Natural Hair Celeb: Solange Knowles

Our fave natural --whose big sis, Beyonce, is sporting a similar look right now  -- is pretty in pink and wearing thigh-length braids while on vacay in Nashawena Island, Mass.

Solange Knowles wearing long braids

What do you think of Solange's look?

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

In love with her hair -- Source

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

Love her curls -- and color -- Source

Natural Hair Celeb: Corrine Bailey Rae

One of our favorite natural hair girls, Corrine Bailey Rae, rocks a defined twist out in NYC.

Corrine Bailey Rae's Natural Hair in a twist out - Source

Marsha Ambrosius Rocks Natural Hair In An Undefined Fro

I love how Marsha Ambrosius' hair easily transforms from billowing spiral curls to this undefined fro pictured below. Ah, the versatility of natural hair. Beautiful!

Marsha Ambrosius visiting Essence Magazine - Source 

 

 

 

 

Marsha rocking flowing spiral curls at the BET Awards - Source

The Natural Hair Journey

One of the reasons why I snap so many hair pics is that I want to document my journey. Sure, pictures are great, but there are so many times when I ask myself: How did I get that style? Or, more likely, how can I recreate it?

Because, while pics document our journey, most of the time they don't tell us what we used on our hair to recreate a particular style, try as we might.

I look at this pic and think, WTH?




Circa Spring 2010. I want these curls BACK!


My hair was shorter, the pic was Sepia toned, but look at those curls, tho! They are poppin. Super duper defined, shiny curls. Not a frizz in sight.

But I just can't seem to get my hair like this again now when I do a wash and go, even with the same products.

Our hair definitely changes over time; what worked on your TWA may not work on bra-strap length  hair and vice versa. That's what inspires much of the quest for new and different products. I get it. Now I just want THAT wash and go back!

How do you deal with the varying stages of your hair?

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

Beautiful jet black natural hair

HairNista is on Instagram!

After seeing all of the lovely natural ladies on Instagram after reading Essence's top 100 Instragrammers, I decided to set up an account.

Ya'll know I love anything hair.

For me, Instagram serves two purposes:

1. A repository for all of my natural hair photos (I only publish a portion of them here, but my kids complain about all of the photos I've got on my phone. I ignore them, because,  hey, it's MY phone and largely MY pictures, but I'm running out of memory cards.

2. Extend the brand. I've got some big dreams for HairNista, and getting the blog more well-known and recognized is just part of it.

My Instagram account is HairNista313. I'll be posting pics soon; check them out.


Are you on Instagram? Who are your favorite Instagrammers?

HairTroversy: Twitter goes HAM on Baby Blue Ivy Carter

Repost of the mess tweeted on Twitter: "Let’s pray Beyoncé’s genes kick in as B.I.C. gets older. All the money and talent in the world won’t take away from having Jay-Z’s features"Source

Last week, paparazzi photos of Beyonce cradling an uncovered 7-month old Baby Blue Ivy Carter while shopping in NYC were leaked. It wasn't long before folks took to Twitter to express their disgust about how baby Blue Carter looked.

Many bloggers, including this one, focused on Bey's hair --lovely box braids in a top knot -- but folks on Twitter went HAM about Baby Blue's feature. Let me repeat -- B-A-B-Y Blue. Twitter (Read: mostly Black folks) was in an uproar over how much Blue Ivy Carter looks like her Daddy, Sean "Jay Z" Carter.

And it wasn't a compliment.

This was believed to be the first time that unauthorized photos of the Baby Blue have surfaced. Earlier, the Carters released personal photos of their newborn baby but the nasty backlash had started before Blue was out of the womb. 

Now, it's gotten even uglier.

Sigh.

This Ish Again, Really?

Let the in-fighting begin. I knew this was only a matter of time, but I kept hoping that perhaps we wouldn't clown. But, clown, we did. We didn't just clown, we showed our asses -- and showed how far we have to go when it comes to things like our hair, skin complexion, self love and the acceptance of African features in our community -- since all of these things were the topics of discussion when it came to Baby Blue.

