What?! You ask?! Mrs. Roberta has answered my prayers and heard my cries.

Naturalista, you know how hard it is to find the right products priceless in quality and low in price. Not to sound cheesy but honestly you don’t have look any farther. Mrs. Roberta at The Original Fragrance Shop has done it again with her Curl Stimulator. This natural styling product defines curl with soft flexible hold. Your curls will shine and remain hydrate throughout the day while this product nourishes your curly mane. Plus, its LESS than $10. Quarter size in the hand is all you need of the Stimulator. See ingredients below.

Curl Stimulator 4 oz $4.00 8 oz $7.50
Ingredients: spring water, cactus pulp, peppermint, eucalyptus & wintergreen essential oils

Conditions hair while adding definition and texture for outrageous curls patterns that hold! ! Fabulous for twist, corkscrew curls, and grooming locs!

Many of you ladies have ask me about the skin and body products. I can testify that body/skin products are moisturizer made with natural butters and oils that nourish and hydrate dry skin. No preservation! And the fragrance are unique and delectable. The Luscious Body Butter has a sweet aroma that stays with you all day. If your not into fragrance or have a favorite scent, try Body Soufflé. You can add your favorite essential oils for personalize scents. The Original Fragrance Shop products would make a great Holiday Gift. What I truly love about TOFS is the great price point, quality without breaking the bank.

Coming Soon

Hand Made Shea Butter Soap

I recommend everything but these items are permanent part of my hair regimen: Botanical Tea Shampoo, Hair Pudding Conditioner and Sister Roberta’s Hair Elixir

I also recommend the Body Soufflé and Black Soap, available in store.

Okay, I’m not jumping on the bandwagon about the “Good Hair” discussion. I know your tried of reading, hearing and seeing it. I simply just want to share my opinion of the highlights of the movie.

Yes, Chris Rock is Hilarious. I don’t think anyone will argue that. The whole movie presented a light humorous vantage point on the billion dollar hair industry. This movie shed light on African American woman and their hair as well as the fact that this industry only takes from the people that fuel this vehicle of “oppression” as the Rev. Al Sharpton so tactful put it. One of my favorite lines in the movie “putting on their oppression”.

Okay enough of that. I would like to highlight the courageousness of Shelia Bridges. Shown above. Her story is a simple one. Bridges is an interior designer with alopecia, a disease that cause hair loss. This beautiful woman wears her bald hair fearless and does not let it define her character or hinder her success.

Big ups to my two Naturalistas featured in Good Hair the documentary, Tracie Thoms and Sarah Jones.

In the movie, there is a scene where Rock is interviewing a group of school girls (my not sure if its high or middle school). There was one young lady that wore her hair natural. And the other young ladies who either wore weave or relaxed hair unanimously decide that although the natural hair was pretty on the girl, it was not professional in their opinions. This really hurt because these were babies telling their peer, you have to change who you are to meet what is considered acceptable. Not only was what was being said hurtful to hear but to SEE the natural girls facial expression. What was portrayed in that scene is a very realistic every day situation. If that was your daughter, sister, niece, cousin or friend, what would you say to console her? If you were in that situation how did you encourage yourself?

By Lynn Okura

Ginny Mason was 41 years old when her surgeon sat down next to her, took her hand ("Never a good sign," she says) and asked if she had ever heard of inflammatory breast cancer. As a nurse, Mason had more knowledge about breast cancer than the average person—but like most people, she didn't know there was more than one kind. Her mammogram was clean, she had no lumps in her breasts and there was no history of breast cancer in her family.
So how could her doctor be telling her that she may only have between 12 and 18 months to live? "On a scale of one to 10, this isn't the breast cancer you want," he told her. "This one's not very common, but it's deadly."
Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is rare, which is one of the reasons so few have heard of it. "It accounts for no more than 5 percent of all breast cancers," says Dr. George W. Sledge Jr., a medical oncologist and professor of medicine. "It's called inflammatory because that's how it looks. The woman who has inflammatory breast cancer has breast cancer that's red and inflamed, with an angry look to the breast cancer," he says.
Unlike typical breast cancer, IBC usually cannot be detected by a mammogram or ultrasound. While a lump may sometimes accompany IBC, the cancer usually grows in nests or sheets rather than as a confined, solid tumor.

