Natural Hair Inspiration

Today I spent the day in Great Adventure Theme Park in New Jersey. I had a blast riding each and every roller coaster my eyes could see (I'm sure I will FEEL it all in the morning). I also decided to rock my first natural hair pride tee (thanks Rachel) despite feeling like the demographic at the theme park could not relate to the message on my shirt. Surprisingly (to me) while I was there I saw a handful of other natural beauties. Immediately I felt inspired and all of the feelings of frustration I was experiencing earlier with my hair melted away as I took mental notes of their hair styles. Although I wasn’t able to take pictures of them I have found a few pics of some other inspirational Natural Nubians. Enjoy!

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Hi Blogger! It's me Nelly.

I figured I would re-introduce myself since I have been MIA on blogger for quite some time. What have I been up to? That's a hard question to answer. I have been working, taking my sewing classes, sightseeing (I have a friend staying with me from abroad), and anything else under the sun but this...

That's not me ...but you get the point.

The good news is I am back. My hair regiment is a minimal one at the moment that includes : protective styling (via a combo of twists and flat twists) a majority of the time, washing and deep conditioning (with my steamer) every two-three weeks, and moisturizing with a combination of Jane Carter products and Ayurvedic products (ie.Vatika Oil). My travel plans are coming together nicely (wish I could say the same for my travel body) and I am currently registered to play mas in Baje in the Paparazzi section:

In other news, my meet-up is coming up in two weeks and I am excited and a bit nervous at the same time. I can't wait to meet and speak to  the naturalistas who have signed up while sipping various flavors of sangria. Why the nervousness? I want everyone to not only have a great time and make new natural friends but  I want it to be an uplifting day  as well. If you have any ideas on how I can ensure this please feel free to share. Until tomorrow...ciao! : )

Blocking the UV Rays

June 21st is around the corner! You know what that means? Summer is officially here. Summer for me equals vacation, beaches, parties and coping with the unforgiving rays of the sun (-_-). Sure I can apply a ton of sun screen  to my skin but how do you protect your strands from the suns wrath? Protective styling? That keeps the ends of your hair nice and safe but what about the rest. This summer I am going to invest in a few good hats to protect  my hair on those days I decide to stroll on the beach. Last year I went all out with this number:

That's me under there! 

My hat became a popular attraction. 

I think I may tone it down a bit this summer.  No need for my own personal solar eclipse! How do you protect your hair during the summer months?

Huetiful wants to know how I feel....

Let the record state that I am a self-proclaimed product junkie in recovery. I love to try new products, read peoples product reviews, and scour Youtube for new hair trends. Needless to say I jumped on the Huetiful steamer bandwagon immediately after watching a few vloggers review the device. Once my steamer came in the mail I wasn’t totally impressed. I was expecting a miracle in a box I suppose and its performance was lackluster to me at the time. At the moment my hooded dryer is out of commission and I have no intention of replacing it. So I depend on my steamer and I must say I have warmed up to it. Today I received the email below from Heautiful complete with survey. I'm impressed. I like the fact that this company values its consumer’s opinions on its product line. Yes, some questions in the survey were geared towards helping the company expand its bottom line I'm sure, however there were questions focused strictly on views of Heutiful products. I hope other natural hair companies follow suit.

Dear Valued Huetiful Customer,

We would like to invite you to participate in a customer survey that will take less than 5 minutes to complete.

At Huetiful, our mission is to provide innovative beauty care solutions for the most frequent beauty care frustrations.But there is no way to get there without our customer’s input and feedback.

Our customers’ experience is important to us and is a vital part of what we do.We love to hear when you are achieving your hair and skin care goals with our products.Whether it’s maintaining healthy hydrated hair or reducing the amount of time it takes to style your hair, Huetiful is excited to be a part of your regimen!

We love to hear success stories from women who are satisfied with our products.We also appreciate the not so nice comments we receive from women who are unsatisfied with our products.Either way, your feedback allows us to improve our products and better serve you – now and in the future.
It’s important that we continue to develop and improve our product line to continue to evolve with your hair care needs.Your participation in this short survey is valued and much appreciated.We thank you in advance for taking the time to assist us in furthering our mission.
Click the link below to complete the research survey.At the end of the survey, you\'ll have an opportunity to sign up to receive free giveaways, home recipes and healthy hair tips from the Huetiful Team.

Thank you and Be Huetiful with Healthy Hydrated Hair! Ken Burkeen
President and Founder of Huetiful, LLC. 

MEETING UP...