None of this is new. While Blue was still in Bey's womb, bloggers and folks on social media debated about how she'd look: Would she look like Jay or Bey? All the while, folks wished in no uncertain terms that the baby take after Bey's Creole (Read: Anything but all Black, whatever that means) lineage.

I don't know why I expected us to do better. Maybe, just maybe, because the baby is here on earth, I thought folks might give it a rest. It's a lot harder to talk mess to a cooing, drooling baby that's no longer an inanimate object. Well, folks, we really lived "down" to expectations this time, didn't we? Just takes a photo on Twitter for us to really write how we feel deep down inside.

Why I Didn't Even Want to Post This 

I don't know what 'isms to call all of this mess; it's definitely colorism, but what do you call it when you hate African phenotypes? I hate using my blog as a forum for self hate and I hate even more to repost these images, but sometimes ish has got to be said. You can't heal unless you recognize your mistake, commit to do better, do it, and then move on.

I'm ashamed to repost what folks said about a CHILD and their ugly criticism of her parents. Folks not only blasted the child's looks and her parents, but they doctored up Photoshopped images and tweeted mess like this on Twitter:

“Beyoncé really screwed up, having a baby by Jay-Z. His nose and lips are never going to look right on a girl,” read one Twitter post about Blue Ivy. Other posts called Blue Ivy "nappy headed" and yet another said this:

"Let’s pray Beyoncé’s genes kick in as B.I.C. gets older. All the money and talent in the world won’t take away from having Jay-Z’s features."

Know Better, Do Better?

Don't like Jay Z's looks? That's fine; that's your God-given right to not like a grown ass man. We all have preferences and what we thimk is attractive. But to talk about an innocent child online?

Seriously? We've gone too far.

But you do realize that you can't talk about the looks of a child's father without hurting that child, right? That would be a cause for a fight in just about any neighborhood, city, country or nation that I know of. And I've said this before, but I'll say it again: Folks need to stop talking about children on social media.

I'm sure most of us were taught that if we don't have anything nice to say, we shouldn't say anything at all. The same rule applies here. Don't say anything at all if you don't have anything nice to say. Punks love to get on Twitter and flex, saying things they'd never say to a person a foot away.

Half of those folks who went in on Baby Blue -- yes, a 7-month old child -- would do nothing but coo and aww if they saw Jay and Bey in real life holding their daughter. They'd definitely never say any of the vile, malicious and evil things they tweeted about Jay and Bey's offspring.

Yet, from behind their iPhone or laptop, they feel emboldened to say things that we'd never say in person (hmm, or would we?) about someone else's child. Funny, I thought baby pictures were "safe" from most forms of criticism. Guess I was wrong about that.

The Problem is Us

I get it. You don't like our features and White is right. God help us -- and you.

But don't spread your brand of self hate to an innocent child who hasn't had the chance to gain any self esteem yet. I'm sure she'll need a healthy dose of it, thanks to those ignorant comments on Twitter. Hate Jay all you want, but please spare their child.

In case you didn't get the memo, Blackness isn't ugliness, as writer Akiba Solomon eloquently pointed out months back in her article for Color Lines. Hell, for all the "Black is beautiful" slogans, T-shirts, earrings and jewelry, I'm not sure we really believe any of it.

I'd hate to be Baby Blue in a few years, reading some folks' ugly online comments about my thick nose and my full lips. I'd get plastic surgery already. You know, to make my features look more Eurocentric and more like my mother's, since that's what everyone tweeted about.

What Year is This?

We are our own worst enemy. And we do a damn good job at it. This isn't 1922. This is 2012. We can have a Black man as a president but yet our opinions about ourselves are so far behind.  Self hate and self loathing are hard to get rid of, but I thought we'd advance.

All of this backlash says a lot about us -- and it ain't a good look.

There's the Internet, books, really we have no excuse. After all, I thought we were decades past the paper bag test in which Black social clubs wouldn't let folks in with complexions darker than a paper bag, the "good" hair crap, Black folks praying their babies would keep their "baby hair" and examining the folds of their ears to see how dark the child would turn out, admonishing kids to stay out of the sun because they'll be too Black and all of that nonsense.

