"Are you empowering your son for the journey ahead of him?" By Funke Egbemode.

When I came across Funke Egbemode article, I screamed Yes. She just said everything that I have been thinking for the past two years or less. I just didn't have the "umph" to write a post on it. She writes about the need for an awakening in the way Nigerian mothers train their sons. An uncle of mine recently said that "It is more benefical to have a female child than a male child in today's society". He further said, "A female child will certainly take care of her parents but a male child is like tossing a coin and hoping for the head". 

I am not saying there are no good well-trained men out there. I believe there are some out there but I have to admit that the ladies are doing way better.

An excerpt from her article;

"Today, I am worried about our sons, today’s young men. I am truly worried and every mother should pause, take a closer look at her sons and daughters and answer this question: are you empowering your son for the journey ahead of him? Answer truthfully, after all you are alone and you don’t have to let anybody hear you.

I think Nigerian mothers have not done well raising future husbands and fathers. Let’s admit it, we have not scored above average, that is if we achieved average at all.

Take a closer look at your beautiful daughter and your handsome six-footer son. Who is better prepared for the task ahead? I know some of us had realised this and have done better than others but most Nigerian mothers need to buckle up. Our sons are not what they should be and we cannot have the society, the country we desire when we put unprepared men and overgrown boys in positions of authority. I’ll explain myself.

In too many homes, the wives are the bread winners. Too many women are paying the rent and picking bills that make a man the man. We do not need figures from the Office of Statistics because I know every woman in this country knows at least one family where the man is not truly the head. He is just a figure head. And every man who is a figure head is a sad commentary on his mother. Every young husband who waits for his wife to draw her monthly check before the monthly shopping can be done is a figure head, a proceed of a failed mother. That is harsh, right?..." Read more at Romancemeetslife

The Common Woman

Source: projectcasting

I don't want to be tagged a feminist. However, I don't think "the female" should be treated like a lesser being. I don't want a tag to who I Am when it comes to gender. I just believe we should all let our conscience guide our actions, especially when it comes to how we treat each other as human beings. I believe in the The Word "do unto others as you want others to do to you".

That being said, I will like to move on to the reason for this post. We all love and appreciate women that are doing it big in the industries. Women making the headlines, bringing change in their various sectors and exploring waters that are male dominated. These women deserve the standing ovation they get from us aspiring to be like them. However, we should not forget to appreciate the everyday common woman. 

Not all female tailors can be fashion designers with famous brands. If they all are. Who will sew your DA Viva Ankara or Aso ebi materials at affordable rates and within a reasonable time.

Not all caterers/cooks can own a fine dining restaurant like René Redzepi's Noma. If they all had fine dining, who will prepare that delicious firewood jollof rice for your wedding. Or will we all be glad if there was no longer "mama put" spots around?

I know that pepper/vegetable seller and pepper grinder in my estate has saved me from having so many failed dinners. The way they pick and chop that ugwu leaves.... So fast ... I always watch in awe. 

All around me, I see women working hard, trying to sustain their families and making a livelihood for themselves... The Cooks... The Cleaners on street of Lagos and your homes... The fish Sellers... Many are not appreciated because they are not the picture of the success we aspire. The least I can say is about the Common Woman is that she hardly settles to becoming an armed robber, kidnapper or a hoodlum / thug on the street, especially when compared to the Common Man counterpart.

It looks like I am just ranting a lot of words, but I am just trying to shine some form of light on women doing jobs that no one recognizes but yet their non-existence will make life a bit inconvenient for us. 

My New Breakfast Obsession: Oat

When I was growing up, Oat was a breakfast option I never liked. In fact, I despised it, but my mother made us take it. About a few years ago, I became more conscious of what I ate and oats became an option I started to consider. Now I am not saying that I "fell in like" with it, far from it, I still dreaded mornings I planned it as a breakfast option. I just took it because it was healthy for me, high in fiber and I could take it with left over fruits. To be honest, I end up trashing it because it goes stale in my pantry.

However, the story has changed now. I discovered oat flour and my mornings with an oat breakfast is something I look forward to now.

What is Oat Flour?

Oats can be further processed into coarse powder. It becomes Oat Flour.

