text:
Why Some Black Women Are Going Back to Relaxers
What Is Melanin?
Our Skin Stories
#SunscreenSis
The natural hair movement is still booming, but some people have decided spending all that time and money on their natural curl pattern just isn't worth it.
By Kovie Biakolo
This story is a part of The Melanin Edit, a platform in which Allure will explore every facet of a melanin-rich life — from the most innovative treatments for hyperpigmentation to the social and emotional realities — all while spreading Black pride.
Last June, Ashley White uploaded a video to her YouTube channel, All about Ash, titled "Why I Relaxed My Natural Hair + Signs That You May Want To Relax Your Natural Hair." In the 25 minute video, she teases her rationale in the first few seconds: "Overall, being natural was just too time-consuming for me and I just didn't care to put that much time into doing my hair."
The 24-year-old Austin native is hardly alone. In the last couple of years, there has been an increase in media coverage and YouTube videos with women who previously wore their natural hair returning to relaxers. Although recent data has shown relaxer purchases are still on a steep decline, there is a cohort of women who are bucking the natural hair trend. There are a multitude of reasons for their departure: the dearth in representation and celebration of women with kinkier textures and tighter coils, the pressures and criticism some experienced within the movement, the additional time spent and products needed to upkeep curls (another natural-to-relaxed video's title declares, "Sis I'm Tired!"). The latter is what caused White to finally make her exit.
Before her 2020 return to relaxers, the last time White chemically straightened her hair was in 2016, a year after she started college. Through college, she heavily relied on protective styles, including using wigs, to transition. But when White began to wear her natural hair out more, she soon found it was more laborious than she had anticipated. White says she would spend 30 minutes trying to get her hair into a sleek bun. And her wash days, which often took over two and half hours, were also beset by constantly having to detangle her curls.
"It was just a struggle for me to figure out my hair and determine what it likes, what it needs, what products work with it," she says. "It was taking a lot of time and a lot of effort, or just more time and effort than I want to put into my hair, to just achieve a simple style." In addition to reclaiming her time, White believes that she's able to take better care of her hair now that it's relaxed.
Natural, Not Radical
Before the United States' social media-centric natural community, during the Black Power movement in the '60s, Black women who wore their natural Afro-textured hair were definitively seen as making political statements. While the same isn't necessarily true today in terms of intention — which is difficult to assess on a collective basis — because of the history of how Black hair has been denigrated, the appearance in its natural form is still generally considered to express dissent. Black women's hair remains a site of prejudice due to white/European beauty constructs that position straight hair as good hair.
Beginning in the early aughts, a generation of women like White entered young adulthood under the natural hair community's digital umbrella. Now, there are myriad bloggers, vloggers, and other online spaces dedicated to helping people along their natural journey. A Google search of "best products for natural hair" will produce more than 900 million results. And last year, a report from global research firm Mintel noted that the growth of the Black hair-care market is driven by regimen-focused products.
It's often assumed that women who have natural hair are conscientiously part of a bigger — politicized — natural hair movement, but that isn't necessarily the case. Daisha Hooper, 28, also based in Austin, makes hair tutorial videos on her YouTube channel, DaishaView, and had been natural for a decade prior to attempting to relax her hair last December. But while White felt an affiliation with the digital community, Hooper did not.
"It wasn't like a conscious decision of, Oh, I want to be a part of this movement," she says of her initial decision to go natural. "It was just more, I'm tired of my hair breaking off. I'm tired of getting this chemical that burns on my head. I just don't want to do it anymore, so I'm not."
But Hooper's hesitancy about straightening treatments changed suddenly and she decided to try an at-home relaxer. "I was being a little bit impulsive with it and I just kind of got frustrated with dealing with my hair and I was like, Let me just like straighten this out," she says. Hooper's experiment ultimately failed because she didn't apply the product correctly and her hair didn't take to it. Her curls remained intact, which she says was a relief because she had made the decision in a moment of exasperation.
Hooper ended up opting for locs instead, with the goal of keeping her hair natural while reducing the time she spends on it. "Locs are the style that works for me the best. It's easy to care for," she explains.
