Protective Style Fail: A Straight Weave

 I was really loving the look of this weave, but unfortunately it didn't last for me with all of the humidity that's been in NYC thanks to Hurricane Sandy.

I used to use this weave when my hair was relaxed and it matched my hair perfectly... it still does now if my hair is bone straight, but I've learned that I definitely need a weave that will plump up a little when my hair plumps up!

I did not want to have to keep adding heat to my hair so out it came, which is what led to the roller set I posted about yesterday (backwards, I know). I don't think I'll be straightening my hair again until the holidays or maybe even the New Year... until then, I think roller sets and twist outs pulled up into cute updo's is going to be the way to go for me. I'm looking to get another little job so I'm trying to make sure I have a  few go-to looks, which will definitely be including my banana clip!

I also found a YouTuber who's protective styling videos I've fallen in love with! She like me has low density, fine hair so a lot of her styles are very simple and elegant, focusing on making sure to not add too much tension to the hair, and creating styles that help create or give the illusion of fullness. I will definitely be posting and trying a few of her style videos, having to do minor tweaks because my hair is shorter, but I'm sure you all will love the styles!

I'm trying to protective style but i'm not winning here... maybe it really isn't for me... but I won't give up yet! Has protective styling failed for you in the past? What/who helped you?

Messy High Bun w/ My Weave

Wearing my weave out has been great and my hair has been blending beautifully but I decided to bun up my hair yesterday because my weave was a hot tangly mess, and I didn't have time to go through the whole detangling process. Im so glad my edges are long enough to go into a ponytail, so that made my life so much easier...  

All I did was double a headband and push it up, as if to make a puff. I then spread the hair out in donut bun form, and used another headband and scrunchie or two to easily make a donut bun, and since I wanted it to be messy I wasn't too anal about it, I just tucked a few curls here and there and Voila! Messy High Bun! lol I was in love with this style and it was really cute and easy for the day, and had like no tension.  

You know how people end up having that one favorite hairstyle they go to all the time? Well I know this will be mine when my hair is long enough... Until then, toodles!

My New Curly Weave + Blending

I know, I know, I just said I was going to do a wavy bob weave... but do I ever do what I say I'm going to do with my hair?! lol I actually realized that regardless of anything, with that wavy/straight weave, I'd definitely be using more heat than I really want to right now (which is none), so I opted for a curly weave again instead.

I needed a break from doing my hair, and my hair definitely needed a break from me, so I figured I needed a style where I'd have to manipulate my own hair as little as possible and I think I've finally found it! The hair I used:

How/ Where I found out about this weave?

My little cousin found in it her local BSS in BK and decided to give it a try, so naturally when she came to me with this hair to get her weave done, I fell in love with it. I bought the 10'' and 12'' because I originally wanted it to be a little longer and with minimal layers, but that ended up being a waste of money because I chopped it up for it to look more realistic anyway. One thing I also learned, was that the curl of the 8" vs the 10" and 12", is a lot more of tight curl that resembles my hair almost perfectly, the 10" and 12" is a much looser, silkier curl, but still very beautiful. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos during the process, but I saw her a few days later at my Grandmother's house with the weave piked out; Here's the outcome of my cousin's weave to you can see the difference:

I love the curly look so I'm not mad that I didn't get the 8 inches, but I will definitely be trying the 8" as well. To see some of the steps I took to install and how I blend my hair with the weave, click the jump :)

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?

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

Teyana Taylor's Ombre Curly Weave

Man, does Teyana Taylor always have great weave! And I live for Turquoise so you know I'm drooling all over that all turqiouse ombre. I really don't have much to say else to say except for the fact I love her weave (I don't really get why she's famous)... All the right colors and shades, beautiful natural textures; Just Beautifully executed. Teyana Taylor coming in at 9.7 on the weave scale! ( Sorry, I've been watching a lot of Olympics lately.)

If I could do this to my real hair ya'll know i would, but i'd likely go bald, lol.

What Do You Think About Teyana's Ombre?!

Momma SP's Natural Hair

My mom came over yesterday for a little moment to chill and I was surpised to see her with her hair in it's natural state. I always thought my mom had some of the most beautiful hair, so of course I got her to go natural too. The last time she had seen her hair all natural she had to be in her early teens... 30 sum' years later, I helped her transition for a year by weaving her hair up, having to chop a little earlier than she inteded because of a matting incident (Lady didn't listen to me, washed her hair, didn't condition or detangle or anything and just threw a hat on. -_- NO.) My mother works a lot and ponytails are easy for her, so since the matting only occured in the back, all of the relaxed ends were cut from the back, but she still has a few relaxed ends at the top/front to be able to pull her hair back into a ponytail.

