Back to Blue Black Pompadour Up-do

You know what they say, once you go blue black, you always go back, lol.

It seems every fall, I'm in the mood for Blue Black... I get over what ever lighter color I had been trying for the spring summer season and I feel the urge to go back to dark shiny hair.

For all of my bright vibrant hair color, I've pretty much always used Manic Panic, this time using Manic Panic Amplified in Shocking Blue. I love Manic Panic because it is a Vegan, semi- permanent haircolor. The amplified formula is supposed to be a longer lasting formula, and I let the color sit on for about 2-3 hours while cooking to let the color seep into my follilcles as much as possible. My hair is porous from being over processed earlier this summer, so I'd say that helped it to soak up the color.
I tried taking pictures in a few different types of lighting so I could show you all the blue-ish tint it gave my darker hair, plus how blue my little party patch is.
 I was kind of pissed because I wanted to rollerset my hair for this holiday weekend and I didn't get the chance to... #bathroomtimeintercepted; so with needing to leave the house soon after washing, I ended up having to blow out my hair again. 

For the Holiday, I decided to go with a twisted pompadour up-do (I tried my best to show all angles). I had no plan of any hairstyle aside from the fact that I wanted a high bun without having to worry about my hair falling out everywhere, and my long face goes good with volume on top, so I always love pompadours!

Get this look?

• I simply parted a huge box on top of my head from temple to temple and across the crown of my head, made a twist going diagonally back and pinned in place.
• I then brushed the rest of my hair into a ponytail behind that, twisted the ponytail, and brought it forward and pinned it in with the pompador. 
• I did a little fluffing/lifting of the twist in the front, and Voila! lol 

My lioness looks, lol Rawr!

I actually love this hairstyle and may make it a staple! Any of you realizing you always go back to the same looks for certain seasons? Loving the twists and pompadours?!

LDFH Protective Style: Flat Twist Side Updo

I've been in the market for a new job or two, and not sure of how I should be wearing my hair to go about interviewing. I know the world is still taking in all the naturals, and I don't want my hair to ever be a reason as to why I may not have gotten a job. I love my natural hair and texture and refuse to straighten it unless I want to, so I wanted to experiment with an up do that would look professional enough and still showcase my fun personality!


With my latest post about switching my focus on this blog to styling and haircare for my low density, fine hair (LDFH), I thought of how flat twists can be done loosely to give the illusion of fuller hair, and came up with this style! I had done a flat twist style on my blown out hair a while back, which also came into mind while searching for inspiration.


I wasn't crazy about the twist in the front going from ear to ear, so I decided to do a little tweaking of sorts to add a side part. I then also started to play with the idea of the front twists hanging as another alternative!

Speaking of density, I'm sure you can see here that my crown area has far more density that my edges. My edges are so fine and not at all dense.

This style is only 6 flat twists in total and took me all of 10 minutes to do. I did nothing intricate with the parting, just tried to do straight lines all over to the side, starting with diagonally staggered parts (what gave the sort of zig zag part effect).

 I also tried to do the twists as loose as possible for a voluminous effect, especially to create a pompadour type of effect in the front, then just twisted all of the twists into a little side bun/pin curl of sorts... One more fave thing about this style? The twists are so loose, it literally takes a minute to take them all down! This really helps with being a style chameleon and all, making it quick and easy to switch up my styles.

What do you think of this flat twisted up do? Would you rock it?

Stacked Buns & Pompadour Fun!

My New Fave Style! Stacked Buns!!! About a week ago I posted about trying out some buns and up-do's after roller setting my hair, so naturally, I washed and rollerset my hair again the other night, and decided to again try wearing some buns.

My second set with the Eco styler gel came out even better and straighter, so this will definitely be a staple for rollersetting and straightening my hair. I did do two things differently this time:

I used a little Care Free Curl Instant Moisturizer with my Lacio Lacio Leave- In, and I silk wrapped my hair for about 10 mins after rollersetting, then went to sleep (I took off the Saran wrap and used my silk scarf to sleep of course).

My hair came out what I'd like to call semi-straight, and was nice and easy to pull back into a bun. The silk wrapping helped to straighten out my roots a little more too, so I wore my hair side parted for the day to Vote for my President! Yay Obama!!!

