Goapele Mohlabane born July 11th 1977. She's an American Soul and R&B singer-songwriter. Her name means to move forward in Setswana, a South African language
I've always liked Goapele's music. In style, especially hair style, she is a woman after my own heart having shorn her dreadlocks and proceeded to rock the most amazing corn-row style. Having worn dreadlocks myself for close to 10 years, I found myself floundering when I had them chopped over a year ago.
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| Rocking my locs. |
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| Tibetian monk inspired. |
Oh, I loved and rocked the bald hair stage. Yep!I was mad enough to give myself the Tibetian monk style. When I got a buzz, it was all the better. I can't say I was excited about the tiny growth I got a few months later but I definitely rocked the TWA alias Teeny Weeny Afro.
At the moment I have a huge head of hair that closely resembles a mullet for the simple reason that I'm reluctant to have a hair trim. I mean, I'm not going to cut off those precious inches especially when I've spent so much energy, endured many a protective style and found myself a product junkie in a bid to grow and retain those very same inches! Hell no! Infact I begrudge those few that involuntarily depart from my scalp during my once a week comb. (Yes, yes, I comb my hair once a week. What about it? *side eye*)
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| Uncombed for 3 days. |
If there's anything I believe in, it's that everyone should have their own distinct sense of style. STYLE here covers ALL style including hair style. It's called a SIGNATURE look. Just like your handwritten signature, it's peculiar to you.
I'm no trend follower. Never have been, never will be. I've never been one to go with the crowd when it comes to fashion. B-O-R-I-N-G!! What's the point walking down the street and eveyone is in jeans and a t-shirt or going to a party where all the ladies look the same in short gowns, heels and glittering accessories. Don't get me started on the brazillian hair. Eissh! Can we add P-R-E-D-I-C-T-A-B-L-E to boring??
Nope, I'm not a conformist (my loc rocking Law school days attest to that) and I'm not conventional. But after my locs, everything seems so - Tame.
She came into my life by accident. Being an internet bum and a serial blog stalker, I stumbled into pictures of her and my brain went into overdrive. Is her style ingenious or what? How about needing a pant-full of balls to pull off her swagger without getting plenty of side eyes sending messages of "wetin dey worry this one?" Because believe me, you will get a lot of side eyes.
Well, balls is something I have plenty of and side eyes? I revel in that kind of attention. So I called my hair stylist up to my apartment Sunday evening and we got to work after I'd shown her several pics of Goapele's style.
Amidst sighs of 'Aunty na wa o!' and 'Aunty you should start your own hairstyle calendar' we were finally done with the cornrows - the easy part. Bring in the yarn. Ol' boy! That involved some mathematical calculations because too little would have had my big head overpowering everything. Too much would have me looking like a cock! Finally we figured it out. One big row up the back, branching out into three places to be curved and placed artistically at the side of my head. I won't go into the details of how we managed the artistic part but suffice to say we did consider super-glue at some point. Lol!
After some struggling and 'Aunty ehn!" muttering from Joke whom I told if I heard one more peep out of would pay me for teaching her all my eccentric styles and broadening her erstwhile pick-and-drop experience; we gorrit!! Success!!!
My Goapele inspired hair! I couldn't stop looking at it in the mirror. I find it extremely fascinating!
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| Fascinating! |
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| The side view. |
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| After all the work. |
The goal is to have it on for two weeks. Hopefully, I don't get bored or my scalp doesn't revolt (my hair raves coming soon).
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| Monday morning and working it. ^_^ |
Let's gooo!
xxx
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