Unlike Hooper, White has maintained her relaxed hair despite some backlash she experienced from the natural-hair community after her video went live. "I would get some comments like, 'If I relaxed my hair I'm trying to fit into certain beauty standards,' or 'If I relaxed my hair, I don't love my Black skin,'" White says. "Coming from other Black women, it wasn't really encouraging or helpful."
But she also acknowledges that in the last year, she has noticed a shift in the way the natural-hair community responds to others doing the same — at least online. She believes people in the community are voicing less disapproval. "It's kind of been more acceptable in a way to relax your hair," she says. "I feel like people understand now that just because you relax your hair doesn't mean you hate your natural hair."
Ain't Nobody Got Time (or Money) For That
For all the women Allure spoke to, time consumption was the most prevalent reason for returning to relaxers. Judith Jarrett, 58, who went natural in late 2018 after encouragement from her hairstylist, returned to relaxers last year. Between the time it took to style her hair and her inability to achieve a style she felt comfortable wearing, she says it just wasn't working for her.
"Because I perspire a lot in my head, my hair gets tangled. And it's hard to manage. It gets puffy; it's all over the place. And I hate that look," she says. "I decided to go back to perms which is much easier to handle."
Jarett also found that maintaining natural hair was more costly than keeping up with relaxers, even as she used the same salon and stylist to keep up with both. She would visit her stylist, Carmencita Sinclair, owner of Creation in Brooklyn, every two weeks when natural at a cost of $75 plus tax, as opposed to every five and a half weeks when relaxed, at $115 plus tax. Relaxers also took less time than natural hairstyling at the salon according to Jarett, as did the at-home care between visits.
"You have to buy all these products to use on your [natural] hair. And they're not cheap. And when I went to the salon, I spent more money to have it blown out," she says. "It's weird. I thought [going natural] would be cheaper, but it's not and it's more time-consuming."
According to a Mintel report, Black shoppers spent an estimated $473 million a year on shampoo and $491 million on conditioner in 2017. And it seems as if every day there is a new product line launching for textured hair, which leads to an overwhelming experience when looking for the right combination to care for your hair type.
As with essentially every aspect of daily life, COVID-19 may have had an effect as well: With the shutdown last year of non-essential businesses including salons, many Black women documented coming to terms with their natural hair on their own without the help of stylists — as well as a return to "the creamy crack" a.k.a. relaxers, in Jarrett and White's cases.
Putting Hair Health First
Atlanta-based hairstylist Jasmine Collins, well-known for working with women who suffer from severe hair loss, proposes that women are leaving natural hair behind not only because of manageability, but also due to the desire to achieve a particular, "more polished" look that's trendy right now. And to get that smoother finish, "you're gonna have to texturize or relax it," she says.
For others, going back to relaxers can be about scalp health, which may seem contradictory to anyone familiar with the negative effects certain harsh chemicals can have on the hair, especially when applied incorrectly. But in Collins's observations, the people who have recently transitioned from natural hair to relaxed hair are most often people who have been wearing locs for a long time.
"After wearing the locs for so many years and they get to be so long and so heavy, it starts to pull on the hair follicle and they start to lose their hair from the weight of the locs being on their head," she says, noting that any type of hair can be healthy or unhealthy.
"Natural does not equal healthy. Just because your hair is natural, does not mean that it's healthy. There are some people with natural hair that's unhealthy and there are some people with relaxed hair that's healthy," she says. "It really boils down to having a primary stylist that knows what they're doing to take care of your hair and [can] guide you down the right path."
Massachusetts-based dermatologist Yolanda Lenzy, who specializes in hair loss and is also a certified cosmetologist, believes education and information are key when it comes to all hair choices. An advocate for Black women wearing their natural hair, she posits that part of the problem in the natural-hair community today is that there has been a lot of miseducation.
"Bloggers have contributed a lot of information about these different regimens that is not scientifically based," she says. "It may look good on their hair, but when you try to go execute it on your particular hair texture, you don't get that same result."
Lenzy believes that people are going back to relaxers primarily because they're not able to replicate a lot of the popular natural hairstyles they see others wearing, especially online.
