Afro Comb Exhibit Cambridge


Last Monday I had the wonderful privilege of being invited along to be one of the first to see the Afro Comb Exhibit in Cambridge. Being local, I hoped on a train and made my way to the museum on Monday evening.

Here are a few pictures from the day! Enjoy




 Got to see the lovely Crystal Afro again. She was a part of the seminars that ran during the day. Very proud of her! Go Crystal

At the opening of the exhibition we were treat by a poem written by Booker prize winner Ben Okri. He wrote the poem right then! Still amazed at that. 
This was the most striking piece of the exhibtion and really what started it all. It shows the similarities between the 4000 year old bone comb and a 40 year old plastic one.




Similarities between combs in different regions in Africa. Showing how the modern politically lines have divided the people but their heritage is common and very similar.



I didnt get a chance to meet the talented Charlotte Mensah at Curlvolution or the SON Brit Mixer and was incredibly pleased to run into her in Cambridge of all places. Need to book an appointment at Hair Lounge.

Charlotte was there with June Forbes who gave that amazing talk last year when I first visited the Fitzwilliam Museum for the Afro Comb Project. Blog Post Here 

Also got to meet author Sandra Gitterns again. I met Sandra for the first time last year and she did a wonderful talk on the Evolution of Black Hair. Blog Post Here.

Snap Happy as usual, had to get a pic of these three inspirational women. 

Such a great day!

to find out more about the exhibit there was also an ITV report 

'Black hairstyling history at Cambridge museum'

and more events in Cambridge throughout the summer
Embrace Your Inner AfroDeity
Leilu


Albertha's Garden: All Natural Caribbean Products



Hi All,

Today I wanted to tell you about Albertha's Garden. I had the wonderful privilege of meeting the owners of Albertha's Garden at the May Keziah Connections and wanted to find out more about their Caribbean Inspired and All Natural nutmeg products from Grenada.

At AfroDeity we are always on the look out for Caribbean products and particular those that are ethically sourced and Albetha's Garden falls right into that category. All Albertha’s Garden products are natural and handmade. The nutmeg is picked from from family land in Greneda and the nutmeg oil from the nutmeg factories in Grenada. The nutmegs, nutmeg oil and nutmeg butter are brought over to the UK and then the process of making these products is started.

I was able to purchase an Exfoliating Soap, Body Butter and Body Wash which I still use now and are so soothing. My skin feels so smooth and refreshed and I look forward to having a shower so much more now. When you have eczema sometimes bathing can make your skin feel sore and irritated. Now I actually enjoy having a shower.

Exfoliating Soap
The Nutmeg and Peppermint Soap that I tried had strawberry seeds in it to exfoliate the skin. Unlike other exfoliators this was not harsh and was not slippery and drying like conventional soaps. My only problem was that I didn't have a soap dish, easy rectified with a quick trip to Wilko. LOL! I used this every third day and the body wash every day in between.

Body Butter
On leaving the shower I let my skin dry naturally (sometimes i spray my skin with witch hazel and then let it dry) and used the Nutmeg and Peppermint body butter (The Nutmeg & Peppermint one did smell quite medicinal but I plan to try the Wild Strawberry one next. I assume this will be a sweeter smell and the reviews for this one in particular are very good). My skin felt amazing and soothed all day. I sealed it all in with Fountain Pimento Oil which complimented this nicely. Used this for 3 weeks and it is my new favourite body butter.

Body Wash
This product has made my shower experience so much more enjoyable. The product doesn't have as much slip as your traditional body wash and I actually liked that. The other great thing was that a small amount in your hand could lather up your entire body. SLS and Paraben Free an great value for money. 


About the Family behind Albertha's Garden

Albertha’s Garden is a family run business; and we love that. Starting from the hand picked nutmeg from their Grandad’s Garden right through to the production of the products. They all get involved.

"The concept of Albertha’s Garden started when we were first alerted to the ingredients being put into the products we used on our children Our son had a Melanoma on his thumb which resulted in a quarter of his thumb being removed. Our daughter had severe eczema and everything we tried just would not work. Without naming names, we tried all the typical products prescribed by the Doctor.
These products would work for a short while and then the eczema would return, even more aggressively. After that we were forced to try something even stronger than the previous product. It was like a never ending cycle. Our daughter felt like a guinea pig, can you imagine the frustration? Nothing was working. There had to be another way.
The big turnaround happened after a visit to Grandad’s garden in Grenada, West Indies

Grandad’s garden wasn’t your typical garden but more like acres and acres of land which grew the most exotic fruits, flowers and of course, nutmeg.

We learned that Nutmeg has so many natural healing properties including: soothing skin problems, relieve of arthritic pain, aid nausea and a natural preservative, which help to preserve the skin.

We discovered that the locals would combine the nutmeg butter with Petroleum Jelly and use that concoction as treatment for skin problems.

This experience marked the birth of Albertha’s Garden. We knew that we wanted, in some way to harness the properties of nutmeg to its fullest potential. So we decided to make personal care products with nutmeg as our main ingredient.

The products we made greatly helped relieve our daughter’s eczema. We now no longer use those products prescribed by the Doctor at all.

We picked the nutmeg from Grandad’s land; we got the nutmeg oil from the nutmeg factories in Grenada, brought the nutmegs, nutmeg oil and nutmeg butter over to the UK and then started the process of making these products."

Such a great story behind a great set of products. We really enjoyed using these and hope you will too! Dont forget these products are suitable for the whole family.

You can find Albertha's Garden on the AfroDeity Store  amongst all our other ethically sourced Caribbean products. We hope you love them as much as we do!

Embrace Your Inner AfroDeity 
Leilu