Favorite Hair Products for Naturally Curly Hair - Italian American Girl Edition

 

Its' May! Time is flying and I feel like we've been locked up in the house forever, oh wait... we actually have.. how did all of this happen? ..So crazy.  

Well with the newer positive changes happening, we're starting to get out and back to some sort of normalcy. 

 For me, this means going back to the salon and taking care of my hair and actually doing my hair to go somewhere. Who else has gotten to used to buns and scrunchy looks just because you weren't or had to do or go anywhere? ugh.. Well enough with that. 

Today I'm going to share with you my top three styling products for naturally curly hair.  I started using an organic hair care line, which I absolutely love. If you have naturally curly hair you know that it can be coarse, unruly and sometimes can dry out faster due to 'cheaper' products.   I always get asked what I use on my hair because I manage to make my curls very separated, and not dry looking.  So, I'll tell you though one of the major secrets is actually having great hair color on your hair, that is ..if you color your hair. My hair behaves so much better when its colored and high-lighted.. that is also an organic hair color line.  

So with out further delay here are my top picks: 

O&M MAINTAIN THE MANE SHAMPOO (12OZ)

O&M MAINTAIN THE MANE CONDITIONER (12OZ)

OWAY CURLY POTION (240ML)

Do you have a favorite brand that you use?  Drop a comment below and let me know. 

~Margaret 

Tweet

Top 3 Best Pasta Dishes!

 

Over the last year since we've all been home and figuring what to do with our home bound lives, I've found some more peace and fun in cooking and trying new dishes.  Since I was always at work for the last 100 years, I never had time really to cook or spend more on time on experimenting unless it was a weekend.  So based on my Instagram statistics, I pulled the top three pasta dishes that you and the Italian American Girl audience interacted with most!  

• Linguini with sauteed brocolli -which consists of some olive oil and a dash of red pepper which is my personal favorite. 

• Believe it or not a simple dish yet so amazing is peas with pasta.  I usually cook with gluten free pasta by the way. The peas were sauteed with onions and then incorporated with the pasta.  This also has the flavor of the olive oil while it sauteed.

• Lastly, I love grilled zucchini with garlic and olive oil over a dish of pasta.  I also add fresh sauce at times, just depending on how I want that dish.   

So many varieties and flavors to making pasta.   Tell me your favorite pasta dish or make a recommendation for any pasta brand or products you love most. 

Tweet

Best Italian American Christmas Food Scenes

Happy New Year! Buon Anno everyone!  Here are a few Italian American food scenes I captured over the last week, check out my Instagram account too for some daily food pics of dinners, food and scenes.   What did you make this past holiday, what traditional dishes are you still making and keeping alive for your family traditions? 

Baileys Irish Cream Cordial - My favorite cordial is a great Irish creme, we spread the love of our international Irish friends. 

Arugula Pizza with Truffle Oil from Porta Pizza in Asbury Park, N.J. 

Pesto (basil leaves with garlic, olive oil blended in my mini) then sautéed over a low flame with #glutenfree pasta and stuffed #mushrooms with #glutenfree bread crumbs, garlic, and salt with olive oil drizzled and then cooked in the air fryer till crispy. 🍄 🍝 🌿 

Tweet

Italian Christmas Short Bread Cookies Recipe!

 The Italian Shortbread Cookie Recipe is back by demand.  

Tweet

It's Time for the Best Italian Cookie Recipes!

It's that time of year when I share and re-share the best traditional Italian cookie recipes from years past to now. These are all family recipes, we may film new cookie recipes this year as the kids have gotten older and there are always new requests and variations. 

Here's the second variation, this is my sister's recipe: 

http://www.italianamericangirl.com/2019/01/italian-shortbread-cookies-official.html

Tweet

Interview with On Air Expert & Entrepreneur Dawn Del Russo

NEW! Margaret Fontana Media presents: Interview with Dawn Del Russo; On Air Expert and Entrepreneur

Dawn Del Russo is an author and on-air TV style expert seen on Access Hollywood Live, Meredith Vieira, Extra TV, E News!, Glamour Mag Show Dress To Kill and in print Vogue Italia, InStyle, Cosmo, Real Simple, Life & Style and US Weekly. She is NY’s 95.5 PLJ resident “What to Wear Weather” girl in the mornings.

Dawn is a social media sweetheart and can be found chatting about fashion, beauty, food and lifestyle her Youtube channel,Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.

Tweet

Interview: Taylor Taglianetti Founder of The National Organization of Italian Americans in Film & Television

Margaret Fontana Media Presents: An Interview with Taylor Taglianetti founder of the The National Organization of Italian Americans in Film & Television (NOIAFT). 

Taylor Taglianetti 

Taylor is a producer and celebrity interviewer. She is currently producing a short documentary, Heirloom, featuring Isabella Rossellini, about the significance of gardens in the Italian American community. It is set to release in October 2020.

A graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Taylor has worked at Paradigm Talent Agency, NBCUniversal, Silver Pictures, and Maven Pictures. In addition to developing various feature length projects, Taylor has experience producing and directing short films. Her debut short film, Generation Hollow, was produced by the leading non-profit, Reel Works, and was an Official Selection at the 2014 Girls Film Festival and the Juror’s Choice for Outstanding Filmmaking at the 2014 Women of African Descent Film Festival.

Check out our interview here: 

Tweet

Italian American Girl T-Shirts!

BUY THE T-SHIRT HERE:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/163966562031

View this post on Instagram

@italianamericangirl T-shirts shirt 👕 👚 Available! Shop my site link in bio.

A post shared by Italian American Girl (@italianamericangirl) on Dec 29, 2019 at 4:31pm PST

Tweet

I'm Italian and Yes, I Have Curly Hair. Part 2 - Most Read Post with Questions!

Most Read/ Q&A article o IAG - 

Read more here: and comment below with your questions. Tweet

Roasted Red Peppers and Marinated Eggplant - Vegan Sunday Dinner

View this post on Instagram

#SundayDinner included #Organic Roasted 🌶 #peppers and marinated #eggplant 🍷🍝🍆🌶

A post shared by Italian American Girl (@italianamericangirl) on Feb 10, 2020 at 6:26am PST

Tweet

Italian Christmas Cookies Recipe! Most Viewed Recipe!

Here is the recipe :
Biscotti de Natale

1 lb butter
1 cup sugar
Six eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
5 cups flour
6 teaspoons of baking soda

-Bake at 375° 10–12 minutes until light golden
-Combine butter sugar vanilla and eggs. 
-Add flour and baking soda
-Should be fluffy and not stiff drop by rounded teaspoon onto nonstick cookie sheet bake and allow this thoroughly cool.

Icing
-One box of confectioners sugar
-2 1/2 teaspoons of lemon extract
-Combine and ice cookies for the traditional decorated look. Tweet

It's That Time of Year! Buy the Italian American Girl T-Shirts for your Favorite IAG!

View this post on Instagram

Hey guys, last of IAG T-shirt’s stock before the New Year... grab the sizes now. If you have questions let me know. This T-Shirt is Available For You: Link in bio 🇮🇹 🇺🇸 👚#tshirt #ItalianAmerican #ItalianAmericanHeritageMonth #italiangirl #italianamericangirls🇮🇹🇺🇸 #italianamericangirl

A post shared by Italian American Girl (@italianamericangirl) on Nov 2, 2019 at 1:55pm

Click on the T-Shirt Button on the top of the web page and get these shirts in black or white! Tweet

Best Soup for Fall! Italian Zucchini Soup

View this post on Instagram

It’s all about #zucchini this week 🥒 this is a staple soup we make: boiled yellow & green zucchini, 🥕 carrots, 🥔 potato and 🍅 tomato. Throw in a few pieces of garlic, olive oil, & salt. So delish, very healthy and #glutenfree

A post shared by Italian American Girl (@italianamericangirl) on Nov 4, 2019 at 4:15pm PST

Tweet

Italian Curly Hair - The Process

View this post on Instagram

Follow @italianamericangirl 🌿☕️☀️ 🇮🇹 🇺🇸

A post shared by Italian American Girl (@italianamericangirl) on May 18, 2019 at 5:39pm

Many of you sent comments and emails about being of a diverse background and having curly hair, and how to deal with it, so I said I would start sharing more of my insight on this topic.  Managing and styling curly hair is very unique and does require some patience.  I grew up feeling very sad a times because I didn't identify with other girls when I was the only one with curly hair and couldn't really relate to how they blew out their hair straight or wore it a certain cute ways.  Girls can make you feel bad at times.  Looking back as kids we were (are) so fragile and now I think back and say wow, my hair is actually powerful now, so this also something that may be beneficial to children who maybe don't always look like someone or may have different characteristics.  Education and empowerment are key.

 Funny how the world works. So, in order to find myself and get to a point of being happy about my hair I had to learn how to do my hair.  Now, I was lucky because my sister grew up and ended up owning her own salon and becoming one of the best stylists out there.  So, as she got great, she used my hair as her experimental space.  By the time I got to college, I had grown out my hair, I was definitely coloring it and learned that cutting it shorter only made it swell.  The way you see my hair above is basically how I've worn it the last 25 years.  I will share more on how to style and maintain curly hair, I've been talking about doing a video.  Stay tuned.  Tweet

Simple Broccoli 🥦 Rabe - Italian American Recipes

View this post on Instagram

Simple Broccoli 🥦 Rabe.. a touch of olive oil good to go. Do you make it different ? Comment below. 🍝

A post shared by Italian American Girl (@italianamericangirl) on Aug 16, 2019 at 4:0pm PD

• Sauteed Broccoli Rabe - Olive Oil, Pinch of Salt over pasta.  

