This trip had been planned for a while. For a minute I did not think that I was gonna go, but then at the last min I was able to. I bought my ticket two weeks before hand and it was still only $244 direct flight from Nashville to LAX!!! It was great to escape the cold weather in TN. Plus I got to experience my first earthquake! It was just a small one though.
I flew into Cali to hang with my friends Casey and Stacey Ashmont. These are two amazing women...if you dance kiomba then maybe you will have the chance to meet them one day!
Casey, Stacey, and Jamaican Food. The food is the BOMB!
We decided to drive to Las Vegas. It was a nice drive. I got to see lots of mountain scenery. I love the mountains!
Mountains on the way to Vegas
I met lots of cool interesting people. And of course had lots of fun danicng! We went to the Afro-Latin Festival.
Angela from Cape Verde. She is also a vegetarian!
I met Walter...aka Black Power Ranger. He is a dancer!
View from Hotel. We stayed at Harrah's.
My hair was in Gogo Curl by Freetress. It is here that the hair got the most tangled and matted. While dancing my partner's hands would get caught in the curls quite often. I was dancing to 6 am or longer for two nights so that was a lot of dancing and a lot of chances for tangles.
After we left Vegas me and Stacey went sightseeing around L.A.
Mural in LA hood.
This man offering to whisk Stacey away to...Kansas!
The name is interesting. Hood store lol.
I had to do a double take...This is Beyonce. She looks like a white woman!
View from Baldwin Hills. More mountains!
Overall a very fun trip! The next day I took by hair out lol. It was beyond tangled and matted by the time I got back to Nashville.
I installed this set on Jan 5. I took out my last set due to the braids being loose underneath. I really liked how it looked, but due to the bad foundation, the style had to be taken down prematurely.
Me cutting the braids out.
I got Lola to braid my hair. She is African so you know she did a good job!
It hurt! I'm joking, It did not hurt...that much.
Finished braids. I like to have my "baby hair" left out to prevent hairline breakage.
Next I installed the hair. It is called GoGo Curl by Freetress.
Day 1
Day 3
I have very mixed feelings about this hair. I think it is beautiful. On the other hand I had some serious problems with it. One problem I had was the knots at the bas of my hair coming loose.
Loose knots.
I tried to double and triple knot, tie it down, I tried several methods. The hair is too loose to knot effectively. I saw online that some people used spritz or glue to keep the knots in place. Maybe I will try that next time. Everyday I had to tighten up loosed knots. Eventually the hair became so tangled that I did not even need to tighten the knots anymore.
Which leads to my second issue with the hair. It tangles to easily. Now, I am a get up and go type person. I did not sleep with a satin scarf over this. I did not brush it or comb it, or even wash it. It is a weave so I feel it should be low maintence. After the third week I had to cut off chunks of the hair.
Week One
Week Two
As you can see by week two the hair looked less fuller because some of it was matted and knotted. Week Three it looked a total hot mess and I took it down.
Would I buy Gogo Curl again? Nope. But, it was cute while it lasted.
What an eventful week this was. NYE party!!! I got the chance to bring in the New Year in Atlanta. I love this place. It has a great salsa dancing community. Here are a few pics
Me and my date Mamadou. He is a great salsa dancer!
Mamadou and Benjamin
As the post says I love my hair but I am taking it down. I did such a horrible job braiding my real hair underneath it is completely loose and my real hair is coming out the braids. FOUNDATION IS EVERYTHING!!!! The reasons are discussed further in the video below:
I EFFIN LOVE THIS HAIR! It is so easy to deal with. Basically I just get up and go. I have had a few problems.
Hair slipping out. This is mainly due to the fact that I did a super quick installation. Some people double knot. I did not. I know that when you don't double know it makes it easier for the hair to slip. It has only been three strands.
My braids underneath are coming out. I knew this would happen because I am a terrible braider. I am hoping I can make it last for three weeks. We will see.
I have a few frizzies but I don't consider this a problem. It makes the hair look more natural!
Other than that...these are great! Here are a few pics of me and my peeps out on the town. We went to Kocktails and Koture in Nashville. The food was bleh. Very few vegetarian options. They managed to mess up fries. How can you mess up fries! They dipped them in duck fat which gave them a weird smell. But the music was bangin'! They were playing all old school music such as Sam Cooke "Twisting the Night Away" and Frankie Lymon "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" and Etta James. I was singing all night! That would be the only reason i would go there.