How I Make Oats Flour

Ingredients

- Whole grain Oat (preferably organic ones, but any one will still do the job)

Time: Less than 3 Minutes

Equipment Needed

- Blender (dry food blender) or Food processor (I prefer a blender because it was faster than my food processor)

Instruction

- Put as much oats as you need into the blender. I will advise that the oats are higher than the blender's blades. This enables the blender to blend the content better.

- Blend the oats until it becomes fine.

- Store in an air tight dry food container until ready for use.

Result

- Close to a flour consistency, just a bit coarser

Tips: Most Blenders can get the job done. I use my wet food blender too. If using a wet food blender, You might need a spatula to stir the content every now and then when it's blending. Blend for like 20 seconds first, then stir the oats, blend for 10 seconds again and keep repeating until you get your desired result.

My oat flour is used in everything from breakfast meal to pancakes. Recipes of how I use it is coming soon in other posts. 

Remaining Confident when Suffering from Acne

Image Source

Being confident when suffering from serious skin problems can be very challenging. Going out without makeup is a dare that you are not willing to take. Every time someone sees that problem area of your skin and asks "why is your skin that way?" It takes another jab at your confidence. 

One thing I have found that helps us (Yes, myself included) through this phase is encouraging words from loved ones and family. I think partners, siblings, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles and friends of those suffering from serious skin issues should refrain from highlighting the problem. Trust me, we already know the problem with our skin, we don't need anyone, especially someone dear to us highlighting it.

I use to have the common skin problem as a teenager up to when I was like 21. Then I started eating right, exercising, using over the counter products that seemed to be working, etc., I got a good skin. It wasn't a blemish free skin, but I was satisfied with its progress. However, eight months ago I got into the hair vitamin craze and started taking one of the popular brands (will not mention the brand because I am not trying to bad talk it). My skin went crazy, I went off it after 3 weeks. It has been a downhill movement of my skin from then on. 

My wedding was about few months away, so I got a very high end product that took a plunge at my bank account. The product worked well for me before my wedding. After my wedding I decided to get off it and go back to using something simple. My skin was not having it. It got so bad that I would have over nine large cystic acne on just one side of my chin area. I tried returning back to my high end products, but they didn't work. Nothing worked again. I have never suffered from this kind of severe acne, blemish and spot. (Plus, I must include that my diet was really whack)

To be honest, my confidence was affected. I had to take matters into my hands and change how I felt. My husband was a great help. He reassures me everyday that he sees me more beautiful now than before. He never said a bad thing about my face. 

I am nowhere close to full recovery with my skin but I have been able to get my confidence back by applying these principles below;

• Talk to your Loved ones about how you feel: When I started getting negative comments from family and friends. I sat them down and politely told them about how their comments don't make me feel any better nor make my face any clearer. Anyone that truly care for you will stop making negative comments after a nice sit-down talk.

• Avoid those that have nothing good to say to you: You don't need to surround yourself with people that don't make you feel better. If you can't physically avoid them, Keep a safe distance in your communication with them. Strangers opinions don't matter, anyone doesn't have good things to say about you before knowing you, doesn't deserve to be on the list of people's opinions you consider. 

• Be Kind and Caring to People: You receive what you give out in life. I believe when you help people with kind words, your service or your resource each day, you will feel better about yourself. A feeling of self worth and relevance grows each day. Visit a distressed friend or an ill friend, get treats for your neighbours kids, volunteer to help out at an orphanage, etc. There are always people around us that need our help, identify them and help. You will see how much your confidence will grow.

• Read Books: This may sound like a cliche, but reading books on self development and growth helps. It doesn't necessarily have to be on skin issues. It just has to be books that impacts you positively and makes you see the world better.

• Eat healthier and drink more water: This cannot be overemphasized. It may look like you do not see results, just keep eating right and drinking more water. At least you can confidently say you are doing something right. I also believe in time eating right pays off. Reduce your sugar and processed food intakes.

• Exercise and Always be on the move: Do not sit for too long, do not lie for too long. Move around the house, office and your surroundings. I don't like tedious exercises. I am a restless person, so I tend to move around more. You feel better knowing you didn't just laze around all day doing routine work or doing nothing. Confidence comes when I feel like I have worked my body good at the end of my day.