Another category of misinformation is the science surrounding chemicals used in relaxers, and whether or not they can be harmful beyond causing hair damage. Although Lenzy was part of the research team that contributed to a 25-year-long study that showed the moderate use of relaxers does not increase breast cancer among Black women (the motivation for some women not to use relaxers), she still does not recommend them. (It's worth noting the study did find that "heavy" users of lye-based relaxers — at least seven times a year for 15 years — increased their risk of developing estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer by 30 percent compared to less-frequent users.)
Lenzy emphasizes that with Black women disproportionately suffering from an array of medical conditions, she is apprehensive to rule out the relationship between relaxers and other negative health outcomes, even if there's not a conclusive connection to cancer specifically.
"I think the story is yet untold on the health effects that they can cause," she says. "We're talking about a caustic chemical that has a super high pH." In a statement to Allure, Linda Loretz, chief toxicologist for the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC), notes that hair straighteners and relaxers are regulated by the FDA. "If our consumers can't believe in a product and rely on it to do what it says, then nothing else matters," Loretz writes. "Ingredient safety assessments take into account exposure from the use of multiple products and are not specific to cosmetics and personal-care products marketed towards women of color."
Texas-based dermatologist Adeline Kikam also points out that the harm relaxers may cause needn't extend beyond hair for it to matter to Black women."Relaxers and chemicals in them can weaken hair over time, causing lots of breakage and scalp inflammation which can contribute to scarring alopecia or permanent hair loss," she says.
But Kikam also says Black women should be wary of self-diagnosing their hair problems without receiving an evaluation from a dermatologist. This is especially important when it comes to the dreaded loss of hair at one's edges, which some Black women cite as a reason for wanting to return to relaxers, according to Collins. "Don't proceed to relaxers and compound the issue without medical guidance," says Kikam.
For Kikam, the underestimation some Black women may have about the upkeep of their natural hair combined with the limits of the styles and looks they are able to obtain contribute to frustration with natural hair. She says there needs to be a collective and individual shift in perspective of one's hair when you go natural. And to stay natural, persistence is a must. "If you spend most of your formative years caring for relaxed hair, you become skillful at it so it takes time and patience to adjust to the look, feel, and demands of your natural hair," she says.
No matter what type of look a person is trying to achieve — though perhaps especially when straightening naturally curly hair — Lenzy says finding the right professional is key. She points out that despite her work and her cosmetology license, not even she would be able to achieve trendy natural looks without a hairstylist. In the statement provided to Allure, Loretz writes that the American Academy of Dermatology also recommends going to a professional stylist and that the FDA notes the importance of following directions on the label of a product and inside the packaging "to ensure the product performs as intended."
And as far as manageability goes, Lenzy remains firm in her position too. "That whole concept around a relaxer is the only way to achieve manageability, I think it's a myth," she says. "You might not know how to achieve that yourself and you might need to partner with a professional to achieve that."
But in spite of her views, if her patients still opt for relaxed hair Lenzy offers these tips for anyone who might choose to leave their natural hair behind: Use mild relaxers, keep the frequency between relaxers to no more than once every 12 weeks, avoid no-lye relaxers, and, again, get it done by a professional. "I just try to empower [my clients] with the information to help them with whichever decision they make," she says.
Ultimately, "This is your hair. You have to do it every day," Lenzy says. We all have to be comfortable with the choices we make about our hair and the consequences, whether that's the potential side effects of the use and application of a relaxer or the time cost of maintaining natural hair with or without protective styles.
As for White, she believes she made the right decision. But she could see herself changing her mind — and the ability to go back and forth shows how versatile Black hair really can be.
"As of right now, I love being relaxed. I feel like it fits my lifestyle and how I like to wear my hair," she says. "The one thing I kind of wanted to stress is that I didn't hate my natural hair. I like my curls. It's just that it was really time-consuming for me. But if that ever changed, I could see myself going back to natural."
Read more stories from The Melanin Edit:
Why Some Black Women Have to Travel for Miles to Get Their Hair Done
The Ultimate Guide to Melanin-Rich Skin Care
How Colorism Shapes Black Girlhood
Check out Nigella Miller's weekly wash day routine:
Follow Allure on Instagram and Twitter, or subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on all things beauty.
Keywordsnatural hairhairblack haircurly hairhair care


