Ladi Like: natural hair

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Ladi Look Back 2013

As 2013 comes to an end, there is no better way to prepare for the new year than to look back at how far you have come in the past year. My style has surely evolved, and I have have taken risks this year that I would have never dreamed I would try (hello crop tops!). Next year I want to continue with this fashion fearlessness, but work more on creatively shopping my closet rather than buying something new, and using accessories to transform an outfit.

Marley Twists

Last week I took a trip to the beauty supply store with the intention of doing something different with my hair. I planned to just try some new products or buy some temporary hair dye for a summer color change for the summer, but somehow I walked out with 3 packs of Marley hair with the idea of doing my own Marley Twists.

Source

#Team Twistout, #Team Braidout...or #Team Both?

It is no secret that I love a good twistout--specifically, a flat twist out. Twisting is quick and easy (for me) to do, and while it may come out looking different every time, the results are almost always great.

Twistouts

On the other hand, braidouts work better for stretching my hair to give my style length and also produce a pretty crinkly texture.

Casual Outfit & Goddess Twists

Jacket: Old Navy / Shirt: TJ Maxx / Jeans: Bisou Bisou / Boots: Steve Madden

This outfit was just something to throw on to go shopping. O~~ut of pure laziness~~ To give my hair a rest from a week of twist-outs with nightly re-twisting, I decided to style my hair in goddess braids (also known as milkmaid braids) made famous by the fabulous Tracee Ellis Ross. Then I realized I can't braid, so I settled for goddess twists. This style took all of 5 minutes, and with my big earrings and a little bit of blush, I was good to go!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Spiral Curlers Review

I ordered a package of spiral curlers from Amazon that are similar to the brand Curl Formers. For $27, I received a pack 40 curlers (about 20in long) and 1 application hook. These were about the same size as the Curl Formers Extra Long & Wide option.

After freshly washing my hair, I applied a moisturizer (homemade mix of shea butter, aloe vera gel, and grapeseed oil), a litle bit of grapeseed oil, and a bit of EcoStyler olive oil gel to my hair. I applied the curlers in a little over an hour (actually 1hr and 5min--I timed myself lol) and ended up using 39 of the curlers. I watched a youtube video to see how to apply these curlers, but honestly it was really quick and easy. The only trouble I had was that sometimes the application hook would latch on to the top band of the curlers as I began to pull my hair through, however as long as I held the top band slightly open as I started pulling the hook through the curler, the hook would slide through with ease.

When I finished setting my hair, I got a little anxious to see how it would turn out so I pulled out the first curler I had applied and was surprised to see that after only an hour (and with no heat applied), a nice ringlet had already formed!

Seeing that I didn't really need alot of heat to get a good curl, I only sat under the dryer for about 15min just to make sure my roots were dry to minimize frizz, as I was planning to sleep with the curlers in my hair. I do NOT recommend sleeping in these if you can avoid it, b/c it was so uncomfortable and I really had a hard time figuring out how to hold my head so I could actually fall asleep, and everytime I turned over I had to go through the process all over again.

Despite my restless night, the results the next morning were well worth it--Perfect spiral ringlets! I was concerned about the possibility of breakage from pulling my hair through the curlers and pulling the curlers off my hair to remove them, but I did not see any pieces of hair caught in the curlers and felt no hair pulling from my roots as I removed the curlers. Also, my hair in the front did not look completely smooth on a few of the curlers while they were in my hair, but after removing them all the curls looked sleek so you don't really need to worry about about everything being perfect while setting, as long as all of your hair is in the roller and is given enough time to dry.