Return of the Curls: Curls Gone Wild - GREENSBORO! 2 week countdown!

NC Naturalistas!!  Get ready, get ready, get ready!!!  We are less than 2 weeks away from this major natural hair expo hitting our great state!!  If you have not purchased your ticket for this big event you want to definitely get your tickets and be in the house!

Here are just a few of the great reasons to be there:

1.  Curly Nikki will be there!  She will be taking photos with you and signing her book, Better than Good Hair!

2. Amazing Panels - Men & Natural Hair hosted by Adeea the TrendySocialite &  Natural Hair & Social Media hosted by some of NC's best bloggers

3. Ever used Karens Body Beautiful products?  The owner, Karen will be there & will be teaching!

4.  Vendors, vendors & more vendors in the building!

There are limited VIP tickets available with which you will get a copy of Curly Nikki's book in addition to your admission ticket.  Just $30.

Get your tickets here:  curlsgonewildgreensboro.eventbrite.com!

Don't be the one who said, I wish I would have gone, AFTER the fact!

Marley Hair Faux Hawk Updo - Protective Style

I posted the above picture on Instagram last week.  I was at my godsister's high school graduation and it was extremely hot that day.  I knew if I wore a loose hairstyle, the heat & humidity would cause it to swell, poof, & frizz on a special day where I wanted my hair to be a little more predictable finishing than documenting.  LOL!  The tip that I will give you is to watch the beginning where daneteb shows how she tucks & pins her hair and focus on the technique not necessarily the exact placement of her Marley hair.  I knew I had to wear an updo.  I searched Youtube to find a tutorial and found the one below.  It was my intention to recreate the style and do a step by step tutorial but between time & effort to create the style, I became more focused on finishing the style.

Here are some other shots of the style.  I used a pack and a half of Marley hair to create this style and I wore it for a week.

I loved it so much that I think I'll recreate this again for another event that I'm going to later this summer! Let me know what you think of my version of the style?  Is it pretty close?  

Variety in Styling - A Week's Worth of Looks

I like variety in my life, that shows up in many ways, from the foods I like to cook to the social activities that I choose to participate in and the way I wear my hair.  I've gotten quite comfortable lately wearing my twistouts.  They are definitely my go to style and most reliable as far as results. However, sometimes it hits me to just change it up some so this particular week I did.

If you follow my blog you know I recently was asked to be the guest blogger for Nyenzo's Natural Hair and Body Affair in celebration of INHMD.  Check out that recap here.  What you may not know is that the night before, I'd just returned from a week long vacation in St. Maartin.  Very litte was done to my hair while I was on vacation.  I mean, its a vacation right?  All I did each day was moisten my hair, apply a little bit of Shea Moistures Deep Restorative Conditioner for moisture, smooth it back and apply my puff wiglet (review coming soon on this hairpiece).  Easy breezy!

My flight landed at 8:30 pm on Friday night and the event started at 1 pm on Saturday.  I knew that I needed to do some prep to my hair before I left.  So Thursday night, I shampooed my hair, deep conditioned and applied my leave-in & sealed the moisture by setting my twists with shea butter.  I realized that air plane travel can be drying to the hair due to the recycled air so I wanted to retain as much moisture as possible.  My travel look was like this.

See that tan?  

Friday night, I added my product (Entwine Couture's Creme Jelly Styler) & set my hair by creating medium sized 2 strand twists and setting on orange perm rods.  The next morning, I took out the rods, separated the curls & got this.  The look was "ok".  It was a bit more piecy than I was looking for but I attributed that to the heavy shea butter under this styler.  I made it work though!

Click here for the results...

Giovanni Direct Leave In Conditioner - My Favorite for the Summer!

Let me explain why I love this leave in conditioner:  there are so many reasons!

• It's rich - this leave in conditioner is rich with oils & natural botanicals which helps with my thirsty strands
• It's very moisturizing - it helps to retain moisture in my hair for a couple days at a time
• It doesn't have glycerin in it - glycerin is found in many leave in conditioners & that's fine except for when it's extremely humid & you're trying to keep defined styles.  Glycerin is a humectant and draws moisture into your hair, which equals swelling of the hair & poof.
• I can use it as a daily moisturizer - with some moisturizers my hair feels good at night when I'm adding it, but in the morning it feels dry.  This moisturizer packs a punch to keep my hair feeling great the next day.
• Price point is super reasonable - It's between $7 - $8 in my local brick & mortar stores
• It reactives my definition when retwisting my hair!

3 day old twist out - refreshed with just Giovanni Direct Leave In

Ingredients:  Aqua (Purified Water), Cetyl Alcohol, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B5) Citric Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Natural Fragrance, Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit) Extract, Aloe Barbadenisi (Aloe Vera) Leaf Juice, Helianthus Annus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Seed Extract, Betula Alba Extract, Malva Sylvestris (Mallow) Extrac, Achillea Millefolium Extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Equisetum Arvense Extract, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavendar) Extract, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Salvia Sclarea (Clary) Extract, Thymus Vulgaris (Thyme) Extract, Tussilago Farfara (Coltsfoot) Flower Extract, Urtical Dioica (Nettle) Extract.