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Q: Inner join 2 tables but return all if 1 table empty I have 2 tables say A and B, and I want to do a join on them.
Table A will always have records in it.
When table B has rows in it, I want the query to turn all the rows in which table A and table B matches. (i.e. behave like inner join)
However, if table B is empty, I'd like to return everything from table A.
Is this possible to do in 1 query?
Thanks.

A: I came across the same question and, as it was never answered, I post a solution given to this problem somewhere else in case it helps someone in the future.
See the source.
select *
from TableA as a
left join TableB as b
    on b.A_Id = a.A_Id
where
    b.A_Id is not null or
    not exists (select top 1 A_Id from TableB)

A: Here is another one, but you need to add one "null" row to table B if it's empty
-- In case B is empty
Insert into TableB (col1,col2) values (null,null)

select *
from TableA as a inner join TableB as b
on
    b.A_Id = a.A_Id
    or b.A_Id is null

A: I would use an if-else block to solve it like below:
if (select count(*) from tableB) > 0
begin
   Select * from TableA a Inner Join TableB b on a.ID = b.A_ID
end
else
begin
   Select * from TableA
end

A: Yes, for results like this, use LEFT JOIN.
Basically what INNER JOIN does is it only returns row where it has atleast one match on the other table. The LEFT JOIN, on the other hand, returns all records on the left hand side table whether it has not match on the other table.
To further gain more knowledge about joins, kindly visit the link below:

*

*Visual Representation of SQL Joins

A: Try This
SELECT t1.* FROM table1 AS t1 INNER JOIN table2 AS t2 ON t1.something = t2.someotherthing UNION SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE something = somethingelse;

A: This is solution:
CREATE TABLE MyData(Id INT, Something VARCHAR(10), OwnerId INT);
CREATE TABLE OwnerFilter(OwnerId INT);

SELECT *
FROM
(SELECT NULL AS Gr) AS Dummy
LEFT JOIN OwnerFilter F ON (1 = 1)
JOIN MyData D ON (F.OwnerId IS NULL OR D.OwnerId = F.OwnerId);

Link to sqlfiddle: http://sqlfiddle.com/#!6/0f9d9/7

A: I did the following:
DECLARE @TableB TABLE (id INT)
-- INSERT INTO @TableB
-- VALUES (some ids to filter by)

SELECT TOP 10 *
FROM [TableA]          A
     LEFT JOIN @TableB B
               ON A.ID = B.id
WHERE B.id IS NOT NULL
   OR iif(exists(SELECT *
                 FROM TableB), 1, 0) = 0

Now:
If TableB is empty (leave the commented lines commented) you'll get the top 10.
If TableB has some ids in it, you'll only join by those.
I do not know how efficient this is. Comments are welcome.

A: Maybe use a CTE
;WITH ctetable(
 Select * from TableA
)

IF(EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM TableB))
BEGIN
 Select * from ctetable
  Inner join TableB
END
ELSE
BEGIN
 Select * from ctetable
END

or dynamic SQL
DECLARE @Query NVARCHAR(max);
SET @QUERY = 'Select * FROM TableA';
IF(EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM TableB))
BEGIN
 SET @QUERY = CONCAT(@QUERY,' INNER JOIN TableB');
END
EXEC sp_executesql @Query

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Last year, Olive Garden put 1,000 regular and 1,000 "family" Neverending Pasta Passes up for sale, which sold out literally in one second. This year, the company is expanding the program, selling 21,000 passes. The key to this promotion isn't the pass-holders: it's the people they bring with them.
The pass will entitle the holder to theoretically unlimited pasta, salad, soup, breadsticks, and soft drinks multiple times per day. The "family" version, as you might imagine, lets them bring guests.
The novelty of the pass leads holders to brag about it and bring their friends to dine even if they don't have the "family" version of the pass. That might bring people in to the restaurant who haven't tried Olive Garden recently, and maybe they'll like it and come back.
One man used his pass in the first year, 2014, to buy to-go meals and bring them to people in need, doing good for the world and getting news coverage that served as free publicity for Olive Garden.
Was the novelty of the pass what made it so interesting, though? The company will find out when it prints up 19,000 more passes than last year. At least that will kill the black market.


THE Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has disbursed the sum of N2.2 billion to the six Area Councils in the FCT and other stakeholders as its share of statutory allocation for the month of March 2018.
FCT Permanent Secretary, Sir Chinyeaka Ohaa, who made the disclosure in Abuja during the Joint Area Councils Allocation Committee (JAAC) meeting, therefore charged the council chairmen to step up service delivery to residents of the territory and also ensure workers' salary was given top priority.
The figure, according to him, showed that Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) got N183 million; while Gwagwalada received N167 million; Kuje got N139 million; Kwali received 136millionaire, while Bwari got N129 million and Abaji equally received N129 million.
Furthermore, statutory deductions from the release include: Primary School Teachers gulped N1 billion, 15% Pension funds of N226 million, 1% Training Fund gulped N22 million and 10% Employer Pension Contribution received 58million naira.
While expressing appreciation on behalf of other Council bosses to the minister and permanent secretary, Chairman of Kwali Area Council, who is also the Chairman of FCT Chapter of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Mr. Joseph Kwali Shazin said their efforts for always ensuring that Area Councils in the territory got their full allocation and as at when due was highly commendable.
The post FCTA shares N2.2bn to area councils, others appeared first on Tribune.


