Just because I want to... flaunt!

Happy new year in advance to all my readers. 2012 seems to be my best blogging year yet. We can only hope it gets better in 2013. Here's to all my blog readers, followers, and supporters. Thanks for making my blogging experience worth every effort. May we all have reasons to celebrate by this time next year, just like we did last year. Because I appreciate you guys, you still have one week to enter for the triple giveaway of Izegbuwa's Christian Fiction here.

So after Prism did a post on her lovely natural hair, I wished I could do mine too, but I couldn't because my hair is always in twists, and the shrinkage is massive, such that people wonder why my hair still looks short in twists. I always have to explain the principle behind natural hair shrinkage. The fact that my tips curl up like mad doesn't help matters, but I try not to worry about it. I just rock my boring short hair that does not seem to grow.

So it has been over two years since I cut my dreads off, and left my natural hair to grow out. I got an offer from Prime TV, a new fashion station in Nigeria operated by the Nigezie crew, to be the hair tips presenter, because of the work I have been doing on my natural hair blog and outside of it.

So I went there, and shot 15 episodes of tips in five hours. I had the opportunity to get out of my boring twists for once. Though when I got home, I washed my hair and put it back in twists the next day, lol.

So enjoy the pics. Believe it or not, they were all taken on the same day - in less than 5 hours, even the camisole testifies, though I did not take a picture of the first episode. It was stressful, cos I had to keep changing hairstyles, starting with twists, progressing to twistouts, and ending in afro. Fifteen ways of styling hair is not easy for me at all, though some of them look the same in the pictures. The next time I would have the opportunity to take these kinds of pictures would probably be when I shoot the next 15 episodes.

So tell me, which look do you like best?

I still have a long way to go before my reaches hip bone length. Right now, I am on Bra strap length as we can see, but I am gonna maintain a good hair regime, and hope for better result

In the spirit of Christmas -Triple Giveaway

Good Day people. I will cut to the chase. I will be giving out three books, courtesy the latest Christian Fiction author in Nigeria, I Izegbuwa.

She has just released three lovely books, all Christian Fiction, and I will be giving out a copy of each.

1. The Stolen Years

A story about the ripple effects in a family torn apart by their parent’s greed.

Adenizen is the perfect school in every sense except for one thing. On the outskirts of its campus, there is a student villa where the female residents are fair game for any man who can pay the price. Madam Ofilia runs the villa and will go to any length to take the most promising girls under her wings, as long as they live up to their side of the bargain.

But when the ladies of A16 at Noble Hall become her next target, events take an unexpected turn. With each of these girls running her own agenda, it seems Madam Ofilia has bitten off more than she can chew. As things go awry, she is brought face to face with a buried past that might eventually cause her to meet her waterloo.

2. Fit for a Crown

Three African women from three different eras are bonded together by a thin, fragile thread. Iyogie is the soft spoken matriarch of the Idusefe family. A lone figurehead in a community of ancient traditions, she practices her faith quietly. But like a lamp which burns in a dark room, her inner strength cannot be hidden and she offers hope to those close to her.Ifueko: Living in the era of colonial transition, her destiny seems to have been decided by the men who rule the world in which she lives. But when these same men are subdued during the foreign invasion, Ifueko must take her destiny in her hands by deciding whether to go the way she has always known or to follow the road less travelled.Stella is a modern day beauty queen, living life in the fast lane. When her life begins to spin out of control, she realizes that she may need to apply the brakes before she crashes. In a bid to reverse some of her hasty decisions, she takes a trip into the past to discover what exactly has been holding her back and what she must let go, if she is to lay hold of the true essence of life.These women swim against the tides of their time, each one drawing inspiration from her forerunner as a legacy of true and lasting royalty is passed down from one generation to the next.

3. Blooms among Thorns

Like most ladies in the prime of their lives, Imade is determined to make a success of herself. She arms herself with everything that is necessary for this quest including a prestigious degree, a promising banking career and Dapo, her perfect man.

But she never anticipated that setbacks could occur along the way and is distraught when her perfect man walks out of her life and leaves her expecting his child. Then, just when she is learning to get along fine as a single mother, Dapo resurfaces; and it's not because he has missed her. Before long, Imade finds herself embroiled in one battle after the other as the ideal future she has mapped out, begins to fall apart. But though her dream of a perfect life is shattered, her faith in the perfect God is not. It is in her most dismal hours, that she discovers that God is able to turn her frustrations into triumphs if only she would yield to His transforming grace.

If you are interested in getting the book, both paperback and kindle edition are available on amazon. For the kindle edition, you can get them here, here, and here.

To enter for the giveaway,

1. Be resident in Lagos, Nigeria, or have an address the book can be delivered to, so you can get it later.

2. Follow this blog via google friend connect.

3. Follow me on twitter, @hattylolla

4. Let me know which of the books you are interested in, by dropping a comment below.

Winners will be announced in two weeks.

You can achieve that thing - My life as an example.

Before you read on, I would really appreciate if you read this interview of mine on the Women who write series on femme lounge, and drop comments.

Constant improvement is the really cool. I look at how far I have come in this Spoken Word thing. You guys all remember the first time I went to read my work, how bland and plain it was, even though I was reading from the screen. You can check it out here.

My first appearance was really dull, and I have been looking for the picture, but it seems to be missing.

Then we started adding life to it.

But we were still reading from either a screen or a book, and not performing

And then, we knew if we didn't take this serious, we would get left behind. So we decided to go into professional spoken word... So we dropped the paper, dropped the reading, and moved on to greater things - Performing.

And then we started getting inviting us to major and big events.

My first professional appearance. No more reading

 Plus our names started appearing on posters, flyers and DVDs with the veterans

And then, we started going for TV Productions for Spoken Word.

Performing at Unchained Voices

And then, we started doing Solo Spoken Word presentations at prestigious events like the International Day of the Girl. 

Performing at IDOG

Doing a combo of Spoken Word and Soul Music

What am I trying to say? When it comes to spoken word in Lagos today, my name gets mentioned, along with many other great people. Earlier this year, I knew absolutely nothing about spoken word. It is really God's grace.

If you put your mind to do anything, believe me, you will achieve it. I did not achieve my professionalism in Spoken Word on time, due to faults of mine... called laziness. At the end of the day, I lost nothing when I decided to be more serious.

Believe me, if you want to improve yourself in anything, you can. If you doubt that, scroll back up again, and look how I was when I started, and compare it to what it is now. The pictures themselves testify. For booking and reservations, please call 07061141501. Thanks

Its harder to get videos of professional performances of mine, than it is to get the crappy ones, which were loaded on youtube, but I got this one from the last Word Up.

It is titled The Wrestle. I featured my cousin, Oyinkansola (watch her video featuring brymo here). 

The video below does not start from the beginning of the performance, so the intro and round one of the fight, which is about two minutes long, is missing from the video. I hope you get the message behind the performance though. When I get the full one, and of better quality, I will upload it.

Introducing the new African Naturalistas range of products

Sorry, I know this is not a hair blog, but I guess some of you might be interested in this.

I am happy to let you know that in addition to the whipped hair butter I sell, we have just launched some new hair products.

They are suitable for all natural hair carriers, and for relaxed ladies who are interested in minimising the amount of chemical products used on their hair, by using more natural products.

A list of our products are
1. African Naturalistas Hair Butter (100ml and 250ml) - There are 3 different types,

Lavie Life: Helps with Alopecia and controls breakage

Minty Jazz: Stimulates growth and improves scalp health

Sweet Rosie: For Dandruff and Itchy scalp

They cost N700 for 100ml and N1200 for 250ml 

African Naturalistas Hair Butter

2. African Naturalistas Deep Conditioning Treatment - 473ml. We decided to make this a bigger size than regular to ensure that people with very long hair can also use it loads of times. This is meant to help condition and improved the health of your hair strands. It costs N1200

African Naturalistas Deep Conditioning Treatment

3. African Naturalistas Moisturising Natural shampoo (250ml) - There are 4 different types, Lavie life, Minty jazz, and Sweet Rosie, Wishee Washee (made specially for kids). This shampoo was made specially for people who are trying to run away from those harmful sulphates. It costs N700

African Naturalistas Moisturising Hair Shampoo

4. African Naturalistas Anti-Dandruff Herbal Rinse (250ml) - There are 2 types of this, one for oily hair, and one for dry hair. It helps combat issues of dandruff and unhealthy scalp. It costs N700

Africa Naturalistas Anti-Dandruff Herbal Rinse

Please, click here for more details about each product.

So how do you order? Simple. You can order by sending an email to nigeriannaturalhair@gmail.com with the subject 'Product Order', letting us know what you want to order, or you can simply call us on 07061141501.

Would be expecting you all to order immediately. Thanks

Wordpressers speak back: Nigerian Blogger users are ignorant, backward, etc

For all y'all that were looking for drama in my last post, I can happily announce to you that it seems you are going to get it after all, and this is completely not my own doing, as you all brought it yourselves with your comments. So, Toinlicious, bring back your seat, things are turning out to be interesting after all. And everyone, please, leave Toinlicious and her seat, there are many seats in this cinema of mine. I am sure you know that when I started the 'How I see Nigerian Blogsville' series, I did not know it would take this turn. Don't worry, it is just friendly banter, so please, let us keep it friendly.

