In The Meantime

I made it safely to and from Blissdom 2012 in Nashville, TN and my head is spinning with all the new information and products that I received. It will take me a bit to get it all organized. In the meantime, all of my pictures and a few videos have been uploaded to Flickr. There are no captions and descriptions yet, but I will be working on that as well. Please be patient with me, there was a lot going on!



I’m looking forward to Blissdom 2013!

The Wedding Hair Options

There aren’t too many things that really make me nervous about the upcoming wedding (outside of having too many people on the invite list) like my hair. I have been natural about a year and a half now but with every inch of growth there are old styles that no longer work for me and new styles that become possible. I don’t know what my hair will look like when the time comes so I am looking to my favorite YouTube naturals for inspiration.

Because my hair state and length is an unknown and the I don’t want to risk what that weather that day will do to me, I will be going for a really nice pin-up. Naptural85 has several really elegant up-dos that are appealing to me. I have tried her Casual & Classic Natural Hair Style, but I am looking to try her Simple and Charming Updo and the High Society Bun (both linked below).







The Simple and Charming Updo is winning out as my favorite but I really do love that High Society Bun. So, I will be trying variations of these styles over the next few months to figure out which will work best for me. And of course, I will be watching to see what else she comes up with during that time.

One thing I would need to do though is try out some curled styles to see what will work best for me. I have not tried any curl styles since I have been natural. I have some flexi-rods but I will need to pick up some curlformers. I’ve seen very mixed reviews on YouTube so I’ve been hesitant to try them. But now I have to.

When I first started looking around, this style from tishauntee was my favorite. MsVaughnTV who inspired this style has shorter hair and used braiding hair to finish out this style.




I still love this style but it doesn’t fit with how I want to wear my veil but I’m looking forward to trying it when my hair is longer. This is a perfect style for natural brides choosing not to wear a veil.

Hair of the Week

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I finally, finally got around to doing a Henna treatment on my hair. I don’t think I’ve ever talked about the formula and process that I use for henna so I wanted to take a minute and share that and give any tips I could think of. As usual, I started the process by looking to some of my favorite YouTubers to see what they do. I found a video from Spinta24 and I decided to try her mix. I haven’t looked back since. I use the Godrej Nupur Henna, avocado oil, rosewater and tea. Where I differ from her is that I mix my ingredients while the tea is hot. I think the liquid being hot helps you get a less lumpy mixture to start.




If you are looking for the color benefits of henna, you really do need to let this sit for at least 3 hours for the color to be fully released. Most times, I mix the night before and let it sit covered with plastic on the kitchen counter. I do stir it every few hours to help get more of the lumps out. So by the time I am ready to apply, the mixture is nice and smooth. I keep my henna mixture on the thick side so it is easier and less messy to apply. And application is very important to keep you from making a big mess. I promise you this can be done without getting henna all over your bathroom. I did last week’s treatment in my living room standing in front of the mirror while I watched tv. I did keep a towel on the floor where I stood to catch any drips but there is no need to have splatters all over your wall when all is said and done. YouTuber TheTruthIsHair has the best application technique that I have seen and I use it each time.




Start in the middle of your head and keep going around. It really is easy. I use a plastic grocery bag (or two) to cover my head when I’m done and I let it sit for as long as I can. I aim for about 3 to 4 hours. I wash out in the shower and condition wash to make sure all is out. You will still get some color transfer for a day or two so make sure you cover your pillow with a towel. I don’t tie my hair down at night so this is especially important for me. It is very important to deep condition or use a very good leave-in conditioner after this treatment. I made the mistake of not doing a deep condition after this past week’s treatment and my hair was not happy at all. After I realized my mistake, I coated my hair with shea butter and used a heat cap for a modified conditioning treatment. This helped some but not enough. After 3 days, I gave up and did a deep conditioning treatment. My hair is much, much better and gave me a very perfect chunky braid-out.

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I should have gotten a close up of the gray hairs that line the front of my head but they now have a copper tone to them that looks much better than the harsh contrast that I get with the gray. Until I am brave enough to have my natural hair professionally colored, I will continue to henna my hair. There are other benefits to henna that other naturals swear by, but for me it’s all about the color. Outside of that, there is no benefit for going through such a long process.

But I do love the results.