Dividends are paid monthly and calculated from day of deposit to day of withdrawal.
If your Diamond Money Market Account falls below the minimum $2,500 balance, you will be assessed a $20 fee; and no interest will be paid for each month that the account balance remains below the minimum. Rates subject to change without notice. Dividends are paid monthly and calculated from day of deposit to day of withdrawal.
If you miss a monthly qualification cycle, don't worry! You will still enjoy free checking and there's no penalty for not qualifying in a given monthly qualification cycle. Plus, you get a base 0.10% APY** and you get right back to making 3.04% APY the next cycle you qualify.
* Dividends paid monthly. APY is based on the average daily balance on your PCCU checking account.


text:
Q: How to install 'kompare' on a mac? I have a MacBook Air and am having trouble installing the linux tool 'kompare'. I tried to install it with brew, but it did not work as expected:
>brew install kompare
Error: No available formula with the name "kompare"
==> Searching for a previously deleted formula...
Warning: homebrew/core is shallow clone. To get complete history run:
  git -C "$(brew --repo homebrew/core)" fetch --unshallow

Error: No previously deleted formula found.
==> Searching for similarly named formulae...
==> Searching local taps...
Error: No similarly named formulae found.
==> Searching taps...
==> Searching taps on GitHub...
Error: No formulae found in taps.

So is there a magic 'formula' with which this install works? I thought that 'brew' is the apt install equivalent?

A: Kompare is not available for macOS. You can use Apple's FileMerge (a separate app but downloaded as part of Xcode), or any other 3rd party alternatives:

*

*Graphical multiple file-pair comparison on Mac OS 10.7

A: brew is not the only one on mac. the old good MacPorts works well enough
https://www.macports.org
install macports and enter this command:
$ sudo port install kompare
it downloads all dependencies on your mac and builds & installs the app


text:
Science Industry
Scientists harvest electricity from plants, let bloggers make awful 'power plant' puns
By Kevin Lee
Contributor, TechHive | PT
When it comes to creating clean, self-sustaining energy, nothing can beat plants—and that's precisely why researchers at the University of Georgia (UGA) have worked so hard to hijack photosynthesis to create truly clean electricity.
Talk about green energy. Get it? It's a "solar plant!"
OK, I'll stop. [ಠ_ಠ —Ed.]
During photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, which produces electrons. Typically, plants take these electrons to create life-sustaining sugars. The UGA research team, led by Assistant Professor Ramaraja Ramasamy, discovered a way to intercept these electrons, allowing them to "harvest" electricity from plants.
To do this, the researchers manipulated the proteins contained within the plant's thylakoids, tiny structures that capture and store energy from sunlight. From there, the scientists essentially rerouted the plant's natural electron pathways to a series of carbon nanotubes that act as an electrical conductor.
These green generators don't produce much energy—about a maximum current density of 68 microamps per centimeter squared. However, the scientists say that "in small-scale experiments, this approach resulted in electrical current levels that are two orders of magnitude larger than those previously reported in similar systems."
At system with 100 percent quantum efficiency would be able to convert every photon beamed down from the sun into an equal number of electrons. According to the researchers, plants have quantum efficiency rates of close to 100 percent, while a traditional solar panel operates at quantum efficiency levels between 12 and 17 percent.
"We have discovered something very promising here, and it is certainly worth exploring further," Ramaraja said in a release. "The electrical output we see now is modest, but only about 30 years ago, hydrogen fuel cells were in their infancy, and now they can power cars, buses and even buildings."
Ramaraja and his collaborators are already working to improve the stability and output of their device to bring it into full commercial use. If you're interested in reading more about the work, you can check out the UGA co-authored study.
[University of Georgia via Geekosystem]
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This story, "Scientists harvest electricity from plants, let bloggers make awful 'power plant' puns" was originally published by TechHive.
Kevin is a small-time tech hound, amateur photographer, and a general know-at-least-something of all things geeky hailing from New York.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl