Fall Protective Style: Textured Blunt Bob Weave

Fall is here, and I'm over doing my own hair! lol  The ends have been really dry from a crazy color process at the salon earlier this summer, so styling has been a little annoying. I've been trying to be careful and avoid breakage, doing extra deep conditioning, and my ends still look and feel like crap to me.

I had long decided that I wanted to get a straight weave for this winter, and though I was thinking to aim more for the long side, something drew me to wanting to get a bob again instead. I love short, straight hair, and I think I'm just over the obviously fake right now, and wanted to pull off something more natural looking (I also dont have like $200- $300 to dish out on good long hair right now). I have always looked good in bobs, so when I started looking through pics to decide what I wanted, I fell in love with these wavy bobs! I am also loving the chin length right now! I so wish I could just chop my own hair to chin length right now, which would cut out the majority of my layers, but I'm not ready to go there right now so this weave will do... lol 

I know I will be wearing a straighter look, but I plan to order wavy hair, and leave out only a small section of my own hair  in the part area that I'm hoping a curlformer set, or whatever type of set can help me blend so I can stay away from using too much heat (gotta find the hugest flexi rods possible)!

I've always been a fan of finger waved hair, so I will definitely be rocking this style with my weave in too, just probably the non-gelled version.

I will be ordering my hair this coming week so I will post all about the process as soon as it comes!

Any ladies planning on weaving it up for this fall/winter?

Silk Wrapped Twist Out on Blown Out SL TWA

 I blew my hair out 2 days ago to dust my ends with the full moon on August 31st and didn't know what to do with my hair from there. I had thrown my hair into 2 braids to sleep and the next day, with surprise news of going out that night, I quickly needed to figure out something to do with my hair. 

There's a girl who works in the Crumbs Bakeshop around the corner from me who is always sporting an amazing chunky twist out on blown out hair, so I figured I'd use her as my inspiration and do some 2 strand twists on my blown out hair. I used a little Murray's Cream Beeswax to twist my hair, and decided to saran wrap my twists since I wouldn't have the overnight time for my twist out to set. I sat under the dryer for about 7 mins and removed and fluffed my twists before heading out the door. 

I have to say, I really felt like I had one of the best hair nights of my life last night, lol. I really loved my hair and I couldn't stop staring at it or keep my hands out of it. I definitely think my hair came out better since I decided to try saran wrapping my twists. It seemed to give my hair the hold it needed at the last minute, plus added to the silkiness and overall shine of my twist out. I will definitely be trying this with my twists again!

My hair was soft, supple, bouncy, flowy, and all mine! I'm so proud of how my hair is growing out, so I'm just doing my best to care for it, as I continue my lifestyle of daily styling.

Have you tried silk wrapping your braids or twists? How'd you like the outcome?!

And yes, I guess I'm  claiming shoulder length :) :::takes it and runs!:::

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?

Back to curls + Twist outs in July

  I've been so crazy busy it's been ridiculous; from work, to family affairs, to down right tragedies... it's no wonder I've hardly had time to get on and properly blog, much less any time for my hair.
Ever since I've made my way into the ponytail/bun world my hair has been washed, moisturized, and thrown back into a ponytail or bun of sorts. I haven't had the time or patience for twisting or retwisting, and with my multiple textures, wearing wash n go are currently no-no's for me.
 In these photos I was deep conditoning my hair to get ready to twist it for a twist out. This was the week of the 20's in July, I was prepping for my trip to LA (not under the happiest circumstances, but it turned out that I got the opportunity to work while out there so that was great... more on that later). I left in some Giovanni Deeper Moisture Smooth As Silk conditioner and proceeded to twist with Eco Styler Olive Oil gel. Slept/Air Dried, and removed my twist the next evening to go to a party I didn't even make it to... lol.
Crazy thing was, I usually love twist outs but I really was not liking the outcome of my twist out this time around...
I think it probably had more to do with my hair length than the actual twist out though, because I will say Eco Styler does make my twist outs come out beautifully. My hair is just growing into a point that I think might become mildly awkward for wearing out and curly, since it is becoming overall fuller, and longer, but still has a ton of shrinkage. My hair can still look 2 inches when it's about 8. The little Bob I have going on is getting a little mushroom-y! The good thing is, I've just braided up my hair so hopefully this little break will also come with a good little growth spurt... lets see if I can hold out for a month! lol
 I have sooo much to post about my hair on the West Coast so I will definitely be back with more posts!

Rollersetting and Flatironing Natural Hair

Hey All! Here's the video I mentioned I did for you all last week of me rollersetting and flatironing my hair, I hope you enjoy!

2011 A TWA Year In Review: Protective styling by any means necessary...

This post is kind of like a 2011 in review post looking back on my second year being natural and growing out my hair from an inch long... I decided to come up with a "TOP 5" of categories to kind of track my hair progress or digression.. here they are in order from most to least important (for me, that is.)

Moisture ~ I have definitely learned how to perfectly moisturize my hair for all seasons and needs... My problem is remembering when the seasons change that I have to switch up my regimen too... I always seem to have a bumpy start at the begining of a season and then i'm like "Oh yeah... DUH. Time for the old one, two, switcharoo!"

Ends ~ Split ends and single strand knots (curse those things) Inevitable for me as with my hair texure and curl patterns. I just do my best to keep my ends protected, stretched, moisturized, and I dust them (small trim) every 2 months approximately.

