Why is Hair Curly??

Hair is curly or straight, depending upon the number of disulfide bonds between hair proteins found in the hair shaft.

The greater the number of links, the curlier the hair, and the fewer the number of links, the straighter the hair.

Hair is primarily composed of keratin, a protein, which grows from a sac called the follicle. Cells in the hair follicle generate keratin, and various other proteins, which become a part of the hair shaft.
  
These proteins contain sulfur atoms, and when two of these sulfur atoms pair up and bond, they form a disulfide bond. If the two sulfur atoms in the same protein are at a distance, and join to form the disulfide bond, the protein will bend. 

The amount of humidity in the air not only makes for what some label a "bad hair day," but alters the degree of curliness or of straightness of hair. This occurs when high humidity forces water back into the hair fiber, acts on its protein structure, and forces the hair shaft to return to its original structure.



People can temporarily alter their hair to force it into a straight state, or a curly state, but only on a temporary, not on a permanent, basis. When a straight-haired person gets a "permanent wave," known as a "perm," he or she is chemically forcing the making of strong disulfide bonds. The wave does not stay permanently, because new hair, which is straight, grows in as the "perm" grows out. People with curly hair may chemically alter their hair to give it a straighter appearance, but this, too, is also a temporary solution with the same end result.

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Afro 101

So you want to wear your hair in an afro? Well I can tell you they are not the best style for one to wear on a daily basis. Why? It’s because of the general definition of the term afro. An ‘afro’ when referring to the hair style, is generally thought to be the ‘natural’ state of someone with type 4 hair i.e. tangled and without product. However if someone with this hair type was to leave their hair un touched in its natural state it would loc up and be one unmanageable dread. 

So what then is an afro puff? An afro puff is hair that has been stretched and picked out using a big tooth comb or afro pick and normally a moisturiser such as Dagger & Arrow Coconoix Butter Cream. In doing this one can insure that most of the hairs are detangled and can thus avoid breakage. Keep in mind though that hair WILL become tangled and one must keep picking it out with an afro pick, thus increasing breakage to an unnecessary amount over a long period of time –this is why many of people who adorn an afro complain that they have a sensitive scalp. 

Remember that even though at any given time 90% of your hair is in the growth stage, a single hairs life can last from a few months to years, and endless picking at an afro will cause more breakage and encourage shedding. So you may think that you have lots of hair to spare but really, who are you to know how long a shed hair would have grown in 5years?  

If you would like to wear your hair in an afro try these tips.

Stretch type 4 hair over night and carefully pick out the hair in the morning. If you do this after you shower make sure hair is COMPLETELY DRY

Use Dagger & Arrow Butter Cream and Spritz to moisturise your scalp, help stop breakage and to promote sheen and growth

Try not to wear an afro for more than three days straight. Doing so will reduce damage to your scalp and breakage due to endless picking.

Try sectioning your hair at night and moisturising your scalp directly. Doing this will cause hair to be less tangled and will protect it at night while maintain moisture on the scalp. This will also make it easier to style in the morning  

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Free as Hair Contest!

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED! 

CONGRATULATIONS TO KIRSTEN KISS! She took home the 2 Disc version of lady Gaga's Born This Way

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Hey everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the wonderful weather we are having, I know I am. The Get Wet tour is going awesome and to get everyone a little hyped up we have decided to hold a contest!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a HUGE Lady Gaga fan. Her liberal views, confident attitude as well as her ability to remain true to her nature, morals and values is what makes her a role model for not just women. When I heard the song ‘Hair’ of her new album ‘Born This Way’ I was so moved. The song is about one who is struggling to find their way in the world and just wants to be accepted by loved ones and those around them, they want to be free-as free as their hair. The song carries a message of unity and loving one another for who we are, loving ourselves for who we are, and letting go of taboo norms. I loved the message so much I thought I just had to find some way of featuring the song on our site. So what better way than an awesome giveaway? 

Here is the run down:

All throughout the month of June we want you to send in -or tag us in- pictures of you being free with your hair!