Tweet

Baked Zucchini Slices - Amazing Italian Fall Recipes.

View this post on Instagram

Baked zucchini 🥒 slices made by dipping in egg and breading with home made breadcrumbs. Excellent with a tad of olive oil and salt. #italiancooking #trybeingitalian #italianamericancooking #cooking

A post shared by Italian American Girl (@italianamericangirl) on Oct 29, 2019 at 3:32pm PDT

Tweet

October is National Italian American Heritage Month - 'Why Some Italian-Americans Still Fiercely Defend Columbus Day' - NYTIMES

October is National Italian American Heritage Month where an legal order was always signed by the standing President, I just researched to see if our current president has signed anything and did not find it, maybe you will find it or maybe we will never see it again.

  It goes without saying our cultural history in America goes back to the 1800's where over 5.4 million Italian immigrated to the US to find a better life, We were vilified then as many Mexican Americans are now a days.  Granted in my case, my parents came to the USA with all the proper paperwork and protocol.  They did come here from a war torn Italy and my father created a foundation for my mother's arrival years later.   Today over 26 million Americans are of Italian descent making us the largest ethnic group.  Stats from Italian American Foundation

With evolution comes controversy, and as many of us grew thinking, Columbus day signified a day to celebrate our heritage here in the USA, as we were all taught in elementary school that Christopher Columbus discovered America, I mean he was Italian.  Well as we've become a more sensitive society to ethnicity and social awareness's, it has been deemed incorrect to celebrate Christopher Columbus because according to history he slayed and murdered Indigenous people in his quest to colonize the USA.  Last time I checked this was called Thanksgiving a national and huge economic engine of a holiday where we are basically celebrating the slaughter of native Americans, but there is no argument there, instead we focus on Columbus Day and the so called heinous acts of the explorer.  Instead in elementary school you were taught how the colonists had a dinner with the Indians and they were all so happy, were they?

In all honesty, we don't need Columbus Day or Thanksgiving they are both if you want to break it down celebrating the same thing.  Its not about Italians at all.   This country before you and I was built on explorers from the 'Old World' coming to the "New World" and yes, according to history did in fact use heinous acts to colonize or so they say, you and I the person who is about 100 years old would NOT know either.  All we have is supposed history books.   The moral of the story, we are here in America, we have contributed to the history of this country along with many other ethnicities and cultures.  You can't deny history and label one person or one culture.   This is America. 

This was an article published in the NY TIMES; Take a look, a lot of great points. What do you think?

Why Some Italian-Americans Still Fiercely Defend Columbus Day

Tweet

I'm Italian and Yes, I Have Curly Hair -- Part 2

The struggle is real when we delve into the world of ethnic naturally curly hair and all that it embodies.  A long time ago I wrote a blog post for my Italian American Girl site talking about my feelings around being ethnic, first generation Italian American and having extremely curly hair.  My feelings and hair have not changed much but society and our ways of digesting and accepting others may or may not have changed too. 

 In that post found HERE I talk about my feelings around how people perceive and treat people with curly hair in and around work environments or just anywhere.  This is a real topic and real instances of discrimination do occur from what seems to be very a light topic or comment usually of "wow, I love your hair, how do you get it that way, or wow, that's a lot of hair.. how do you manage it...?" as if my hair is an issue or it makes someone else feel uncomfortable or even opens up the door for some people to cross my boundaries and assume because my hair is big and curly its associated to some sort of stereotype.  No women with naturally ethnic curly hair are not more wild, or put forth a vibe of more sexual energy.  

As humans we obviously perceive and absorb what ever feelings we have naturally, but when we are programmed by the media and cultural stereotypes we are in fact discriminating and maybe against other people for even more different qualities than curly hair.   If you look at more ethnic men and women who are in the public eye they tend to keep their rather ethnic naturally curly hair straight because that's more widely accepted and I believe makes people feel more comfortable because its more common.  Different scares people. 

More recently over the summer, I read this amazingly interesting story out of NYC, "This year, the New York City Commission on Human Rights received seven complaints detailing similar incidents, in which employees were told that their tresses had to be straightened in order to comply with business standards. In February, the agency stepped in and officially banned “hair discrimination” in the city, granting victims of this kind of racial bias grounds to take legal action. (The cases that prompted the move are still under investigation.)"  READ THE FULL STORY HERE

I love my curly hair, I do straighten it once in a while, but guess what? That's not me: the picture above is me, I don't think everyone is OK and or ready for the ethnicity of real curly hair and there continues to be stereotyping and discrimination, we must do a better job at educating our children and communities about acceptance and equality.     Also, the reason why I'm writing this blog post is because I've been asked a million times by my readers to talk more about this topic, and believe it or not the article was read over 20,000 times and counting.   I may do more on this topic, talk to someone for podcast and even do a video on how to do my curly hair.   If you have thoughts on this topic or want to add something for me to talk about, send me an email: margaret@italianamericangirl.com  Tweet