She came over with a ponytail, that I switched out for a banana clip, picked her curls out, and proceeded to resmooth her curls with a little Eco Styler Olive Oil gel to prolong her style.

Before:

After:
I really love her beautiful, full curly wavy hair, and I can't wait to chop those stringy ends off. My mom has very strong, healthy, full hair and I'm soooooo jealous, but also so proud of her for letting go of the relaxer... it was about damn time. She is in her second year of being natural and nearing APL soon, the longest her has been since she was a teenager... She's always had a full head of shoulder length hair, but I think that's saying something about the creamy crack! lol

 Love you momma... And all that hair!!!

When you started your natural hair journey, who did you take with you?!

VERY Happy Hair as of lately!

 You all know I'm impatient, so it's no wonder I took my weave out in a week! lol I guess what it is more so though, is that I really enjoy my own hair, especially now that it's getting longer. And though I enjoy wearing weaves and extensions, I still end up feeling fake. I know I will enjoy weave more when my hair is long enough to fully and easily blend... right now it's just a little more work and leaves me with limited styling that makes me just rather my own hair...

So, I took my hair out 2 nights ago, and since I had washed my hair about 3 days before that and moisturized it, It left me with a beautiful, soft, and defined braid out.. In love!!!

Randomly, I bought this Aloe Body Lotion at the hair show that I did not love for my body, but upon reading the ingredients further, decided to try it in my hair, and so far it's amazing!!!

I don't want to jump the gun, seeing as how i've only been using it for a day or two, so I won't give any reviews or names of anything until I've used it for a while... especially since it's initially intended to moisturize the skin... Review in let's say...a week?  

Anyhoo... I moisturized my hair yesterday using the Aloe Cream and decided to wear the braid out in my fave 2 buns, and was so happy to see how much my hair had grown, as my buns were bigger, fuller, and longer! I even had to squish them down quite a bit to get scrunchies over 'em.

I definitely loved the protective styling benefits of wearing the weave for a week, and I am thinking of wearing my usual large, long extention braids for the first 2 weeks of May... just to  get some protective styling in (especially for my front edges) without missing my hair like crazy. Also, though I love those braids, they're damned heavy! lol

 I bought some new products at the hair show I wanted to try and my scalp was a little itchy so I decided to wash my hair last night. Again, I won't be reviewing anything until I use it for a little while so I can give a full and thorough review...

Before washing however, I decided to do a few length checks, just to see how this growth process is going and I'm happy to say I'm pleased. My hair doesn't grow super fast, and it can break, tangle, get split ends and single strand knots pretty easily, so growth around here is a joyus occasion, lol. My edges are still basically the shortest of my hair, my hair at my crown and upper head in general being the longest. 

My Celebrity Doppelganger: Kelly Rowland

For years I've been told I look like Kelly Rowland, some old friends even still call me Kelly Rowland, lol. A lot of people wouldn't say so now since I look like the post nose job Kelly, but I just think she's so cute regardless and I love the natural weave she's wearing now! Do you think she's growing her hair out  natural with her natural weave or do you think she's going with the whole "natural hair is a trend right now" thing?
I'm currently in LA right now for a week, so since I knew I'd be traveling and I didn't want to end up having a bad hair week, I decided to weave my hair up. To save money I decided to reuse my Jheri Curl weave I bought last year and only used once... you remember, this one:

Well I just dyed it black, rinsed my hair to match, and Voila! New Weave! lol

Randomly on my flight here, I was watching TV and Kelly came on, and when i realized we basically have matching weaves, I knew I had to do this post. Lol

What do you all think about Mrs. Rowland's look?!

Beyonce's Natural Hair

Beyonce, our biggest star since Michael Jackson. So just as everyone was all up in his business, everyone is in hers as well. We all love her for her amazing talent, captivating her audience by first glance and note, her moves like Jagger, and let's not forget all the amazing Lace Front Wigs that come with her (like she's "Weaving Fun Beyonce"). It's funny because I'm really not one to be starstruck or worship celebrities, but upon entering the online natural hair community, aside from Solange seeming to be the first black woman to go through a real hair journey in the Media, everyone wants to know if Beyonce is natural and what is her hair texture!