Get creative if you want, let us know why your hair is important to you.

The winner of the contest will receive a copy of Lady Gaga’s album ‘Born This Way’ and a personalized Dagger & Arrow product of their choosing

The winner will be contacted JUNE 29 and announced JULY1!

Have fun, be free and love your hair! 

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Dagger & Arrow Get Wet Tour!

Just like our skin, our hair must be moisturised every day. During the summer most of us head out to the beaches, parks and pools to enjoy the weather. However what many of us don’t know is that the combination of sun and water is torture for your hair. When water and water vapor are taken into your hair they expand the cuticle allowing for the elements and the sun to penetrate the cortex. This weakens the entire hair shaft, causing greys, breakage and endless dryness.

This problem is easily solved by protecting your hair with essential moisturisers such as Dagger & Arrow Coconoix Butter Cream, which does wonders on curly hair- and D&A Spritz. These will seal healthy moisture into your cuticles putting an end to dryness and breakage. Applying these products will also form a protective layer around the hair shaft that will help stop water and water vapor from penetrating your cortex.

To help you protect your hair this summer, Dagger & Arrow will be combing beaches and hitting up events across the province all summer. We’ll be giving away prize packs as well as coupons and lots of other awesome giveaways! Here is a full list of where we will be and when

North by Northeast Festivals and Conference (NXNE)

June 11-17, 2012

http://www.nxne.com/

North by Northeast (NXNE) is Canada’s biggest and most important music festival. During the past decade, NXNE has developed a worldwide reputation for discovering and exposing new and emerging talent to music fans and industry professionals

The Beach BBQ & Brews Festival  June 15-17, 2012

http://www.beachbbqandbrews.com/

Come out to this FREE RIBFEST to enjoy great BBQ, Live Music, Children’s Area (complete with rides!), BBQ competitions, Grilling Demonstrations, Craft Vendors and of course the Beer Garden

Pride Toronto  June 22-July 1, 2012

http://www.torontopride.com

Pride Week celebrates our diverse sexual and gender identities, histories, cultures, creativities, families, friends and lives. It includes a three-day street festival with over eight stages of live entertainment, an extensive street fair (including community booths, vendors, food stalls), a special Family Pride program, a politically charged Dyke March, a Trans March and the famous Pride Parade

Toronto Jazz Festival  June 22-July 1, 2012

http://torontojazz.com/

The TD Toronto Jazz Festival has become known as one of North America’s premier jazz festivals. Attractions include more than 350 performances with over 1,500 musicians performing at approximately 40 locations around Toronto.

Toronto Fringe  July 4-15, 2012

http://www.fringetoronto.com/

The Fringe Festival is Toronto’s largest theatre and performance festival. 140+ productions are featured at 25+ venues across the west end of Toronto, drawing more than 70,000 people over 12 days each year

Summerlicious  July 6 - 22, 2012

http://www.toronto.ca/special_events/summerlicious/

Take advantage of the incredible value and exclusive three-course prix fixe menus offered at many of Toronto's top restaurants from July 6 - 22, 2012.

Festival of South Asia  July 7-8, 2012

http://www.festivalofsouthasia.com/

The Festival of South Asia creates a window into the East to celebrate and experience the culture and cuisine of South Asia. From Bhangra to Basmati to Bollywood music, this event has all the ingredients to make festival visitors feel like they've traveled the world.

Toronto Caribbean Carnival

Thurs August 2nd-Sunday August 5th 2012

http://www.caribanafestival.com/

Every summer, Toronto, Canada blazes with the excitement of calypso, steel pan and elaborate masquerade costumes during the annual Caribbean carnival formerly known as Caribana.

Beaches International Jazz Festival  July 20-29, 2012

http://www.beachesjazz.com/

The Festival takes place across a number of venues. Stage concerts are held in several different parks within the area and also along a 2 kilometre stretch of the Beach main street - Queen Street East

Toronto’s Festival Of Beer  July 27, 2012

http://www.beerfestival.ca/

Over the past years, Toronto's Festival of Beer has become the ultimate culmination of great brew, good music and beer revelry.