You know, all of the stuff that screams, Black -- or anything that even closely resembles it  -- is wrong and must be avoided at all costs. For all of our talk about mainstream magazines not putting Black folks on the covers of magazines, in commericals or nedia representations of us, we seem to do an excellent job of putting our own culture down -- better than any White person ever could.

Just shows how far we really have come -- and how far we've got to go. I cringed when I read many of these comments -- comments that we'd yell for heads to roll if a person who wasn't Black dared to utter them.

Please, can we all get some home training? Leave the baby alone. And, if we don't have any home training, please take a damn seat when it comes to an opinion about a baby that isn't yours. 

What do you think about the comments about Baby Blue Ivy Carter?

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

Love her curls

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

Her curls look like mine, no?

Buying New Dominican Hair Products In Orlando

Saw Crece Polo leave in at Walgreens in Orlando for $5. Had to try it.
Oh, and got adventurous with the twist out. Forget the mineral oil police. Used a sample packet of Luster's Pink oil. Major definition until I separated the twists. Haven't used this stuff in a good 10 years.

Edited to Add: Hair felt like straw after it dried with Luster's. Boo! This is why I haven't used this in 10 years. Hair felt freakishly dry. Never again. This is also why I don't like Miss Jessie's, because I don't like the feel of my hair after using mineral oil based products. It could moisturize like all get out, but my hair feels terrible when coated with mineral oil.

Washed it out and that Crece Polo leave-in left my hair super duper moisturized.

Vacay In Orlando

Impromptu trip to Orlando. Humid and hair is swole.

Staying Cool In The Summer

Hot as hell. Put hair up in a high pony, threw on shades, earrings and Mac Ruby Woo lip for a Saturday out with the fam. Quick, classic and easy summer look.

What is Your Travel Hair Regimen?

How will you wear your hair on vacay?

It's now or never for most summer travel plans.

But along with what to pack and what to wear, we also have to consider how to wear our natural hair -- will we implement water-friendly styles, heat-friendly styles, what products to bring, etc, and will our current products work as well in new climates?

So many questions. It's enough to make you turn your entire regimen upside down, but here are a few tips:

1. Consider your activities. If  you're hanging at the beach, scuba diving and parasailing, flat ironed hair probably won't work for you. Take a good look at what you will be doing and base your vacay hairstyles around your travel plans.
2. Take only the products you need. TSA ain't no joke; you can forget about taking that liter-sized bottle of your fave conditioner because there is still a ban on large liquids. This might actually be a good thing because it forces you to pare down your products, taking only what you need in travel sized containers. Less is more -- moisturizer, leave-in and styling product. Unless you're spending the summer in Brazil, you don't need your entire arsenal of hair products.
3. Adjust your expectations. What works well at home may not be effective on sea or coast. Keep this in mind when it comes to styling and products. If you know you're going to an area with more humidity than home, that wash and go just might look like an afro if you're walking around South Beach. Not that there's ever anything wrong with an afro, but you might be setting yourself up for a disappointment if an afro isn't the particular look that you're going for. 
4. Opt for low-maintenance styles. Who wants to spend their vacay spending all their time twisting, deep conditioning and braiding their hair?  The key is low maintenance, carefree styles.  Now isn't the time to try an elaborate style or keep up complicated and time consuming hair regimens, so keep it simple. A pony tail, wash and go, or quick updo are all good styling options. Choose styles that won't take a long time, both in terms of preparation at bedtime and daytime styling. Remember, you can resume your regimens when you're back at home. Just don't forget to pack your headwrap!

Alicia Keys Cuts Her Hair Into A Chin-Length, Assymetrical Bob



Alicia Keys cuts hair into a bob style -- Source

 Beyonce isn't the only celeb sporting a new hairstyle these days; songbird Alicia Keys unveiled her new look -- an assymetrical, chin-length bob cut -- today on Instagram.

The look is definitely retro, an 80s/early 90s throwback. Alicia is definitely a hair icon. Her debut in the early 2000s wearing braids influenced that trend, as have her other styles. We'll just have to see if this catches on.

