From the category archives:

Styling

Here are three styles, one of my own included, from three different ladies. I just love the versatility of natural hair and this post is proof of it. First up, Solange:

Hey Ms Lady,

I just wanted to share my style success. I love seeing a new style online and trying to replicate it myself. Some times it works out, some times not so much! LOL But this time it did. Please tell the lovely Natural Diva from Bermuda to keep sending style pics. She has a fly TWA that is blooming pretty fast so I know I can keep getting style tips from her even though my hair is at a different length than hers. Thanks for all you do!! 2010 will bring great things!

Solange, I’m glad you were able to get some inspiration from Bermuda’s last TWA styling post. It turned out beautifully and I love the color on you!!Thanks for sharing!!

Now we have “Ami”, a coworker and friend of mine, who is a mostly straight natural who transitioned long term to get rid of her relaxed ends.

She just recently cut the last of them off and dabbles in both straight and curly styles. Check out her bantu knot out on blow dried hair! Bantu knot outs are a great way to add some bounce to a straight style without using added heat. Ami used coconut oil beforehand.

OK, so now there’s little ole me. I am still rocking my twists, but in (what else?) a bun.

Wow, how do we naturals ever get by without the versatility of relaxed hair?

Oh well, I guess we make do ;)

{ 2 comments }

Once again BermudaBeauty shares her styling ideas for her blossoming TWA. See her other articles here and here. Check out her fotki for more of her beautiful hair.

I am presently 11 months post relaxer/8 months post bc and I am proud to say my hair is growing by leaps and bounds! Styling the TWA can be challenging because it is too long to continue the styles I was using and still too short to style my hair the way I would like to. I know I am not alone in the frustration of twa styles. That is why I have included some styles and techniques for your readers. Hopefully they will find these styles helpful. For more twa styles please feel free to view my fotki at www.fotki.com/bermudabeauty.

Happy Hair Growing, Bermuda Beauty

Cornrolls: Done on freshly co-washed hair. You can also wear your hair like this and put a wig or a hat on

Slick to a pony tail: Used Ecostyle Olive Oil Gel on damp hair.

Two Strand Twist: Put my hair in about 24 twists while wet. Used Ecostyle Olive Oil Gel to make the two strand twist then went under a hooded dryer .

Press & Curl: Done professionally. Beware your hair may not be as curly as it once was after curling your hair.

Flat Twists & Two Strand Twist Combination: just add a few twists on the side and secure with bobby pins and/or hair pins.

Flat Twists & Two Strand Twist up in a Pony Puff: pulled my hair Up in a puff and secured all the way around with bobbypins.

{ 4 comments }

Post image for Thanksgiving Hair

Thanksgiving Hair

by kcurly on November 27, 2009

in Styling,Twists/Twistouts

We had a good Thanksgiving. My hair has been on my mind all week, but, despite intending to put twists in, I have been wearing the puff.

Very Old Puff

Very Old Puff

Ug, lazy Kcurly! Seriously, I’ve also been fighting a cold for 2 weeks. My child and I keep exchanging it.

For Thanksgiving, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I wanted to try out my JC Wrap and Roll and I wanted to do a overnight “quick” twist out. I just got a new batch of Frank Juice in the mail. I usually do my twist outs and styling in general with creamy products. For a change of pace, I did a twist out with both of these (the JC Wrap and Roll is a foam).

I could tell a difference because it was not as easy to detangle/smooth each section. I’ve heard of people using Frank Juice to detangle, but, uh-uh, not I. (I still love you Frank Juice). Anyway, I did a few big twists and slept in it overnight.

Ovenight drying is such a joke. I mean, I’ll read all of these tutorials from people who dry overnight. That never happens to me. Maybe the ends might dry, but most of my hair is usually still damp. I will say this: Using two liquid products really helped it to dry more. It wasn’t completely dry, but about 75 percent.

