I love the Freshjive Night Life Crewneck Sweater! I saw this crewneck sweater on PLNDR like last month, and I hesitated to buy it. Why? Because I felt like it would just hang around in my size forever. I don’t know why I didn’t just spend the $20 on this Night Life Crewneck Sweater by Freshjive, but now I’m definitely losing. It’s all sold out in my size, and I can’t seem to find it anywhere at all. This is probably one of the dopest crewnecks I’ve seen this year. Too bad I can’t own it now. Moral of the story? Don’t hesitate when you see something you like that’s in your price range. You’ll regret it later!

It may be a little bit late to be blogging about my birthday, but, whatever, it’s an important enough day that it should be subject to being discussed freely at ANY time. Don’t you think the same of your birthday? Anyway, I never got the chance to blog about these Super People Vincenzo Sunglasses that I got as a gift:

It was SUPER warm this past November ... no pun intended!

Dopest gift ever? Most likey! My gf knew I was eying the Vincenzo’s for a while (amongst many other things) and she surprised me with these. They’re AWESOME, and they’re a redesign of RETROSUPERFUTURE’s “People” sunglasses. The Vincenzo boasts gold and puma accents all over the place. The puma and gold is actually what made me fall in love with these sunglasses.

They’re sold out everywhere now, and that kind of makes me happy, haha. I’m honored to be able to say that I own a piece of RETROSUPERFUTURE history! Check out some more shots of these beautiful Limited Edition Super People Vincenzo Sunglasses:

Magic Shave Shaving Powder

Before I continue any further, I want to make a little disclaimer that I’m not being sponsored by any company or anything like that, I just felt like I needed to clarify this subject since the current information on the internet about black men and beard shaving isn’t too cohesive.

Okay, now let’s get back to Magic Shave. This stuff is dope! For some reason, I was initially hesitant to use this stuff (it was sitting on my shelf for 4 months before I actually used it), but I’m happy that I decided to give it a try 3 weeks ago.

What is Magic Shave?

Normally, you’d cut your hair, which is considered physical hair removal. Magic Shave is a depilatory cream, which means that it works by chemical hair removal. Don’t worry, though, it’s safe. People tend to hear “chemical” and think bad things, but the term chemical doesn’t always have to have a negative connotation.

How does Magic Shave work?

Magic Shave comes in a powder form (gold can) or in cream form (pre-mixed tube). I bought the gold can initially and had success with shaving, but the process of mixing it was very messy and annoying. I ended up going out and buying the cream form thinking it’d be easier since it was pre-mixed. It was easier, but it was SUPER weak, and none of my hair came off. I wasted $5. I suggest buying the gold can since it’s stronger, and if you continue reading, I’ll give you a great technique for mixing it!

What’s the best way to use Magic Shave?

The gold can of magic shave is better than the pre-mixed tube because it is stronger. I found the best way to use this stuff is to follow the directions, but adjust accordingly. What do I mean by this? Well, the directions are a bit vague, which is frustrating, but I found that they were enough to guide me down the right path. Here’s how I feel about each step of the directions, what I feel should be listened to, and what I think should be adjusted:

Don’t forget: DO NOT WASH YOUR FACE BEFORE USING THIS CREAM

1. Mix 2 heaping teaspoons of shaving powder with an equal amount of cool water.
   I don’t know what the hell this really means, but what I do is get a semi-deep jar and dump in two random regular kitchen spoon measurements of the powder. Then I slowly add water while mixing like crazy. Remember that you are trying to make this powder have the consistency of a paste. Don’t use too much water. ADD WATER SLOWLY. Also, I use a semi-deep jar so that I can aggressively mix the stuff with a spoon while avoiding a mess.
2. Apply the creamy (pasty) mixture to beard. Leave on for 5-7 minutes. Remoisten if the mixture dries.
   Okay, this makes sense. I use my fingers to apply the stuff since it allows me to feel the contours of my jaw line and make sure all of the hairs on my face have cream applied to them. The 5-7 minutes thing varies. If you’re hair isn’t super coarse and you have really sensitive skin then I’d say leave it on for 5-7 minutes. Personally, I leave it on somewhere between 12-15 minutes. MAKE SURE YOU DON’T LET THIS STUFF GET DRY. Figure out a creative way to keep it moistened after you’ve applied it to your beard, but make sure that you keep it all on your beard!
3. Remove with spatula. Rinse shaving area thoroughly. Do not wash off with soap.
   They’re not joking about this, but don’t use a spatula. I actually find it easy to use a credit card (clean, of course) or some type of slim/flat object. DON’T SCRAPE YOUR FACE WITH THE FLAT OBJECT. Instead, just glide it on your face and let it take whatever it can off. Get the rest of the hairs off with a damp warm cloth. Rise your face with water after. NO SOAP. After this, though, I would apply that Neutrogena lotion to your face.
4. If any beard remains, wait 36 hours before next Magic Shaving Powder application.
   I’d listen to them, but use your judgement.

