Natural hair is the act of preserving, wearing and nurturing the natural state of your hair without the inclusion of chemicals. But some natural Nazis extend the meaning to mean a person who wears their hair in its natural state; no chemicals, no heat, just curls and kinks.  In general being natural is more about embracing what you were born with, and not altering it for the approval or benefit of others.

People go natural for a multitude of reason like; damage, a desire to embrace the real them and in some cases plain curiosity. Senior Krystan Hitchcock is in the process of transitioning to natural hair in pursuit of her natural texture and a cheaper alternative.  ”I wanted to see what my curls looked like and its cheaper than paying $60 a month to keep up with the maintenance of a relaxer.”

But all the laud and approval natural hair has come with lately hasn’t made it easy. Hitchcock has struggled with the competing textures. “It’s definitely not  as easy,” she laments “I can’t just  go to the gym without thinking about my hair, it’s constantly dry, it’s just very hard.” She also says the cost while cheaper it definitely not free, “I’m constantly buying new products just to see what will work for me.” Despite the challenges, Hitchcock is sticking it out, “I like the idea of learning to make what I naturally have work for me instead of altering it in some way.”

Some are making the opposite journey. Finance major Brittany Dickerson came to Hampton University natural, but she’ll be graduating in May with a relaxed mane. A native of Chicago, she stopped relaxing her hair at the age of 13 and stayed natural for five years. ” I just couldn’t compete against the Hampton mist,” referring to the humid weather in Hampton, Va that often left her hair a fizzy mess in minutes flat. “I had to relax it’s just easy maintenance for me.”

But while many women are turning to natural hair to  showcase what they were naturally given or just for the sake of healthy hair, they are constantly judged for their actions. And not by other women, but by the men in their lives.

Black Men and Natural Hair

Many of the men I spoke to agreed that natural hair is good as long as the hair is still looks well taken care of. Cory Jones, a freshman at Old Dominion University has many friends who are natural, but he’s iffy on supporting the look. “If that’s what they want to do I’m fine with it, but I personally don’t like it.” But Jones’ dislike of the look has nothing to do with the style. He’s dislike comes more from the origin of the decision, “I think people do it for a fad,” says Jones “rather than for some significant reason.”

Edward Reed thinks every woman should go natural, but also says when it comes to physical attraction the style doesn’t fit everyone. “Going natural to me is much better than putting all those chemicals in your hair.” The chemicals Reed is referring to are the alkalines  present in relaxers that can sometimes lead to bald spots, hair breakage and in extreme cases second degree burns. But when it comes to dating, Reed has never actually dated a girl with natural hair. “I just haven’t there nothing wrong with though as long as it’s well taken care of.”

The sentiment seemed to be the same no matter where I went. Natural hair is great as long as it looks well kept. Jordan Haywood, a senior at Hampton University thinks that natural hair plays no role in attraction to a woman. “You should be supportive of the person no matter what, but natural hair is good as long as it doesn’t look outrageous.”

Natural Hair in the 757

Football, or soccer to Americans, is one of the most popular sports in the world, but its presence is barely felt on the campus of Hampton University.

Hampton University athletics have won numerous NCAA awards and championships, and with sports ranging from softball to golf it may come as a surprise to some that there is no official club or team for soccer on campus. But there are some people trying to change all that.

The game they came together to watch this week is the first round of the UEFA Champions League semi-finals at Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain between Manchester United and Barcelona. Three minutes into the game, Manchester’s Cristiano Ronaldo was cut off by Rafael Marquez of Barcelona resulting in a free kick for Ronaldo.  Despite sending Barcelona’s goal keeper Victor Valdes the wrong way with his penalty kick, Ronaldo miscalculated and sent the ball just left of the goal post leaving the leaders of the English Premier League with a missed opportunity to take the lead, filling the tiny apartment with a collective sigh of disappointment. As the game wears on , conversation drifts for talk of buying custom cleats to a friendly argument over who is the best player in the league. As the game ends in a draw

Ashley Smith, a print journalism major, is the first to admit she doesn’t have the healthiest diet. As a freshman, Smith finds that her food choices are limited to places within walking distance of her Twicthell Hall dorm on the campus of Hampton University.  “Whatever’s in the caf basically,” says Smith, “if I’m in the room I’ll probably eat some chips, junk food, and soda.” Recently, Smith and other HU students met with Dr. Wendi El-Amin, a University of Virginia professor and family physician, at a Healthy Eating seminar at the 30^th annual Black Family Conference. With her seminar, El-Amin hoped to change student attitudes about eating.

In most communities, especially the black community,  the end to every occasion is food, El-Amin thinks that making food the answer to everything contributes to the nation’s alarming obesity rate. “If you have a good day what do you do “let’s go eat,” if you have a bad day “oh let’s go eat”, somebody dies “where’d they go to get the food”, you have a baby they bring you more food. Everything in our culture seems to resolve around food,” says El-Amin. Even the American habit of cleaning every morsel from our plates promotes bad eating habits. El-Amin says, “We become a part of the clean plate society where we want to clean our plate every time we sit down…but it’s ok to step away from the plate.”