I used a diffuser to get the rest of it dry and then let it airdry a bit more whilst I wrestled my 3 year old into some clothes. The result was a soft, fluffy, somewhat shiny, twist out-fro. I liked it. Most importantly, it didn’t take long to do.

Getting ready to leave for dinner

Getting ready to leave for dinner

It smelled heavenly. I was a little worried about how it would smell when I was doing my hair the night before. Both products have unique smells, but they meshed well together and weren’t overpowering.

I’ll be trying the JC Wrap and Roll on a rollerset at some point but here’s the description.

Wrap & Roll is the best soft mouse, setting and wrapping product available. It dry’s clean, and soft without any residue. It is great for air drying color treated, and damaged hair. The natural glycerides, essential oils and moisturizers leave your hair soft and shiny. For setting or wrapping, dryer time is cut in half. Apply Wrap & Roll liberally to wet hair, and then let it dry naturally, or wrap/set as usual.

Ingredients:

Deionized Water, Anthemis Noblis Flower (Camomile), Symphytum Officinal Leaf (Comfrey), Equisetum Arvense (Horsetail), Urtica Dioica (Nettle), Rosemarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf, Humulus Lupulus (Hops), Lawsonia Inermis (Henna), Certified Organic Essential Oils: Lemon, Grapefruit, Coco-Sultaine, Glycerine, Glyceryl caprylate, methylisothiazolinone (preservative)

So I’ll be updating whenever I do this rollerset.

Second Day Hair Reflections: My hair feels a little dry. Probably not something that I would experience had I used something creamy. However, it felt moisturized without any residue yesterday.

Just another note: I’ve further updated the Black Friday discount list.

{ 2 comments }

I got a few questions about how I do twists. So here are a few tips. Hopefully, one day I can get around to making a video tutorial or at least a pictorial. The following are techniques that helped my twists to look better compared to what they used to be. These are just for dry twists, check out my video section for wet twists.

  1. If the ends won’t stay/curl up, dip the end in water (I got that tip from Nonie on LHCF)
  2. Concentrate a lot more product on the section of hair than you would with wet twists, it makes the hair more pliable while you are twisting
  3. Using a thicker product, such as shea butter, instead of a lotion or liquid. Shea butter usually takes awhile to settle on my hair, so I can see residue after I finish using it. I just wrap my hair up with a scarf and the rest aborbs into my hair, leaving nice shiny twists. This also helped my twists not to stick up all over the place when they were shorter.
  4. Stretch the hair out (I used banding) instead of letting it dry in a fro beforehand. You may also try to braid/twist it in big sections, rollerset it, or blow dry it (but be careful with the heat).
  5. Use smaller sections of hair
  6. I always comb (widetoothed) each section right before I’m going to twist and after I apply the product it to make sure that it’s as smooth as I can get it.
  7. Some of you asked about the scalp showing. My hair is really thick and that may aid in why my scalp doesn’t show, but it’s also the way I layer my twists. I use the brick method. So instead of having the twist parts directly on top of each other, you want to make them fall as if they were bricks…that way, the twist will cover the scalp.  Also, I think the smaller you make them, the less likely you are to see scalp.  If you have thinner hair, you may want to do wet twists to encourage plumper twists and hide any scalp spots. Otherwise, if you are still seeing scalp spots, you can try to pin some of the twists back to hide the spots.
Pretend that the brick itself is your twist and the morter in between is your scalp. When the twists fall, they will cover the scalp.

Pretend that the brick itself is your twist and the morter in between is your scalp. When the twists fall, they will cover the scalp.

Twists maybe a year ago?

Twists maybe a year ago?

Twists now

Twists now

Also, I just want to mention that it’s always good to take pictures of your hair when it’s really horrible. Like that above picture. I was afraid to leave the house with that style, but I kept doing it and I’m glad I took pictures because now that I’ve improved I can really appreciate the difference.

