Natural Year 2: Blow out, Flat Iron, Length Check & Reflections

 I broke the videos down into 3 parts so it wouldn't be one super long video, but I guess I'll let the videos (or me) do all the talking for themselves :) ... but wait? Why is Debbie in the background tryna steal my shine? lol
 #pleaseexcusemycreepyoldcosmetologyschoolmannequinhead

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?!

It's a Hairflip Friday!

I definitely had a good hair day yesterday, and all of the hair flipping to go along with it!

I just wanted to post some fun happy pictures on this happy friday! I realized, sometimes you just have to whip your hair back and forth, and smile :) 

And just for sh!t$ and giggles, my girlfriends and I used to crack up over this all the time!!! It's a Hairflip!!! You gotta just flip it! lmfao

Happy Friday!!!

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?

Yet Another Tragedy Has Befallen My Head!!!

But thank goodness it wasn't that bad!!!
Uhg... another story... here goes...

So ever since the end of last week, the weave hair I had decided it didn't like me anymore... one of the reasons I resorted to a high bun the other day. The sad part is, I was actually loving this weave and was uber excited about the prospect of wearing this weave for at least a month and I was going to too! Everything was working in the beginning, I didn't need to add any heat, my hair was blending so easily and beautifully, my hair I left out all around worked for a ponytail/bun and was still flourishing... no reason to take it out except for the dreadlocks it started to form.

I usually never buy pack hair for reasons like this, but with it working so well for my cousin I really wanted to try it. She bought the 8" which was a little different, and didn't have any issues. I watched two reviews for this hair on YouTube, two on the opposite extreme of good and bad, so with the good review and the raves from my cousin, the good outweighed the bad so I purchased it, until the bad outweighed the good when I wore it. All in all it was beautiful and easy hair while it lasted, and I still plan to try the 8" when I have a chance...

On to the real tragedy:

Upon the take down of my weave, I accidentally cut off the last 2 inches of my braid!!!! WAAAA!!!!!!

I was totally flipping out! My original intention upon taking down the matted weave was to blow out my hair and do extension braids, but as soon as this incident happened, I wanted to straighten my hair to see what everything was really looking like.

 I felt a sense of relief that it happened in the very back of my head for sure, but I was also dreading having to cut the whole back of my hair off because it felt like a pretty huge chunk, and it kinda is... but since there's hair all around it, I can kinda camouflage it. It really sucks because my hair was finally getting longer, and with the fine, low density hair I have, I need every strand I can get! So now in about a 2" x 2"box in the back of my head, my hair is 2" to 3" shorter than the rest of my hair... but I'm hoping by some miracle, and a little shaping back there it'll catch up.

The hair that was cut just reaches the top of my shoulder

My hair that wasn't cut is about an inch or 2 past my
shoulder

You can see the difference in the two lengths side by side here

 So I guess these are a bit of an unofficial 2 year mark photos, even though I still have about 2 weeks to go. I do need to trim my ends, so maybe I'll just take an inch off in the back and dust every where else, just to start evening things up a bit and still stay within my goal to get rid of some layers and have a more blunt cut. Once I trim at the end of this month I'll do an official 2 year update with all the comparison pics and all that jazz, lol...until then... buns it is..

Have you gone through a hair crisis? What have you done to combat the issues?

Layla and her TWA

 Meet Layla. 

She is one of my new friends and clients I met earlier in the summer, and we are on a hair journey! Layla was recently adopted from the Congo, and since her mom doesn't have the same hair texture as her, needed someone like me to help with teaching her how to care for the hair, and giving her fun hairstyles along the way! 

When Layla was in school in Congo, they would give her short haircuts, so when she came to the US, she decided she wanted to grow her hair out. She has an auntie who I know hot combs her hair (and I don't think she's been using heat protector -_-), and gives her extension braids from time to time, which I know she had complained were too tight. 

Layla is 8 and is also into doing her own hair (which is why her hair is uneven because she gave herself a haircut because she thought it was uneven, lol), so I also try my best to educate her on her natural hair and will do so along the way. Her hair is beautiful, silky, soft, and tightly curled and I love that she already has her own sense of pride in her hair... not to mention she knows exactly what styles she wants too... telling me to brush down her baby hairs and all, lol.

The photo of her in the pink tank top was the first time I did her hair, and the purple tank top was the growth result ... I forgot to take a photo of her hair out before I started, and then I forgot to take a photo of her hair after I braided it up the second time. In the beginning her hair was too short for anything but straight braids, and now her hair can actually have designed braids. 

From now on, no more forgetting as I will be documenting her little journey, and might I add, it's growing fast! This is the style I gave her on Sunday evening:

Next braid day I will fill you all in on our little routine, growth photos and whatever new hairstyle she chooses :)

Any of you helping a little one grow out his/her TWA?

A Transitioning Story: Influencing My Mom to go Natural

My mother's beloved weave

A little over two years ago I influenced my mother to go natural. She didn't put up much of a fight at the the thought of fuller, longer hair, but definitely was not going for a big chop. I weaved her up for a year straight during the initial part of her transition, but for the rest of it, she either wears buns or straightens her hair. Whenever I can I'll snatch her up and try to give her a curly style with her luxurious curls, like I did the last time I made a little post about my mom, but of course she always reverts back to her die hard buns. lol
One day after washing her hair, she decides its a good idea not to detangle, or condition, throw a hat on her damp hair and walk out the door to run some errands before coming to see me. OY VEY! This lady gets here and the back of her hair is as matted as I dont know what! After about an hour of trying to detangle one small section with loads of oil and HEHH I gave up, and told her to get over it because it was Big choppin' time! (It might sound mean, but  that was a matt to remember and I was OVER it!)

 Because she still wanted to be able to pull her hair back for ponytails and have a bit of length to rock her weaves, we decided that since the front hadn't matted that we wouldn't chop it off as of yet... so I guess you could say she had to get half of a Big Chop.

Since then she hasn't worn any weaves for over a year and has been sticking to her good ol' buns and flatironed hair.

My mom has a super, simple hair regimen that basically consists of washing her hair, blow drying, or air drying in twists, and wearing a bun slicked back with water and JBCO. Sometimes she also braids and/or twists her ponytail before bunning. When she decides to straighten her hair, she generally wears it out and ends up putting it in a loose ponytail so it doesnt get all messy if she's busy and moving around a lot. 

She has told me of a few times when she's wore her hair natural (I still haven't seen her wear her hair out and natural to this day unless I did her hair that day) so she was super excited to show me this shot a friend snapped of her wearing her hair down the other day. 

I know I will be doing her hair again soon because she's due to come see me for a trim soon, and I'll definitely be doing a length check on her also so stay tuned!

 Is your mom also natural? Did you influence her to go natural or did she influence you?!

Anyone have a cool Transitioners Story they'd like to share? We'd love to hear some cool stories from all of you transitioners out there! Send your stories to Yais.nyc@gmail.com

Fashion Week: Cotte D' Armes Presentation

How adorable is her headpiece?! I was so in love with it... like I wanted to snatch and run! lol

Stopping to take a quick flick with the team.

I came across this super cute chica snapping photos and was in love with her mod style...

Turns out she's an awesome style blogger who shot some amazing images of our show! Here are some awesome images from her blog

I love all the snaps she shot of me!

Don't you just want everything from this line?! I love Unisex clothing!

 

And now back to my crappy iPhone pics and on to the after party, lol

Designers Coco & Breezy  & their super cool mohawks (they're both natural)

I was definitely making sure to snap all the most fashionable naturals for you all!