• Rest Well: The skin repairs itself when you are sleeping. The longer the hours, the more time the skin has to repair itself. Sleep a minimum of 7 hours every day, don't over do it though because too much of everything is not good.

• Also Dress Well. Clothes makes us feel better about our appearances

Words for those that have Loss a Loved Ones

These past three months has been a sweet sad one for me. A lot of Friends and family members close to my heart loss one of their loved ones these past month and when this happens I am always so helpless as to how to act. I know there is usually not a right or wrong words to say at that point. I know comfort is the only thing at that point they respond to. In the mist of my speechlessness and "cluelessness", I search deep for inspirational words to tell them. This is what came to my spirit yesterday.

Words for those that have Loss a Loved Ones

We can not question God for what he did or did not do. He said in His word that His ways are not our ways. While the happenings in our life might have no meaning to us, know that these happenings are part of a greater plan that God has for us.

Isaiah 55:8-9 KJV

"[8] For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. [9] For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Our prayers each day should be that God should use us to accomplish His will/plan on earth. The little we can do to ensure this becomes a reality is for us to align ourselves with God. Let's keep walking in the Faith and love as Christ instructed us to do.

Our comfort each day is that one day we will meet our Saviour (and our loved ones with him) as we keep walking in His righteousness.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 KJV

[16] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: [17] Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. [18] Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

2015... Here we go again!!

I will begin by saying "Happy New Year". To say I took time off blogging is an understatement. I wrote my last post in March, 2013 and didn't chec in again on the blog until the 4th of January, 2015.

Last year was something, not everything I wanted came to past, but a lot of the far fetched ones came to be. I got married last year after dating my good friend of 10 years for like 9 months. 

If anyone told me this time last year that I will be married to him, I would have laughed it off. I didn't see him that way, well, until I did. Also, I work in one state and live in another one now. Lots of driving for me.

2014 was a mixed one for me. I overachieved in some goals and underachieved in others. Nevertheless, I am very excited about 2015. 



I have a lot of blog post ideas up my sleeve and I intend coming out of my shell a bit more this year.

So let's cheers to a sweet year ahead. 

BLACK SOAP vs BLACK SOAP

For the most of 2012, I used the Ghanaian black soap to wash my face. It really helped me clear up most of the acne I have struggled with since my teenage years. Sometime late 2012, I decided to experiment with different things and try different brands of African black soap. (The first and last time before 2012 I used black soap was when I was 7 years old and had chicken pox. It helped with the healing process.)

My usual black soap of choice is Akoma Black Soap (Bars) with 50% Organic Shea Butter (picture below)

INGREDIENTS:

*cocos nucifera(Coconut Oil), **butyrospermum parkii (Raw Shea butter), Cocoa Pods, Aqua (Water)

*Certfied organic ingredients
**Contains Certified fairtrade 50% raw shea butter

ORIGIN: Akoma Cooperative in Ghana

SHELF LIFE: 2 years

I used this soap for about 6.5 months in 2012 and it was amazing for my face. It cleared most of my acne. It can be a bit drying which is not abnormal for black soap but I get to use jojoba oil on my face after cleansing. It removes makeup, oil and dirt so well from just one wash and a little goes a very long way. It cleared a lot of my skin bumps & spots. The packaging too is so sexy-pretty.  

So on one faithful day after indulging in my normal Youtube search for what is hot in the natural hair and skin care community, I stumbled upon a "by popular vote" African black soap that many natural babes in the UK were using. I got curious and ordered like 1 kg of it. It was Sheabutter Cottage Authentic African Black Soap (picture below). 

INGREDIENTS:

cocoa ash (doh), unrefined palm kernel, water, unrefined sheabutter

All certified organic 

Vegan friendly

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Ghana

This black soap is trusted, organic, made in Ghana, fair-trade and all those things that make you feel good about the products you use. It looked richer and a bit darker than my staple Akoma black soap.  It also removed my makeup, oil and dirt so well from just one wash. It was packaged very simple and you can tell that the company is environmentally conscious. 

THE BUT OF THIS SOAP: It was super drying, like so drying that my jojoba oil and a regular facial moisturizer wasn't cutting it out for my face again. It really stripped my skin of everything. Because of the dryness I was experiencing, I started breaking out so much. So I had to stop using it. I think it is too rich and loaded for my skin.