While at her practice, she says time, transportation and even hair are some of the excuses she hears from blacks who are not exercising. “Many people don’t want to sweat their hair out,” stated El-Amin “that’s a very real issue but we have to make sure we are not putting our beauty above our health.”

Though the choices of college students are limited it was shown that smart choices can still be made. El-Amin says everyone can make time to eat breakfast in the morning before class. “Make sure you’re eating 3 meals a day,” prompted the Hampton Alum “because if you’re skipping breakfast you tend to overeat for lunch and dinner so even if you have a granola bar or something in your room that will get your metabolism going.”

Junior Randi McClain isn’t eating three meals a day but she will add one of the El-Amin’s tips into her daily diet. The broadcast journalism major wants to cut back 500 calories a day in the hopes of decreasing her weight and her health risks. “ I think she said it will take a couple of points off your blood pressure and help you lose a couple of pounds a week, and I know high blood pressure runs though my family, my father and all my uncles and aunts have it so I’m definitely looking to improve it so that I don’t get it.” While McClain uses the tips learned, Ashley Smith thinks the university cafeteria could do more to help students be healthier. Smith wants the cafeteria to make a better effort of informing students of their nutritional choices on campus. “I think they could be careful about how much they put on a plate because I know when you get spaghetti it’s like a lot and most people are not going to eat it. Also if they let us know how many calories are in what we are eating instead of just serving it to us that would help a lot.” But while students wait for the University cafeteria to jump on the healthy eating bandwagon, there are still some things they can do to encourage healthy eating. In addition to eating breakfast, students can make a fruit basket for their room to ensure they get the nine serving of fruits and vegetables they need each day. Students can also opt for baked or grilled meats instead of those fried and saturated with fat. Also, stock the room with healthy snacks like tuna fish, oatmeal, popcorn or cereal. No matter how many parties, tests or papers you have an extra five minutes and some creativity will allow anyone to eat healthy everyday.

In the winter of 1985, Rae Lewis Thornton was merely doing a good deed by organizing a blood drive. After giving blood, Lewis Thornton continued her life as an up-and-coming political organizer; a few weeks later her life changed forever. “I got a letter in the mail from the Red Cross that I thought was a thank-you letter, but it said that something was wrong with my blood,” explained Rae Lewis Thornton to a silent audience at Hampton University. Lewis Thornton was 23-years-old when she was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.

Rae Lewis Thornton was the featured speaker at the opening plenary session at Hampton University’s 29^th Annual Black Family Conference on Thursday. “Because I come in a package and I put on my suit, I don’t look like AIDS when you see me. Don’t be fooled by the hype. If you buy into the hype you put yourself at risk for infection,” says Lewis Thornton as she stood in front of a captive audience in a black St. Johns pantsuit and Gucci pumps. By all accounts she looks like any other successful Black woman, but behind the designer labels is a woman who takes 14 pills a day and injects herself in the stomach twice daily just to stay alive. Her voice a little hoarse from recent speaking engagements, Lewis Thornton told the audience, “It takes everything I got on days like today not to drop a tear…there’s nothing easy about this disease.”

Diagnosed at a time when it was believed that HIV/AIDS was the disease of homosexuals, drug users and prostitutes, Rae Lewis Thornton’s story proves that HIV/AIDS knows no race, gender, age, sexual orientation or class; it is non-discriminate to its victims. In the United States, there are over 1 million people living with the disease with an increase of 40,000 new cases each year. Blacks in the U.S. represent 64% of reported cases, while only representing 13% of the total U.S. population. Black women represent almost 70% of new HIV/AIDS cases, and now HIV/AIDS is the #1 cause of death of Black women who are 25-44 years old.

So how does a disease that was once considered a homosexual disease now 25-years later affect mostly heterosexual Black women. Black women are primarily exposed to HIV by significant others who choose not to reveal their status to their sex partners or perhaps do not even know they are infected. This is how Rae Lewis Thornton contracted the disease, “At a point, it became irrelevant who infected me because he didn’t make me do anything that I didn’t want to do.” She urged the audience, mostly comprised of young Black women, to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. Lewis Thornton says, “HIV is a very smart virus, it adapts to everything you give it.” She believes prevention is the key to stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS. For now Rae Lewis Thornton is going to continue to tell her story through speaking engagements and books, in the hope that the crowd remembers her story and learn from her experiences with HIV/AIDS. When asked about her health and outlook on the future Lewis Thornton merely said, “I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds my tomorrow.”

All this to say, just because you’re on vacation don’t think you’re invincible. I’m definitely paying the consequences for my ravenous vacation appetite.