Post or email me any more questions and I’ll do my best to answer them :)

{ 6 comments }

Yesterday’s hair:

Cowashed with Suave Coconut Conditioner

Applied KBB hair milk

Applied KCCC

Used up the last of my Hairveda Almond Glaze (*weeps*)

Tied back with a scarf, lower left bow

{ 12 comments }

Rinsing a twist out

by kcurly on July 28, 2009

in Styling,Twists/Twistouts

DSC04814

Recently rinsed twistout

Why rinse a twistout?

  • To refresh an old twist out
  • Working out or sweating
  • For moisture

Tips for rinsing a twist out:

  • Use a soft shower spray to rinse. A powerful spray will disrupt the twistout pattern.
  • Squeeze the water in but do not rub or manipulate the hair too much.
  • When drying, again, squeeze out excess water and use a t-shirt or microfiber towel to either gently squeeze the water out or wrap it around your hair. Do not rub with a towel. I prefer to just wear a microfiber towel or curls like us towel for a bit and then let it air dry. A rinsed twist out dries faster for me than a wash n go.
  • Shake the hair if you want a wilder look or fluffier look. I have to say that this has mixed results for me. Sometimes I will end up with frizz everywhere, sometimes a nicely defined fro.
  • Spritz on a moisturizing leave in or whatever you want as the last touch.
  • Rinsing works better on a twist out initially done on wet hair than one done on dry hair, at least in my experience.

DSC04816

DSC04810

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Bantu Knot Out results

June 14, 2009

I took the knots out yesterday. It was very interesting to hear the reactions from people at work before I took them out. One person called them “Cinnamon Rolls”, someone said my hair was “all balled up”, I got double takes quite often (LOL!) and my knots got a friendly tap here and there all [...]

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Bantu Knots Take 2 (or is it 3?)

June 11, 2009

I had planned to part diligently when doing these knots, but I hate parting my hair. I suppose that’s why I always end up fingerparting. I fingerparted for the most part with some comb parts. I think these turned out rather well. not exactly what I pictured and I think I can improve on them [...]

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Today’s Hair

May 19, 2009

How did I forget that I wanted to do buns so badly? I’ve been wearing my hair out for days now and it really needed a break. I haven’t been swimming yet this week so I was trying to think of the best style that could be done in the least amount of time. I [...]

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Grow it! Give-a-way and straight hair madness

May 7, 2009

So I know I said that the Kcurly’s Favorite Things would be my last give-a-way for awhile, but I recieved my additional copy of the book along with this too cute bag from Chicoro the other day. Therefore, one you of you lucky readers will be able to win this (the book, that is). Me [...]

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Straightened once more

May 5, 2009

Sorry there was no post yesterday. It was my birthday and I wanted to take it easy. I went ahead and straightened since I’d wanted to do it one more time before the summer kicked in. After this I’m going on a personal No Heat Challenge until the fall. The humidity is killer where I [...]

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Old and busted twist out

April 30, 2009

My twist out was leaving much to be desired yesterday, however, I did not have time to wash it, DC, etc, like I wanted to. So I fooled around with it. It doesn’t look as bad on camera as it does in real life, but something had to be done, believe me. I got out [...]

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Tried banding again

April 3, 2009

I really enjoyed my results this time. I’d intended to do this prior to putting in dry twists, but failed to do them before my work weekend started, so I’m wearing the banded hair for now. Here is my first banding experience awhile back. Here’s what I did: This time I tried smaller sections, I [...]

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Wet twists vs Dry Twists- The pros and cons of each

April 1, 2009

Shrinkage Shrinkage with wet twists is to the maximum. If you’re looking to show off your length, you may want to try dry twists. Though you get more definition, you pay for it in length. These twists were done around the same time, but notice the difference. Twistout results If the twists are wet, they [...]

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Today’s style

March 31, 2009

This was today’s style: twist out on wet hair. I’ve been wearing this twist out for a few days. It probably could go longer, but it’s getting washed out tonight. I will be doing a post tomorrow on the difference between doing twists on wet and dry hair and the results of both. Edited to [...]

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