An Easy Way To Soften Naturally Kinky Hair

By Chioma Iwunze-Ibiam

I wish I’d learned about the wonders of apple cider vinegar much earlier. All those years of groaning about hard it is to manage natural kinky hair would have been different. Last week, after I’d watched a How To Grow Beautiful, Softer and Shinier Hair video on Youtube, I decided to do something different.

First, I went to a department store. I bought 50cl of honey, 50cl of Aqua Rapha yogurt  and a bottle of Safari apple cider vinegar (and the ACV was so cheap. It cost less then N200 naira).  And I made my own conditioner.

First, I put a glop of yogurt in a cup. Then, I added a few spoons of honey, two tea spoons of apple cider vinegar, one table spoonful of mayonnaise (because it contains eggs and vegetable oils) and two spoonfuls of my Henna deep conditioner. I whisked these into a thick paste and proceeded to shampoo my hair. Again, I had put a few drops of the apple cider vinegar into my bucket of water.

Then, I parted my very think full head of hair and proceeded to wash and rinse. I wrapped a towel round my wet hair, just long enough to get excess water off my hair, before I brought in my homemade conditioner.

A Sex Manual For Beginner Couples

Missionary Position

The title of the book is the "Newlywed's Guide to Physical Intimacy" and it was written by Jewish Rabbi and sex therapist, Dvid Ribner with Orthodox researcher Jennie Rosenfeld. The manual "starts with the very basics - explaining, for example, how the body shape of men and women differs". According to the author, "Judaism regards sex as something positive, but it has become taboo to discuss it openly," which reminds me a lot of the Nigerian cultural and religious stand on sex. According to the BBC,

Ultra-Orthodox boys and girls are educated separately, and have little interaction with the opposite sex until their marriage night, when they are expected to consummate their union.

Physical touch with the opposite sex - even something like a handshake - is only permitted with one's spouse and close family members. Access to films and the internet is often restricted.

"We wanted there to be a place where people could say, 'I know nothing and I want to know something,'" says Ribner.

"Sex is only appropriate within a marital context," he says. "Beyond that it's not talked about. Because of that, it's become very difficult for people to have any kind of dialogue about it."

Different Seasons of Marriage - A Nigerian Perspective

By Yetty Williams

Most people are aware of and have all read about the seasons of marriage and many times it is linked to the seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. The different seasons have their different characteristics and it is helpful to know what season you are currently going through in your marriage to determine what you need to do to maintain the season, get out of it or improve the outcome of the season.

Generally speaking we can agree on some common factors which are that Spring means a season of fresh or new love, eyes are starry and there is such promise for the future and love (perhaps more idealistic than realistic) is at the height. Summer is when your love is comfortable and relaxed, perhaps even heating up. Everyone is happy in the summer and you are generally in a happy place.

Fall will be when your love needs some tending so that all the branches don’t fall off in true “Fall” fashion. It can be beautiful in some parks during the fall when all the various hues of leaves have fallen on a pile, kids particularly like to kick and play in the fallen leaves. So even in fall there can be some enjoyment of the season. Lastly in the winter season the marriage can get chilly, but also if tended you can enjoy lots of cuddling moments to keep yourself warm. It doesn’t have to be an icy time.

Watch Araromire - The Figurine by Kunle Afolayan Free Online

They say good things come to those who wait. I watched Araromire on the HiBuzz app in December 2011 after making a payment of $7 in October and enduring a couple of months of the site's technical issues. Now Aroromire is free on youtube for all those who have been waiting for it, and some of us who can't wait to see it again.

The movie is one of the two best Nigerian movies - the other is Ije [review] - I've seen in the past couple of years. This is one of the reasons other Nollywood directors have a lot of work to do to catch up, this movie is amazing. The actors are on point, the story twists and trips keeps you guessing and tense for most of the film and the end is a very satisfying. From the blurb;

Araromire is neither good nor evil; for anyone that comes in contact with her shall flourish for seven years and for another seven years that follows, Araromire becomes wrathful, unleashing terror and destruction on whoever has her in custody.

While serving at a National Youth Service Corps camp, two friends find a mystical sculpture in an abandoned shrine in the forest, and one of them decides to take the artwork home. Unknown to them, the sculpture is the same from the Yoruba goddess Araromire.

How I Make Palm Oil Bitter Leaf Soup

I would have titled this Banga soup but I've noticed that the people to whom these named soups are supposedly native to are quite touchy when the soups are made from creative recipes different from the ones they're used to. When I was growing up, my mum would make something similar to this recipe and we would call it palm nut bitter leaf soup in Igbo which I later found was quite similar to what is called Banga. In this recipe, palm nut is replaced with palm oil.

