Hair Crush: Janet Mock

I think I found my hair crush in writer and journalist Janet Mock. She rocks the big hair I love and those colors...it looks like chocolate and caramel colors. As soon as I grow out these fuschia hi-lights I'm going to copy her. By then my hair will should be longer too.

As a side note: it came out a few weeks ago that Janet Mock was born a male. It's been met with a lot of the usual crappy commentary about her being an abomination and all. What I found funny was that I had just learned who Janet Mock was about two weeks prior to her sharing her story with Marie Claire because I was watching a documentary called Dressed (about fashion designer Nary Manivong) where she made an appearance due of her friendship with the designer. I saw her big curly hair and instantly fell in love, especially with the color. Her being born a male doesn't take away from my crush and actually, reading her story is pretty interesting. I have no idea what it must've felt like for her to grow up the way she did, but I think it was brave for her to share her story.

I'm mad interested in her hair routine though, it looks great!

Style for the Week: Flat Twists Pigtails

First things first, things have gotten quite busy on my end and I realized I haven't posted in about two weeks. I wanted to, but I've been exhausted. It's been a year since I graduated college and I recently got my first full time job (the kind with benefits!) roughly in my area of study and it's a rather hectic field. Also my hours are a little strange and I get home slightly before midnight. It's taking some getting used to, but I'm getting the hang of it.

But now back to hair stuff. This style is a neater, more planned version of this flat twist style, when I set my hair in flat twists simply because I wanted to rock a twist out. While I still plan to do that this weekend for my little birthday trip out of town, I decided to do this a tad bit neater although I'll admit I still suck terribly at parting.

my terrible parting skills lol

I actually did this on damp hair. I washed my hair early monday morning, detangled, and used Knot Today as a leave in and put my hair in a wet bun. When I got home later my hair was still damp. I sectioned, added a little more Knot Today and twisted with Oyin's Whipped Pudding and coconut oil. Then I braided the twists together at the ends to create the pigtails. Hope you like!

The Style Chameleon and Staying True to Oneself

Reading through so many natural blogs, it is apparent that many naturals have become very biased when it comes to natural hair. Watching different women's journeys and just thinking of my own, i could never be biased towards natural hair (okay, maybe a little); My main concern is healthy hair.

Every once in a while, I won't lie,  I do get the relaxer itch... just a small notion of what it would be like to relax my hair again... either chop it all off in the short little haircuts i used to get, or have long texturized hair like i used to have in high school. I would truly say that I was/am a style chameleon. I have always been known for changing my hair up all the time; Weaves to braids, to relaxers, to color, to texurizers, to bleached-out, to haircuts and hair growth, i can say i have defintely done it all... and usually on a bi-weekly basis too. I would say the same is true of my style, i love to switch up what i wear, my accessories, the eras... no one could say that i have a very specific style.

I guess the point i'm getting to is, as a TRUE style chameleon, if i were to switch up my style and decide to get a relaxer or texturizer, would i be shunned by the natural community? Even if my hair looked good and was healthy? Would i now be frowned upon, even though i know that in the long run i would always return to being natural? As a style chameleon, i feel like it would be true to my style to switch up my hair again and do something different... I mean i'm only in my early 20's and it seems a little bit too soon for me to settle into natural hair for the rest of my life so quickly... I know for sure that i want to grow my hair long and fully natural first.. we'll see what happens from there... Trust me, i've been trying very hard to refrain from doing too much to my hair just for the sake of it's health and length

Do i think i may regret relaxing or texturizing if i ever do again? Maybe... I try not to take it too personal since hair always grows back :)

How has being natural affected those of you who constantly love to switch up your hair and style? Do you ever think of going back to old hair practices and processes?

Side Puff!

I planned to go out on Saturday night for my friend's birthdays but had no idea how i was going to wear my hair. I straightened my hair earlier in the week (Yes! I said straightened... I'll get to that a little later) and the humidity and the fact that it got caught in the rain caused the ends to puff and frizz up. I wasn't sure what i was going to do with my hair but i decided to get in the shower without a shower cap so it could puff and swell up a little. When i came out of the shower, it had shrunken significantly on the sides and just curled up everywhere else. While adding some Shea butter and playing with possible ways to manipulate my hair into cool styles, i pushed to the side and was loving it! I used my brush to smooth down the sides and pushed my headband back, and sideways and ....

(Please excuse the shiny, oily, tipsy face... lol)

I was really in love with the outcome and even got to wear it the same way again the next day before decidng to wash it because the ends were feeling pretty dry. Don't you love when you discover a new favorite style?! 

Stay tuned for the next post coming up to see my straightened pics!

Minimal time styling

I've been so busy in this past month that i really haven't had much time for my hair. I usually wash my hair 2 to 3 times a week but lately its been more like once every 5-7 days. Having such little time for myself, i've really been learning how to prolong my styles. I blew out my hair last Thursday and i've been keeping it stretched by sleeping with it up in a puff or putting it into 4 small puffs. I went to visit my mom yesterday and wore my hair like this:

When i got home last night i had a little extra time so i decided to flat twist my hair. I was originally planning to keep it for the week but i wasn't crazy about how the twists looked so i decided to rock a twist out instead. I twisted 6 big flat twists using my Curls Passion Fruit Curl Control paste.
Click the jump for the results...

Style Longevity (The Post Blogger Ate)

Long, Long ago... a week and a half ago... lol
I rollerset my hair about a week and a half ago and I've really been able to do a lot with my hair. I'm seeing growth and i feel like i'm getting into a few more styling options which i'm loving! About 2 days after wearing the 2 strand twisted updo, i got tired of the style because as it was nice, the style just really wasn't me... I washed my hair with the twists in and just wore them pushed back with a headband while they dried that day, and dried they did, and shriveled all the way up too!

Once they were dry that night, knowing that i wanted to wear a twist out the next day and that i wouldn't want it to be so shrunken, i untwisted my hair and  banded to stretch it for the next day.
After banding, i pinned my hair down using roller clips to encourage downward handing, then tied with my satin scarf to sleep.
Here are the results!! :
Day 1 Hair ~ Defined, virtually frizz free and stretched out.



Day 2 Hair ~ Still stretched, a little frizzy but in a good way and much bigger! I used my pinned-down method which i always get soo many compliments on.

Day 3 Hair~
I decided i wanted to wear my hair up so i pushed my hair back using a doubled headband to make a puff and made pinned-down side bangs .. Love it!!!

 They caught us Ridin' Dirty.... and the guy in Toys R Us came and told us that we weren't allowed to play in the Power Wheels, lol.

Length checks 5/13

I blew out my hair 2 days ago and decided to dust my ends because it is definitely about that time and my ends were letting me know so. I trimmed very litttle in most areas and a  little more in others if i felt it needed it but nothing drastic. I know i could stand to trim a little more but im being length greedy right now since my birthday is in about a month and i think i will be protective styling very soon. I decided to take before and after my trim pictures so here goes.

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

I would say that i'm doing pretty good with length retention so i hope to hit my goals on time or even earlier!