarcastic smile. In the top right Wolf has her hair in large twists. There are round beads at the base of each twist, and each has a flower-shaped clip at the end. The beads and flowers are bright blue, green, pink, and purple. She looks toward the viewer and says matter-of-factly, “I look fucking adorable.” In the bottom left, Wolf’s hair is in dreads. Half of them are down, and half are tied up on top of her head. She faces left with a neutral expression.

Image 3: An uncolored sketch of Wolf kicking in Kipo’s door with her hair in the twist style with the beads and hair clips. She says, “Hey Kipo, Dad just finished my hair check this out.”

Image 4: An uncolored sketch of Wolf standing in the doorway and shaking her head very hard. The drawing is captioned “sound of plastic hairclips aggressively clacking”]

I wonder if Lio would be glad to finally have a daughter that shares his hair texture, and if Wolf would let Kipo pick out all her hair accessories

[gracehamilton]

Research: History of Black hair

Many of the hairstyles that are popularized within the black community have origins to many different times in history.

Ancient Origins

Many traditional hairstyles can be traced back to Ancient Egyptian times, this is evidence is often found in drawings, engravings and hieroglyphs from the time. These detailed drawings often have imagery of box braids, dreadlocks and afro styled shape-ups.

A famous painted sandstone piece that depicts the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti was re-discovered in 1913 showcases her getting her hair braided, this imagery embodies feminine power. During this times wigs were a symbol of wealth and royalty for men and women, only those of wealth were approve of wearing such thing as wigs. 

The first image depicts the princess having her hair done (2050BC sarcophagus of princess Kawit) 

However there has been evidence of Braids being traced back to the Ancient Nok civilisation in Nigera. There is a sculpture that dates back to 500BC that shows a figure with cornrows.

Braids

Braids throughout history, especially African, were a symbol of wealth, religion, martial status, age and rank within west African communities. The skills of braiding is seen as a art form that in many African communities is passed down from the elders to the daughters of this community, this is also now seen in the western community as myself i learned how to braid my hair from my mother and sister. Bandtu knots which are still popular to this day is a well known hairstyle within the African communities, bandtu translating to “people” in many African languages aswell as also being known as Zulu Knots by the Zulu people.

Cornrows

Cornrow braids were named after there similarities to cornfields. Africans originally wore these braids as a representation of agriculture, a tribe that is known for this style of braids is Mbalantu women in Namibia who were known for wearing what they called eembuvi braids.

During colonisation many africans had their heads shaved to strip them further away from their identity, so when they could grow their hair out they often braided their hair into cornrows because it was more manageable under the harsh condition they had to work in and it was away to stay connected to their roots which was being taken from them. Aswell as the fact that the more looser the curl or straight their hair was the better they were treated by the slave owners, ie they got to work inside the house rather then in the field.

During this time aswell slaves would often use the partings within the braids to relay messages, it became a way for slaves to communicate maps. “people would use braids as a map to freedom”. They often used to amount of braids to indicate how many roads. 

Straightening hair

After slavery abolished there was still a need to fit into European society in which said that European straight hair was “good” and acceptable, whereas African hair was “bad” foreign and unprofessional. These standards still apply loosely to today especially against black women within office situations and high professions. 

This meant that many Black people turned to wigs and chemical treatments to achieve this smoother straighter hair. Cornrows and braids were no longer seen as acceptable in public display. In the early 1900s Annie Malone and Madam CJ Walker developed products that target this want and need for straight hair. These products promoted the use of hot combs and products alike.

Dreadlocks

In 1920 Jamaican born Marcus Garvey started a black nationalist movement in America. He spreaded the belief that all black people should return to their rightful homeland of Africa. This also showcased to the masses the hairstyle of dreadlocks. Many people associate relate this hairstyle to the Rastafarian religion. Early followers of the religion refused to cut their hair due to the Nazaire vow in the bible. In the 1950s many followers didn't want to cut or manipulate their hair as they saw it as a sign of conformity.

