Oluchi Onweagba for Nature's Gentle Touch

Lovely Pictures, for the Nature's Gentle Touch brand of hair care products. Enjoy, and have a great weekend.

Past African American Winners Of The Oscars

The #1 Hollywood entertainment event is this Sunday and already, bets are being made, in this household anyway, about who will win and who won't. Denzel Washington is up for his role in Flight, and may yet win a third Oscar. Both he and Halle Berry are among 13 African Americans who have previously won best actor or best supporting oscars in the past years beginning with Hattie McDaniel in 1939.

Dear Myne - My Husband's Ancestry is a Family Secret

Hi Myne, I've been all over your website looking for a place to drop a personal relationship question begging for an answer. But maybe I can leave it here? [This came in from my FB page. My email address is on the About page and you can also leave a comment on any post]

It's like this, I have been married to my husband for like 10 years now. When we were courting, he'd introduced his older sisters to me and the rest of his family, but unknown to me the one I came to know as his eldest sister was really his mother! He knew it then but didn't tell me.

Now, the truth came out late last year. Stuff happens everywhere, I know, and it could be one of those 'she got pregnant with him when she was was very young, maybe even didn't know who the father was' and it wouldn't be far from the truth or all that unusual a thing. What I mean is that it's not like it's some kind of never before heard of situation.

Volunteering in Ways that benefit Young Women.

I grew up in London and have always done my own hair (well in primary school my Mum used to do it for me) , but throughout uni I did hair for people in my Church and at university, as I attended a university outside of London with very few black people. Whilst working a 9-5 at the MOD , I did bridal hair on the weekends, then got the opportunity to work in the hair industry in Nigeria.

I kept postponing it as I was apprehensive, I'd never lived in Nigeria even though Mum dragged me there on holiday at any given opportunity. I'm sure I have been to my home town more times than my family that live in Lagos or Abuja.

About 2 years ago a friend of the family committed suicide, he was a budding actor, but his career was in peaks and troughs. Cut the long story short, my brother booked my ticket and I had one week to pack my life and go to Lagos "Just go, you don't have anything tying you down, you will regret it if you don't go".

Why I'm Afraid of Celebrating Nigerian Public Officials

Richard Mofe Damijo - RMD

A few weeks ago, I featured RMD as a February Man Candy. The list was to showcase Nigerian men who looked good doing what they did, but I also wanted to use the opportunity to celebrate them for their hard work. RMD is a veteran Nollywood actor, but some years ago, he accepted an appointment to work with the Delta State government as an Special Adviser, later a commissioner for Tourism.

Now, RMD is alleged to have misappropriated N50Million meant for a Cultural Expo to attract tourists to Delta State, my home state. I've waited a couple of days for a rebuttal from RMD and his camp, but none has surfaced at this time. Until he has answered the allegations publicly, I've decided to remove RMD from my Man Candy list. He may be eye candy, but if he's guilty, he's not a man I can look up to or ask others to aspire to be like.

...Mr. Mofe Damijo issued a check to the tourism board in the name of its acting GM, Ms. Ajufo. She in turn reportedly deposited the sum into her First Bank private account with account number (3006131619) operated under her name, Nkem Philo Ajufo. Our sources said she and Mr. Mofe Damijo subsequently shared the money.

Being Open to Meet Potential Dates Online and Offline

After I published my Re: Valentine post, I got a couple of emails from people who wanted to know more about how Atala and I met online, where, and what I had to say about online dating, or simply meeting potential dates online, and then taking it offline.

One was looking for websites/message boards where he could meet people, and asked for specific websites to meet new ladies. He said reading mine and Atala's meeting again made him want to give online dating a shot.

The other, a lady, said she had kinda been accused of not being open to meeting people online and taking a step outside of her comfort zone. She also wanted to know more about online dating. Though she had dabbled on a dating site before, she never got past the profile filling, and wanted more targeted directions.

Mercy Johnson Shares First Baby Photoshoot

Mercy Johnson has been telling her motherhood story through pictures on Twitter. Over the past two months, the Nollywood actress has transitioned from wife to a mother and she is enjoying it. After her daughter's birth on the 30th of December 2012, she recently changed her social media name to Mercy Johnson Okojie and the bio to Wife, Mother and Nollywood Actress.

Yesterday, Mercy Johnson had her daughter's, Purity Osebhajimente Okojie, first photo shoot and the baby looks so adorable.

Alex Ekubo - February Man Candy #22

Alex Ekubo came to the public eye after competing in the Mr. Nigeria pageant. He is now an actor and a fashion model.

10 Things Women Like to Hear From Their Men

They say women love to hear lies from their men, as long as that is what they want at that point in time. Personally, and some women I know have said the same, I prefer genuineness in a guy. I want to know you're being honest in our interactions and telling me the truth most of the time. I want a guy who will allow me watch my 30mins of E! and still discuss politics when we need to.

However, some men find it hard figuring out how to put their feelings and emotions about their ladies into words that are real and not too flowery. So this one is for the men who love us. Do you sometimes find yourself struggling to find the right things to say to the lady in your life? Whether you are in a committed relationship or wanting to take your relationship to the next level, here are 10 ways to talk and engage with your woman.

1. “You’re very smart.”
I know I want to be appreciated for my intelligence. It could be her book-smarts or street smarts but complimenting your woman on how savvy she is in different situations show that you're paying attention, and seeing the whole package, not just to her body.

Nigerian Prostitutes in Italy - Migration and Prostitution

Some of you may have seen these pictures before, I saw them yesterday and I was terribly disturbed. Now, don't get me wrong, I know Italy has it's fair share of prostitutes, a good number of them Nigerian, but in all the documentaries, news, and books, they worked in brothels or backway alleys at night. Seeing the conditions in which these women in the pictures worked was like a punch in my stomach.

A part of me insisted these had to be editorial images, photographed with models, meant to shock. But even if so, I also knew it could be feasible. Some Nigerian women could actually be living and working in environments like these, for money, for whatever. I wanted to blame the Nigerian goverment, I wanted to blame the Italian government, I wanted to blame the women themselves, after all, wouldn't it be better to live in a mud house in Nigeria than be a sex worker in a condom-strewn bush clearing?

But what if this was some person with a camera wanting to paint a single story? It was all doing my head in, so I had to find the origin of the pictures. And I did. The images are real, the women are real, they were shot by Paolo Patrizi, an Italian documentary photographer who now lives in Japan. I found this out on his website, and when I found his number on there, I decided to call him too. We spoke for a few minutes and he confirmed the pictures are geniune and of real working women.