Some information about me:

I think it’s important to understand some things about me in order to see that these methods will most likely work. First of all, I’m Nigerian. To reference Lil Wayne’s “A Milli,” there aren’t many things that are “tougher than Nigerian hair”! That being said, I’m sure that I have the curliest/coarsest hair type that you can get, and Magic Shave still works. It should be noted, though, that if your hair isn’t as course as mine, then you should apply less of the Magic Shave/use it for less time.

Post-Magic-Shave Care:

Just because you’ve found a way to get the hairs off your face without irritating your skin doesn’t mean that you still can’t get ingrown hairs/razor bumps! Once I saw that Magic Shave worked for the first time, I was excited and just left it at that. Bad idea. Two days later, I had razor bumps (although not as bad as when I shaved with a razor), and I wondered why. I came to realize that my hair was still growing with its normal super curly pattern, which is what causes it to grow right back into my skin and cause an ingrown hair.

I speculated about the pathology of razor bumps (I know. I’m a dork. I’m in medical school, I can’t help it!), and I decided that it was similar enough to the pathology of acne. I used some of my girlfriend’s Neutrogena Healthy Skin Anti-Wrinkle Anti-Blemish Treatment, Clear Skin Cream for a few days and it worked great! I decided to start looking into the major ingredient of most acne creams and I found out that it’s salicylic acid. Ring a bell?

Salicylic acid is basically Aspirin, but it has amazing effects on acne/ingrown hairs. To keep it simple, salicylic acid promotes the sloughing away of dead skin. Why is this important? Because dead skin cells clog your pores and stop your hair from growing freely, which causes your hairs to grow back toward the skin and cause ingrown hairs.

This is STILL not enough to prevent razor bumps, though. I tried using my girlfriend’s cream without anything else and the bumps were still there, although VERY diminished. What I decided to do next was to assist the Neutrogena cream with the sloughing away of my dead skin cells. How did I do this? I bought a face scrub wash that would let me manually scrub away dead skin cells and also give my coarse and curly hairs room to grow. It worked. I ultimately ended up doing a lot of research, and I decided to buy a Neutrogena facial scrub with 2% salicylic acid. I also decided to buy a different cream (my girlfriend’s was good, but I found a better one), which is also made by Neutrogena and also has 2% salicylic acid. See the pattern? Salicylic acid is the key! I’ve had no serious razor bumps since doing all of this, and I thought that was something I’d NEVER be able to say!

Note: YOU HAVE TO WASH YOUR FACE/APPLY THE LOTION AT LEAST TWO TIMES A DAY (I’d suggest morning and night). Honestly, you have to keep up with this. I missed two days of washing my face with the scrub/applying the lotion, and razor bumps started to reappear. Keep up with it, and you won’t have a problem!

Where can you buy all these products?

You can find all of these products in your local CVS, RiteAid, Walgreens, Walmart, or any other pharmacy-type store. However, they are more expensive in-store than online, so I’d recommend buying them at Amazon, and if you have an Amazon-prime account, you can also get free 2-day shipping:

Soft Sheen Carson Magic Shaving Powder (Gold Can)

Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Stress Control 3-in-1 Hydrating Acne Treatment

Neutrogena Acne Stress Control Power-Clear Scrub

I hope this helps someone because I sure wish I knew all of this before I started growing facial hair. Lastly, check out this little tutorial video some guy made on YouTube. He uses the cream, which I don’t recommend, but all the other procedures are right on!

It’s no secret that medical school is stressful, but what may be a secret is what you can do to relieve a stressful situation. Personally, I prefer to remove myself from the inducers of stress; and that’s exactly what I did! My gf and I planned a trip to NYC after our most recent anatomy practical (identifying the fine differences between the radial nerve, deep radial nerve, and posterior interosseous nerve is fvcking taxing!) just to be able to get the hell out of Boston for the weekend. Thanks, MLK, because getting back to my REAL home was much overdue!

Anyway, we stayed in Eurostars on Wall St. and Front St. right by the South Street Seaport. It’s a nice/modern hotel, but for some reason there was no HD TV, which threw me the fvck off, but I still got to see the Giants whoop some Greenbay ass! The game plan for the trip was to relax, shop in SoHo, catch up with one of my best friends that lives in Brooklyn right now, and also see my other good friends as well. We got it ALL done, and here’s some of the places we went:

Muji in SoHo NYC (dope clothing/stationary shop)
RED in South Street Seaport (had lunch here, and it was okay)
The Dish in Chelsea (had breakfast here, and it was fvcking awesome!)
Allsaints in SoHo NYC (got a dope Japanese cotton shirt — gf got some nice boots!)
BAPE (had to go because I always do — bought nothing, haha)
Stussy in South Village
Lacoste Boutique in SoHo (REALLY wanted the Cool Cats x Lacoste L!VE sweater)
Superdry in South Street Seaport (cool UK-based Japanese inspired store)
Beacon’s Closet (bought ‘Number of Day’ Korean denim — gf got a Rugby puffer jacket)
Nordstrom Rack in Union Square
Café Medina off 5th Ave (awesome soup/sandwich selection)
Hiroko’s Place in South Village (quaint/delicious Japanese restaurant w/ the oddest menu!)