Natural hair movement

The natural hair movement was brought on by the civil rights movement of the 1960-70s. This movement encouraged black people to accepted their natural hair and texture, start to turn away from damaging products that are used to conform to European standards. Wearing these natural hairstyles proudly were a form of activism, a way to show that they are reclaiming their roots. Popular icons known for there natural hair were, Diana Ross, Angela Davis and Jimi Hendrix. These celebrities who celebrated and embraced their natural hair were still unsurprisingly met with backlash from the public.

Other styles that were popular were Jheri Curl. This was a chemical treatment, similar to relaxers, that soften the curl of the natural hair. This style was one of the more popular hairstyle that many black people wore in the 80s and 70s popularised by musicians such as Michael Jackson and Ice Cube. During the 80s it made it easier for the public to accept this kind of curl. 

80s music and hip hop influenced the culture and fashion, this lead to barber shops becoming more creative and expressive. Afro’s began to be faded at the side, this became the high-top fade. Traditional braids were added in for a flair of individuality. Celebrities such as Grace Jones and Will Smith made this popular.

Cultural Reaction

These changes brought on by the civil rights movement were meet with resistance. 

In the 1980s Hyatt Hotel chain fired black female employees who wore cornrows. 1990s FedEx couriers were fired if they had dreadlocks. Black children are often told to this day that their natural hair was a violation or a distraction in the classroom ending in them getting expelled.

These reactions are the sort of thing that makes it hard for black people to want to embrace their natural hair.

[forestwater87]

if you draw basic refs of the punk kids then i’ll draw them bc i don’t want to mess them up rip

Wait are you serious?! I’m gonna cry that’s amazing.

As for refs . . . I meant it when I said I can’t draw (there is evidence. It ain’t pretty), but uhhhhhh I can describe them and you can pick your favorite? Since the descriptions in the fic are intentionally pretty sparse. (under the cut because I know me and I will ramble)

Honestly, you can’t possibly get it wrong. If you actually went to the trouble of drawing a 2-second doodle I would actually cry real human tears. I tried to include a “one thing that matters” so you’d feel like as long as you had that one little element you nailed it and can go nuts with the rest, but . . . seriously. There is no wrong here.

Sooooooo this is gonna be kinda . . . vague? I’m sooooo not a visual person, and “don’t spend paragraphs describing your character’s appearance” has been so hammered into my brain that everything about this feels wrong, but . . . here ya go:

David:

What you get in the fic: “David with the short red mohawk and the little rings marching up the shell of his ear and the spiked leather jackets and the tight black jeans and the giant, grass-stained, door-kicking-in boots that must weigh half as much as he does.”

“shaking up the sleeve of his jacket, which hangs from his skinny frame”

“There’s a greyscale rose on his hand, beautiful and intricate. ‘Is this real?’ she asks, twisting his hand to watch the thorny stem snake around his wrist.“

What I was picturing: Literally that one guy from that one photo. You know the one.

What else is there to go on? Well . . . Jasper draws lots of fake tattoos all over him since he can’t afford to get real tats. (And yes, they’re dating, so . . . all sorts of places. Just saying I’m sorry please don’t throw tomatoes) Some are black n white, some have color; if David picks the colors, they’re mostly earthy palettes, lots of green and brown and blue; if Jasper picks the colors, they will be loud and heavily feature pink and yellow. He’s a very . . . twinky sort of punk, as you’d expect. Doesn’t bother trying to look like he didn’t spend 2 hours looking like this, because he did and he’s honest! But he likes shiny things and nature things and doesn’t really care that those don’t go together all that well.

The one thing that matters: Oversized black leather jacket. Or mohawk. Fuck, both of those.

Jasper:

What you get in the fic: “dressed in and pierced with and dyed so many colors he’s almost hard to look at”

“blue-tipped blond waves”

“Jasper’s shoes (the pink one. The other is a completely different style, Converse instead of a black knee-high heeled boot (how does he walk?) with bright orange laces).”

What I was picturing: Honestly, I’m not sure. I mean . . . we’ve all seen Counselor Jasper. And we’ve all seen Vaporwave Jasper. That, but . . . more spikes, I guess?

What else is there to go on? I may have also googled “neon punk” to figure out what on earth this boy could possibly look like and then fallen in love with a bunch of different style ideas. Anything flashy and weird will make Jasp happy.

