Tag Archives: Hair style

Feb13

My love affair with Karen’s Body Beautiful continues….

Next up, the Hold It Hair Gel with Argan Oil! This is one of KBB’s products that I have never tried until I received my gift box from KBB so I was super excited to give it a go. Yup, it will be sold in Target this month! Check out KBB’s Facebook page often to see if they will be sold in your local Target :o) I imagine the price will be the same as it is on their site, $16 for 8 oz. and the same on CurlMart in the Lavender Vanilla scent. Mine is the Vanilla Latte scent which smells yummiful!!

Description
Karen’s Body Beautiful Hold It Hair Gel defines hair and provides flexible hold to maintain styles without hardness or a crunchy after-feel. With Argan, Aloe Vera and Marula Oils and Hydrolyzed Silk Protein. Creates a natural finish with a flexible hold. Works best for kinky, curly or relaxed hair.

Ingredients
Water (Aqua), Argania spinosa (Argan) Oil, Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose (Cellulose Thickener), Panthenol, Aloe barbadensis (Aloe Vera) Oil, Sclerocarya birrea (Marula) Oil, Hydrolyzed Silk Protein, Fragrance (Parfum), Citric Acid, and Silver Citrate.Glycerin Free. Paraben Free. Silicone Free. Sulfate Free

As you may know, I don’t wear my hair in wash-n-go’s much and when I do, I typically use gel products like this, this and this, so I immediately think “wash-n-go” when I see gels BUT I remembered I asked a curlfriend on Instagram how she made her edges look so tailored and pretty…she said gel!! So I was like BINGO!! That’s what I am going to use this for!! She said she uses eco-styler but I have found that if I use that too much it dries out my hair which usually mean breakage for me PLUS I am on a mission to nourish/grow out my edges so I am real cautious about what I do to them BUT I know KBB’s ingredients are all natural and actually nourishing to your hair so I figured this would be great for taming my unruly edges. My edges are not cute and whispy like Chili from TLC lol they are thick, and I feel make my hair look a lil untidy and rough at times lol. But the Hold It gel really helps make them look “cleaner”. My edges are more defined, lay flat and actually follow a pattern rather than make my face look like its being eaten up by a hairy monster lol. I just apply a little as I twist my hair up at night and tie a scarf over my twists. The scarf helps “set” my edges in place. I find that it holds better when you apply it on damp hair. I don’t have any flaky or white residue either! It has a little crunch, but the good kind of crunch…the kind that keeps your hair in place! The Argan oil makes your hair really shiny!

Check out the flicks below. Sorry for the EXTREME close-up of my fivehead lol just focus on the edges….the edges!!

So after I discovered how well this held down my edges, I became bold and put the gel to test……THE PUFF! If a gel can hold my hair in a puff, then it’s official and has won the battle over my hair lol! And guess what? It did!! The only time I can wear my hair in a puff is if I slick it back with a gel like eco-styler (again, I don’t like to use it too much because it dries my hair out at times) but now I can use the Hold It Gel!

On an old twist-out, I spritzed the outer part of my hair to soften and dampen it make my hair easier to work with as well as making the gel “set” better as it dries. I then applied the gel all around and brush my hair back using a boar bristle smoothing brush. Then I use TWO elastic headbands (Goody brand) and wrap it around twice.

Now the ESSENTIAL part for me to achieve a nice slicked back puff is I snuggly tie a scarf around the slicked back part to set my hair in place until the gel is somewhat dry (usually 30 mins or so; the amount of time it takes me to do my makeup, brush my teeth, etc). That’s what works for me because my hair is super thick. I am not sure if anyone else has to do that or if that’s normal lol but I gotta do it otherwise it looks messy and unkept (unless that’s the look I’m going for).

So with all that said, check out the puff below! I’m so excited how big my puff is now :o) It makes me feel regal since it kind of looks like a crown. I really like wearing my hair like this hehe. oh and these pics are actually at the end of the 2nd day after I applied the gel (I forgot to take pics on the first day) so my edges look a teeny bit less slick than they did the first day. At night, I just took out the headbands and snuggly tied the scarf around my head. In the morning, I just put the headbands back in and that’s it! I love this style because it’s easy, cute and it can last for like 2 weeks if you really want to push it :o)

So I have discovered that this gel is multi-use and definitely an essential for me now as I can use it on my edges every time I do twist-outs. LOVE ME SOME KBB!!!

Aug18

New Twist-Out Method!

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Lauren

New Twist-Out Method!

….well not really that new, new to my hair routine that is! I started to feel like my twist-outs were looking kind of weird, to me, in the front parts of my hair. It’s probably something only I really noticed but I just feel like they were really chunky and looked too intentional (if that makes sense).

Also, I tend to always part my hair the same and place my twists in the same positions so it was almost like my hair is got used to it. It just made it look…blah. I really would prefer my hair to look more “less intentional” so I was researching on how other naturals do their twist-outs, like how they part their hair or if there was some technique that I wasn’t aware of, something! lol

I started skimming back through Naptural85′s youtube videos, which I love because her texture is similar to mine and her tutorials are always so unique, simple and easy, and there it was…..her Twist-Out Method 101 tutorial video! I had seen it before but didn’t pay much mind to it since my twists weren’t a concern back then.

