Do You Til It’s Over!

Ok you guys I know I been gone for a min, but I’m back. Today I want to talk about doing you until it’s over. If you are growing out your naturally kinky or curly hair from a brush cut or you just did the big chop, it is a road I know oh too well. There is an exit sign at just about every other mile marker. I’m here to tell you today not to take any other exit except the one that reads, ”Naturally Free Your Way”. Merge onto Product Junkie Free Boulevard and make a right onto LuvMyCurlyKinks Way. Next Proceed two blocks down to Embrace Me Avenue and make a quick left onto Embellish My Coils Drive. Finally make a right into the last driveway on left with the house that will amazingly look like you. The driveway is wide enough for you, it’s the color of you inside and out, and it is big enough for you, yet small enough to feel the love when you are having a bad hair day (Yes you will always have those). Go ahead open the front door and step inside because you have arrived. You are tired from the journey that seemed like it would never end, but you are there and you suddenly feel a new surge of energy. You are more beautiful than ever before, your new strength radiates through every coil and illuminates every luscious kink and curl. On this long journey you have grown into a courageous woman of statue with a new found infinite love of self. As you close the door behind you, there is a peace that you will feel every time you pull in your new driveway and as you will smile to yourself you remember why your new house has no number. It has no number because it a mirror image of the infinite possibilities of you when you remember to live, to love, and to be free naturally.

My Curls Bad, My Curls Good…

My curls bad, my curls good, my curls do stuff that you wish yours would. Now for real yall, I wish I felt like this, but I don’t. Instead most days my curls drive me crazy, they do everything but what I want them to do, leaving me with a head full of soft tightly coiled confusion. This is the second time I am growing my hair out from a brush cut and this stage of the transition is driving me crazy. The first time I grew my hair out I wore a lot of micros and curly weaves that mimicked my natural curl pattern, but this time I refuse to do it that way. I want to learn my naturally kinky curly hair as it grows out this time and observe every transitioning stage of curly coils. So I am going to take this one brief moment to whine and be a baby, but in the next I will pick my lips up after this pout session and be bold. I will embrace me and my crazy hair, while I continue to say something positive to myself everyday and love me. Today I just wanted all of you to know that although I am a stylist, I struggle with my hair and have the same crazy hair days that all naturally kinky curly hair girls have. So for now I am on to the next, the next curled up, twisted out and coiled kink, in this bantu knot of life, but remember, to live, to love and to be free naturally.

Be BOLD...

You know sometimes in life it is important to make waves when the ocean is still and quiet and to travel down roads that have never even been paved yet, simply because it is your time and moment to do so. You are specially chosen. I often talk to so many of my clients that are still nervous to unveil their naturally kinky, curly or wavy hair at the workplace, because they are afraid of being TOO MUCH (or what I would like to call overwhelming the haters). Well today I say to you, BE BOLD! Make your mark and take your place. Walk through that door that’s already been open for you and take a seat in the corner office. Celebrate while you embark on a new you, that you didn’t even know existed. Elegantly decorate your workplace with your poise and beauty. Your coworkers will embrace your confidence and respect your authenticity. Don’t get me wrong, I understand your concerns, but there is no resolve in the safety of conforming to what other people think you should be or look like. So BOLDLY embellish your naturally kinky, curly, or wavy hair everyday, because your beauty is beyond your kinks and curls. Remember that risks must be taken in order for progress to occur, but most importantly to live, to love and to be free naturally.

Teach Them How To Love...

Today I want to talk about my babies, my little people as I like to call them. My little people are special to me because their moms and some dads entrust their naturally kinky, curly or wavy hair to me as young as two years old. They want the best for their girls and they know that I do too. It is very important at a very young age, to instill in our girls that they are beautiful from the inside out and they are not their hair. We need to feed them positivity and high self-esteem by heaping spoonfuls, because they are going to get plenty of opportunities to taste test samples of negativity as they grow up, from the playground to the college campus. We need to love on them relentlessly without measure and teach them to love their naturally kinky, curly, or wavy hair, and that they are extraordinarily unique.


We must begin by taking the word NAPPY and the phrase GOOD HAIR out of our vocabulary, and replace them with TANGLED and just HAIR. I hear so many of my moms tell my little people this, simply because they were also told this. They were told they didn’t have good hair and that their kinks were naps and that their curls were knots. Today, however, I’m telling you differently and empowering you with the tools you need to revolutionize history for your girls. You are beautiful and wonderfully made, crafted in the image of perfection and so are your girls. I challenge you to teach your girls to love their naturally kinky, curly or wavy hair, to free them from the hair that still binds you, and to say something positive to your babies about their naturally kinky, curly or wavy hair every day. Remember that knowledge is the power that stimulates the root of miraculous change, but most importantly, to live, to love and to be free naturally.

ROCK ACCESSORIES!