I thought it was because I moved back to Nigeria from the UK, so I tried it again about four different times last year (January, March, June and November) and it yield the same result. SO I totally gave up on black soap generally and just assumed that the Nigerian weather doesn't agree with Black soap on my skin.

However, after finding nothing that felt right for my face (with an exception to St. Ives. Green Tea Scrub), I decided to bring out my Akoma Black soap again. I compared the two soaps ingredient list and I found out that there was a slight difference. One used Coconut oil and the other used unrefined Palm kernel. 

I used Akoma all through December (after about a year off it) and it was just as wonderful as always. Cleared up my face in a week. This made me realize that there are differences in organic black soaps and you must find which one works for you. I will refrain from palm kernel in any black soap brand I will use in the future. But on that thought, it might not have been the palm kernel, it might been the percentage mix of the ingredients.

The Sheabutter Cottage brand is stronger than the Akoma brand, So my sensitive skin didn't like it.

On the brighter side, I am just glad that not all my two years supply of black soap (a year of Akoma and another year of Sheabutter Cottage) is not going to waste. I will use the Sheabutter Cottage brand to wash my hair every now and then. All things work together for good.

PLEASE NOTE: I have tried other products from Sheabutter Cottage (like their Jojoba oil, coconut oil, lavender essential oil, rosemary essential oil and Rhassoul clay (love love this clay)) and they were all wonderful and of great quality.

Food Vices 1: Noodles

As much as I try to be an advocate of healthier living, I sometimes stray and find myself lusting after junks like chocolate, warm white bread, sugar coated doughnuts, mountain of party jollof rice and noodles.

In the quest to minimize my consumption of these vices, I incorporate nourishing and super-foods with my vices.

NOODLES
I can not eat any other brand of noodles but the popular Nigerian household brand: INDOMIE (if it is not Indomie, e no go fit be the same thing as Indomie).

When eating this I try to spice it with

- Boiled Egg / Grilled Fish

And the following vegetables

- Bell Peppers (red and green)
- Chilli Pepper
- Onions
- Chopped Cabbage (picture not below)
- Tomatoes (very fresh and still hard)

I add these ingredients when the noodles are almost cooked (like 30 sec or so to well-done). This is to ensure that I don't get rid of the goodness in the vegetables. I use just one Indomie noodles with the following ingredients above added and end up with a satisfied stomach.

WALLAH!!!

My 13 Favorite Things from 2013

Banky W "R&BW" Album - To be precise I loved the Yes/No track, everyone in my house did. We over rocked this track. 

Body Shop Body Mist: I love sweet, mild, calming and close-to-nature fragrances. I have been using the body shop body mists for two years now and I will keep stocking up on them whenever I get the chance. The Mango and Shea mist is definitely my favourite.

Kinky-Curly Knot Today Natural Leave In / Detangler: Its super light and non-greasy. The Ingredients in this product is minimal, not full of junks you wouldn't understand.

Source

My Digby Metal Frame Boxy Handbag by Dunes London: This bag is so functional and classy/classic. When I first set my eyes on this bag I knew I had to have it. 

 St. Ives Body Lotions: Usually I use oils and butters but since I started using the St. Ives Body Lotions I find myself pushing my butters and oils farther away from me. The great thing about this lotion is that contains no parabens, no phthalates, not animal ingredients. They are hypoallergenic (i.e. they contain  ingredients that cause fewer allergic reactions versus/when compared to the average lotions in the market), fast absorbing and non-greasy.

JVC Gumy Headphones: Not only are they super cheap (about £6), they are durable and the sound is good and very clear. Of course, no fancy bass or techno thingzzz but it does the job well. I have had mine for over a year now and considering the fact that I handle it roughly, it still works perfectly well.

Wafers like no any other, I will love to introduce Loacker's Classic Wafers. The vanilla is the best of the four flavours I have tried. I can take down more than 15 of this in a day. Yeah, that is how much I love them. It virtually melts in my mouth. Only writing about it now makes me want it.

If you havent seen my post on Unripe Plantain Fufu, then now is the time to have a look. Because I can't go a week without having this dish.

Social Media: YouTube, Instagram and Twitter kept me interested and updated this year. I fell in love with Bloglovin and so many blogs I can't begin to mention

                                                                      

I joined the Mac Ruby Woo bandwagon (*sigh* I thought I had over-grown for social pressure but nah nah). I don't regret it.