The one thing that matters: Heels. At least one heel. Also he’s a bit of a beefy boy and I love that about him. (Shit, that’s two as well. I’m bad at this.)

Bonquisha:

What you get in the fic: “Bonquisha’s hair — the side that isn’t shaved, that is, and falls in long dark dreads interwoven with red sparkling tinsel”

What I was picturing: You know how hard it is to find dark-skinned female punks? There aren’t a lot.

What else is there to go on? Bright dramatic makeup and heavy jewelry, mostly. That oughta do it. Oooh and more spikes! Spikes everywhere! (I’m a sucker for a couple facial piercings, too; on all of them, but especially my girl Bon.)

The one thing that matters: Seriously, as long as half her head is shaved (or cornrowed; just real close to her head) and she’s so beautiful it hurts to look at her, you’ll be just fine.

Dirty Kevin:

What you get in the fic: red hoodie, “with green-rimmed eyes and artful stubble”

What I was picturing: Honestly? Half the original Dirty Kevin from the show and half @doritofalls’ high school AU version.

What else is there to go on? Um . . . Dirty Kevin. I don’t know how exactly to punk-ify this boy, so please go fucking nuts with this wild child. He just always struck me as a little too lazy to go full punk, but . . . there’s gotta be a laid-back, less-effort-filled version of punk, right?

The one thing that matters: Hoodie! Give the boy a hoodie! And sass!

Gwen: 

What you get in the fic: Nothing, basically. She has a camera around her neck and that’s about it.

What I was picturing: Gwen? Seriously I put so little effort into the characters the less punk they got, I am so sorry.

What else is there to go on? Okay, no, let me think . . . I imagine high-school Gwen’s style was a mix of wannabe-artsy and “my mom picked this out for me” (literally; Gwen’s mom is rather controlling). So a nice miniskirt and an oversized man’s button-down with the sleeves rolled up; a cute preppy blouse with shitty overalls on top; flirty sundresses with heavy boots. That kinda thing.

You know those art challenges where you choose a letter and a number for the artist to draw? Basically anything on any of those, toned down for a high-schooler’s budget and fear of social rejection.

The one thing that matters: Seriously, do whatever and she’ll be adorable. This is Gwen we’re talking about here. There is no way to do Gwen wrong.

Also please please please don’t feel pressured to draw anything! I had a lot of fun writing all this out, so it was a good time all-around regardless of if anything comes from it. :)

[boluwatifs]

Hair as homecoming: how becoming my own hairdresser helped me build a rhythm of self care and mental health

I am multitasking as I write this.

I have Solange’s ‘Don’t touch my hair’ playing on full volume as I use one half of my brain to type and the other half to re-twist my locs – perhaps for the last time. I am contemplating shaving my head for the first time in my life, the only reason being that I feel like it.

I remember there being a period of time when the thought of having no hair on my head would have terrified me. I was attached to my hair because of its external value. Hair was about beauty, it was about comfort in conformity. Now though, when I look back on the somewhat sentimental journey that my hair has taken me on, I realise that it became so much more than it first was. It became about self-care. Doing my hair became a restorative, therapeutic exercise – it grew in length and it grew in meaning.

I think I am finally starting to get the gist of what Solange means when she sings poetry about hair. ‘It’s the feelings I wear’ ‘It’s the rhythm I know’. As ridiculous and ‘fake-deep’ as it might sound, she is right. In the past few years of my life, my hair has been one of the ways I have been able to give rhythm to self-care and mental health.

There was a time in my life where hair had nothing to do with self-care. In childhood, the only function my hair had (that I knew of) was to be pretty. The only reason I got it done and re-done every three to six weeks was to be prettier. It seemed almost inevitable that I would inherit the thick, black, fast-growing hair that runs through my mother’s side of the family. From about age 5, it was chemically straightened and almost always tied down in tight cornrows with colourful plastic beads attached to the ends. Hair was competition. It was never a formal contest, but to me, each glance at another girl’s hair was a challenge – like what boys did with Pokémon cards or Beyblades. Whose is the best? Whose is the longest? Having long relaxed hair seemed, at that time, to be the epitome of prettiness. The longer the hair, the prettier the girl, the more jealous of her other girls would be. Girls with shorter hair seemed to move around with explanations taped to their tongues; ‘my hair used to be down to here but then my mum cut it’, they knew that the ability to grow long hair was the standard of beauty.