I was supposed to meet up with some friends after voting to watch the verdict so I quickly changed my look into this pompadour and stacked bun updo!  I didn't end up making it (figures, when I'm having a good hair night) but I still made sure to snap some cute flicks for you all ... I was obviously feeling myself a little... lol

Stay tuned for a video on this look and how to easily achieve stacked buns!

How was your election day hair?

Putting Together My Hair Looks for the Fall/Winter Season

 With all of this cool weather coming in NYC, my mind has been so preoccupied with what I'm going to do with my hair for this upcoming fall/winter season. My hair is about shoulder length when straight, and doesn't even pass my ears when fully shrunken, so I plan to live in roller sets and twist outs to be able to easily manipulate my hair into different styles.

With the idea of keeping my natural hair freedom, protective styling, and the look I would like to have for myself in mind, I took some time to google a few cool styles I can definitely see myself pulling off this fall/winter season. I know my hair is much shorter, and a lot more textured than a lot of these photos, but of course I will be tweaking them to my needs and liking (The In Be-TWA version).
I will also be trying using a curling iron on my natural curls and plan to buy some curlformers for some different sets. I don't think I would enjoy flexirods... they've never interested me really... and the flexirod tutorials I've enjoyed have all been on longer hair with huge flexirods... so I think I'll just wait to experiment with those on own my hair when it's longer.
I'm really liking the a little messy, carefree look a lot of these updo's have and with beautiful sets I can also create these controlled messy looks.
I really want to try to keep my hair up as much as I can this fall/winter because I'm scared of the breakage that ensues when fragile hair like mine rubs against the harsh fabrics of coats, hats, and scarves. I do my best to buy silk scarves and wear my bonnet under hats, but even then my hair gets caught in all the layers of fabric and snags, tangles, and/or gets dried out. If I am wearing my hair down, I will combat the damage by putting the back of my hair up to go outside with either pincurls and bobby pins or a quick ponytail or bun.
I'm pretty sure these are looks I'm going to love even as my hair grows longer so this will be a great post to refer back to when I need a little inspiration with styling my hair. A few easy, classy, and timeless looks that I will also enjoy translating for us TWA ladies as well.
Have you started forecasting your fall/winter hairstyles? Any of these spark your interest?

Long TWA Style: Banana Clip Up-do with Twisted Pompadour

In my latest efforts to make sure to hold my TWA ladies down, I decided to look back through my computer to see what I hadn't posted over these pasts TWA months when I came across and remembered this super cute style.
I wore this to work when I was still interning at Wilhelmina and they were in love with my hair that day!
How did I achieve this style?

• My hair was banded overnight in 2 ponytails after washing, to dry and stretch my curls. 
• In the morning, I unbanded my hair, parted and separated out the section I wanted to use as a pompadour, and proceeded to apply Eco Styler gel and brush the edges and the sides back.
• Next, I put in my banana clip. The easiest way to get all your hair in, is to gather and hold all of your hair as if you were going to use a scrunchie to put it in a ponytail, then put in one side, then bring around the other and snap closed.
• I then took my pompadour section, added a little eco styler gel for shine and to tame frizz. I stretched the section of hair to the side and proceeded to to do a loose 2-strand flat twist.
• I tucked the end of it under and inside of the pompadour, pinned to my liking, and voila! Style! lol
•  It's also a style I really love because you can always easily wear it again, Just remove the banana clip when you come home, tie it down to sleep, and replace your banana clip the next day! Simple as Pie!

This style is perfect for going out, formal or not. You can embellish the sides of your banana clip puff or add an accent to your pomadour for a formal occasion. You can rock a smooth look to the office or go to your job interview in style.
This style can be worn to the club for a fuss free night, or (as it kind of was in high school for me) an easy every day go to style.
I would say it takes about 5-7 minutes to achieve this style and it's a great way to fake it until you make it for us short haired ladies, as a banana clip always makes my hair seem fuller and longer. I use the Goody banana clips (large ones) and they haven't failed me through out the years, plus they don't break easily.

So Long TWA Ladies, would you rock this style? Would you say this would be a Formal, Casual, or Go- to style for you?