Zenith Bank MasterCard, the fact that my bank just one a MasterCard when you open any type of account that can be used anywhere in the world is bliss. It made traveling so much easier, hassle free and cheaper (because you exchange at bank rate and not black market rate) for me. #teamzenithbank #justbecause


The way Beyonce dropped her Beyoncé album.... I was like

I love this year's New Year Eve because I know it is far better than the previous year. I am more grateful this year for so many amazing things that have happened to me.

So that is it for 2013.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

XOXO

A Quick Drop

A quick message to all my readers. 

Dreams

When all seem lost and we feel there is nothing left for us to do, We should never forget the power of being able to dream. YES! I believe dreams come true. The great thing about dreaming is that no one in your dream will have negative or discouraging words to say. 

Dreams are personal and must be treasured. Dreams are what makes the impossible, possible. Dreams are what make many jump out of bed every morning. Dreams give us reasons to strive on and live. 

I believe one stops living when one stops dreaming. So don't stop dreaming. This song by the Everly Brothers remain me of my dreams. I thought I should share. I use to love this song as a child, it use to make me happy. As an adult it inspires me. I think the song was talking about a girl but I interpreted it differently as my goals and aspirations in life. Although I don't intend dreaming my life away. 

Hope you all enjoy it as I do.

25 Reasons to be Grateful

I was contemplating on whether I should do this post but after much going back and forth I decided to give it a go. Here are 25 reasons in my life to be grateful to God.

1. For His love - God's Love
2. For Hope to carry on each day
3. For Health
4. For the Love of family and friends
5. For Happiness and Joy - Considering the fact that about 2 years ago I was in a dark place.
6. For helping me beat all the odds against me in life (Between God and I)
7. For Daily Wisdom
8. For comfort
9. For Wealth
10. For an Intellectual mind
11. For Doors of opportunities that keeps coming up despite my ingrate attitude towards them.
12. For Academic achievements
13. For the giving me to strength and will to be a blessing to others
14. For Daily purpose and direction - When loss a sense of purpose and direction, God always has a way to put me back on track.
15. For growth
16. For the business that has been entrusted to me
17. For Abundance of blessing - I feel blessed each day and I know I will have a blessed live. I know God was referring to me when he said in 3 John 1:2, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."
18. For adventures - I have gone and seen places I never thought or imagined possible.
19. For constant innovation
20. For bringing helpers my way
21. For Beauty 
22. For all my material possessions
23. For my room - (No one can imagine how much I love my room)
24. For my blog - cluelessrandoms.blogspot.com
25. For 25 years of ups, downs, failures, success, trials & errors, breakthroughs, forgiveness, mercy, peace and for much more things to come.

I thought looking for 25 reasons will be a tough one for me to do but when I started thinking and listing them, I realized 25 was just so small. I could go on and on. Thanks to everyone that reads this blog. Try not to be like me and wait for a day like this to count your blessing. Try to count your blessings daily, as I intend doing from henceforth. 

Happy Birthday to Me

DIY Unripe Plantain Swallow (Plantain Amala) - From scratch under 20 mins

Unripe Plantain Swallow is also known as Plantain Amala or Plantain Fufu. I am accustomed to the old method of buying dried unripe plantains from my local market, grinding them to fine powder and cooking/turning it into a solid paste that looks like this picture below. The drying process of unripe plantains makes it look like (colour wise) the picture below.

Source: Wikipedia

Unripe plantain swallow is my favourite Nigeria swallow but to be frank it has one of the most unattractive food colour ever. 

However, with this method, colour is no longer a turn off. I am very new to this method of making unripe plantain swallow. My dad and mum told me to try it out (They weren't sure it will turn out great) and I gave it a go. 

