Category Archives: Rants

12 Personality Traits That Define The Obsessed Hair Product Junkie

“I love my hair because it’s a reflection of my soul. It’s dense, it’s kinky, it’s soft, it’s textured, it’s difficult, it’s easy and it’s fun. That’s why I love my hair.”
Tracee Ellis Ross

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I dwell in communities on and offline saturated with images of glorified crowns from colorful beauties of the global majority. These images seep into the crevices of my cranium and set a flame hair aspirations that can hardly be achieved with a brew of potions promising pretty. The over concentration of hair hustlers pushing beauty in a bottle has left me weak in my knees. It’s hard to “Just Say No”.

In my community, Korean beauty shop owners are the biggest distributors of trafficking transactional pretty to African American women. Heads up! — African American women spend an estimated $7.5 billion annually on beauty products. For which, the Korean beauty dealers monopolize the supply chain in communities of color.

Today, outside my community I pace back and forth in the aisles of one of my favorite mashup Halloween beauty shops to find the grease that will outdo this mundane mop to a magical mane. Looking for the perfect hair care product can be scary — because every label is a masterpiece of trickery. Ignoring this knowledge, I believe the flowery words of every tonic that promises my locks will blossom from weeds to Pocahontas lengths. Because of this masquerade marketing, I buy the placebo Pocahontas tonic and use it for several days to discover my hair hasn’t grown an inch. Instead, I have uncontrollable itchiness for days on end. Circle, circle, dot, dot — now, I need a hair product junkie shot.

Bewitched by smoke and mirrors, I am mourning yet another potion pushing-up-daisies in the hair product graveyard labeled “the bottom of my closet.”

I am now slouched on my sofa watching YouTube videos while simultaneously scrolling the ‘Gram to coax my latest labeled disappointment. I am lured once again by the representations, reviews, and raves about products promising pretty pictured tresses. I closely observe each Beauty reppin’ a side of the beauty shop aisle. I ponder, “Which side of the aisle do I represent”? Probably all, I muse. My hair product junkie habits are messy, irrational and hard to bottle up.

Here are the Hair Product Junkie personality tribal traits I brush-up against on my hair product exploration (scratch that) acquisition journey.

12 Personality Traits of the Obsessed Hair Product Junkie

  • Miss. Black Market — This Beauty only buys B L A C K.
  • Miss. Budget Friendly — This Beauty is price sensitive and buys products that are easy on the pocketbook.
  • Miss. ‘cone FreeThis confused Beauty doesn’t mess with products that have ‘cones but will use other products with ingredients that coat the hair strands and don’t easily wash off with water.
  • Miss. On the ground — This Beauty cops products that are locally stacked on convenient store shelves.
  • Miss. Free Loader — This Beauty product acquisition tactic is based on reaching the purchase quota to obtain free shipping.
  • Miss. Ingredient Identified — This Beauty buys products like she orders her meals. It can’t have this, this, and that.
  • Miss. Naturally, Organic — This Beauty demands every product she buys be environmentally friendly and made with easily pronounced ingredients that are between 1 to 3 syllables, each.
  • The Kitchen Chemist — This Beauty buys primary products to master mix hair libations to intoxicate the dullest strands back to liveliness.
  • The Follower Influenced — This Beauty buys products based on her favorite social media personality. It doesn’t matter if they don’t share the same hair type.
  • The On-Sale ‘Couponer’ — This Beauty picks up products only on sale or with a coupon code. She scours the internet for a coupon code and feverishly tries multiple codes before one works to complete her online purchase.
  • Miss. Better Bulk-up — To protect from production delays in the kitchen supply hair care chain, this Beauty buys products in bulk. Because her favorite boutique hair care mixologist is frequently out-of-stock of the top-selling items she enjoys.
  • Miss. Eye Candy — This distracted non-woke ‘Beauty school drop-out’ buys products based on imagery.

