:who is sugar? artist writer nappy head:

23 March 07 OFF TOPIC...

You ever not feel right? I mean the kind of not right that has some bad consequences? Well let me tell you something. I had been feeling strange for a few weeks. I was tired and sluggish. My body was weak. I thought it was because of school and stress and being broke. Well your body lets you know when something isn't right. You have to listen to her/him.

24 March 07

I feel worse today. It took everything I had to get up (7am) and go to the radio station to do an interview. DPE and the Renaissance Movement have a show next Saturday and we had to advertise. I get to the station and the host was like "Dag, you look like an artist." I get that a lot. Anyway, we do our interview. I do a piece of a poem on the air and I come home and go to sleep.

I wake up around 8pm (about 10 hours later) because Trish called me. Her and I were suppose to got out to eat. I get up and EVERYTHING HURTS! My skin hurts. My spine hurts. My eye lids. EVERYTHING! I get up and get dressed and head out. I was the worst company ever. I couldn't take it anymore so we left about 2 hours later. We also completed an application at the restaurant to be servers.

At this point I had developed a cough.

25 March 07

I feel like crap.

26 March 07

I still feel like crap. You ever get that feeling like something is terribly wrong? Well I felt like something was wrong. I was sweating terribly. My bed was wet from it. My head hurt. My ear were ringing. I had this taste of metal in my mouth. I could hardly see. I was breaking down. I called my ex Husband and was crying and what not. He tells me to call my mama so she can take me to the E.R.

My mama comes over and she is shocked at what saw. Apparently looked mighty bad. She takes me to the E.R. and what do you know. My poor brain was boiling. My temp was a tad under 104 degrees Fahrenheit. =( Yo, I almost died!!!

I was put on bed rest for the rest of the week.

My best friends come over to help me out. I love you Trish and Abbie (although Trish said I look like a crack head and they were proclaiming that they had NEVER seen me look like that before). They fed the kids too.

So people, listen to your body and take care of him/her!!

Guess what? So I get an email that I was so not expecting. The email was from Dee (all my NP peps know who she is). At first I was like: "hmm, I wonder why she is emailing me?" I was too through and delighted to know that she picked me to be April's Nappy of the month (NOTM)!!! Wow, who would have thunk it?

He's the interview/hair story that I submitted:

Monday
26 March 07
Around 11 p.m.

I had the flu and a fever. I was sitting at the pharmacist waiting for the number 9 oh 6 to be called. I see her enter through the double sliding doors to my left. She had baby locs. They must have been around 4 months old. I smiled at her thinking I was just there a few months ago. She didn’t smile back. I then noticed that she was a nurse and she probably didn’t want to work tonight. *shrugs shoulders* As she walks by she slows down to look at me. Her gawk made me blush. It was the most curious look anyone has ever given me.

She was probably thinking.

A. I wonder how long she has been loced?
B. I wonder if my locs will look like hers?
C. Is that, that lady from the internet?
D. Non of the above.

Fast-forward about 2 hours. I’m back at home and I’m headed to bed. I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I look up at myself in the mirror…something I hadn’t done in about 3 days. I was horrified but what I saw. 1. My locs were matted. 2. I had all kind of tissue and or lint stuck in them. 3. Some of them were sticking up, some were flat, some were stuck together, and some were stuck to my face. I guess that would explain the look she gave me…

My name is Shuger and this is my hairstory. Circa 1980 I was sepia toned girl who wanted her hair to swing. It never did. I would cover my head with stockings with the legs still attached. I remember cutting the legs of the stockings into three strips and braiding the three strips together. I would also put barrettes on the end of my braided “hair” to make it official. All this stopped when I got my first perm at age10.

My hair swung for nearly 20 years.

I bced on 3 Dec 2004.

When I cut my hair I also cut a lot of the madness. I was known as that chic with the hair. Which, I hid behind. At any given time you would only see about 3 inches of my face. So there I was figuratively BUCK naked, but my true nakedness was yet to come.

18 Feb 06

I decide to loc my hair. I would have never thought about locing my hair. I never considered myself to be one of “them”. I had this idea of what a person with locs was and I didn’t think I fit the idea that I held.

Locing has been the most colorful experience of my nappy journey. It has not been easy, however. I’ve had priceless moments. I remember I was so tickled when they moved when I shook my head. I think I shook my head for 2 days straight. There are days that I want to pick them out. I actually picked one out last week before I got sick. I was more curious than anything. I like them right now. Actually I LOVE THEM! “They” should turn my locs into the next gourmet cookie flavor!

I am most thankful for the wealth of information that I found here on nappturality. There was/is some scary stuff out there on the web regarding the care of your locs. I don’t know what I would have done without the loc forum. I have received an overwhelming response here on np. Who would have thunk it?

Someone once said to me, you sure do take this hair thing serious. I couldn’t agree with him more. He now refers all nappy want-to-be’s to me! So this hair thing is serious (my hair made a nurse almost stop in her tacks). Nappy hair is our thing and I plan on continuing my thing in hopes of empowering women so they can do their thing. :)

Thank you for listening.

Shuger

p.s. Help me dispel the rumor that those with new locs must wait 6 weeks to wash their hair.

p.s.s. Napturality, is strong enough for a man…but it made for a woman! Thanks DEE!