Satin/Silk head covering while sleeping & under hats ~ When I wear a hat I always make sure to wear a bonnet underneath so my hair wont get dried out and ripped up by cottons, fleece, and wools... Yeah... this is where I start messing up... I'm so lazy!!! If I sit down without my bonnet when I'm tired, that's it, I'll knock out without it... sometimes I'll get up in the middle of the night and put it on (if I can find it). I've been much better about it though lately and my boyfriend will even put my bonnet on my pillow if he finds it first

Length Retention ~ The question I should have asked was set backs?! lol All due to me not tying my head down at night and it getting all tangled, dry, and forming single strand knots ::shudders at the thought::
Otherwise, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give myself a 7.5 on the length retention scale

Protective styling ~ I hate it!!!! Isn't that horrible? I'm going to be honest, all I wanna do is grow my hair out so I can wear it out, do cool updo's, cool styles with large long braids or twists, or wear it in a ponytail or bun... The only thing i've really been able to do from that list so far is wear my hair out and try an updo or two (which was a struggle)

Now that I'm finally growing out of this TWA stage, I feel like protective styling is starting to have much better options for me and I'm so ready because I want to retain as much length as I possibly can from now until my birthday! I just don't know what to do... Extension braids? A weave? Should I stay weaved up from now until the summer? I also really want to protect my edges, especially in the front, so we'll see...


This week's style:

Rollerset hair which I decided to lightly flat iron.... once it gets all puffy on me it'll be twist-out time... and guess what?! I made a video too so as soon as I can get it up and edited I will!

I Just Graduated from the TWA Academy!

It's been super hectic for me since I've started at Wilhelmina. I'm learning better time management and with needing to look decent for work, I live in twist outs! I try my best to twist my hair up every night, not always in the same exact twist pattern, and sometimes I may just put my hair into little pony tails. Of all things important, I'm doing my best to never go to sleep without a satin/silk scarf or bonnet on my head. In the begining of the winter I was having a bit of trouble with dryness, but now with a little regimen adjustment and my handy dandy bottle of Jamaican Black Castor Oil, my hair has been soft, moisturized, and I can really see the length I'm retaining now! One other thing about my regimen, I've been staying away from heat and I would say that has made a big difference as well. Since twist outs and I seem to love each other, I am going to stick to what I've been doing, as I'd love to retain my full 3 inches by summer! The crazy thing is, though I've been the busiest in my life like ever, this is also the best care I think I have ever taken of my hair, all which I attribute to finally understanding...

The coolest part of this all?! I finally feel like my hair is longer and not a TWA anymore! 

It's almost all going in to a ponytail holder and I really can't wait to just be able to get a little lazy with my hair. I will probably straighten my hair once more before it gets warm, maybe some time in March or something so I'll do an official length check then...               

(The hair in these photos was from putting my hair in a ponytail after washing, then blowing the back out because it was still wet inside)

 These photo's are today's photos of a failed twist out that I pulled back into a banana clip.
All in all I see the effects of my hard work paying off, and in some ways I would say even the hard work I haven't been doing. Since I've been so busy I guess my hair has been more low manipulation, especially because on days off I would try my best to keep my hair twisted up, keeping the HIH syndrome at bay. Lol

I have to say, it feels good to feel like I finally "get it" when it comes to my hair and to be graduating from the TWA academy and leaving all those super awkward stages behind!

For all of you ladies who have started from a short haircut, how did it feel when you Graduated from the TWA academy?

Yesterday's Look: The Asymmetrical TWA Twist- out Bob

Yesterday some of my friends came to meet up with me and we decided to have lunch at Crepe's On Columbus (Yum! My favorite!) and head to the Museum of Natural History for a day of free browsing. Unfortunately the museum was closed, but it was fun that we got to hang out anyway... took a nice little walk and just chilled. We were playing around snapping flics of each other but I wanted them to snap a few flic's of me because my hair was looking amazing (of course, because I didn't plan it) and I was getting a lot of compliments on my pants and belt; Compliments of Vintage Emelda and Nadine (my grandmother and mother).

How did I achieve this look?

3 steps to TWA Bob-ery!

SO.... My hair is looking more and more like a bob now... yay!

This Bob style was actually discovered accidentally so these are the steps i took, and will continue to use to re-create this look as my hair grows:


1. Wash hair, add leave in conditioner and gel and smooth hair back into 2 buns for drying and stretching.
I did my buns in the morning before going to work so i wore them for the entire day, about 12-14 hours. When i returned home my hair was still not dry in the middle, which led to the next step...
2. Once buns are mostly dry or dry, take them out, add a favorite moisturizer (I used coconut oil), and without disturbing the smoothness of the front of your hair, separate each ponytail in half and band all the way down so you end up with 4 banded ponys, put a bonnet or scarf to tie them down and go to sleep!
I like to band my pony's to already face in a downward motion so my hair will want to hang instead of stick up...
3. In the morning, take out your banded pony's and fluff and separate your curls with a favorite oil or serum for minimal frizz. 
If you want the front to stay flat like i did, do not disturb it, simply add some moisture for shine and fluff only in the back, lifting with a pic at the roots if desired.


Seem simple enough?! I can't wait to continue to try this as my hair gets longer and longer!