Tools needed:

- Blender

- Turning Stick
- Knife

- Pot

- Packer/Large Serving Spoon
- 1/4 cup of boiled water

Turner. Packer, Knife and Blender

Ingredients:

- 3 unripe medium size plantains

- 3/4 cup of water

Serves: 2 (two) medium-hungry people

Total Time: 20 mins for fast cooks / 35 mins for beginners

How To Prepare

- Peel plantain bark off

My mum doing the work of peeling the bark off and chopping

- Chop peeled plantain into smaller pieces for easier blending

I put the chopped plantain in water while peeling the rest to allow it retain it's moisture and prevent it from getting discoloured

- Add the 2/3 cup of water and blend the plantain until it becomes a smooth puree

- Pour the plantain  puree into a pot and set on medium heat/fire to boil

Puree-like texture

- When the plantain puree begins to boil, take you turning stick and begin to turn carefully

Note: Take necessary breaks if needed when turning. Puree might appear lumpy when turning but don't worry about it. Continuous turning and mashing will eliminate the lumps eventually.

The lumps I mentioned that will eventually smoothen

- Turn until you achieve the smooth swallow/solid-like texture you desire

Turn till I get a solid paste

- Add 1/4 cup of boiled hot water and cover to steam for about 2-3 minutes
- Turn again 

- Food is ready to be served with soup of choice. 

Unripe Plantain Swallow with Fresh Vegetable Soup 

I prefer this method because
- It is a DIY that doesn't require a lot of processing/time to get your unripe plantain to your end result
- It tastes fresh and good
- It has a nice colour
- It doesn't pass through many unknown handlers, hands and markets

I haven't tried it with ripe plantain yet. This is because I think the sugar content will be high and the starch content will be lower, so it might not hold well but I might be wrong Although anyone can try it and tell me how it turned out.

Taking a Break from Norms

A new era of my life has just arrived. This era involves me taking a break from my normal thought patterns and ''absorptions''. While I will still remain true to my fundamental beliefs and values, I need to appraise my priorities and needs, and determine new ways that will work out better for me in achieving my life-time purpose on this planet earth. 

Not intending to sound very Mother-Theresa-meets-Margaret-Thatcher-ish, this post is about taking a break from my normal vibrantly colourful nail polishes to a very neutral one. 

So here is my nail polish of the week 

Nail Polish 

L.A. Colors Base Coat 

L.A. Colors Nail lacquer  

Yes!!! This post is a very selfie one. The amazing things about these L.A. Color nail polishes are that they went for 99p (approximately N250) in a beautybase store and they dry super fast. So I got myself about 10 different colours.

The Adult I Wanted To Be

Source

As a child, I always wondered what type of adult I will be. I use to observe every aunt and adult females around me. I look for traits in them that I wanted to possess when I grow up.

I wondered if I was going to be the sister that goes to church with the big box-like net hat; or the aunt that is an embarrassment to the family; or the stylish aunt that has lots of pretty and stylish friends that all went to the best parties in town.

I wondered if I was going to be the man-eater and gold-diggers kind of sister; or the most intelligent that bagged so many degrees, successful achievements and trophies;

I wondered if I was going to be the “indifferent aunt” that felt satisfied with just being a “house-woman”, with no interesting life exposure, no enthusiasm to achieve anything great with her life. 

Just a living plain old boring life is perfect for her.

Even as an adult I don’t know what aunt/sister I turned out to be. However, I wonder what the younger ones see when they look at me.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY NIGERIANS

Freedom hand - Nigeria Flag

53 years of freedom is not beans oh… So we all know we had a tough and a good start to freedom (early 1960s). Then it got a bit tough and doubtful (military era), we miraculously got our footing back on the ground and kept pushing on (the 1980s and after Abacha’s death). We threatened each other to split up (Biafra war and even the recent boko-haram).  We are even sometimes tribalist to one another (inter-tribal marriage). Of course poverty rate, electricity supply, stable transportation system/channel, enforcement/judiciary system etc. is not what we hoped it will be. Many of our people’s minds are still a bit backward thinking. But the long and short of this independence matter is that we are here at 53, no going back to change things. Looking at all that is wrong with Nigeria has not helped the country anyway; I guess we should all take a different approach by looking at what we can put into Nigeria. Complaining about our leaders will not change them but if everyone plays their part first as responsible human beings, then as good citizens, the country will finally get on the pathway of betterment. Arise O’ Compatriot #AriseOcompatriots

Why Can’t I Just Sleep In!!!!!?????

I crave for mornings that I can just lay-in back in bed and do nothing but relax throughout the morning. Be able to just lay in bed, read a book, drink a nice cup of warm chocolate tea and doze off every minute or so.