I've seen people with their own Fotki albums arguing Beyonce's hair and texture. A lot of people argued that she had beautiful, loose wavy curls that look pretty much like her weaves because she was "creole", while other's argued that if her sister's hair was tighter and coarser, then she must have that hair too. Both of these statements, as a professional hairstylist I can say are not true. Being a particular race does not ensure you a certain texture , nor does the fact that 2 people with the same exact parents would have the same exact hair. Prime example, I, even with a mulatto parent do not have any particular "mulatto defining" hair, and Curly Film Chick and her sister share the same 2 parents and their hair textures and curl patterns are completely different, though equally beautiful. Another thing we can not forget is how amazing weaves can be. Weaves are supposed to and should be installed to look natural, so there is also possibility that the hair we've been thinking is her natural hair, has been somehow enhanced with tracks or is a weave.

After watching her video "I Was Here" Live @ the Roseland it bought back the thoughts of what her natural hair was like, seeing her hair as a child. My conclusion? Well....
Beyonce definitely has hair of her own. I think she's also making a little too much money to be caught out there bald headed under a weave... even Jay would tell her to take care of that I'd think, lol.
Do I believe she has some length?
Yes, and she seems to also go through phases of being colored or growing her natural color out.
Do you think she has some sort of relaxer or texturizer?
It's hard to say, being that I've never seen or touched her hair or even have been up close to it. From photos, I would say I believe she has a texturizer. Tighter waves and curls can be seen at her root/natural hair line, then going into a looser curl/wave. In the video, as a child, her hair appears very similar, but it's not impossible for her to have had a texturizer as a child as well. If she is fully natural, she could be doing sets, braid outs, and twist outs to achieve these curly/wavy looks, since her roots do appear much tighter. Even in the photo with her dark hair pulled back, you can see the wave pattern is smaller than that of a loose wave or curl.
Do you think the natural looks are weaves or her hair? 
I believe she is wearing her natural hair out, even if she adds tracks for fullness and/or length. Regardless of anything, this gorgeous woman does appear to have a beautiful head of hair of her own.

(Now remember, these are my opinions from a hair stylist's stand point and I am not implying that any of my statements are particularly factual)

What do you all think of Beyonce's natural hair? 

***UPDATE***

I came across this photo on the web the other day, a throwback of Beyonce sporting a natural look. Look at those tight waves at her roots... I think it's safe to say her and Solange most likely have the same or a similar texure.

Protective Styling Vs. Hands In Hair Syndrome!

And this time, Protective styling won! Lol
For someone who is trying to achieve great lengths, I may have worse case of Hands In Hair Syndrome ever!!! Besides the fact that I rarely wear the same style from one day to the next, If that style is out, I definitely have my fingers dippin' in it. Even if it is up, once I get home and take out whatever pins, banana clips or whatever types of hair constrictors I'm using, it's one on one time, hands to strands all over again. Finally, since weaving my hair in the summer I decided to protective style again to give my hair a little break. I weaved it up again, this time wearing a straight weave though since it's winter and my hair will stay straight... and even decided to do a video of how I do my own weave, kind of start to finish. I didn't post it on YAIS' YouTube, I posted it on my personal one since it's not much advice for natural hair, but it's definitely a great way to protective style for naturals. So without further ado...

Enjoy! And stay tuned to learn about how I care for my hair when it's in a weave :)

Weaves

With the fall and winter here in New York and me back to working, I've been intending to give myself a weave some time soon so I can protective style and give my hair a break. With all of these thoughts in mind about giving myself a weave, what kind of hair to use, what color, what length and haircut do I want... I decided to go back and look at a few weaves I've given myself over the years..
On my personal blog, I decided to do a Weave- Timeline of sorts and thought I'd share it with all of you natural ladies who are thinking of what protective style they want or  are wondering who to go to.
Check it out and let me know what you think and if any of you are going to be protective styling in a weave soon, I hope this helps =)