It’s impossible to do/see everything within a one-weekend visit to NYC. Sh*t, it’s impossible to do everything even if you’ve lived in NYC for 20+ years! I’m just genuinely content with the fact that I got to take a little break from school, hang out/shop with my gf, and see my close friends that I haven’t seen in a while. I felt “normal” again during the long MLK weekend, and I hopped right back into the flow of school as soon as we started up this past Tuesday. In fact, I’m blogging right now from anatomy lecture, haha.

Takeaway message of this post? Remember to ALWAYS check the lateral view of an x-ray because you may easily miss lung cancer developing in the lower lobes of the right/left lungs:

Side Note: I apologize to anyone that I’m close with in NY that I couldn’t see during this trip. I’ll most definitely catch up with you guys this Summer!

I wasn’t planning on going to Lacoste Boutique while I was walking around SoHo during my trip to NYC last weekend, but this sweater caught my attention in the window. I went in, tried it on, had one of the workers explain to me how Cool Cats is a French brand with a cult following, and I REALLY wanted to buy this sweater.

It’s made out of merino wool, which is extremely soft incase you don’t know. What stopped me from buying this awesome Cool Cats x Lacoste L!VE Crewneck Sweater? The price tag. This thing was $275, and I just can’t bring myself to spend that type of money that I really don’t have, lol. You know how they say stereotype black people as constantly living outside of their means? Well, that’s not me, because I only do it occasionally. That was a joke. Laugh!

Anyway, for those of you rich people out there, BUY THIS SWEATER AND LET ME KNOW YOU DID SO THAT I CAN LIVE VICARIOUSLY THROUGH YOU! You’ll look super cool and also have a piece of cult history.

How dope is that Leopard detail in the inner neck?

I took a trip back home to NYC this past weekend and, of course, I made sure to go to SoHo to do some eating and shopping (the best pastimes aside from running and sleeping). Since I’m working on a medical student/side hustler’s budget, I made sure to keep my spending under control. I usually try to only buy things that really catch my eye anyway.

I came across this Everett Polka Dot Azure Chambray Shirt at the Allsaints Spitalfields store in SoHo, and I had to buy this thing. The quality of the shirt is dope, and according to Allsaints:

“The Everett Shirt is made using 100% cotton shuttle loom Japanese fabric. The fabric has a small scale polka dot print on a light weight yarn dye chambray base which is heavily garment washed for a soft hand feel.”

Check out a more detailed picture of the Everett Polka Dot Azure Chambray Shirt by Allsaints:

At $65, I’d say this was a steal considering how expensive Allsaints normally is!

I just recently came across this Binghamton University crewneck sweatshirt, and I asked myself, “why didn’t you buy this while you were still in school?!” This crewneck looks dope, and I definitely need to buy one now to pay homage to my alma mater. I’m proudly representing the class of 2009, and I’m thankful that I was able to go to such a great [public] university for half the price of what you Ivy Leaguer’s out there paid! It’s all love, haha

Graduated from/still attending Binghamton, or a random fan of Binghamton? Buy one now!

This stuff looks gross

Jolly Rancher soda?! How long has this crap been out? This popped up on my Facebook timeline today, and I was grossed the f*ck out, lol. I’m all for Jolly Ranchers, and I’ll have an occasional soda, but the thought of mixing both just doesn’t sit well with me. This is what our youth is drinking these days, I guess. Someone needs to shut this operation down, haha. Michelle Obama, where are you?!

"peach, where u at? text me back." -SEND-

Mario can text b*tches, too, right? Haha, this was just classic to me. I love seeing life-size childhood characters acting out of character, don’t you? Credit for this awesome picture/caption goes to John Sim!

Remember these from 2009? Probably not because only, like, 300 were created! Well, I got my hands on a pair of these beautiful Salmon colored Asics GT II’s that were designed for the annual Bread & Butter tradeshow in Berlin, Germany. How in the world did I do that, you ask? Good question. I have an awesome, awesome, awesome girlfriend that loves to shop more than I do, and she came across these at a thrift shop in Boston. Someone thrifted these brand new. Nuts.

First moral of the story? You never know what you’ll find in a thrift store. Second moral of the story? Find yourself a woman that shares similar interests!

The colorway and minor details make these shoes amazing. Check these things out:

Again, only 300 pairs were produced, with 200 of those given to “family and friends” at the event in 2009. So, only 100 pairs were available for the general public. These really mean a lot to me right now!