Sigh…. Those mornings only happen in my dreams. An attempt at it will warrant a lecture on what it means to be a great daughter, a great woman and eventually a great wife and mother. I will get reasons why an African woman cannot afford to be lazy and lay in. I will get a sermon on the pathway of failure. I will get a rundown of the list of people that I am responsible for.

If I just by any chance give in to my instinctive pigheadedness and sleep in, I will combat a whole day of the silent treatment and a constant future reminder of my lazy actions. And NO, all the other 364 days of waking up on time to perform my morning duties will not count again because that 1 day sleep in will trump the previous 364 days.

Honestly, I don't see a sleep in day coming anytime soon because I am not up for the saga that comes with it.

Aloe Vera Gel - One Man's Poison is Another Man's Cure

I have beautiful aloe vera plants at home which has grown so well because I take very good care of them. I didn't nurture these plants because of my love for the plants. I nurtured them because of my love for my hair and its growth. I have read and heard about the amazing benefits of the aloe vera plant for the hair and skin. So knowing that my mum had so many pots of dying aloe vera plants that she couldn't be bothered with, I decided to nurture most of them back to good health. 

The thing now is after nurturing my plants to great health, I can't bring myself to actually use them. I don't know if it's just sheer laziness on my part to get the aloe vera gel out of its green shell or my unsuspecting gradual attachment to the plants. Whatever it may be, I just can't bring myself to get some useful 'gel-ness' for my hair.

Allowing my aloe vera plant to continue to blossom, I decided to get two tubes (200ml each) of Holland & Barrett Aloe Vera Gel (99.9% soothing hand filleted organic aloe vera gel content). What the hell, 99.9% in my books means 100%.

FOR MY HAIR

I have very low hair porosity, water takes a very long time to penetrate and products normally just sit on my hair. It takes quite a while for products to sink in. I tried the aloe vera gel in so many ways to see which result will work the best. 

Note: My hair is still in one of the TWA stages (about 6.5 to 7 inch hair length when stretched)

1st way - On my wash day (after shampooing and conditioning), I used the Cantu Shea-butter leave-in cream (never works well with any gel on my hair), followed by the aloe vera gel (like a tablespoon full). It resulted in lots of residues and white junks, so I had to rinse everything off my hair. (EPIC FAIL)

2nd way - On my wash day (after shampooing and conditioning), I used my Aussie Moist Miracle Insurance leave-in spray, followed by aloe vera gel (like a tablespoon full) and then a few drops of oil. It was alright, it sank well into my hair. However by midday, my hair felt very dry. (FAIL)

3rd way - After co-washing, I properly moisturized with my two leave-in (cantu and aussie) and sealed with oil (usually this is all I need for three days) then when the products had properly sunk in, I used the aloe vera gel (like a tablespoon full) on top. The overall feel was great but midday, my hair felt very dry. I had to constantly re-moisturize. (FAIL)

4th way - In between the week, on a 2nd to 3rd day wash n go, I spray my hair with water and used the aloe vera gel (like a tablespoon full). Again, The overall feel was great but by midday my hair felt very dry. I had to constantly re-moisturize. (FAIL)

5th way - GIVE UP. Patience and all ain't one of my many strengths.

I was kind of pissed that it wasn't working for me and I really wanted it to work. Even though I read on the lowporosityhaircare blog that aloe vera gel is a frenemy to my kind of hair, I am also a believer of what works for you might not work for me. But in this case, I have to admit that she was right. However, she gave other great recommendations on how to make make aloe vera gel work for low porosity hair but my hair care regimen is not channeled in that direction. It is a pass for me.

While I was still thinking of what to do with my tubes of aloe vera gel, I was mildly breaking out on my face. So on one random night just before bed, I decided to actually read what was on the tube and apply the gel on my face as a moisturizer. It was so amazing.

FOR MY FACE

It gives my oily face a well-balanced moisture. It helps keep my make-up and face so matte, It is a great primer I must confess. It mixes well with oils, so I use it with my jojoba oil at night. It is very soothing on the face and neck. I used it on insect bites too and it helps soothe them for me. 

I feel like it's a win win for me now. So it didn't work well for my hair but it works great for my face, make-up and skin.