SP's Weaves

Experiments in Curlyweaveland + Video Questions

On Wednesday evening I washed my hair, detangled it, and did 2 cornrows in the front to help blend my hair with the weave hair. I let the back air dry a little and then pineappled it, put my bonnet on and went to bed. It didn't dry by morning time so I left the braids in and went to work. Luckily I thought about it possibly not drying from the night before so I tried to braid the braids in a way that would look okay to wear out of the house, so i wore my dream catcher feather earrings and kind of went with a native look. I should have taken a full length picture because my outfit was nice that day but it gets so busy that sometimes i forget. Either way, I took a picture of my hair at the end of the day and this was the outcome. I got a lot of compliments and little did they know it was supposed to be a braid out, lol. I finally did the braid out yesterday but I didn't get to take a picture because my cousin kinda ruined it by running her fingers through it :( It's okay though :) It led me to want to try to twist out my whole head so I'm trying a twist and curl of sorts tonight...  I had been wearing my hair they way it was in the photos in my last post, two flat twists rolled back, and I really wanted to try wearing it all out.

I did 5 on the scalp flat 2 strand twists using Eco Styler Olive Oil Gel, but when I twisted down to the end of my head, I twisted the remainder of the hanging hair as a 3 strand twist, then 2 strand twisted the very ends and wrapped them on perm rods. I've never done a 3 strand twist out on myself before because this seems like it's probably easier done on hair that has a bit of length, so this weave enables me to try it. I sat under the dryer for about 30 minutes and plan to let it air dry while i sleep for like another 10 hours so i hope it's dry by the time i have to go to work tomorrow. I'm going to try to get up a little earlier in case I need to sit under the dryer for a little while, so I'll see the outcome in the morning. I'm excited  because I'm feeling like this is going to come out really beautifully so i'll be sure to snap a few flicks!
If I like the outcome I would be open to doing a tutorial and later trying it on my own hair!


I also had a question: Are there any things you all would like for me to do a video on specifically? Any style you had in mind and are wondering how to execute on your TWA or longer hair? I'm looking for some creative ideas of what people would like to learn how to do! Leave your comments, I can't wait to hear em'!

Curly Weave

In preparation for my weave, I blew out my fro and wore it out for the day as i went to pick up my hair and run a few errands. It's been a few weeks since i blew out my fro and i'm happy to see that it has grown, especially since i just trimmed my hair last week. I parted out the sections of hair i wanted to leave out and twisted them up, then proceeded to braiding the rest. Here's the outcome:

 I love it! They did such a great job with blending the color for me, using 1b mixed with burgundy. The hair is called Jheri Curl from Lugo's Mecca of hair located on 1st Avenue between 12th and 13th streets and I got it sewn at the longest length for this texture of hair which is 14 inches. I cut it a bit of course to shape it after I installed it. I'm going to do my best to keep it for 2 months which should give me about another inch and push me closer to full neck length which im making my halloween goal. I will probably straighten my hair sometime after taking out this weave too. I love this weave!!!

What was supposed to be my Winter Protective style

I had been experiencing quite a bit of split ends and single strant knots at a rapid pace, due to color damage (and a little of my own neglegence -_- ) so i finally decided to do another protective style! I got so much growth out of my braids after only wearing them for 2 weeks, so i want to challenge myself to keep this install for 3 months!!! I figured i would take this out the week before X-mas and then decide whether i wanted to go back into a weave, some other protective style, or just rock my own hair for New Years...

I bought this hair back in June with intentions to install it for my birthday. 

Because my BF likes my natural hair better than a weave, i decided not to install it. I'm so glad that i'm now finally getting to wear this hair because i love it! I bought the 10" Signature curly from Indianhair.net.

I did this weave myself; cut, color, styling, and texture blending. I hope you like!

I only have these 2 pics up because this is an old post and i only kept this in for about a week. I meant to post this sooner...  about 2 weeks ago sooner, but here's why i took this out so soon:


Athough i have absolutely no complaints about the indian weave hair, as it was beautiful and did everything i wanted it to do and more, i decided to remove this install early because my hair wasn't long enough for optimal texture blending. I do not mind wearing weaves as protective styles, but i refuse to wear a weave that doesn't look like it's mine. With this hair, my hair was obviously not as silky and has a much tighter curl. I thought i could get away with doing twist outs to blend, but at my length, i couldn't get the twist to be big enough to match the curl of the weave. I found myself flatironing and then doing twists on the flatironed hair but considering i didnt want to add too much heat to my hair, and this weave was going to be wet a few times a week, i knew it would all be defeating the purpose. My edges are coming back to life, the last thing i want to do is put unnecesary stress on them and cause them to thin and fall out again. It was fun for the week... i still have the hair and i'm pretty sure i will reuse it when my hair is longer.