I'm not sure how many of you out there have ever used meetup.com to befriend a group of like minded individuals but I will say if you haven't you should give it a try. What is meetup.com? It is a website where people can create a group based on their specific interest. Some examples of groups are young professionals in NYC, women who like to travel, and adults who like to play soccer. Once you join a group you can choose to attend any meetup events they host, whether it be trips to foreign places or comedy night at a local club. What I enjoy most about this site is that not only does it give you the opportunity to meet new people but it allows you to explore a new interest. Have you always wanted to become a real estate mogul? Join the Property Professionals of NY Group. It's that simple.
One meetup group that I have joined  is Jenelle of KinkyCoilyCurlyMe's -Natural Hair Diva's Rock Group. I love the variety of this groups events that in the past have included Chipotle lunches, movie debuts, and educational hair events. I also love  and  appreciate the fact that Jenelle and Sasha (the co-organizer) have invited group members to plan their own meetups as well. Lastly, any opportunities  given to me to meet other women who wear their hair natural and swap stories are cherished by me. As a result I am hosting a brunch/natural hair  meetup on Saturday July 9th at 11am in NYC. Interested? Join the group here and check the calendar for details. Hope to see some of you there!

Hair Style Of The Week--Weekend Edition

This past weekend was a pretty busy one for me. Slightly overwhelmed by a list of events I wanted/needed to attend and the desire to look attempt to look picture perfect I scoured YouTube for hair inspiration. Without a clear vision on exactly how I would style my hair I decided to untwist my twists and attempt an updo. After about 45 minutes of pinning, twisting, rolling, and tucking I succumbed to the fact that the updo was an #EPICFAIL. What does any Naturalista do when she's short on time? You guessed it a puff. (-_-) That's what I rocked this past weekend. In an effort to mix it up a bit I left the shorter strands of my hair (the front of my hair that I recently cut all of the heat damaged ends from)  out of the puff for a side bang. I used Curls Passion Fruit Control Paste on my edges, I love the sleek it leaves me with little effort on my part.

Confession: My hair is OVERDUE for a wash (I'm going on week 3). In an effort to keep my strands moisturized I have been moisturizing my hair with (1)a few spritzes of Jane Carter's Leave-In Conditioner (2) a quarter sized amount of  Jane Carter's Nourish and Shine and (3) a quarter sized amount of Vatika Oil. After this I place a shower cap over my head and then tie my headscarf on.  In the morning when I remove my scarf I am left with slightly damp (which helps with styling) moisturized hair.

Baje International 2011--Flashing Lights

As soon as I walked in my door last night I ran to my computer to check all my favorite websites for images of Baje Internationals 2011 Crop Over presentation, Flashing Lights. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Baje's website was already up and running. After looking at all the costumes I went to bed dreaming about Crop Over. Fast forward to today: As I was writing this post I decided to check my favorite sites again (trinidadcarnivaldiary.com and islandmix.com) and I was horrified to find out that my first choice was rumored to be SOLD OUT! To say that I am disappointed would be an understatement. Yes, there are other sections but none of them compared to my top pick. I'll keep you all posted in regards to what section I finally get into. In the meantime here are the sections that make up Baje Internationals 2011 presentation, Flashing Lights!

Paparazzi

Bliss

Fire Fly

Electric



Chaos



Flashing Lights

Photo Source: http://www.baje-intl.com/

Natural Hair in the New York Times

I have not been on twitter for a while. Honestly, it's been difficult to find a few moments at work or when I am home to read my timeline, comment, and post thoughtful  or at least somewhat interesting statements. However today I was pleasantly surprised   to find that #naturalhair had made a major accomplishment by having an article in the New York Times. Kudos, to all mentioned (Nikki Mae, Kimmay Tube and Curly Nikki ) in the article. I'm so proud to be a part of this community!  Haven't read the article yet? Click here.

What's That Smell?

This past weekend I finally got around to making an ayurvedic hair cream using a recipe I got from Mop Top Maven. It is creamy, it moisturizes and leaves my hair with a healthy glow. It's great! However, the Brahmi Oil has a not-so-pleasant smell. Actually, I have reached the point where when others get too close I back away to shield them from it. Have you ladies ever concocted something? Have you had a product that was good for your hair, but had an obnoxious smell? What did you do/use to cover up the smell?