Hair was superficial – I didn’t think about it deeply enough for it to have anything to do with self-care. It was something that was done to me and decided for me. As a girl child growing up in Nigeria, in a middle-class family, having your hair done was a requirement rather than a luxury. Loose hair meant untidy hair and untidy hair was criminal. At the primary school I went to, among polished black shoes and crisply ironed uniform, it was a requirement for girls, at all times and under all circumstances, to have their hair plaited into cornrows or Calabar braids. The only freedom I had was choosing between intricately named styles; all-back or patewo, suuku or two-step. Oftentimes on special occasions like graduations or prize-giving ceremonies the school would put out a formal request for all the girls to synchronise their hairstyles. My hair wasn’t mine, it was uniform.

When I was old enough to get my first set of hair extensions, I did. I remember my grandma taking me to get my first ‘pack and gel’ – a slicked down ponytail with a synthetic hair piece attached tightly to it with a needle and thread. I was about eight-years-old, and this particular ‘pack and gel’ hung all the way down past my back. With this hair I was Beyoncé and Rihanna combined – I would walk around my grandma’s house flicking my head side to side making sure that my ponytail swung as I walked and that everyone saw it. Hair styling was just as much a punishment as it was a reward. Combs were torture instruments and hairdressers might as well have been executioners. The sight of little girls writhing and blubbering under the hands of unperturbed hairdressers would look like an act of abuse to anyone unfamiliar with the rituals of black hairdressing. As part of this ritual the hairdresser would cock my neck back and forth, I would cry loudly, my mum would threaten to shave my hair off if I continued, at which I would immediately pack it in – new episode every three to six weeks.

Looking back, I am aware that there was also a time in my life when feelings I was having towards my hair were damaging to my self-esteem – paying too much attention to my hair became the opposite of self-care. This this time came in my mid-teens when, amongst a plethora of physical anxieties that had begun to take shape, my hair became a problem. After years and years of my hair being a thing that was done to me rather than a thing I was in control of, the baton was suddenly passed to me. I was clueless. This period started off gleefully, I browsed through the endless styles of braids and weaves on the internet. I had graduated from all-back and patewo to jumbo braids (with blonde highlights of course) and Marley twists down to the middle of my back. I no longer cried at the hair dresser’s, instead I would sit patiently, clenching my jaw for all six hours it would take for her to transform me. There was a thrill that came with being able to re-invent myself every six weeks. One day shoulder length braided bob, the next day purple bum-length Senegalese twists that made me look three years older.

It looked good on the outside, but soon my hair was dry, brittle and breaking in places that made me feel ugly. I had no idea what to do or how to take care of it when it wasn’t wrapped in synthetic hair, so I watched it fall apart. Putting my hair in braids became a way of running away from it. Thinking about it made me sad. Every hair appointment, the hairdresser met me with raised eyebrows and a question mark; ‘what happened to your hair?’ ‘but it used to be so long?’. Paying too much attention to my hair became an exercise in self-loathing. I added it to the list of body parts that I tried hard not to think about. I got weaves to cover up the broken sections – the more I did this, the more it broke. I covered it up well enough for no-one to notice. I went from one set of braids to the next in a matter of hours, never letting my natural hair see any light except whatever came from the fluorescent bulbs of the hairdresser’s shop.

