Hair! How I Grew It

On today’s show, I interview Bernita Cooper. Bernita is the CEO and Founder of Bernita Cooper Communications. She helps her clients alleviate the stress of creating content that informs, educates and tells a story.

Bernita was born and raised in Hemingway, South Carolina, which is a small town located about two hours from Columbia. Fun fact, Sylvia Woods, the woman who founded the famous soul food restaurant Sylvia’s in Harlem, was from Hemingway.

Bernita has sported a natural for about 15 years, but she did take a natural break in college. More on that later in the show.

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On today’s show, I interview Sharron Fletcher. Sharron is a Lead Victim Justice Specialist in the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime. I met her in 1999 shortly after I moved to the Washington D.C. metro area. Her friend, colleague and my Delta Sigma Sorority line sister Erin, introduced us. I recall that meeting clearly because Sharron was nearly bald. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/hairhowigrewit/message

Good news! Hair! How I Grew It is "movin' on up." It’s now ranked #5 on Feedspot's Top 25 Natural Hair Podcasts You Must Follow in 2021. That’s six spots higher than it was ranked last year. Thanks again for the recognition Feedspot. See the complete list at https://blog.feedspot.com/natural_hair_podcasts/.

On today’s show, I interview my Delta Sigma Theta Sorority sister and fellow Cleveland native Linda Dukes-Campbell. Linda is a voice over actor. Her melodious tone is smooth and calming. I’d be entertained just listening to Linda read the yellow pages.

While voice over acting is something she’s always wanted to do, that’s not what she started out doing professionally. Linda spent years in radio and television doing other jobs. She’s been a news reporter, talk-show host, news director, public affairs director and producer. Linda was also a Supervisory Public Affairs Specialist at NASA. She stayed there for two decades before retiring eight years ago.

I met Linda in the early 1990s when she was an executive at the ABC affiliate in Cleveland, and I was a broadcast journalism student at Ohio University. Linda came to OU to recruit for her station, and when we met, we hit it off right away. She hired me as a station intern and became my mentor. During my reporting days, when I was crazed, unsure or just needed to talk, Linda was always willing to listen and help me if she could. We lost touch for a while, but when I reached out to her for Hair! How I Grew It, we picked up right where we left off, and she said yes to being a guest on the podcast without hesitation.

Linda has been natural on and off for years. She embraced the style completely in 2013. Today, she rocks a short salt and pepper Afro.

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On today’s show, I interview my Divine 9 sister, Ashley Rowe. Ashley is a licensed natural hair care specialist and instructor. She is a SisterlocksTM brand ambassador and an R Certified consultant. R Certified means she’s been trained to teach people how to maintain their own sisterlocks. Ashley is also an entrepreneur. She owns Naturally Rowe LLC and co-owns Twist’d Up and Loc’d Down Boutique.

I met Ashley last year when I was looking for a natural hair care specialist to team up with for my COVID-19 Natural Hair 9-1-1 LIVE clinic on Zoom. I wanted to hold the virtual event because I knew sistahs couldn’t get to salons, and many of them desperately needed help maintaining their naturals on their own. Past Hair! How I Grew It Guest, Stefanie Graddic, who is also my stepsister, recommended Ashley for the clinic. Ashley is Stefanie’s Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority line sister.

The clinic was a success. Ashley shared a lot of good information. Her mist water bottle suggestion changed my life. She told me to mist my hair with water then detangle it with a comb before I washed it. I was detangling my very dense coily Afro after I applied conditioner, which took forever. I started our conversation with gratitude.

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On today’s show, I interview Mahkai Dominique. She’s an actor, who is finishing up her studies at Rutgers University. Mahkai graduates with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in May 2021. She’s rocked her natural for eight years.

I started our interview with an observation.

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On today’s show, I interview Gineen Cargo. Gineen is a mompreneur. She takes care of her family while wearing multiple professional hats.

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On today’s show, I interview Helen Maynard. She is an assignment editor for News 5 Cleveland, which is the local ABC television station in Cleveland, my hometown. Helen has worked in TV newsrooms for more than 30 years. I met her in the early 1990s. She was one of my supervisors at News 5 when I was a college intern. Both of us had relaxers back then.

Helen has rocked a natural for 12 years. Her crown has multiple textures.

Note: Hair! How I Grew It has been named one of the top 25 natural hair podcasts on the web by Feedspot. The complete list is available at https://blog.feedspot.com/natural_hair_podcasts/.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/hairhowigrewit/message

Hair! How I Grew It has been named one of the top 25 natural hair podcasts on the web by Feedspot. Check out the rankings at https://blog.feedspot.com/natural_hair_podcasts/.

On today’s show, I interview Dr. Eddith Dashiell. In May, she became the Director of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. Dr. Dashiell is the first woman and the first African American to hold the position. I met her in the early 1990s when I was a journalism student at OU. She was one of my favorite professors.

About a decade after I graduated, she embraced her natural because OU, a predominantly white campus in rural Athens, Ohio, has never had much black hair care support.

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On today's show, I interview my beautiful and talented cousin, Tanikka Charraé.

I wanted Tanikka to be a part of Hair! How I Grew It’s first season, but she couldn’t because before COVID, she was traveling around the world singing backup for Lauryn Hill. She’s been doing that for nearly 11 years.

I’m so proud of Tanikka. The first time I saw her on one of the late-night shows with Ms. Hill, I cheesed so hard, my cheeks hurt. Now, grounded like most us, Tanikka made time to share her journey to natural hair. She’s been rocking hers for about 12 years.

I know I’ve mentioned Ms. Hill a few times already, but I assure you, this is not a show about her. This is about Tanikka Charraé, but I started the interview talking about the Grammy-award winning artist because of her natural vibe. I still remember Ms. Hill’s glorious locs from back in the day, and those iconic lyrics from her song Doo Woop. "Look at where you be in, hair weaves like Europeans." She’s calling sistahs out. So, I asked Tanikka what impact has being around that energy had on her natural hair life.

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On today’s show, I interview my family doctor, Sabine Paul-Yee. She’s a CentraState physician, who embraced her natural six years ago. Dr. Paul-Yee is the best doctor I’ve ever had. Her bedside manner is impeccable, and she always makes me feel like my health really matters, so of course I had to interview her because on this show, black hair matters.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/hairhowigrewit/message