I was talking to some of my clients this weekend and the topic was accessories for naturally kinky, curly, or wavy hair. What to add to that doo and what to wear for your hair? Well first let me say this, your naturally kinky, curly, or wavy hair is you, a beautiful extension of your authenticity (remember). Accessorize your hair based on how you want to feel and don’t let the rain or a bad hair day steal your swagger. Notice I said how you WANT to feel, because hair can change the game in the last two seconds and may even send your day into overtime! If your style this week is two-strand twists, try pinning them up or twisting them back. Rock a bright colored headband or scarf, and add some earrings that you might not typically wear (like hoops instead of studs). If you are wearing a twist out, a rod set, or a bantu knot set this week, add some combs (Walmart or Walgreens by Goody) or some pretty hair pins (Forever21 or Claire’s ) on the sides. This will give you the illusion of a mohawk and it will still be something you can easily change the next day.

Now find a hat you love, especially with all the different colors they come in this season. You can’t go wrong with a hat, just pick one that compliments your outfit and that makes you feel cute. Just don’t grab a hat that looks like you planned to take it off (yall know what I mean and I hate to see this) because everyone that sees you that day, will wish you had. Great hat finds are fedoras, newsboy caps (my favorite), crochet beanies and berets (Forever21). You can wear any of these looks with a wide range of styles and lengths of naturally kinky, curly, or wavy hair. Finally, my favorite accessory to ROCK with my natural hair is a funky necklace. Yes I said NECKLACE! Wearing a funky necklace or dramatic earrings takes the attention off your hair if you are having a bad hair day, and places it on that accessory. So in turn you are granted a pass and can take another pick at that fro’ the next day. Remember to choose accessories make you wink that extra wink at yourself in the mirror, the one that we do when we KNOW WE ARE CUTE, but most importantly, to live, to love and be free naturally.

OOOH MIK YOU DA BESTEST!

Today I want to take just a minute to talk about the client-stylist relationship and the impact that it has on the success of your naturally kinky, curly or wavy hair. In one of my previous blogs, “Do You Really Have Money To Blow? ”, I talked about the importance of consulting your stylist about your hair goals and what products to use on your naturally kinky, curly or wavy hair. Although the latter is extremely important, it is also important that you feel good about your naturally kinky, curly, or wavy hair on your way to the salon, while you are in the chair and when you leave. Your stylist should ultimately know you well enough to know your swagger, what is acceptable at your workplace, and what you may be doing that weekend in case they need to fine tune your cuteness. If your stylist loves what they do as I do, this relationship will be established, nurtured and maintained at the highest level, leaving you feeling like they have been doing your hair for a lifetime.

Now as for me and my clients, I love em’. Every last one of them is special to me, whether it is the first time I am doing your hair or whether we go all the way back to the house. Whether I transitioned you from relaxed to natural and back again (you know who you are) or we’ve loved and nurtured every kinky or curly strand together from sandy brown comb-coils to a funky 33 Finger Chunk (est.1976) highlighted honey glazed-copper mohawk with flexi rods. I just LOVE IT! (Sorry, just got good to me for a minute) When my clients leave my chair, I want each one of them to feel like, OOOH MIK YOU DA BESTEST and that I just made your hair rock! I may not be the best stylist for everyone everywhere, but I am for my clients and I always strive to give them my best me. They love me and I love them (my relaxer babies the same). Remember to always use your gifts because they were chosen just for you, but most importantly, to live, to love and to be free naturally.

Sweat It Out!

Now I know we all have set those New Year’s resolution goals of getting in to that bathing suit this summer, that killer dress for your class reunion or that pair of go get em’ jeans that we wish had a little more stretch, but you just can’t seem to get your workout on like you really need to. You’re constantly worried about your hair looking tore at the gym or at work the next day. Well I want to help you guys reach those goals without worrying so much about that naturally kinky or curly hair you’ve got. If you are completely natural, go with curly or wavy styles that blend right in with your naturally kinky or curly wave pattern, so as your hair begins to shrink when you sweat, you will still be cute. These styles consist of two-strand twists, three-strand twists, finger coils and rod sets. This would not be the time for you to decide to do something extra brilliant, like, get your naturally kinky or curly hair flat ironed for the first time in 2 years. If you are at the beginning stages of the relaxed to natural transition or just not quite ready for the big chop, try styles that camouflage your new growth. For example, twist sets and rods sets. While these styles often required more drying time, they require less day to day maintenance. All you will need is a satin bonnet at night (yes you will look the Big Bad Wolf in the Little Red Riding Hood, but you will thank me later) and a good daily moisturizer. I suggest Miss Jessies Curly/Baby Buttercreme or 33 Fingers Silk. Finally, drink lots of water while you SWEAT IT OUT and take a hair, skin and nail vitamin, such as, Biotin (you can purchase at any drugstore) or Perfectil (www.perfectil.com). Remember to love your whole self, even while you work out those kinks and curves, but most importantly to live, to love, and to be free naturally.