I finally decided to break this damaging cycle by starting from scratch. It was weird how hard it was to part with hair that I had never cut even when every strand was damaged to the core by heat and chemicals. I had to ignore all the bones in my body left over from childhood that were telling me that long hair was essential to beauty. I vowed never to let my hair see a chemical again and after a couple of months I cut it off. This was perhaps the first time a decision about my hair was more than superficial. Though I didn’t know it then, this was me drawing the first few inches of a line that directly connected hair to mental self-care. It was a hard but necessary step. All the excuses I had previously given for hanging on to dead weight on my head instead of going natural consisted of complaints that it was time consuming. When I cut my hair off, natural hair became exactly that; time consuming. And so it turned into a ritual. It forced me to consume time with myself. I watched youtube videos religiously. I re-twisted my hair for a morning twist out every single night (yes, I was crazy and enthusiastic). Amidst the hurricane of almost failing A-Levels, worrying about if universities would accept me, having fewer and fewer people to talk to everyday, and my health taking a left turn, doing my hair gave me a centre. It was the red light at which I stopped to think about myself – and to forget about myself if I wanted to.

Doing my hair became meditation. I would sit cross-legged in my bedroom, under a warm light, in front of a floor-length mirror for an hour most nights. It became a necessary silence. Sometimes it was an opportunity for reflection, other times it was the time that allowed me to become an empty space – focusing only on the texture of my hair under the coconut oil as I twisted. It might have been vanity, but maybe vanity is beautiful when you have been taught to be angry with yourself. Doing my hair became much more than just about my hair being healthy or looking good, it was an icecap I could float on when everything around me felt like it was melting.

I experimented with low tension styles that I could easily learn and do myself; crochet braids, mini-twists, yarn braids. Hair went from being a thing that was just on my head to being a thing that was a part of my life. It was so much different from waiting impatiently under a hairdresser’s hands, paying in money and pain for a new version of myself – it was a calm self-customisation, it didn’t hurt because it taught me how to be easy with myself. It allowed me to build a much-needed trust in myself. I followed instructions on how to braid or twist or give myself an undercut from youtube videos, never being entirely sure what I was doing or how I would look on the other side but the freedom and power over myself was in my hands. Doing my hair myself taught me to be okay with myself. There was no-one to push the blame for terrible styling on, so it forced me to be okay with whoever I was and however I looked.

Spending so much time with my hair has also made it easier for me to take the decision to let go of it if ever I want. It is no longer the symbol of a beauty standard I am trying to meet, neither is it a burden. My hair has been knotted down into eighty locs for about a year now, for no other reason than the fact that it seemed to fit nicely with where I have been at in life for the past year. It is low maintenance and I still get that moment of stillness every few weeks where I get to breathe through my hair.

I am still not quite sure where the sudden desire to shave my head has come from. I have put my hands in my hair enough times and done enough to it to know that sometimes how it makes you feel is more important than how it looks. It seems that the period in my life that I am currently entering calls for drastic boldness and a search for freedom, maybe that is where this desire has come from. My hair has always found unintentional ways of being a practical reflection of who or what I am on the inside – it changes when I change, it is somehow the only fluctuating constant. Caring for it has become caring for myself.

It is two minutes past midnight now. I still haven’t finished re-twisting my hair and the pre-hook to ‘Don’t touch my hair’ is playing again because I have had it on repeat. Solange is singing in her soft-mellow voice. ‘They don’t understand what it means to me, where we chose to go, where we’ve been to know’.

What a perfect way to poeticise a hair journey.

[expatimes]