Obligate bathroom selfie
Me and Stephanie
Caty and Amaka
Me Amaka and Lola
Me and Alex
Laughing at a friend
Next we went to WKND on Church Street. The music there was updated and also good. They play some old school hits like "Can We Talk" by Teving Campbell. They also played "Drunk in Love" By Beyonce which sounds really nice in the club. I also tried hookah for the first time which was a massive fail.
Hello! Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas holiday! This holiday has been an emotional roller coaster. This whole year has been an emotional roller coaster for me. But I am making it out alive so I am thankful In 2014 I will have a clean slate to start from.
I was in a hair rut about 1 month ago and I was very very tempted to cut my hair. I was especially tempted to do this when I saw my roomie Lola and her cute tapered cuts. But I fought the urge. Whenever I have these urges I know the best thing for me to do is to put some weave it my hair so I won't have to deal with it everyday. I was looking around the internet trying to find a cost effective weave and I stumbled upon crochet braids. I feel like this would be a good protective style to have. Plus I could have a little hair to swing around when I salsa dance.
Attempt #1
I have tried to put them in my hair 3 separate times. The first time was a partial fail. Here is a pic:
I used marley hair for this look. The only problem I had was the layering. I did not cut the marley hair in half when I used it and it was way to long. I looked like a lion. I attempted to cut it myself and I was not happy with the results. I got a lot of compliments but I was not confident with this hair. I took it out after one week. Also, my mom braided the back to tight and I was getting little bumps along the hair line.
Attempt #2
Next, I saw a tutorial on YouTube and decided to try crochet braids with straight kanekalon hair. This was a complete fail.
Neytiri the Wicked Witch of the South.
With curled ends
Why was this a fail? It was way to long. I felt like black Pocahontas. Also this hair shed like crazy. I was going for a different, much shorter look. Basically the girl on YouTube curled the ends with rollers dipped in hot water. That was the part that was a failure to me. The rollers/hot water did not take which resulted in the ends being curly but not curly enough. The look is not bad, it was just now what I was going for. I had this in for maybe 12 hours. I did not have to straighten my real hair for it to blend into the weave, I just had to blow dry it. The tutorial is listed below if you want to attempt this yourself:
Attempt #3
Okay. I felt like I had to give it one more shot. The main problem with all this was the hair. So I ended up ordering some Freetress Bohemian Braid hair off the internet. When I put this hair in I felt pretty and confident.
Next I added some colored hair to the front! I had a wedding to go to so I could not work with it some more.
When I got home I added a lot more hair to My whole head. Also I cut bangs. Waa-lah! (Excuse my ghetto French.)
If at first you don't succeed...try try again! Ok, So i used a straight back braiding pattern. The braiding patterns under crochet braids vary a lot. I am not the best braider in the world (which is why I was ashamed to take a pic lol) So I just kept it simple. But the braiding is the most important part. It is the foundation. Next time I will get my mom to braid it for me. A good braid underneath helps to keep the style secure and last longer. I ended up using 4 packs of hair. I cut the hair in half. I ended up having a little bit of black and the golden color left. Here is a tutorial I used.
This sista used Freetress Water Wave hair. I chose to use Bohemian Braid because it is closer to my natural hair texture. I like hers though and may use that in the future. I have learned that with crochet braids the possibilities are endless! Just do a YouTube search and you will see for yourself.
I plan on keeping this in for at least 3 weeks. I am gonna aim for a month. I don't think my braids underneath will last that long. We will see.
Do you do crochet braids? If so, what type of hair do you use?
I am a woman of habit when it comes to some things. I like to eat at the same places, I like to listen to the same type of music, and apparently I like to have the same hairstyles. I was looking through my Facebook pics and this is when I realized that I have 3 main styles that I go to. I like these styles because they are quick, versatile, and they look presentable.
Fingercomber Wig
This is my ALL TIME top fave hairstyle! I love love LOVE this wig! First, everyone thinks it is real lol. I have fooled so many people it aint even funny. I have fooled friends, coworkers, hair stylists. They start off by saying, "OMG I love you hair, I wish my hair would look so think and long like that!" Sometimes I tell them my secret, sometimes I don't. Secondly it is soooo easy to work with! All you do is put it on and go.