Do you like Alicia Keys' bob cut?

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

Gorgeousness!

Beyonce Wears Box Braids in a Top Knot With Baby Blue Ivy

Beyonce wearing braided top knot with Baby Blue -Source

Beyonce in box braids - Source

Beyonce rocks a new look --  box braids in a top knot, as she cradles daughter Blue Ivy Carter in NYC.

I am loving the look.

Looks like Solange -- who has sported the exact same look in the past -- is rubbing off on Beyonce.

Solange wears a similar look while DJing -- Source

This isn't the first time Beyonce has rocked braids -- she made her debut as a fresh-faced teenager in microbraids with Destiny's Child -- but it has been a while. Perhaps motherhood is changing how she styles her hair. Maybe she'll follow in Solange's footsteps and ditch the weave and wear her natural hair out? Reportedly, she's natural underneath her weaves.

Both sisters are truly unique, with their own sense of style. But you can bet any hairstyle Bey rocks will be a trendsetter.



What do you think of Beyonce's braids?   

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

Beautiful bride!

HairTroversy: White Folks Wearing Locks

I saw a White man with butt length locs at, of all places, the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta. You can't get more ironic than that.

I felt some kinda way about it, and I didn't know why. Although he gave me pause at first, eventually, I thought, so what? Sure, some of us may wear locks for religious or cultural reasons.

But that doesn't mean it's the case for everyone. Some might wear the style because it's cool without any cultural reasons at all. So why am I mad? Do we have the lock on locs (pun intended)? Are black folks the only folks who can wear locs? Maybe the white dude is on a "spiritual" journey?

This article by A. Breeze Harper in Frugivore examined some of my initial feelings about white folks who wear locs. To be sure, white folks with locks will neva, eva be "Black," I don't care how much their hair is loced. And they will always have white privilege, I don't care if their locs hang to their knees.

But there are so many potential landmines with this discussion. I also understand the sentiments of those who complain that our styles are hijacked by those want to be like us, but will always be white at the end of the day.

What about White folks who wear their hair in exaggerated, stereotypical "Black" hairstyles? Do they get the sideye, too? What about white folks who wore afros back in the day? Seemed to me that both Black folks AND White folks wore afros (at least the white folks with thicker hair, anyway).

How do you feel about white people wearing locs? When is a style just a style and when is it not?

The article is reprinted in full below.

“White folk wearin’ dreadlocks irks the shit out of me.”

by A. Breeze Harper Jul 16, 2012

15 Comments

Commentary, Lifestyle

“Does anyone else get annoyed when they see white folk sportin’ dreadlocks, tribal tattoos, and stretched out earlobes with plastic circles in them? What the hell is goin’ on? It irks the shit out of me. ”

I am overhearing a conversation as I wait for my order at a café in Oakland, CA. The woman next to me is black and about 55 years old, wearing dreadlocks that are about 2 feet long with a plethora of glass beads flossed through them. She is speaking to her friend, a woman probably in her 50s as well with a shaven head and wearing yoga pants and a blue tank top. She has mocha colored skin tone and seems to be of East Asian descent.

I know what this black woman is referring to: a group of three white 30-something-year-olds sitting at a table about 8 feet away from the two women. Two men and one woman. They all have punk style dread lock hairdos. They have shaven the sides of their heads and there are interesting black tattoos on their scalps. They have piercings through numerous parts of their faces: a bull ring, a nose ring, a stud through the bridge of a nose.

I wanted to say something to the two ladies, but wasn’t sure what to say. After all, it wasn’t my conversation and I guess I had no business saying something … but I wanted to say something to this black woman. I had heard the conversation plenty of times, amongst black people, how it irks the shit out of them that white people try to ‘go tribal’ by locking their hair.

“Drives me nuts too,” I hear her yoga-pant wearing friend say. “It reminds me of all the white people who jumped on the ‘I’m a Buddhist’ wagon in the Bay area, but don’t want to be all deep and reflective about their nauseating white elite privilege.”