What is your leave in conditioner of choice for the summer months?  Do you have a favorite?  Share!

Do Healthy Natural Hair Regimens Have to Be So Long?

Recently, I went to a natural hair meet up (shout out to The Trendysocialite) and during the hair discussion we talked about establishing a natural hair regimen.   If you recall, my cleansing & conditioning regimen was detailed in a recent post of mine.  There were 4 weekly steps (prepoo, shampoo, deep condition, style), but during them there were at least 2 times that I was detangling my hair (after the prepoo & after deep conditioning) & I was retwisting my hair - A LOT.   The intent was to keep my hair from tangling while going through the various steps of my regimen. This took about 3 -4 hours to do when I incorporated styling my hair in twists.  One of the discussion points was how long it took to do our hair.  We even considered whether all the steps we were incorporating were truly necessary for healthy natural hair.  One of the steps that I have eliminated over the past 2 years was using a cheap conditioner to detangle in addition to deep conditioning.  I figured that if I used a deep conditioner with enough slip, I could detangle after deep conditioning.  Over the past two weeks I've also eliminated the prepoo & going through the process with my hair in twists.  I tended to lose more hair during this step rather than waiting until after deep conditioning to detangle.  This has saved me about 30 - 1 hr in my regimen.

Old Regimen 
Prepoo
* detangle & twist hair
Shampoo
*take down each twist, shampoo section, retwist
Deep condition 20 -30 mins
*add conditioner to each twist & add heat
*detangle & retwist, cool rinse
Moisturize & style
*untwist hair & add leave in, oil, creamy moisturizer (LOC) while loose
*section in 4 large sections & add styling product
*create medium sized twists in each section

Current Regimen
Shampoo
*hair loose, really cleansing scalp & smooshing shampoo in downward motion on the hair shaft
Deep Condition 20 - 30 mins
*hair loose add heat
Detangle & twist in medium twists
*cool rinse
Moisturize & style
* untwist 1 twist at a time
*do LOC moisturizing
*add styling product & retwist

  What modifications have you made to your natural hair regimen over the years?

Review: Nyenzo's Natural Hair & Body Affair for INHMD May 18th, 2013

I had the privilege of being asked to be the guest blogger by Dionne, the owner of Nyenzo Natural Hair Salon.  During the event, guests had an opportunity to network with each other, shop with the many vendors that were there, hear from guest speaker Dr. Nina Ellis-Hervey, aka BeautifulBrownBabyDol, hear spoken word, participate in games, & get our bodies moving with Zumba!  It was a fun filled & informative afternoon for all!  I tip my hat to Dionne & the entire Nyenzo team.  They put together a very well organized, jam packed event.

For all your natural hair & body needs check out Nyenzo's Natural Boutique.  They are located at 916 Rock Quarry Rd, Ste. 115 Raleigh.  They carry some of the most popular natural products on the market.  The customer service is excellent and everyone is very knowledgeable and friendly.  They also are sponsoring an interactive hands on styling class with Karen Wilson of Karen Wilson Beauty on June 8th!  Check out the website at www.nyenzo.com for more details!  Tell them that NaturallyNita sent you!

Below check out some of the pictures from the event! See additional pictures on twitter by searching under #inhmd  @nyenzollcc. Head's up:  this post will be very picture heavy.

Nyenzo Owner, Dionne Blanks opens up the event

BeautifulBlackBabydol speaks to the group

More PICs after the break......

Guest vlogger & guest pose for the camera

Wash & Go Variation For A Springtime Evening Out

Well, it looks like Spring is finally ready to arrive with warm temperatures!!!  *insert happy dance*  This weekend in NC, it was in the 60's and this week will bring a week's worth of 70 degree temperatures.  Now we can wear our cute, flirty, flowing, colorful outfits.  Along with that comes carefree, fun hairstyles.  Around this time last year I had a date for a comedy show and created a very fun look that was easy to achieve.

To achieve this look:

• After cleansing and moisturizing I slicked back the front of hair with Argon Oil Ecostyler Gel
• Then I smoothed back the front of my hair with the side of my brush (not the direct bristles) 
• I used bobbypins to secure my hair just beyond the crest of my head
• I applied Koils by Nature Herbal Curl Defining Gel in an attempt to define my curls but this gel is just not heavy enough to provide curl definition to my texture I still liked the results though
• For a more island look, I attached a hot pink flower to my hair
• As my hair dried, I used a pic to shape my hair.  (Funny story, I was asked if this was my real hair.  Yes it is!)
• The outfit I wore was a Grecian style one shoulder tunic with black leggings. I wore 4 inch strappy heels.