If you have not read the first two parts of this post, I advise that you read them here and here before going on, and I am sure you will agree with me that my hand is not in this drama. I was just writing, as my blog title states.

Source

Some people commented in my last post that word-pressers feel they are all that. Well, you have met your match, in fact, more than your match as they think we bloggers users are backward, ignorant, not technologically advanced, etc. They are also ready for war, looooollllll. So you all that want to fight, get out your swords if you live in the eras on the 1600s, and your grenade if you live in this present century. But one thing is sure, I am the blog coward that won't be found anywhere.

Olatoxic, who is my close friend in real life, but definitely not in blogsville, is the word-presser I spoke about in this post, who detests blogger, visiting it, and everything about it. He has taken time to reply some of you who returned his sentiments. He climbed the podium, and took the mic, and declared war. The thing is that I am so surprised he saw my blogger post, and even took time to comment, after his declaration of blogger hate. I guess blogger was just too sweet for him to stay away from at this point in time. 

Here is what he had to say

*zooms in* #TeamWordpress FOR LIFE!!! *tears singlet and brandishes war paint*

Oh, it looks like I'm a one man army... *jejely wears new cloth and proceeds to climb stage like a gentleman*

*knacks mic and clears throat* Hello there, my fellow bloggers. I speak for the wordpress side of our dearly beloved artform. I think it's sad that you guys cannot see the light. Your platform is clunky and difficult to use. Why do I have to have a blogger account to EASILY post a comment on here? Be doing eyetest for me everytime I want to comment. -____- And have you any idea how hard it was to read your blogposts on my curve2 browser? It was so frustrating that I gave up on it even after I stepped up to an android phone a while ago. You see, it's really pathetic that blogger doesn't have a sensible mobile web platform even at the end of 2012. Neanderthal!

Also, do you know why we don't SEEM to have a community as such on wordpress? Obviously not. Let me help your (for lack of a better word)... ignorance: "Wordpressers" are almost all on twitter as well. That's where we do all the bonding and fighting and camaraderie-ing. You see, we've learned how to work both platforms for optimum exposure and 'benefitability'. WIN-WIN!! So yes, we do bond and fight too, we just keep all that 'pettiness' away from our blogs where we can focus on the actual art of writing/blogging while we keep all our 'silliness' on twitter.

Oh, another thing, I subscribe to a few blogger sites directly through my email... and I receive the posts in my inbox 24hrs later! Like, wharraheck?! Where's the sense in being alerted about a post the day after it was published?! Do you bother with yesterday's newspaper when there's today's to read? Rabbish and nonsense. Mscheeeeeww!!

Abeg, I dey go paddle my kayak go back wordpress jarey. I for done subscribe to comments so that when you people reply me, I can receive it instantly in my inbox but... Oh look, blogger is not that advanced yet. Oh bugger.

ps For those of you so concerned about not having your pictures up on your wordpress comments, if you were any technologically advanced, you'd know that you could use your twitter, facebook or even blogger acct while commenting and your avatar from any of those accts would show up, with the link to that profile attached too.

pps @ilola, I'm incensed that you did not credit me in your post. We are now fighting. I demand an apology and atonement for your sins. 3-|

pps I bear no grudge towards you blogger bloggers (see how rubbish that sounded?) and your backward ways, the vexed tone of this comment was purely for purposes of mirth. I do not take responsibility for any one of you who do not possess a real sense of humour.

*bows and exits stage left*

I am sorry Olatoxic for not crediting you in the post. I never knew you would even read a blogger post, talk less of commenting. I was trying as much not to stain your wordpress pure blood (Harry Potter things) by mentioning your name on blogger, as we are too far beneath for you, since it won't do your wordpress status any good. And just so you know, I use my blogger account to comment on wordpress posts, yet my picture still doesn't show.

Blogger users, I hope you notice that they said it is our ignorance that makes us build a strong community, such that we bond and fight on blogger, instead of doing it on other platforms. It sounds to me like Olatoxic is trying to justify the lack of community love of word-pressers, like we have on blogger. Lol

So bloggers, let us know. Are we really these adjectives way word-pressers have described us to be? 

P.S: This blog is a hate-free zone. So let us try to keep our comments non-volatile and jovial, as we all know that that is what Olatoxic's comment is.