Chic and Kinky Meet Up--The Recap

For the last 24 hours I have wondered exactly what I would write about the Chic and Kinky Natural Hair Meet-Up that I attended last night and still as I sit here right now and begin typing I am stumped! I guess the best place to start is quite simply with the facts.  But first lets back up a bit. One day last week I decided to attend the Chic and Kinky Natural's Night Out event although it has been on my calendar for months. Why the hesitation? The events date and location had been changed and the ticket cost $30. Up until now I have NEVER paid to attend a hair event but I respect everyone's hustle and understand that it cost money to deliver a fabulous event. So I bit the bullet and purchased the ticket. A few days later I had the ticket in my email inbox and I was ready to go!
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Me...omw to the meet-up.

I arrived at the Openhouse Gallery around 5pm or so and  was excited to find no line or wait to get  inside the venue. Once I gave in my ticket I received an arm band and a gift bag, after which I was on my own. I checked out the vendors in about 10 minutes. This included companies selling hair products, liquid hair vitamins, shower caps, spa services, hair tutorial dvds, and jewelry. In addition to the main section, there was another section of the venue which was exclusively for patrons who purchased VIP tickets (these tickets cost $50 and were sold out when I purchased my tickets).

The Main Space

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The Main Space

While walking around I noticed a large piece of paper where people had begun to write why they were natural and other messages on and I decided to write my own small message. Afterwards a photographer took my picture in front of the sign. As the evening went on some of the vendors had an opportunity to address the crowd including Jane Carter, hair stylist Nedjetti Harvey , and Vlogger Taren916.

The ladies of chicandkinky.com

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Youtube Vlogger --Taren916


The highlight of the evening  for me was Jane Carter. I think she is a charming, down to earth, and beautiful person. When I went to her table she not only waited patiently for me to make a decision she gave me a brief hair consultation and asked me put one of her products back because as she said,  "you don't need that". When you add to this wonderful experience that her products were on SALE (major discount) and that I took a picture with her I was in heaven.

Jane Carter and I! Yes, I'm cheesing kind of hard in this picture! LOL!

Score! I bought these for Rachel. Total $20 (The curl defining cream is a sample)!

For me! Total $20.

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I also scored these earings from Fabiola of Younikness! She made them while I waited.

In addition to this I got to hang out and exchange contact info with some beautiful like-minded natural ladies. What I love about all natural hair  meet-ups is the common thread and solidarity amongst us women who decided to go against the grain and wear our hair naturally! I love the opportunity to share hair  stories, hair recipes, and hair goals. I thank the women of Chic and Kinky for putting this event together because when I hear about meet-ups across the U.S. (especially in Atlanta) I get jealous. However, this event left something to be desired. The goody bag had about three goodies and contained mainly advertisements from the sponsors.

The contents of the goody bag....

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Close up of the actual "goodies"--Curls Gel-LeS'c, Milkshake, and Quneched Curls

I'm not sure what I paid $30 dollars for except the beautiful space and the good dj. I didn't hear much more from the ladies I met who purchased the VIP tickets either. This left me wondering what exactly is the goal of a meet-up?  Thoughts?

Chic and Kinky's Natural's Night Out

One more day Naturalista's!! Can't wait to see you all tomorrow at the Natural's Night Out!

Loving Keke!!

I just want to shout out one of my favorite vloggers on Youtube, keke52284! I love all of her protective styles and truly admire the fact that she can flat twist the back of her hair ( a feat I am still diligently working on). Here's one of her styles that I am dying to replicate.




Check her out!

Hair Style Of The Week: Puff Remix

IT'S SUMMER!!! Maybe not officially but as I type this right now my tv says it's 85 degrees outside. Did I mention it's 11:00pm? If that's not an indication of the  summer season I am not sure what is. It looks like this summer is going to be a scorcher. What does that mean for me? More time enjoying the great outdoors and less time to spend styling my hair.

Puff with two flat twists in the front

I used my Garnier Fructis Water Based Shine Wax to create these flat twists...I love this stuff!

It's all about keeping it simple this summer. Although my Moptop Maven hair challenge has just about come to a close I would like to continue to  use protective styling as a way to keep my hair healthy. A simple and protective natural hair style sometimes seems like an oxymoron to me (I definitely did not achieve both elements in today's look) but as I find both  elements in a hairstyle I will definitely share them with you all!

In the spirit of sharing: This is unrelated but I HAD to share. I was in Target today (for no particular reason at all) and stumbled across this little gem, One Shea Butter Lip Balm in Honey Cream, for $2.50. I've only owned it for a few hours but I love it. It smells delish, tastes great, glides on smoothly, and is not waxy or sticky at all, what more can you ask for?

It's official my old ( you see the picture) mini jar of Vaseline has lost it's place in my make-up bag. I wish Target had more than just the One lip balms on sale. I think I have found a new product line to add to my arsenal. ;-)