Tales from the Roots: Curls to get the girls

First day 

 Here is another one of my transition styles. I have always loved a full head of curls and I've found that it is gorgeous at any hair length. Just a warning for naturals nazi's: I did use heat to achieve this style! Some folks believe that you shouldn't use heat on your hair but I'm not a part of that school of thought. I don't like putting heat on my hair too often but I do it once a month sometimes more.

To achieve this look I used my 1 inch Royale flat irons to tightly curl my hair. After I curled each section I rolled the hot hair around the orange perm rods. I ran out so I used flexi rods at the top but it worked out fine because they were about the same size as the other rollers. In the morning I fluffed and slicked my edges.

Day two

Amazingly I was able to wear my hair curly for an entire week without having to put heat on it again.

Each night I would pin curl the curls at the back of my head with bobby pins and put the flexi rods at the top. After a day or so the curls in the back started to loosen so I just added more rollers at night. By the end of the week my hair was basically trained. On Friday I didn't even wrap or roll my hair and the ends still had a bump to the ends in the morning.

I was satisfied with my hair, it was really easy to achieve and the upkeep was simple. Oil it and roll it back up at night. The first night sleeping was not fun but after that night I didn't have to use as many rollers. I've never tried something like this without heat and I'm not sure how it would work out on transitioning hair but Hey, anything is possible. I just chose to use heat because I don't have a problem with occasionally flat ironing my hair. At the end of the week I washed and tried out a pre-poo to help my hair revert, stay tuned for the results...

Tales from the roots: Protective styling part 2

An important part about growing your hair is finding the balance between wearing protective styling. Even when I was relaxed I would wear sew in weaves or wigs as a method to reduce the amount of manipulation I did to my hair. Now that I am natural and spend a lot of time researching new things to do to my hair I have found that weaves and wigs are only the tip of the protective styling iceberg. They usually involve wearing your hair in a bun or braids for a few days or weeks, require little combing or tinkering daily but still require oiling your hair and wrapping it up at night. 

Now that I have chopped a bit of my hair off I won't be able to achieve some of these protective styles but here they are anyway! 

This is Toni and she is a part of the natural hair Youtube trio My Natural Sistas. She was my inspiration for the pompadour I did a while back. In this style she puts her read hair into a bun then adds weave braids to it to create this exaggerated bun with a matching braided bang. I used to see these styles and think "I don't have enough hair to pull this off" or "I have to wait until I have been natural for at least two years until I can do something like that!" all lies! If you can at least pull your hair into a bun, no matter how snatched, leave the rest to the magic of weave!! 

If you like Toni's hair you might want to check out the page she shares with her sisters on Youtube. They do videos about hair, makeup, outfits and even hairstyles for natural children. All of them are very easy to replicate.

Tales From the Roots: New Hair

Mini Big Chop!

Some of you may know that I have been dying to cut my hair! I had originally planned to go all in and do a big chop but that plan changed a few weeks ago for a few reasons...
1) It is extremely cold here in Chicago (today's high was -15) so I'm not really inclined to lose hair which is sort of critical in keeping my head warm right now.
2) I wouldn't be able to do wash-and-go's with the weather like this unless I gave myself ample time for my hair to fully dry and I can't guarantee myself that. Plus it takes the simplicity out of it.
3) I found an awesome hair cut that would ease me into my big chop and add some spice to my grown out bob. So without further ado, my new hair....

Outfit of the Night- M Lounge Chicago

OOTN

Last night's adventures included drinks at The M Lounge in Chicago for a family member's birthday, followed by a late dinner at Applebee's.  The name of M lounge does not mislead; low lighting, comfortable seating in chocolate colored lounge chairs with a view of the long bar and even a small V.I.P section in the back. And the service was great! a waiter brought over our drinks from the bar and was very prompt with refills ;) Besides the great company and fun conversation, my favorite part was getting dressed for it all!

M Lounge Long Island 

I was channeling Kim Kardashian in my see-
through, blush colored, lace top I got a while back from Express with a nude colored bra underneath. It's a little chilly out and I'm not Kim Kardashian so I topped mine with a black blazer. This blazer is actually apart of a suit set but I usually wear the blazer separately. On the bottom I wore liquid leggings that give the appearance of leather but were actually only $14.99 from Charlotte Russe.

Tales From the Roots: Protective Styling (part one)

Protective styling: High Bun with Kanekalon Weave

 Now that my hair is finally able to be put into a ponytail I have been trying different protective styles. For Christmas I wore a huge bun, very similar to the bun I wore before my haircut/Natural journey. I have also been doing a lot of research on hair cuts, protective styling and no-heat, low-maintenance styles, which I will talk about in my next Tales From the Roots post. Follow the link and read more about how I achieved this look.