If you have been on Nat Mane‘s blog or my twitter account (@naturalnigerian) recently, you may have read that I now offer cocoa butter for sale.
Cocoa Butter
The day I finally got my order in, I was as excited as a kid. You see, I had never ever ever seen or used raw cocoa butter before. My experience with it has been limited to finding it in imported creams and lotions.
First of all, cocoa butter smells divine – like chocolate. I had done my research and knew it was a hard butter but was still surprised at just how hard it was. If you thought that Shea butter was difficult to spread, wait till you experience raw cocoa butter. Anway, I made a quick basic whipped butter with it (and Shea Butter and coconut oil) and used it on my daughter – from head to toe. She declared that she would smell delicious all day! Of course spreadability was no longer an issue…
Cocoa Pods - My Grandfather had a Cocoa tree. As children, we would pluck Cocoa pods off the tree and lick that white covering over the seeds.
The cocoa butter I carry is export quality – y’all know I don’t play with standards – and I am happy to say it is quite affordable. I have not settled on a unit of measurement for final sale but 1kg comes to about N1,200. It will most probably be sold in smaller quantities though.
I have heard people say that Cocoa butter makes them dark. My question to them is – were you using just cocoa butter or cocoa butter mixed with other things? I am fair complexioned, have been using my whipped butters for about 2 weeks and haven’t noticed a change. Anyway, if you decide not to use it for your skin, by all means use it on your hair.
I won’t go into all the details about what Cocoa butter is all about in this post – a post dedicated to that will come soon.
Special thanks to Nat. Mane for putting the word out there!
Every time I check my visitor statistics, I find a few questions that have brought people to my blog via google. I have decided to start answering a few….
What is the local Nigerian name for fenugreeek?
On Saturday 18th February 2012, Small World Nigeria held a food festival. 30/31 countries were represented and we had an amazing time sampling food and wines from the participating countries.
To give you an idea, there were wonderful deserts from Belgium, sauerkraut and sausages grilled to perfection from Germany, delicious pâté and cheeses from France, cheese and chicken pastries from Jordan, delightful sweets from Syria and so on and so on. For the wine lovers, there were red and white wines being served at the South African and French stands. Americans offered ginger root and lemonades among other things. By the time I had gone round to 15 stands I was stuffed but I kept on going!
About 3 hours into the event, they put on a circus show with representatives from the different countries performing. It all ended with a parade and fireworks. I score the organizers a 10/10. Things went on seamlessly and that takes effort and attention to detail.
Now, to the serious side of things. Small World Nigeria has over the last 17 years raised N274 million naira and supported 160 charities in Nigeria. For them, it doesn’t stop there. They ensure that all the money is accounted for and even follow up with inspections where possible to assure themselves that the money was used as it was meant to. The night of this food festival, they raised N37million naira – all of which will go to support the different charities that were nominated by the different countries.
To learn more about them and possibly donate or volunteer your time, please go to their website here. I find that there is no better way to pass time than to spend it changing someone’s life for the better.
I forgot my camera at home and had to use my phone so please forgive the quality of the pictures below:
Walking into the venue
A view of some of the stalls.
Eating, Eating, Eating
The Jordan stand.
Sweets from Syria (hope your country pulls out okay!)
Getting a Falafel made at the (I have forgotten which country) stand
UAE stand
There was generally a menu so you could see what you were getting.
I am pleased to announce that we have a date for the meet up: 10th March, 2012. We have also decided on a theme – Hair Loss. This is probably what Screwy Hair Girl and I get the most questions about so we have decided to tackle it at this meet up.
Aislynn Adewale (the Hair whisperer) will be talking about the different types of alopecia – including the one that has wreaked havoc on a lot of our hair lines – traction alopecia a.k.a Mama Iyabo.
Our in-house nutritionist (Sherese of carib health) will look at hair loss from a nutrition stand point while Screwy Hair girl will discuss easy to find ingredients/products that help with managing or combating hair loss.
One of the best ways of stimulating hair growth is to massage the scalp. An esthetician has agreed to come and show us the proper way to do this.
I will share more of the agenda in coming posts – as we solidify things.
As you can see, we will have a full house of professionals sharing their knowledge for free. They will be open to answering questions so please come prepared.
If you have indicated that you wish to be a vendor at this event, thank you again. A mail will be sent to you with vendor information by the end of this week.
I have mentioned that we plan on having a meet up every quarter. For this quarter it will hold in the month of March and the team (Screwy Hair Girl, Natural Mane, Sherese Ijewere and I) is working behind the scenes to ensure that we bring our A-game and much more.
Last year’s meet-up was a great opportunity to meet you all and it brought home the fact that this meet up is larger than just the four of us. Your input is really important to us so if there are any suggestions you would like to make, we would love to hear from you. Please feel free to mail us: naturalnigerian@gmail.com, screwyhair@gmail.com.
Other reasons that you may wish to email us are:
- You wish to be a vendor – we will have some tables available.
- You wish to sponsor or contribute to a giveaway.
Akiba Solomon says: NEGATIVE MESSAGES ABOUT TIGHTLY COILED BLACK HAIR CONTINUE TO GO UNCHECKED. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
Read more here: http://www.ebony.com/news-views/global-good-hair
I have been seeing some lovely orange-colored oranges in the market lately. I have bought quite a few and I will be putting it to all sorts of use. For those of you that are wondering, in Nigeria we tend to get green/yellow oranges. Now, these appear to be all over the place.
You can eat oranges as part of your fruit servings per day. Apart from being low in calories, oranges are a great source of phytonutrients, dietary fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Vitamin B potassium, folate and calcium.