South AFrican illustrator Karabo Poppy's take on sneaker culture celebrates African design Written by Michelle Cohan, CNNOf all the artwork lining South African illustrator Karabo Poppy's home, perhaps most notable is a gigantic, multicolored stack of Nike shoeboxes filling an entire wall.Her "tower," as she refers to it, has been a work in progress since the age of seven. It's a cornerstone of what makes her the distinguished multimedia artist she is today, with a resume that includes Netflix, Google and Coca-Cola. And in Johannesburg, where she lives, it's hard to miss her murals sprawled across everything from water towers to basketball courts."When I started my (art) journey, I was really inspired by hip-hop, rap and basketball, and I'd always seen this theme of Nike Air Force 1s and Air Jordans," she recalls. "I'd always associated that with Black people really creating groundbreaking, global, effective work and I really wanted to be a part of it."From Nike to Netflix, this illustrator is making noise with her artwork Even from a young age, Poppy felt she needed to look the part. Growing up in the small mining town of Vereeniging, south of Johannesburg, she says she did not meet an artist until she was in high school -- and her family did not greet her decision to pursue an art career with excitement.But the Forbes' "30 Under 30" creative found a supportive community through sneaker culture."People identify from their sole, S-O-L-E, on purpose," says DeJongh "Dee" Wells, a self-proclaimed "sneakerhead" and creator of the podcast "Obsessive Sneaker Disorder (OSD)."South African multimedia artist Karabo Poppy in streetwear clothing she designed for label Rich Mnisi. Credit: Bruce Buttery for CNN"They choose their footwear very specifically to give them a little glimpse of 'who I am and what I'm about; what's important to me,'" Wells says, whether it's an iconic pair of Jordans or maybe "a Jeremy Scott Adidas sneaker with the wings, because they're holding on to dreams of hope and change."Shoebox collections like Poppy's tower are a source of pride within sneaker culture, according to Wells. By having those boxes serve as her "vision board," he says, "(Poppy) was speaking what she's doing today into existence."Wells' statement holds truth for the 28-year-old illustrator. She has collaborated with Nike on several occasions, starting in 2019 when she designed three styles of Air Force 1s that sold out in a matter of days, and even landed on the feet of basketball legend LeBron James.Poppy shows off one of her first Nike Air Force 1 shoe designs, with her name stitched on the back. Credit: Bruce Buttery for CNNThe Air Force 1 has been both an inspiration and a launching pad for Poppy's career. From drawing on the shoes with whiteout in high school, to painting her first mural while wearing a pair, she says it was monumental to see her name stitched onto a shoe that's been such a big part of her journey. Most recently, she worked with Nike on a release of the Jordan "Why Not?" Zer0.4 sneaker, basketball player Russell Westbrook's latest signature shoe. The origins of sneaker cultureSneaker culture is hard to define, says Elizabeth Semmelhack, historian and senior curator at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.Ultimately, she says, it's a group of individuals interested in the history and the storytelling opportunities offered by sneakers. "Companies make these things, but it's culture that transformed them into objects that have meaning," Semmelhack tells CNN. Walt "Clyde" Frazier in 1971 shown here playing basketball with the first iteration of the "Puma Clyde" shoes. Credit: Focus On Sport/Getty ImagesThe rise of sneaker culture began in the 1970s when shoes designed for sports like basketball and tennis crossed over into lifestyle fashion, according to Wells. Both he and Semmelhack describe the moment when the famously well-dressed New York Knicks basketball star Walt "Clyde" Frazier teamed up with Puma to make the Puma Clyde shoe as a turning point in function-to-fashion footwear.The simultaneous birth of break-dancing and hip-hop in New York City also fed into the burgeoning sneakerhead trend. "You begin to see how this intertwining of music, sport, dance, fashion, New York kind of all begin to weave together in the 1970s. This paves the way for the huge cultural uptake in sneakers," says Semmelhack.The original Nike "Air Jordan" shoes worn by Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan, circa 1985. Credit: Focus On Sport/Getty ImagesPerhaps the watershed moment for modern sneaker culture was when NBA star Michael Jordan signed with Nike to launch Air Jordans in 1985. His dominant success as a player and global popularity boosted shoe sales; Jordans have gone on to become one of the bestselling shoe lines to date.By the time a young Poppy encountered sneaker culture in the early 2000s, it had become a full-fledged global phenomenon. Shoe exchanges have since popped up in Cape Town, while African brands are growing across the continent and beyond."It's the most diverse culture that I know," says Wells. "I've been to parts of the world where I don't even know the native language, but a simple point, head nod, or thumbs up, basically saying 'I see you, I see your kicks, I like your kicks.'"Creative inspirationUniting Poppy's diverse artistic output is a central theme: creating images that "preserve the African aesthetic."She says inspiration comes from a seemingly ordinary place -- the barbershop. This was the first place she saw Black beauty represented, she tells CNN.Poppy in front of a local salon in Johannesburg, a place that gives her a lot of inspiration. Credit: Bruce Buttery for CNN"Hair has been something that's important for not only my family but a lot of African people as well; it's really like the center of our identity in a way," she says. "So, when I started drawing, I'd draw people having really fresh haircuts or beautiful braids.""Within all of my work you'll see nuggets of a zigzag and that represents cornrows that you see in beautiful patterns; you'll see combs, you'll see people that look familiar to myself and my narrative," she adds.Those designs are evident in her shoe collaborations with Nike, a partnership that Wells says is all too rare in the world of sneakers. "We need to see more female designers in the industry. There's not enough," he says.Combs feature in this Air Force 1 sneaker design by Poppy, a 2019 Nike release. Credit: NikePoppy acknowledges the challenges faced by women in her field and hopes to serve as a torch bearer for future generations of Black female creatives."I'm extremely proud to be a Black female African illustrator because this was a space, I'll say 10 years ago, there weren't a ton of us there," she says. "There's a certain way in which we tell stories that I think the world not only will enjoy, but I think the world needs." Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=18285&feed_id=34409