After spending six hours on the internet, I identify three products to conduct an investigative discovery to the product’s mysteries. I start by identifying the ingredients of each of the products. This time I will outsmart myself and I will not be bamboozled by the brands. These bombastic claims are weaponized marketing. With this knowledge — Why not create a computer program to differentiate the product ingredients among the three product choices I’m eyeing? Genius. I start writing the program and I am interrupted midway by thoughts of hair product junkie brilliance. “Why not, also associate each ingredient’s benefit and apply a ranking system based on the value attribution of the benefit? The value attribution is to give a higher rank to the natural ingredients and the ‘cone-less ingredients when compared to the other ingredients”. This is when I stopped and came to my senses. I navigate to the website to make my online purchase. My buying decision was based on the imagery, the coupon code I found after a two-hour search on the internet and the free shipping I received after having to buy $500 worth of products.

“Hi, I am Rochelle and I am hair product junkie”.

Read my other written work.

Until the next time – I adore you for reading my blog,

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Morning’s prelude

I rise before the brilliant star in the East.

I tip toe in the twilight, trying desperately not to create a symphony of pots & pans clanging.

My head makes a hit.

See, my pupils are not enlightened and by design have not increased their viewpoints.

I meander to the toilet chamber to sit on the numbing throne.

I dispose of yesterday’s waste, then

Bow my head in reverence, as I scroll through the scattered stories and the weighted happenings of humankind.

45 minutes is gone and I am weighted in position.

I hoist my torso onto the sink to form a boomerang with my body parts.

I plank myself up,

And scold the mirror with menacing thoughts,

“This will be the last time I’ll sit on this toilet in wastefulness.”

Tingly sensations soothe my senses.

I stand up and greet the sun.

           My day has begun.

****

Until the next time – I adore you for reading my blog,

blogrochellesignature_18october2016

What does your state of mind say about you? – The Busy Drug.

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I don’t like to state to myself or to the world “I am busy.” Said a different way, I don’t like to describe myself as a “busy body”. Busy is not who I am, it is not who “I be“.

I’ve used “I am busy” to opt out of activities.  I’ve used “I am busy” in lieu of using the complete sentence NO.  I’ve used “I am busy” to feel/seem important. I’ve used “I am busy” because it has become a habitual lazy response.  I’ve used “I am busy” because I had no other way to describe my activities for the day.  I’ve used “I am busy” to mask my energies on time wasting activities. I’ve used “I am busy” to avoid making a decision.  I’ve used “I am busy” to fit-in with the crowd.

Why I am busy?  Busy is a state of mind. An “I am” statement I proclaim to myself and to the world. Busy is a belief.

I change my mind I change my inner dialogue about who “I am”.  I am no longer busy. When people try to push the busy manifesto on to me to adopt – I politely state “I am not busy” (end of sentence).  That is not who “I be”, that is no longer my story.

Now-a-days, I’m in the midst of practicing being still. I am still. I want to be filled with different things – engaging experiences of energy that resonates in the depths of my soul and elevates my spirit.

Embrace this idea today: “One’s action ought to come out of an achieved stillness: Not be a mere rushing on.” – D.H. Lawrence

Action Question: How will you change this “I am” statement? “I am busy”.

Until the next time – I adore you for reading my blog,

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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Today was such a beautiful day in the neighborhood. For me, I would say today was support your local Asian-American business day. First, I went to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned. My dentist is a young Asian-American man – I’ve been going to for over a year, now. The office is clean and the technology/instruments he uses are current and not circa 1970 models, like my previous dentist. Next up, I went to get a massage in the ghetto of Chinatown tucked away in this small clean, peaceful place located in a traditional Chinese herbal pharmacy. “Linda” is the massage therapist, she is not proficient in English, however she gives a good Tui Na massage – I’ve been going to her for over 2 years now. After the massage, I walked to the “Village” experiencing the sun, sights and sounds along the way. Then I strolled to Soho to window shop and salivate over the items I want — however cannot have. I arrived home and this is what I posted to my Facebook status…

Digital Ghetto

This ‘digital ghetto’ I live in isolates me from being connected and being present
The opportunity to interact and be at hand with real people and the real world has been replaced with this new reality I’ve been sold.
Why visit with neighbors?
When being on-line with them is so much fun.
This ghetto that I live in-
Is a manufactured environment that isolates me from my community and the Sun
.
I don’t know about you?
I for one, will stick with the possibilities of real life
and live in my real-life ghetto that I’ve been sold.

–Adapted from Rochelle’s thoughts 😮


Until the next time – I adore you for reading my blog,


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Ring the Alarm!

