Donna's Salon Utopia

Hello everyone, Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged. I have been wanting to do something different with my hair for a long time. I get really tired of wearing it in a bun or tying it up in a conservative fashion. Perhaps it is the fact that I am reaching 40 in two years that makes me think of doing something more hip and easier to deal with. I have been thinking of locks for a long time and I found the thin ones did not look good on me, just like a thin body does not particularly look good on me either. I'm reading an amazing book called The Fat Studies Reader that I saw a fellow thesis group colleague with in Dr. Lance McCready's circle at OISE/University of Toronto. So...I thought about going back to the woman Charmaine who did my hair back in August. Then I thought of calling another woman named Charmaine who comes to your home. Then I thought, I spent years and years doing my own hair in my 20s and 30s...why stop now? It seems to be working, actually I know it is...

Hello everyone, Soon... The Politics of Black Hair Online Course Book will be published through Lulu.com. I'm really looking forward to this work. It is a compilation of discussions that have been on-going over a 7-week period of time from July 19th to August 29th. The discussions have been part of my research on the politics of black hair in education. I will be doing a discourse analysis of the research as part of my dissertation work. Here is a sneak peak at the cover of the book.

Hello everyone! I am on a brief hiatus from this blog until the online politics of black hair course finishes up at the end of August.

I can barely believe it. I went to a hairdresser for the first time in five years. Thank you Jill Andrew for having the BITE ME! Festival because I swear it was the inciting incident to my personal drama with my hair. I washed my hair on Friday and my hair was becoming quite dry because I was washing it too often. Charmaine told me I should only wash it every two weeks, which makes sense. Even Caucasian Jamie (my former student with the most beautiful hair!) told me that you should not wash your hair too often because it takes out the natural oils. Charmaine said the same thing! My best hairdresser so far in my life has been my younger sister Lisa. Charmaine is a very loving and lovely person. You really do need to have a loving heart to be a hairdresser. It's interesting because my sister is a Scorpio and Charmaine is also a Scorpio. My former fiancé is a Scorpio and he has terrific hair. Scorpio have good hair from my experience. Plus, they tend to be very loving people - just do...

Well, I sent my funding package confirmation to OISE/University of Toronto today. I am extremely grateful to be receiving funding, although this will cause a significant setback in my finances compared to previous years. The positive side is that I have the strong potential to get out of this degree relatively debt-free, if not completely debt-free. When I did my undergraduate degree at Carleton, I had a scholarship from the school, as well as a scholarship that my Dad had paid into. By time I graduated, I was $12,000 in debt. I was lucky though and I found work, so I was able to pay back the loan system of Ontario within the six-month grace period. When I did my graduate degree at Concordia in Montréal, I ended up being $23,000 in debt. I was extremely fortunate to have a great common-law boyfriend at the time who helped me to pay off a lot of that debt. If you are reading this - I thank you to this day! At least I no longer have that sitting on my head. So, I guess I really should no...

Hello! I'm looking for as many participants as possible, from all different walks of life and cultural backgrounds, etc., to participate in a survey on my online multimedia magazine Donna: http://kakonged.wordpress.com . The topic is the politics of black hair. I look forward to your participation. All participants will later be invited to be extraordinary students in a free online course linked to the politics of black hair that would last over four months and be targeted to young and old adults - and everyone in between like me. After completing the survey, please send me an email to both: dkakonge@sympatico.ca and dkakonge@gmail.com to avoid computer problems. The cap of enrollment for the online global course is 300 people. That is about all this teacher, journalist, author can deal with at max. I would like to fill it to maximum, so please - participate, help, learn and grow. Times of the classes will be flexible and will be modeled after a University of To...

I have come to some major decisions this week. My work with Centennial College and Seneca College will be sporadic because I will be focusing on my PhD. The aim is to get it done ASAP. Other possibilities will still come up, however like anyone else - I am extremely interested in working less hours for higher pay so I can devote the time to my PhD studies, as well s the graduate assistantship position I will have with a professor. I have completed a preliminary draft of a research proposal that is very brief - about 10 pages in terms of actual content. I have gathered a lot of research material pertaining to the politics of the black hair. It is amazing how writing and research on this topic has just exploded over the last decade that I have not been actively researching in the field. The movie Good Hair by Chris Rock really just touches the surface. His name recognition is what creates a situation where everyone associates the topic with him more recently. I'm still waiting to he...