Smooth hairline

When wearing certain hairstyles (such as buns), I desire a smooth hairline. However, I don’t always want to use a gel to achieve this so I’m looking for an alternative. I have seen/heard some naturals use Slick Stick, plain shea butter or a pomade before setting with a scarf.

If you have found a solution to smooth your hairline without gel, please share your tips/tricks!

Thanks for reading. Be blessed!

CallaLily

Rockin' Locs

I am excited to feature my young man in today’s post. My son has been wanting to wear locs for months now. This weekend marks the beginning of his journey with the assistance of. . . yours truly. I was hesitant to take on this project since I have

Curl definition: Are you gellin’

Once naturals learn to embrace the coily, kinky hair we were given, one of our first missions is to “define our curl pattern”. We want to enhance what our hair does naturally; desiring a uniform, springy, frizz-free appearance. When using product to get

Weekend hair pics

I promised that I would take a few pics this weekend when I took out my protective style so I just wanted to put them up.

Take take down process was pretty quick and easy. Following that, I pre-pooed with

Crochet Braids: The Take Down :-)

Yes, my hair is going to feel like it’s been SET FREE (insert the sounds of broken chains hitting the floor followed by harp music), lol. It’s been 5 weeks and I am taking out these crochet braids tonight! I really miss my hair and weekly washings. I’ve only been

Creating curls

I’ve got about a week left on these crochet braids so I’m considering styling options for when I take them down. I miss my hair! I’d like to experiment with various curly sets. However, there are so many ways to create them it boggles my mind!

Look at what I did!!! (see pics)

Ok, I’ve LONG past the potty training stage but I was so proud of myself on Saturday! Why you ask? Because I did crochet braids all by myself. I think they turned out nice for my first try. I watched some tutorials on Youtube (of course) and figured I would give this protective style a whirl.

I washed and deep conditioned my hair on Friday. Then I put it in big plaits and air dried overnight. In the morning I put my hair in 12 cornrows straight back and began the process. I used Freetress Water Wave in 1B (a little less then 2 bags). It took me roughly 5 hours to install. I hope to maintain this style for at least a month.

So let me know what you think. . . .

Thanks for reading. Be blessed!

CallaLily

March Mission

After last weekend’s hair ritual, I was feeling bored and lazy. Instead of going into a styling session, I decided to wear my hair back in a ponytail, baggie my ends and sport a phony pony. My last rendezvous with the baggie method was approached differently but this way is nice also. I’ve been wearing my hair like this all week and I’ve been enjoying this little “break”. Before going to bed, I remove the phony pony, baggie and take the hair band out. Then I just throw everything back in the next morning – only takes 5 minutes. I make sure my ponytail is not too tight so I don’t put unnecessary stress on my hairline.

Anyway, it got me to thinking how long I can keep this up. Since I started hair journaling in January, I am scheduled to do a progress check at the end of this month. So why not see if I can continue this until then. I’ve committing to a month long challenge of baggying (spl?) and wearing phony ponies. I’ll keep you all updated.

Thanks for reading. Be blessed!

CallaLily

You've got style!

O’ Happy Day! I couldn’t resist putting up a second post today. I wanted to share a new style discovery. I lot of ladies are seeking protective styles with the season change and I believe this would fall into that category.


At times, we all can experience panic or discouragement when we don’t have a hair do planned (or nothing you are trying is working the way you want it) before having to head out the door. That happened to me today. Prior to going to bed, I had two-strand twisted my hair (24 twists) and set it in bantu knots. This morning, I took the bantu knots down but didn’t want to separate the twists. I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do with my hair and nothing I tried look right. Light bulb moment. . . I threw a headband on and used a few bobby pins to center the curly twists to my head. Crisis over! I was pleased with the outcome and will definitely be visiting this style more through the season. Let me know what you think of it.


Thanks for reading. Be blessed!


CallaLily

Let's do the twist. . . (part III)

Twists no more! It was a disaster waiting to happen. Ok, I’m not even going to get into the detailed ordeal. Lesson learned here. . . my natural hair + yaki hair for twisted style + my plan for daily maintenance = BIG NO NO! I dare not take pics of the hot mess on my head when I spritzed my twists today, lol.

I warned you that I was no pro in the hair scene. Just know that during the week, section by section, I will be braiding the twists down to the ends in an attempt to salvage some of the hard work I did over the weekend. The style was unraveling too much for me to leave them as twists and I think this will look a bit better than what I finished with on Sunday. I’ll see if I can keep these in for longer than the 3 weeks I had originally anticipated.

Thanks for reading. Be blessed!

CallaLily

Let's do the twist. . . (part II)

As promised, I've included my process and pics from my last post. I washed and deep conditioned my hair and allowed it to air dry (80% dry). Then, I applied a moisturizer and blow dried my hair.


I used a total of 2 and 1/2 bags of Yaki synthetic hair that I cut in half. I needed a rattail comb for parting, hair clips, Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera gel and lots of patience! I started the twists off as braids instead of twists. I don't know how long it took me but I did it over the course of Saturday and finished the rest on Sunday.


I think I may keep them in for about three weeks but we shall see. During that time, I will spray my hair daily with a water-based leave in conditioner and wrap my hair up at night. I will cleanse my scalp/hair with diluted shampoo every week while I have the twists (after I put them in 4 loose cornrows). Please share your input and suggestions.


Thanks for reading. Be blessed!


CallaLily

Let's do the twist. . .

Senegalese twists! :-)

Sorry for the late Sunday post. This weekend was my first attempt at doing twists extensions on my hair. Since my hair styling patience is usually short-lived, I was not eager to tackle this project but I decided to "bite the bullet" and do it anyway. I am pleased that I stuck with it to the end (I wanted to quit several times during the process) but not as pleased with the results. It was good for my first try but I don't think I will be keeping these in that long.

I promise that I will come back at you tomorrow with my pics and process so stay tuned. . .

Thanks for reading. Be blessed!

CallaLily

Study Hall: Information overload

It is a goal of mine to learn to do extension twists. While I don’t necessarily feel that I need to purchase a DVD tutorial, I did scout out a few places online that offer them. Here’s a couple that I found. I noticed that both of these sites have a section devoted to hair articles and a link for their blog.

Braids by Breslin (lots of articles)
Kristen Lock
*UPDATED 8-03-09: I found another interesting site - LearnCornrows.com

Please note that I am not promoting any of their products or ideals. I just wanted to share with you the information that I came across so take it for what its worth to you. I hope that you can find some of this helpful.

Thanks for reading. Be blessed!

CallaLily