BloombergDon’t rush to blame BP over the oil disaster.”  I have to agree with this statement. As provocative as that might be, we have a responsibility for the oil spill. The United States is the largest energy consumer in terms of total use, using 100 quadrillion BTUs in 2005. (No demand No BP)  A general tendency is to resist taking any sort of personal responsibility for energy-dependency (Think of the crack/drug addict). Our drug of choice is energy consumption. We are impaired to see that a different form of life is possible with alternative renewable energy sources.  My, Your, Our – addiction to consumption is way out of control!

Growing-up I remember my dad using kerosene heaters throughout the house because he refused to pay the exorbitant cost of oil to heat the house back then (1980s). He would sit around with his parka coat and gloves on while he watched TV. I remember having the thermostat all the way up in my room and I thought he was going to have a heart attack and/or kill me! So now I am an adult and thanks to my Dad – Mama refuses to pay a lot for energy. I have a few vices (no one is perfect) however energy ain’t one of them! My friends make fun of me – Don’t visit Rochelle in the winter or the summer. In the winter, my place is a great rejuvenator to get the blood pumping with the cool burst of air that embraces you as you sit around. My remedy is usually handing out blankets to guests and/or offering hot tea. In the summer, the moist heat is sauna like and I usually do not turn on the air conditioner unless there is critical mass of about 5 or more guests. I have gone entire summer seasons without ever turning on the air conditioner. I don’t own a car or TV and the lights in my house I use minimally. At times, I laugh at myself – my appearance would never lead you to believe I have made such choices for my life. A friend said: I have a wood-stock soul with the glamour of the stars.

The truth is – Americans think they are entitled to having energy on demand. Our energy consumption is alarming. It is time to Ring the Alarm! The fact is that someday, non-renewable resources will run out. One might debate or opine about when this will happen, but there is no dispute that it will. Oil is a non-renewable resource. This means that we cannot create oil. Oil results from the decay of dead material under layers of mud, which under pressure and, transforms into a sticky, black, carbon-based fluid. In a sense, oil is cooked dead stuff.

What do we do? Here are few first steps to consider: (1) Look for local products to consume. (2) Work near where you live, or find a place to live near where you work. (3) Raise your own awareness of energy consumption and dependence. (4) Be a reflection of your beliefs in the community and if you find yourself falling into the trap of entitlement (realize that it is a selfish position), dig-out/ask for help. (5) Limit your false needs/addiction to overall consumption (this is an area of improvement for me).

It starts with you and me! Take a gander at the charts below:

Energy Consumption by Sector




Until the next time – I adore you for reading my blog,



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BMindful

Lately, I have been in a steady continuum of thoughts. Which is fine, I guess. However, I feel there is a lack of discipline with my relationship with my mind. When I am in engagement with other people, I am at my best of surrendering to the present moment. The challenge becomes, when in the quiet moments I retreat to my thoughts, which for me is a great place to be – however, I have to be mindful my mind is hungry for more stimulus, more food for thought, and because of that I am in constant thought. I know what I have to do (it’s just the discipline of doing it), I have to surrender my thoughts to the universe and be fully conscious of the present moment when I am “All by Myself“.


The mind is the aspect of intellect and consciousness experienced as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will and imagination, including all unconscious cognitive processes. The term is often used to refer, by implication, to the thought processes of reason. The Mind manifests itself subjectively as a stream of consciousness.

The mind is frequently synonymous with thought: the private conversation with ourselves that we carry on “inside our heads.” Thus we “make up our minds,” “change our minds” or are “of two minds” about something. One of the key attributes of the mind in this sense is that it is a private sphere to which no one but the owner has access. No one else can “know our mind.” They can only interpret what we consciously or unconsciously communicate.

Until the next time – I adore you for reading my blog,


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Confused Blogger

I have to admit, I am confused as to the direction I want to take this blog. I have so many thoughts, ideas, questions and conversations to share with the world which has crippled me from moving forward with my blog postings.  Secondly, I spend way too much time on Facebook and I need to reallocate my time to other vectors in my life (i.e., blog postings and reading).  With that, I have decided to just go with the flow.  My first goal will be to post weekly here.  The blog will be my relationship to my existence on earth from spirituality to beauty to wellness to politics to fashion to romance to family and any other rants and raves I will share with you for universal consumption.

Until the next time – I adore you for reading my blog,


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