[theproudbooknerd]

Chemistry Revision

ft my precious succulent that managed to keep alive for a month so far XD. btw a lot of people i know at school tend to criticize my choice of rewriting notes or making them pretty, so i kinda wanted to defend this as well as many other students who do the same. so here it goes:

How are nice notes helpful?

now before i start, i would like to point out that we all have different studying styles and that you should go for whatever works for you, however i wanted to share my personal experience in regards to note-taking so as others can take certain points into consideration when choosing their study-style.

to me, these are the benefits of putting more efforts into your notes:

if you invested a lot of time and worked hard to make your notes, you less likely to shove them away in a corner

organizing your notes effectively allows easy access to study material, which is especially useful during exam time 

i don’t know if it is the case for ever but for me, handwriting my notes carefully helps me to better understand and memorize information

illegible/messy notes can be very discouraging

you will notice that “nice notes” incorporate meticulous diagrams/charts/drawings/tables. this is because such illustrations help to retain the information as one can associate the illustrations to the data in exams for instance or they simplify the information making it easier to remember  (especially helpful for visual learners)

i make use of color-coding as we often link color with memory, allowing easy recalling of content

However, I would like to emphasize on the fact that making “pretty” notes is not the real aim. The aim is to carefully formulate effective and well-structured notes that can contribute to better understanding of your study material. 

Notes must be effective, not just pretty.

supplies:

cello Finegrip (in black and blue)

 Super U Felt-tips (in dark brown; these have cornrow tips & are super inexpensive but very effective)

Artline Stix Brush Marker (in black)

Pritt micro correction roller

20/11/17

[izzitoovey-blog]

Cultural  Appropriation - Celebrities

“Cultural appreciation is when elements of a culture are used while honoring the source they came from. It is important to note that appreciation involves respect and value.” 

I find this theme very interesting and there is so much to touch upon. Cultural appropriation appears in many cases, whether that is in everyday life of somebody’s appearance, their mannerisms, what is uploaded on social media, films, music and many more. 

Celebrities get a lot of the backlash for accusation of cultural appropriation as so much of their life is shared with the public. Here are some examples of what some celebrities have done which could be considered questionable and/or offensive. 

Kim Kardashian sporting cornrows: for some people they could look past it and say “its just a hairstyle”, but for others it has been seen as extremely offensive and inappropriate. 

Due to cornrows being a traditional African way of styling hair, some perceive it to be wrong if an individual of another culture adopts the same style, however surely it could be seen as a compliment that the style of hair is seen to be attractive and popular. On the other hand the style is designed for afro textured hair and will never have the same effect when used on ‘white hair’. 

Another one of the Kardashians, Khloe offended many when she posted a picture wearing a burqa. 

Although she was in Dubai, burqas were not required in the area she was in especially for visitors so there was no need for her to be wearing one. After realising she had caused disruption, she did state “I’m really upset that I’ve offended anybody”. I think this example hit home a lot worse because burqas are a part of what a muslim woman has to wear and it is part of their religion. It is so hard to draw a line because would this mean that someone that is not christian cannot wear a cross around their neck? 

Celebrities face a lot of negative response when experimenting with style and lifestyles but this is only a small factor of what cultural appropriation covers in todays society. This will be one of the themes in my reflective essay for this module and I will be looking further into how the media effects cultural appropriation and some of the struggles and debates within that sector.