Stop, Breathe and Prioritize

You might e in a slump because you’re overwhelmed. You are so busy thinking about all the things you need to do that instead you shut down and don’t do anything. So take a breather, pick out one goal you need to complete at a time. Take your list of ten and bring it down to one. When you focus intensely on one goal you’ll not only complete it you might complete it faster.

Be Excited By your Goal

If you aren’t happy when you think about your goal than how do you ever expect to complete it. So pick something that you not only want to complete, but something you’re excited to have in your life.

Make it Visual

Post your goal up somewhere that’ll you will have to see it daily. In fact I might do that right now. Being constantly reminded of something you’re not doing should make you want to do it so you can take that nagging note down.

How will completion benefit you?

Why do you want to accomplish this goal in the first place. Think about your life after the goal is done, now isn’t it worth doing!

Here are some pics from Miami

  Day 1- We got to Miami around 11pm Tuesday night, and settled into our dump. That’s right. I mean the hotel was decent but the outlets on one wall didn’t work leaving without a working tv, lamp, or place to charge our phones (which we ended up doing in shifts. Wait let me rewind to our cab drive with Sam the Man, who’s cab was outfitted with strobe lights and fist pumped to the music from his radio for the entire ride to the hotel. Anyways, we decided to go out and wander the sity until we found something to do. We wanted to go to the Liquor Lounge, but one overzealous member of our group insisted we continue walking and find something else. We randomly found this cobblestone alley lined with little shops and restaurants, and found our way into a salsa club.

Day 2- We made our way to the beach which literally looked like a sea of Black people. It was pretty amazing to see and meet people from all over. There were people from Tennessee State, the AUC, and both HUs. I feel like all we did was eat on our trip. We ended up at this restaurant named Mangoes, where for some reason this Italian guy and his Columbian wife (both who I adamantly believe have some connection to a mob or a cartel in that order) kept buying us drinks and dancing with us. They invited us out with them that evening to a discoteca (I think that’s how that’s spelled), but after a little thought and the previously overzealous member of our group passed out we thought it best not to go. So day 2 ended quite early, way earlier than I would’ve liked.

Day 3- Byt now it was Thursday and we were making the trip to the beach again. Honestly, I don’t remember what happened Thursday so I’ll just fast forward to the night time. We went to the Pretty, Pretty Nasty party or whatever it was called. We did the typical things at the party danced, had a lot of fun. Afterward we changed clothes and at 3am the night was still pretty young to us so we wandered over to Pizza Rustica three words. Best. Pizza. Ever. Especially at 4:30 in the morning.

Day 4- Friday it rained. No I take that back it monsooned. We pretty much sat around the hotel until it let up. On a brighter note we switched hotels and moved to the Clifton, an eco friendly hotel on 14th and Collins. The hotel has dimmed lights in the hallway to conserve energy, halogen lightbulbs in the rooms, bamboo floors, and organic bedding and robes. That night we went to The Cleavlander where this man proceeded to lie and tell me he was a Dallas Cowboy. Yep. But little did he know I’m fully capable and well known to pull out my phone and research BS when I hear so Deon Swinton or whatever your named is I know you’re not a Cowboy lol.

Day 5 – Saturday was our last day in Miami. I met up with my friend Elise and went to the diner for lunch. I left my usual group behind because for the whole week they couldn’t seem to get dressed by a reasonable time. I mean I know we’re on vacation but geez louise can we get out of the hotel before 2:30 everyday. Anyways I left around 10am, ate and made my way to the beach and spent the majority of the day there. Later, we saw a drag show and passed a hookah place and when I mentioned that I had never done hookah before my friends insisted I try. I hate hookah. I coughed so much and I felt like my lungs officially hated me for doing that to them. With daylight savings time, an early flight and not wanting to miss out on any night life we thought it best to stay up all night. Yea Virginia Erica should’ve told Miami Erica that was the worst idea especially since we had to drive back from D.C.

SN: Ft Lauderdale’s airport is disgusting. I went to Dunkin Donuts to get a hot tea and a bug came out of the dispenser. Later felling queasy thanks to that encounter I bought some cold medicine only to see a cockroach crawl up the counter. Ugghhh I’m itching just thinking about it yuck!

I am dead serious.

I have yet to figure out what’s so fascinating about the sport, but I promise before I’m 30 I want to go to a curling rink and play. Maybe I’ll be so amazing I’ll be ask to play in the 2014 Olympics.

(I was going to put a pic of a baby making a yucky face here, but my blog didn’t think you should see it for some reason.)

Anyways, if you are curious about where the caf stands, or the cleanliness of some of your favorite places to eat you can check out http://www.spiesonline.net/restaurant-inspection.shtml . On this website you can be linked to the Health Departments in almost all of the 50 states. From there you can navigate to the Restaurant Inspections the city you live in and the restaurant you want to check out. This is Virginia’s site for Food Safety http://www.healthspace.ca/Clients/VDH/VDH_Website.nsf. It’s completely worth checking out, if you aren’t easily moved, because you just might be disgusted by your findings (storing food in plastic trash bags…really Hampton?)