Ouch. Did she just say that? And really loudly? Nauseating … ?

Are white people not allowed to practice yoga, Buddhism, get tribal bands, or wear locs since it’s not ‘white culture’ (and what is ‘white cultures’ anyway)? If that is the case, does that mean I’m not allowed to continue with my beginner Zen Buddhism practice? After all, I’m not of East Asian descent; I’m a Black woman. Should my friend Heather, a Chicana yogi who studied in India, stop teaching yoga at a community center in NYC since she is not from India? Or, does our non-white identity make us exempt from “appropriation?”

Shortly after leaving the café, I passed by a Black heterosexual couple on the street, holding hands. The woman was wearing a punkish Mohawk style and ear plugs through her lobes. Was she appropriating by wearing that hairdo?

I had a friend, “Nicole,” who is Filipina and African-American whose take was, “Well, I think what pisses me off about dreadlock-wearing white people is that they can wear our black hairstyles, listen to our black music, and be all hip but still they will always benefit from being white. They can just shave that shit off and that’s the end of the story. Yea, I used to wear dreadlocks, but I shaved it yet I still have to deal with the bullshit of what my brown skin means in a society obsessed with white European phenotypes.”

But, at the same time, I wasn’t sure if I could completely agree with “Nicole.”

When I first met her, she had the biggest afro I had ever seen. Two weeks later, she had it professionally locked and ended up interviewing for jobs in the finance industry and landed a phat gig at Morgan Stanley … but she also seemed to navigate through life rather well with her Dartmouth Tuck School of Business degree making six figures at some investment banking company while wearing her dreadlocks the first five years working there, and then finally cut it all off into a short afro.

… my close from “T” is a white Jewish woman who now practices Zen Buddhism for the past decade. She mentioned to me last year that she’s getting uncomfortable with a lot of what she is doing because she believes it is a form of appropriation for most of her white Buddhist fellowship to wear the robes, use the names, and do the practices of Zen Buddhism.

She is deeply questioning if she is appropriating, without being mindful of what it means to be able to do something that is not associated with ‘the white race,’ but not be at a ‘disadvantage’ because of her own white racial privilege trumping the non-white roots of Zen Buddhism … but I wasn’t sure if I agreed either, as her practice of Zen Buddhism over the 5 years I have known her, have made her practice a type of mindfulness towards structural racism and systemic whiteness that may not have been possible, had she not become a Zen lay nun. She seemed to understand that mindfulness should include awareness of race and white privilege. She and I have noticed the overwhelmingly whiteness of Green Gulch Zen Center and the Berkeley Zen Center that we frequent. The other month, I began reading Race and Religion in American Buddhism: White Surpremacy and Immigration Adaptation by Joseph Cheah. He quoted from bell hooks’s provocative essay Waking up to Racism, who reflects on how whiteness and racism operate even in Buddhist communities that are largely white:

Often white people share the assumption that simply following a spiritual path means that they [white Buddhists] have let go of racism: coming out of radical movements- civil rights, war resistance- in the sixties and seventies and going on to form Buddhist communities, they often see themselves as liberal and marginalized, proudly identifying with the oprreeseed. They are so attached to the image of themselves as nonracists that they refuse to see their own racism or the ways in which Buddhist communities may reflect racial hierarchies (hooks in Cheah 2011, 4)
According to hooks, many white Buddhists have failed to realize the extent to which African Americans feel marginalized and out of place within their religious communities. For some African Americans, choosing to belong to a Buddhist community “has been synonymous with choosing whiteness, with remaining silent about racism for fear of bringing in issues that are not really important” (Hooks in Cheah 5, 2011). Hooks contends that white supremacy operates as an invisible regime of normatily for white Buddhists of all political orientations. Furthermore, hooks mainstains that the ideology of white supremacy informas the individual interacations that determine the shape and direction of convert Buddhist communities (Cheah 5, 2011).

Leave it to bell to break it down like that … But still, I can’t say I totally agree. Yes, I’ve encountered plenty of annoying white Buddhists who deny that their whiteness means anything and love collecting and wearing anything that looks Zen or Buddhist … but I’ve also met a lot who, like “T,” became Buddhist to become a better human being and make sure they are not being complicit to structural racism.