I hope this helps!
(My hair was between 4 and 6 inches long for this style)

Monday's TWA Twist - Out Pompadour Updo

 On Sunday night I washed my hair, detangled and put it in 5 flat twists, done with Care Free Curl Instant Moisturizer, Shea Moisture curl enhancing smoothie, and Eco Styler Olive Oil gel. The next morning I untwisted and wasn't really loving the way my hair was hanging so I came up with this out of the blue...

 I loved the definition of the curls in the front so I decided to make a side hump with it. I then figured I could do two rolls up the back so i just split it with my fingers and started rolling upwards and inwards, pinning as I rolled. When i got to the top I added a little gel to the edges and brushed it back for a smoother effect, and folded the hair behind the hump over itself and the sprouts of hair coming out of the rolls. This took me like 5 minutes because I was in a rush so I'm sure i can do it better and I may try again tomorrow, or some type of rendition of this. I wish I could have gotten a photo of what I was wearing that day but I threw in a photo of with my shirt and necklace.
I just have to take a moment to give a "Woop! Woop!" for bargain shopping because I was wearing a silk vintage Bloomingdales shirt which I paid $6 for at Salvation Army, a necklace I think I remember paying about $10 for at Forever21, and Cheap Monday boots that are $115 online which I got for $29.99 in store at Urban outfiiters! I love having the look I want for less.
Back to my hair... I'm just really trying to retain some length, keep it moisturized, wear my scarf at night and protective style a little so here's one of my feeble attempts... Of course someone said I look like Janelle Monae, Lol.

(excuse the mean mug, that was my 'trying to be incognito so no one would catch me snapping pics of myself in the bathroom face,' lol.)

What do you think of this as a conservative hairstyle for work?

iBananaclipped TWA Style

So i used to wear my hair like this like everyday when i was in high school:

Up and back in a banana clip 

(I was soo in love with my hair! It was lightly texturized and dyed a caramel color)

So i found my banana clips and decided to go for it! I prepepped my hair by co-washing, adding some Vatika Olive Oil, Curls Passion Fruit Curl Control Paste, Olive Oil Eco Styler Gel, and put my hair into 4 little curly puffs to let it dry stretched out a bit. Once dried a little, took out the bands, lifted at the roots and use a little more water and gel to smooth my hair back. Knowing that all of my hair wouldn't fit back into the banana clip, i prepared to do a pompadour with whatever hair i couldnt smooth back into the banana clip.  

Results? 

Click the jump for more!

Extension Braid Pompadour Updo

So as i was saying in my Feeling a Little Frustrated post, i finally had a little time so i went ahead and braided my own hair. I would have loved to go to the salon but being tight for cash, and knowing that i need to wait a little while longer before getting the larger braids again, i decided to braid my hair myself for the first time again since i had been in high school! I used to put my hair in microbraids all the time, no problem,  but i had never done bigger braids before so my backup plan was to just do cornrows if the box braids hadn't worked out. Luckily, they did, and i'd say they turned out pretty good! My mom actually almost got upset with me cuz she thought i went and spent money on getting my hair done... i'll take that as a compliment! lol
I did these braids on day old hair (it was spur of the moment) using regular Kanekalon synthetic hair. I started in the front, did the side edges, the back and then worked my way up to finish the middle, all the while just parting long rows, and sectioning the rest of the hair out of the way. From there i would say i just sliced 1inched cubed sections, fully detangled and added some Eco Styler Olive Oil gel before starting to braid. Non stop i would say this took my about 6 hours total, but since i did have a few distractions, it took me about 12 hours. Finished result?

Not too bad if i must say so myself :) You know the deal, I've been wearing my high buns and ponytails, lol. I went out last night and decided to try something new, an updo of sorts and it came out so beautiful! I got a million compliments on my hair last night so if you ladies love it just as much, let me know and i will do a video tutorial of how i did this updo. Here goes:

1st step ~ Trying to figure out exactly how i was going to wear my hair. I was loving the Pompadour but not sure about the ponytail so i decided to try doing one of my trusty buns and that was all i needed!

 The Girl next to me is my cousin and she has beautiful curly hair as well... and another who's been through it all with her hair... Stay tuned to hear a little more about her too =)