Taste of the Danforth  August 10-12, 2012

http://www.tasteofthedanforth.com/

Toronto's favourite street festival has a whole new way to celebrate the fun flavours of Greece and summer in the city. Every year in August, the city of Toronto flocks to GreekTown on the Danforth.

Hispanic Fiesta  August 31-September 3, 2012

http://www.hispanicfiesta.com/

Hispanic Fiesta is ready to fill Mel Lastman Square with the splendid sounds, tempting treats and colourful culture that the Hispanic heritage is famous for. Hispanic Fiesta will feature the best known local & International Hispanic performers covering 20 different countries, that speak Spanish.

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Hey! YOKO ONO!

What happenes when Asian Heritage month colides with Wonder Women Week? You get a Yoko Ono feature ^^. Though I'm not feeling the greatest today -was not even gonna write this blog I'm so sick :(- I still had to this inspirational, inspiring and empowering women.

Yoko Ono was born in Tokyo in 1933 to mother Isoko Ono, the great-granddaughter of Zenjiro Yasuda of the Yasuda banking family, and to father Yeisuke Ono, a banker and one-time classical pianist who was a descendant of an Emperor of Japan. The name "Yoko" means "ocean child". Two weeks before she was born, her father was transferred to San Francisco by his employer, the Yokohama Specie Bank. The rest of the family followed soon after and Yoko met her father when she was two. Her younger brother Keisuke was born in December 1936. In 1937, her father was transferred back to Japan and Ono was enrolled at Tokyo's Gakushuin (also known as the Peers School), one of the most exclusive schools in Japan.

In 1940, the family moved to New York City, where Ono's father was working. In 1941, her father was transferred to Hanoi and the family returned to Japan. Ono was then enrolled in Keimei Gakuen, an exclusive Christian primary school run by the Mitsui family. She remained in Tokyo through the great fire-bombing of March 9, 1945. During the fire-bombing, she was sheltered with other members of her family in a special bunker in the Azabu district of Tokyo, far from the heavy bombing. After the bombing, Ono went to the Karuizawa mountain resort with members of her family.

Ono has said that she and her family were forced to beg for food while pulling their belongings in a wheelbarrow; and it was during this period in her life that Ono says she developed her "aggressive" attitude and understanding of "outsider" status when children taunted her and her brother, who were once well-to-do. Other stories have her mother bringing a large number of goods with them to the countryside which they bartered for food. One famous anecdote has her mother bartering a German-made sewing machine for sixty kilograms of rice with which to feed the family. Her father remained in the city and, unbeknownst to them, was believed to have been eventually incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp in China. In an interview by Democracy Now's Amy Goodman on October 16, 2007, Ono explained, "He was in French Indochina which is Vietnamactually... in Saigon. He was in a concentration camp."

John Lennon once described her as "the world's most famous unknown artist: everybody knows her name, but nobody knows what she does." Her circle of friends in the New York art world has included Kate Millett, Nam June Paik, Dan Richter, Jonas Mekas,Merce Cunningham, Judith Malina, Erica Abeel, Fred DeAsis, Peggy Guggenheim, Betty Rollin, Shusaku Arakawa, Adrian Morris,Stefan Wolpe, Keith Haring, and Andy Warhol, as well as Maciunas and Young.

Since the 1960s, Ono has been an activist for peace and human rights. After their wedding, Lennon and Ono held a "Bed-In for Peace" in their honeymoon suite at theAmsterdam Hilton Hotel in March 1969. The press fought to get in, presuming that the two would be having sex for their cameras, but they instead found a pair of newlyweds wearing pajamas and eager to talk about and promote world peace. Another Bed-In in May 1969 at the Queen Elizabeth Fairmont in Montreal, Canada, resulted in the recording of their first single, "Give Peace A Chance", a Top 20 hit for the newly christened Plastic Ono Band. Other demonstrations with John included Bagism. Introduced in Vienna, Bagism encouraged a disregard for physical appearance in judging others.

