Reader Question: Why do you use the word Nappy?

This doesn’t happen too often, but occasionally I get comments that question my use of the word nappy. Most recently, one of my readers, Mardi, left this comment, which I decided to address here.

Q: Why is it that you call the hair on your head nappy. First you should change your lango and start maybe using the term overy curly hair. When the term over curly is used it puts a different perpestive on the type of hair that we have. People will start to view the texture of their hair differently. The hair used to be nappy when their werent a lot of hair products to moisturise the hair. Their are many, many products available for the over curly hair that any one could purchase over the counter or to their cosmetologist.

Crimped Bob… Pleasantly Surprised

All this week, I have been wearing my twists back into a french braid and tucked under. It’s ironic that forever, all I ever wanted was for my shrunken twists to sit on my shoulders. Now that they can, I don’t want my ends rubbing against my clothes like that. In addition to that, I can’t stand to have my twists down at all, not on a regular basis. And I’ve also discovered that I really don’t like my hair falling in my face. So all summer long, I’ve opted for updo styles that  keep my twists tucked into some kind of bun or wearing them up into a high ponytail.

Well, tonight, I took my braid down with the intent to redo it and darned if my twists weren’t crimped into this cute bob…that I can’t wear anywhere because of all the sweaters and turtlenecks that I’m wearing. But anyhoo, I left it down like that for a few hours at home after I took some pics. But now, I’ve put it back into one big braid with the end tucked under before I go to bed, and I’ll just have to reserve this style for a special occasion.

 

 

 

 

 

Beyond BSL.

Does it exist for me? My answer is, I’m not sure.

Well, after several cuts to get rid of layers, I’m at BSL once again. While I’m very happy about that, reaching this goal again is rather anticlimatic. Most likely because it’s my third time around, so this time I have a been there done that feeling. Kind of a let down. I know…crazy right?

So now I wonder, does beyond BSL exist for me? While I’m not sure that it does, that will no longer be my active focus. I know I’ve said that before and that seems to change everytime someone posts a picture of Sera or TallGirl’s hair. But for real, at least for the winter, I’m putting my mindset into total maintenance mode. My hair absolutely hates winter anyway so, from now to next spring, my total focus is happy healthy hair. I’ve got some breakage in the front on my right side to nurse anyhoo and last winter was pretty rough on my hair. I hate winter cause my hair doesn’t respond very well to my moisturizer and that makes for a long, long frustrating six months.

So that’s it. I can’t promise a bunch of new styles, so I’ll have to be very creative when it comes to blog topis. If there’s something topic you’d like me to touch on let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

Flat Twist/Twist Classic Bun w/a Twist

I've been tying my head up faithfully with a scarf and my hair has held up remakably well. So far it's been a week, and it's still looking good.

When you’ve gotta put your hair into some kinda protective style, but you really don’t have the energy or even a whole lot of time to spend on your hair, here’s a way to do it fairly quickly. You can cheat. This classic bun was put together with a combination of flat twists, twists and loose hair. The LOOSE hair is the key to being able to create this do without spending an inordinate amout of time on it.

Total time spent on my hair was about 2.5 hours as opposed to the five or six that it might take to two-strand twist my whole head and then style into a bun like I usually do.

The front/top/sides are flat twisted. Top also has three, three-strand twists for bangs. The back bottom third (ear to nape) is two-strand twisted. The back, upper two-thirds (ear to crown)  is loose. All the hair is pulled back and tucked into a bun. The loose hair serves as a form for the bun and gives it great volume. It’s all held in place by a jeweled clip.  

I’ve been tying my hair up faithfully every night with a long satin scarf, and it has lasted a whole week. I’m soo ecstatic about this. I took the clip out today so that I could make sure the loose hair wasn’t matting. I detangled lightly and put it all back into a bun. I’ma see if I can make it another week.

Personally, I think from a style perspective, it holds its own very well against all my dos that were fashioned from a head full of two strand twists.

Oh, and I haven’t really applied any additional moisturizer. Just to my bangs to keep my exposed ends from getting overly dried out. My hair, overall is dry to the touch, but it doesn’t feel bone dry and it doesn’t look that way either. Not sure why, especially since the weather has most definitely switched over to being cool, to cold and dry.

Dry, Naked Shrunken Nappy Hair…What Was I thinking?????

I know I said I’d never do this, let my hair dry and shrink like this, but it wasn’t intentional. Last weekend, I dyed my hair. This time it was in flat twists and for what it’s worth, I think I got more even coverage this time. However, I don’t think I’ll do that again because I cannot continue to process the entire strand without damaging my hair. So from now on, I’ll only color when it’s in two strand twists.

Anyhoo, like I said, ending up with a head full of loose, naked hair was never my intention. After I got it colored, washed and conditioned, I set out to take each of my flat twists down one-by-one, detangle and then put  my hair in some big fat twists. I’d gotten three done, when I suddenly just didn’t feel like doing my hair any more. So dummy me, with my hair still pretty darned wet, I started taking my twists down, pulling out the noticeable tangles and knots and then just moving on to the next twist.