What is it all about? Are us people of color collectively annoyed when we see white folk doing things that we deem “non-white” because of the reasons that Nicole and hooks mentioned? Or because of what the Asian lady at the café mentioned in terms of certain white Buddhists being clueless about white privilege?

What do you out there think? I mean, I practice so many food, herbal, healing, music, etc stuff that isn’t “black” or “African” … does that drive people who nuts if I’m using their music, foods, etc? Can I use Chinese herbalism or am I offending Chinese people? Or is it okay since my great-great grandmother is actually Chinese? Not that I’m looking for permission …

Works Cited
Cheah, Joseph. Race and Religion in American Buddhism : White Supremacy and Immigrant Adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press.

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

Love her twists

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

Look at all that hair!

The Curls Are Back

After 3 weeks of straight hair, my curls are back. Was fun but I started to miss my curls.

And since straight hair and water don't play nice, my curls came back after splashing around in Lake Lanier with the family yesterday. It appears that there's no heat damage.

I don't plan to wait as long to straighten it -- maybe September, when it's time for another trim.

Rocking the curls again at work

Goapele Reveals Straight Natural Hair

Goapele's new look

Soul singer Goapele has worn her signature cornrows for years, but last week she debuted a new style at the Essence Music Festival -- a mane of straight hair.

Don't worry, Goapele is still natural; she flat ironed her hair.

Though her fans have seen her mostly with cornrows and updos -- we likey! Goapele told Essence she hasn't worn her hair straight since high school and doesn't plan to return to her cornrows quite yet.

“I wanted to try something new,” Goapele told Essence Magazine ESSENCE Music Festival. “Every few years I want to try something new so I took a chance and I flat ironed it.”

I love how versatile our natural hair is, and Goapele does, too.

“I love natural hair and I am a natural hair advocate," she told Essence."It’s still a part of me even when I’m wearing straight styles.”

What do you think of Goapele's new style?

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

Natural beauty

This young lady needs to be on the cover of someone's magazine ASAP. Don't know who she is. Forget her natural hair, look at her face! Natural beauty. 

Natural Hair Blast From the Past: Lisa Nicole Carson

Lisa Nicole Carson

Looking at Love Jones and Lisa Nicole Carson's cascade of natural curls.  

Brought back memories. Those were the days... I'd (almost) give my left foot now for Lisa's reggie. Gorgeous curls!

Was she co-wash only, gel, what?

What did she use in her wash-and-go, though it certainly wasn't called that back then. This was so long ago, before mass-market Carol's Daughter, Miss Jessie's or any of the myriad curl concoctions now on the market. There was no word for that style, but even back then I knew it was cute.


Lisa Nicole Carson was truly a pioneer, back in the day when bone straight hair and silky straight wraps were the must-have. Back then, very few of us embraced our natural curls. For the few of us that were natural then, most of us wore our hair straightened, not a curl in sight. 

                                           Source: YouTube

I don't know where Lisa Nicole is, or how she's doing, but I hope she's doing well. Reportedly, she has suffered from mental health issues over the years.

What do you think of early natural hair pioneers?

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

Love these locs. Stunning updo and great use of color.

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

Is this a shirt on her head? *scratches head* Yup, I've done that!

Creative ways to headwrap natural hair

Jill Scott On the Stage with Natural Hair

Jill Scott wearing natural hair. Photos courtesy of BGLHOnline.com

After a few years of wearing of a relaxer, soul songstress Jill Scott is sporting natural hair again.

She performed at a concert in London with her natural hair styled in a chic TWA.

I ain't mad at Jilly from Philly, just like I wasn't mad at her for wearing a relaxer (though I'm glad she made the decision to become natural again). We all have to do what works for us and our lifestyles.

Jill Scott on the mike

Scott is known for drastically changing up her styles -- from braided extensions, shaved off hair, to even wigs for movie roles.