Ingredients

5 pounds of beef
3 fresh peppers
1 medium sized onion
3 heaped tablespoons of crayfish
1 pack of frozen shrimp
1 pack of dried bitterleaf
1 teaspoon of mixed native soup spices
3 ladlefuls of cocoyam flour
5 ladlefuls of palm oil

Four Fruits Beneficial to Skin Care

By Seyi Obasi

What do you know about fruits? They are healthy and provide lots of Vitamin C. They are very good for the body and do not require cooking or long processing. They help regulate our bowel movements. Did you also know that fruits are very good for our skin, and some fruits actually are cheaper alternatives to all the scrubs, masks and other chemicals we apply on our skins to look beautiful. Find below four of the most beneficial fruits for your skin, they are very popular and available in Nigeria too, and how they can help you look years younger!

1. BANANAS

Bananas are rich in Vitamin A, B and E; therefore they work as an anti-aging agent.
Mash a ripe banana and mix it with a spoonful of honey. Apply the mixture to your freshly washed face and leave for 20 to 30 minutes, then rinse off with lukewarm water.
You face will look and feel rejuvenated.

2. ORANGES

Oranges are rich in vitamin C and collagen that improves skin texture and slows the skin aging process respectively. Their astringent and toning properties help restore collagen in the body, improving skin firming and preventing early aging of skin.

The Body Glove Toughsuit Phone Case - Reviews

My Samsung Galaxy S3 in the Body Glove Mobile

When I got my phone, the store rep emphasized to me how delicate the SIII screen is and how the large surface area makes it even more liable to being crushed. True to his word, the phone screen cracked within a couple of months, and I spent over $300 to repair it. So I was really on the lookout for a sturdier phone case to protect the quite expensive phone. This review is sponsored by the Body Glove Mobile online store who sent me a free toughsuit phone case for my Samsung Galaxy SIII.

The tough suit protection of this body glove phone case is made up of four parts:

- A transparent plastic sheet which protects the phone's glass front;
- A hard shell which protects the back, and which extends beyond the phone's front;
- A gel case which adds more protection to the front and back;
- A hard plastic holder which allows you to attach the phone to a belt

Watch Last Flight to Abuja Online

We watched this movie just yesterday and a review will be coming soon. It will be a mixed one because while Last Flight to Abuja is above average for most Nollywood movies, there's a lot of room for improvement. But it's definitely worth $3.99 to see the story and support the producers, led by Director, Obi Emelonye. Below is the blurb of LFTA.

Based on true events. A set of everyday Nigerian travelers's board the last Flamingo Airways flight scheduled to fly from Lagos to Abuja on a fateful Friday night in 2006. The plane cruises at 30,000 feet, tranquil and on schedule. But like a bolt out of the blue, through a mixture of human error, technical failure and sheer bad luck, the plane rapidly develops major difficulties that sends it teetering on the brink of disaster. As the pilots fight with the controls of the stricken plane, a series of flashbacks unravel the twists, turns and leaps of fate that put each passenger on the fateful flight. Young lovers, an elderly couple, a corporate party, a sportsman on the threshold of greatness; all the passengers are caught up in the nightmare scenario and sense the final moments of their lives approach. All... except one! What does he know?

Picture Weekend - Out in the Sun

It's been a while I did one of my usual picture weekend, but with the sun making a brave comeback for spring and Summer, hopefully I can get some better shots worth sharing. These are from about a couple of weeks ago, and the sun was almost blinding that day. Loved it :)

Hope you had a great weekend. All the best for a new week.

The Wife Diaries - Episode Two

The hubby just told me some B.S to which I just nodded, kissed him and re-assured him we'll be fine. Something like he's afraid of other men looking and lusting after me and that he just wants to protect me bla bla bla...I was determined to find out the real truth so I called my girl Nkem on my hands-free as I drove to work that morning.

"O girl, e be like say e no ready to chop microwave o." That's Nkem. My brain has given up trying to analyse and decipher half the things she says.

"Wetin be dat?" I asked confused.

"He can't let go of wifey. He was getting too used to the meal awaiting him on the table after work and the ass awaiting him in bed when he needed it.” She chuckled, "he don't wanna let go.”

 I laughed. "Nkem..did you have to say ass? I feel so objectified.”

"Objecti-kini, but na true I talk.”

I sighed. "So you think that's it?"

"Yuuup.”

Nkem and I went to school together since we were in primary 1. Then we both got into the same secondary school, Jephta, but alas, her father got a cross-posting to Malaysia after our JS1 and then my dad got a job in the Netherlands. We lost contact for about 10 years until one day during my many visits to Nigeria we bumped into each other at The Palms. I was coming out of Shoprite and she was heading into it.

I immediately recognized her and could not believe myself! although she was heavily pregnant with my godson and had bloated up like crazy, I still knew it was her! I hate to admit it but later when I found out she was married to a white man, I cringed, knowing the history between white men in Nigeria and our beautiful girls. Nick proved to be cool though, so I finally approved - not that it mattered.