In the 1970s, Ono and Lennon became close to many radical leaders, including Bobby Seale, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Michael X, John Sinclair (for whom they organized a benefit after he was imprisoned), Angela Davis, Kate Millett, and David Peel. They appeared on The Mike Douglas Show and took over hosting duties for a week, during which Ono spoke at length about the evils of racism and sexism.

Yoko is an active naturalist who possess Organic type 2a wavy hair while long and 1b hair when short. If you have this hair type, try these tips!

-Use a light shampoo that will quench hair and not weight it down

-Use alcohol free styling products to control dryness and poof

-Deep oil treatments every so often will so wonders for dryness and breakage.

For more tips call or txt 647 532 LOVE  

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Vandana Shiva

Continuing with Wonder Women Week we will look at my personal favorite role model, ecofeminist and activist Vandana Shiva. Born on novembre 5^th (my birthday) in India to a father who was the conservator of forests and a farmer mother with a love for nature. She was educated at St Mary's School in Nainital, and at the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Dehradun. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in physics, she pursued a M.A. in the philosophy of science at the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada), with a thesis entitled "Changes in the concept of periodicity of light". In 1979, she completed and received her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. Her thesis, titled "Hidden Variables and locality in Quantum Theory," was about the philosophical underpinnings of quantum mechanics. She later went on to interdisciplinary research in science, technology, and environmental policy at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore.

Vandana Shiva plays a major role in the global Ecofeminist movement. According to her article Empowering Women, Shiva suggests that a more sustainable and productive approach to agriculture can be achieved through reinstating a system of farming in India that is more centered around engaging women. She advocates against the prevalent "patriarchal logic of exclusion," claiming that a woman-focused system would change the current system in an extremely positive manner. The view held by Vandana Shiva has been criticised as being essentialist by C. Jackson.

Vandana Shiva has been interviewed for a number of documentary films including the One Water, Deconstructing Supper: Is Your Food Safe?, The Corporation, Dirt! The Movie, and This is What Democracy Looks Like (a documentary about the Seattle WTO protests of 1999)

This genuine and intelligent women has amazing hair that is naturally wonderful! Vandana has a thick Organic, 1c-2b hair type. If you have hair like Ms.Shiva’s try these hair tips 

-Braid hair to maintain a nice set wave

-Use deep conditioning treatments once in a while to nourish hair from the scalp inward

-Avoid using shampoos that contain sulfates.

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Beyoncé Knowles

Continuing with our Wonder Women week we present Beyoncé Knowles. This southern song bird is an inspiration to young women all over the world. Whether or not she is in seven inch heels dancing while singing on stage or advocating for children’s health across America Beyonce is a true modern women.

Recently made a mommy by billionaire husband Jay-z, this lady is NO housewife. Since before she was 15 Beyonce has been singing and writing her own songs. She claimed fame as her own during the 90’s when she fronted one of the greatest selling R&B acts of all time; Destiny’s Child.

During the hiatus of Destiny's Child, Knowles released her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love, in 2003, which spawned two number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100—"Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy"—and became one of the most successful albums of that year, earning her a then record-tying five Grammy Awards. Following the disbandment of Destiny's Child in 2005, Knowles released her second solo album, B'Day, in 2006, which spawned the top 10 singles "Déjà Vu", "Irreplaceable" and "Beautiful Liar". Her third solo album I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), spawned the hit singles "If I Were a Boy", "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", "Halo" and "Sweet Dreams". The album helped Knowles earn six Grammys in 2010, breaking the record for most Grammy Awards won by a female artist in one night. Knowles' fourth solo album, 4 (2011), became her fourth consecutive number one album on the Billboard 200 as a solo artist. This made her the third artist in history to have her first four studio albums debut atop the chart!

Beyoncé is an inspirational woman who loves her natural hair and shows it! She has a 3c-4a Organic hair type , if you have this hair try these tips!

Use Dagger & Arrow GELI to control Frizz

Use Dagger & Arrow Sprits to help fight unnecessary breakage

Try Dagger & Arrow Butter Cream to keep curls soft and silky!

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