Scott proudly wore her natural hair at a time when it was not as nearly as popular as it is now. And so she was our natural hair "icon" -- before there was a Miss Jessie, Kinky Curly and dozens of curly hair care products lining drug store shelves, natural hair blogs, or natural hair YouTube stars.

But it's HER hair, not ours.

She told Afrobella last year that she wasn't trying to be the "spokesperson for natural hair" -- though many of her fans saw her as much. If wearing a relaxer is what she wanted to do at the time, who am I to say I don't approve? That's the one great thing about our hair. We can perm it one day, shave it off and wear it natural the next day. Our hair is that versatile.

One thing I do know: Jill is beautiful inside and out with a chic, short hairstyle or wearing her natural curls.

What do you think about Jill's natural hairstyle?

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

If you don't think her locs are gorgeous, well, something is wrong with YOU! #sidesweptlocs

GORGE locs!

Submit Your Hair Pics to Hair Pic of the Day

Bangin' natural hair

There are so many fly ass pictures of natural hair that I can't get to them all on this blog in one post. And I definitely can't wait for HairCrush Fridays to post them all. So I'll be posting images of natural hair with swag that I find online on a (mostly) daily basis as part of Natural Hair Pic of the Day.

If you'd like to be featured, send me a pic at Hairnista.blogspot@gmail.com.

Natural Hair Pic of the Day

Her twist out definition is RIDIC!

Twistout definition

Product Review: Mac Ruby Woo

After months of stalling, I finally bought MAC Ruby Woo lipstick at Macy's over the weekend. I had gone back and forth so much about whether it would like right on my skin tone -- and bought a few red lipsticks that just didn't look right.

Reds look brilliant on dark skin, but the undertone is critical. After seeing Estelle in an Essence article where she said Ruby Woo is her fave lipstick, it was decided -- Mac Ruby Woo it is! $14.50 later, I'm very pleased.

I love it, though it is VERY drying. You must use a moisturizer as a base. I was a bit self conscious because the matte lipstick is so drying, especially after a few uses. And so long lasting! Took a few pics on the road while out with the girls but will take a few more better pics and post them. Might even throw up a video.

I can easily see this as my classic retro lipstick. I just feel like going retro -- maybe a peplum skirt and a pompadour, LOL.

Who says dark girls can't wear red!

What do you think?



Wearing that MAC Ruby Woo, BABY!



HairCrush Friday

Who says natural hair isn't corporate?

Like this. Banana clip?

Very simple, classic and carefree look

Simple yet stunning

She Killin' it!

Natural Pic of the Day

Really, do I need to say anything else! Dude gets major cool points and hell, I'm married!

OK, Boo!

Three Easy Breezy Ways To Wear Summer Accessories

Summer accessories are a quick, easy way to spruce up your wardrobe. Here are a few, quick easy ways to add a splash of summer to your ensembles.


Neon bursts of color -- This summer, neon is all the rage. Add it in small doses so it won't overwhelm you -- think a thin neon belt,  a  neon clutch to pop or neon sandals.

Neon belts

Tribal chic-- Tribal prints are everywhere! Add them to you wardrobe with accessories like jewelry, or clothing.

Tribal scarf

Fedoras For the Ladies  -- The fedora is back! It's a classic menswear look that's everywhere this season and is the perfect look for fashion savvy divas. When paired with accessories like a flowy scarf and bangles, it's the quintessential look for summer.

Fedoras in the summer

July 4th Fashions for Under $100

Fashions for the 4th of July

The Fourth of July usually means a few things -- cookouts, BBQs, pool parties, fireworks and family.


Look cute while doing it with these 4th of July fashion [VIDEO] tips on Good Morning America, from Redbook Magazine. I love the fedora, tank top and red scarf look and the cute lace dress from H&M. And the best thing? They're all under $100 from stores like Gap, H&M and Old Navy.

What are you wearing for 4th of July?

SkinCrush

Saw this little girl's picture on Facebook and it's got to be the absolutely most beautiful, stunning skin I've ever seen on a child. She needs to get signed to a contract ASAP, lol!

Beautiful chocolate skin