It doesn’t end there. Even the part that we usually discard of – the peel can be very beneficial.
Orange Peel has several uses and this particular variety that I have been eyeballing has a sweeter odor than our normal green/yellow ones and I have been imagining all the lovely things I could do with them. Right now I am using orange peel powder to brighten up my complexion a bit and remove my “tan”. That actually is a necessity as my work now has me outdoors much more than I am used to. I am fair-skinned means that some maintenance is necessary. The recipe I use is below.
If you are inclined to some DIY, here is how you can make some Orange Peel Powder. Peel your oranges, dry the skin and then grind it to powder. It is that simple. A few tips are: Peel the oranges lightly so that you don’t take much of the bitter white part along. The peels can be dried in the sun or a dehydrator if you have one.
Orange peel powder can be used in several ways.
Hair
Orange Peel powder used in the hair leaves it soft and shiny. For naturals, don’t expect shiny. You’ll just get a sheen. It can be used by mixing it with a little conditioner and or water, applying to the hair for about half an hour and then washing it off. This can be done after a shampoo although there are some claims that orange peel powder can clean the hair too.
Skin
Orange Peel powder is anti-inflammatory, an anti-oxidant and a good source of Vitamin C which is wonderful for the skin.
- Using water, make a paste out of equal amounts of orange peel powder and milk. Apply to face and then wash off after about 15 -25 minutes. I have been doing this once a week for about 2 weeks now.
Health
- Make a drink of orange peel powder and water. Drink this as an extra source of Vitamin C as well as for lowering cholesterol levels. It is also said to help in the digestion of fatty foods.
- Orange Peel powder can also be used as a mosquito repellent: Mix a little powder with water and coat the skin thinly.
Home
- Boil a few peels of orange and the smell will leave a nice fragrance in your home.
- Make a spray with Orange Peel powder and water and use it for killing ants. Great for those parents that don’t want to use any toxic chemicals in pest control because of their crawling children.
You can do this with the green/yellow oranges as well. I just really like orange oranges. 
References
World’s Healthiest Foods – Oranges
What goes on in the hair bulb?
The Science – techie stuff
1The … cells undergo repeated cell division for hair formation. The high rate of cell proliferation gives rise to a constant stream of cells which push their way up to produce the hair fibre….
2Melanocytes in the bulb also transfer pigment to the hair keratinocytes to give the hair colour
..high rates of cell division…
Breaking it down:
You know that thing we all long for? Hair growth! It happens in the hair bulb. Like all living structures, the hair bulb possesses cells. These cells undergo mitosis (cell division) at a rapid rate – apparently at the second highest rate anywhere else in the body.
The Hair Bulb - see all the cells migrating upwards?
As you can see in the picture, there is only so much space for all those new “baby” cells. This lack of space means that the older cells have to move upwards until they eventually break the surface of the skin as hair. When they do this, the hair on the scalp lengthens. That is what we call hair growth.
This cell division takes a lot of energy and this energy is provided by glucose. Remember that we saw here that the dermal papilla supplies this. It can only supply this if your body has an adequate amount to delegate to hair growth. Literally food for thought.
The last thing I want to highlight her is the fact that hair color is given in the hair bulb.
Want me to break it down a bit more?
Imagine planting a seed. The norm is to dig a hole, drop the seed into it and then cover up the hole. Over time, as you water and nurture the soil (thereby indirectly the seed), it begins to grow. This growth starts within the soil and after a while you see a shoot. That means that the seed has burst open (under the right conditions) and is now growing in a vertical direction. Some seeds have the capacity to grow to oak trees, others stop as shrubs. However, that growth comes about because the seed broke the surface of the soil and grew in a vertical direction.
P.S: I do realize that a seed grows in downwards as well but for this purpose of this post, we are focusing on the growth of stems rather than roots.
What you should do
Ensure that the right conditions are present for cell division. Apart from what we learned about the dermal papilla, there is also scalp health so that the growing hair can break the surface easily. More on that in a later post in the series.
Some Trivia
Typically, hair grows half an inch per month. That is a total of 6 inches a year. Not everyone can retain that length which is why it may seem as though your hair is not growing.
1 Formation and structure of human hair. Pierre Jollès, Helmut Zahn, H. Höcke
2 Hair Growth and Disorders. Ulrike Blume-Peytavi
If you follow me on twitter (@naturalnigerian), you would have “heard” me mention attending African Dance Class. It is a great way to let off steam, exercise and learn some African dance moves. Can’t dance? It doesn’t matter as it is not a criteria. The only requirement is that you come with an open mind, ready to have fun.
I hardly sweat. I am the original Miss Cool. It takes a lot of physical exertion on my part to get me to break into a sweat so anything that has me dripping a few minutes is always welcome. This class had me jumping, twisting and working out every part of my body. The sound of the drums draw you in and encourage you to do more, do more!! One of the drummers even broke into song reminding me of Kegites (a fraternity) in Nigerian universities. It was really nice.
I went this Wednesday, camera in hand because I wanted to share pictures from the class with you. Thanks to the gracious ladies that gave their permission for the pictures to be taken and shared here.
Enough talking, here are the pictures:
The Crew with the drums
To the Left
Kick!!!!
Taking a well deserved break
Also available at the venue are healthy drinks and snacks made by Carib Health.
Healthy Homemade Zobo (Hibiscus Flower/Sorrel) drinks
Healthy cookies made from oats and raisins
Want to participate?
Classes are held every Wednesday from 1000hrs to 1130hrs.
It costs N1,500 per class (snacks and drinks not included).
Call Sherese Ijewere on 08068754464 to book a spot.
Disclaimer: I wasn’t paid in any way (cash or kind) to promote this.