I embedded the video below so you can watch the pro do it. In short, she sections her hair and then does a re-mix of flat twists to create already separated twists. So in essence, you don’t have to really separate your twisted sections once you untwist them—they’re already separated! This REALLY helps reduce the frizz that can be created when you are separating the twists and helps retain the curl pattern. Less manipulation. It really helps break the monotony I was experiencing with my twists in the front of my head.

So I just adopted her method and adjusted it to my needs, my main concern was the front of my hair so I only do the semi-flat twist thingys in the front. I am no where NEAR a good at doing flat twists in general, I don’t think I could ever attempt to wear mine outside the house (they look that bad lol), I need a LOT more practice to be able to….anyway, for the purpose of a twist-OUT, I can manage because they don’t need to be neat or uniform to achieve a perfectly imperfect twist-out!

I try not to section my hair in the same place (helps reduce hair thinning as well) but in this instance, the pic below shows how my twisted sections look like close up. I started at the top of my head and twist down towards my forehead. This way, my hair falls better than if I were to start from my forehead and twist back.

The pic below shows how I sectioned it from the top. I opted for an off-center side part. I believe there were 3 “flat-twisted” sections in the front and then 2 on the top. I don’t always do each section as “long” I could break these sections in half and still get great results. My thing is to switch it up to break up the monotony and not let my hair get used to how it is sectioned so that it will fall better (I hope I am making sense -.-)

The pic below is of an untwisted section. Each piece of hair added to the “flat-twist” will end up as its own separate piece when you untwist it so you have to be a bit strategic about how big or small you want to pieces to be.

So if any of that made sense….your hair will look something like this!

You can see the curls are more piece-y and don’t look so intentional because they aren’t following the same ole pattern of single twists. It looks more like my hair pattern grows this way.

From now on, I plan on doing my twists like this all the time so you’ll be able to see more pics of this method. I did this in my WonderCurl product experience post in case you missed it and Girl Behind the Curl Jennifer does this for her twists…go figure because her twists look amazing every day.

—-Do any of you swear by this twist out method!?

Jun28

Hair Style : : Bantu Knot Twist-Out

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Lauren

Hair Style : : Bantu Knot Twist-Out

If you’ve been following my blog for some time now, you’ll notice that my hair looks damn near the same in almost every picture lol That’s because I wear a twist-out almost every day BUT on occasion, I like to add a little pizzazz in my life. I do this by…..wearing a bantu knot twist out!! YESS!!! Oh the excitement…

This style is a hybrid of a plain twist-out and a classic bantu knot—you just bantu knot the twists. It’s super easy and a cute way to change up a plain ole twist out. You twist and wrap each twist around itself and tuck in the ends at the base of the knot. The knot should stay by itself but if it keeps coming undone, you can use a bobbi pin to hold it in place. (<—-YouTube “Bantu knot toutorial” and you’ll find a bazillion videos on the technique).

This go round, I used the Shea Radiance Moisture Milk and Curl Defining Cream with my beloved Oyin Handmade Sugar Berries pomade on the ends.

This is what my knots looked like:

This is what my boyfriend says I look like. Nice.

Image via Google

I made the sections way too small for my liking and I also twisted them a bit tighter than normal but it still came out cute. The bigger/looser knots = bigger and looser curls. Smaller sections/tigher knots will give you more of a Shirley Temple/flexi-rod type of curl.

Here’s the knots unraveled but still in the twists. You can see the curl pattern it forms:

Here’s the twists untwisted. This wasn’t my best attempt at this style since I got a lot of frizz. You have to allow enough time for the the knots to dry since the hair is compact and the inner parts of the twists can still be damp. If you are really pressed for time and you’re hair is too damp, you can unravel the knots and blow dry the twists for a lil while until they are dry enough to untwist.

Check out the end results below:

This is 2nd day hair. I did my “Lazy Girl Style Protector” method i.e. tie a scarf over it and call it a night lol:

May10

Hair Style : : Slicked Sides Front Poof

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Lauren

Hair Style : : Slicked Sides Front Poof

You like the post title? lol no clue else how to describe this one haha

Here’s another quick and easy style I like to do at the end of a twist-out (before it gets too rough looking without having to retwist). You can also do this on an old wash-n-go too. It’s a great style when you want your hair out of your face or you want to show off some cute earrings :o) This is also “work-friendly” for those who may be a bit more conservative or nervous about wearing their hair out.

I sectioned my hair in 3 parts with my fingers, leaving that majority of the back out— the two sides and the front.

I clipped the front section out of the way. I spritz the sides bit to soften up the hair then I slicked up the two side sections with my trusty Eco-Styler and then bobbi pinned the two sides at the top my head using about 3-4 pins.

Once I secured the sides, I then released the front section and formed a poof, and then secured it with another bobbi pin. I then fluffed the back to create more volume.

That’s it!

The dope thing about this style is I can make it last like 3-4 days. All I do is tie a triangle shaped scarf around my head, smoothing down the edges, and put a bonnet over the back part (to protect from my pillow). All I have to do in the morning it re-fluff the back and the poof a little bit. I didn’t even have to take out the bobbi pins lol Can we say..LAZY! oh well lol it’s all about improvisation….