Check yourself regularly for these symptoms:

• Skin over the breast becomes pink, red or darkened with rash-like symptoms
• Skin over breast thickens, sometimes with a fine dimpling with texture similar to the skin of an orange (called peau d'orange)
• Breast is noticeably warm to the touch
• Breast pain or tenderness (which can range from a constant ache to stabbing pains)
• Swelling, usually sudden, sometimes a cup size in a few days
• Itching
• Nipple retraction or discharge
• Change in color and texture of the areola

The Breast Cancer a Mammogram Can't Detect - Oprah.com

Early Mammograms Can Help Improve Breast Cancer Survival Rate For Black Women

Posted by Lynette Holloway on Oct 7th 2009 5:03PM

At 34, Karin Stanford was a vegetarian and worked out on a regular basis. She was the picture of health, or so she thought. She felt a lump in her left breast, while preparing to go out one night.
It turned out to be a malignant Stage IIA tumor. She had a lumpectomy, and today she is 46 and counting. Medical experts encourage women to get mammograms at 40. She shudders to think what could have happened had she not found the lump, or if she had waited until 40 to get a mammogram.
"What I urge black women to do is to get annual mammograms,'' Stanford says, "The sooner the better. The baseline age should be 35 [Some medical experts even say as early as 33]. And do your research. You have to do your own research.''
Stanford, Ph.D, is a professor of political science, at California State University in Northridge. She said Breast Cancer Awareness Month-October- is a particularly important platform to inform black women about the importance of breast health. While African-American women have a slightly lower incidence of breast cancer after age 40 than their white counterparts, they have a slightly higher incidence of breast cancer before reaching 40, according to the International Journal of Cancer.

Indeed, Dr. Leonidas G Koniaris, of the University of Miami, said African American women may consider earlier breast cancer screening, possibly between ages 33 and 35 because "It is at this age that the incidence of breast cancer in African American patients equals that for white women at 40, the suggested age to start screening, he said in an article in the May issue of the American College of Surgeons.
While the American Cancer Society recommends 40 for initial mammogram screening, Dr. Koniaris and his colleagues found different for African Americans after analyzing 63,472 breast cancer patients between 1998 and 2002 on a Florida cancer registry and inpatient hospital data. Of that number, 90.5 percent were white and 7.6 percent were African American, the article says. Researchers found that 10.5 percent of African Americans had breast cancer before the age of 40 years, and 22.4% before the age of 45 years. African American patients were also less likely to receive surgery.
"Based upon our study, African American women have a 1.72-fold increased risk of death from breast cancer," Dr. Koniaris told Reuters Health. "Approximately two-thirds of this excess risk is attributable to late stage presentation."
Stanford's personal experience drove her to write, 'Breaking the Silence: Inspirational Stories of Black Cancer Survivors,' the stories of 48 African Americans who have all had different forms of cancer, including breast, colon and lymphoma.
Today, Stanford is the proud mother of a 10-year-old girl, something doctors said could never happen because of the radiation she received from cancer treatment. "But my daughter is here and so am I.
"Doctors don't know why black women die from breast cancer more than our white counterparts, but all we can do is get checked,'' Stanford says. "Each year, I go for my check ups. You're always afraid of a reoccurrence, but you have to go. The worst thing you can do is not go for your check ups, the earlier the better, given our mortality rate.''

Tagged as: American Cancer Society, AmericanCancerSociety, black women and cancer, BlackWomenAndCancer, breast cancer, breast cancer awareness month, BreastCancer, BreastCancerAwarenessMonth, Cancer

Early Mammograms Can Help Improve Breast Cancer Survival Rate For Black Women - Black Entertainment, Money, Style and Beauty Blogs - Black Voices

A story of Breast Cancer Chemotherapy and A woman’s Hair.