Lastly this is a very very durable wig. I have had it since around March. It was def the best hair investment I made this year. The only thing I would say is PUT COMBS IN THE FRONT! This has saved my ass sooooo many times it is not even funny. This usually helps around men! Men love to touch and pull on my hair. I used to hold my breath and hope and pray that the wig would not come off, but now, I am not even bothered by it. If you put a comb in the front then the wig will for sure stay secured to your head. You can order your own finger comber here.
Two Strand Twists
After Fingercomber, two strand twists are probably my next fave style. Now, this style does take a while to do, but they can last a long time. This is my go-to style whenever I travel. I have taken these overseas and all across the US. I like this style when I travel because I won't have to lug around all my hair products. Also, when traveling overseas, at least in England, Paris, and Croatia, natural hair care products are hard to come by at the larger Walgreen type shops. I suggest you learn to do your own.You can save a ton of money. Also I reuse the hair for about 5 sets of twists lol. I'm super cheap. Just make sure you wash the hair or it will become kinda funky.
Lovely Lady Humps
My hump hairstyle is what I go to when I need something a little fancy but is super easy and quick. I started doing this hairstyle when I was about 9 months into my hair growing out so you don't need superlong hair to do it. Of course as your hair grows out it will get bigger. This hairstyle always gets lots of stares and compliments from all types of people. This is another hairstyle that people like to touch so make sure you get lots of hairpins to secure it. It can last for 2-3 days. The only downside is that you need quite a bit of hairpins. The tutorial is here.
What are some hairstyles that you find yourself doing over and over? Why are you drawn to these styles?
I saw a post on my FAVE hair website Black Girl Long Hair about beanies and natural hair. Of course I had to try them out. I went to Target and bought a beanie. Here are the looks.
I started out with blow dried hair. This was my least favorite look. I just put the beanie on over my loose hair. This is also a recipe for breakage and tangles.
Next I just put the beanie on completly over my head. This is a great protective style because all your fragile ends are covered. If I did this I would do my hair in chunky two strand twists underneath to keep it from getting tangled. With this look the emphasis is completely on your lovely face.
For this next look I two strand twisted the front in a large chunky twist. I started with a very deep side part shown here.
Next I twisted to the other side. I was being lazy so I did not do it all the way to the back, but if I was going out I would. Last I just put the beanie on.
This was my fave look, though it was not very functional lol. I would probably put a few hair pins in the style to secure the beanie in place.
So here are a few of my looks! I will try a few more when my hair has been in two strand twists a few days.
What do you think of the looks? Do you all use natural hair accessories? I think I am converted!
Today I was pressed for time. Yesterday I put lots of Eco-Styler gel in my hair and smoothed it back into a puff. Of course this caused it to tangle but it was ok b/c today I planned to wash and style my hair.
Well, today I was pressed for time and I did not have time to do my usual wash day routine which consists of the following:
Coconut oil and Honey pre poo conditioning
De-tangle
Shampoo
Rinsed
Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse
Conditioner
Rinsed
Shea butter and coconut oil creme application
style
This usually takes me about one to two hours to complete.
As I said I was pressed for time so I cut out a few steps. I did the following:
Shampoo
Put conditioner in my hair
Detangled
Rinsed
Shea butter and coconut oil creme application
Guess what I discovered...my hair felt just as soft!!! And it only took 20 minutes!
OMG This is gonna change my life.
Crochet braids update
After a few adjustments I actually grew to like how they looked. It was super easy to get up in the morning and just go. However, my mom braided my hair too tight, or my scalp is just super sensitive. I started to get little bumps on the back of my hair line at the nape of my neck and it hurt a little. it felt like hair were being pulled. I plan to get them again and in the future I will leave my hair line out. This will eliminate tension and it may even make the braids look more natural.
Have you all had a hair revelation that changed your life? Did you all discover that if you cut out a few steps in the styling process that your hair still feels and acts the same? Am I just being lazy lol.
I know, I know....it has been awhile. Between nursing school, dancing, and life, I have not had time. However, I only have two more weeks of school left so I am feeling like blogging again.
I did a new hairstyle today! I got it from this post on buzzfeed. It actually turned out well. It is pretty easy to do too.
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