Showing posts with label Curly Nikki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Curly Nikki. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Curly Nikki Debuts Better Than Good Hair

By Tenisha Mercer
HairNista.blogspot.com

Time to cop that new book by Curly Nikki, aka Psychlogist Nikki Walton

                                                                   
Curly Nikki's new book, "Better than Good Hair," hit bookshelves on Tuesday.

Let's show Nikki some love and buy the book like it's a holy grail new hair product, LOL. It is the holy grail of natural hair, only it's in a book. This is big, ya'll. For years, Curly Nikki has given us hair advice -- for free.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Study: Natural Hair Among Black Women Growing

Source


I love it when mainstream press shows naturals love.

Yeah, yeah, I know blogs from my fellow curlies like CurlyNikki.com, BGLHOnline.com and others make it seem like natural hair is the "norm," but sadly, it's not. We're an insulated, online community that, while overwhelmingly nurturing and supportive, can still feel like you are waging a solo war depending upon the natural community where you live.

So, imagine my surprise when I read an article on USAToday.com about "natural hair making waves among Black women." It quoted Design Essentials and a TV reporter who went natural, and a side article featured CurlyNikki.com (a.k.a. Walton).

Earlier, we asked if natural hair had gone mainstream. This article seems proof that it is, and it's more than just anecdotal.

Here was the gold nugget:

"The number of black women who say they do not use products to chemically relax or straighten their hair jumped to 36% in 2011, up from 26% in 2010, according to a report by Mintel, a consumer spending and market research firm. Sales of relaxer kits dropped by 17% between 2006 and 2011, according to Mintel."

Monday, October 31, 2011

The Hair Goes On ...

After a few weeks of wearing the La Jay wig, I'm back to wearing, *drum roll, please* my own hair.

No particular reason, just wanted a change. That, and I missed the feel of my own hair. The reactions to my wig have been great. Got lots of, "I like your hair," "awesome hair," and "love your hair like that," but it still took some getting used to.

My hair was so "big" that a lot of times, it would get stuck in branches and other stuff because since it wasn't my hair, I don't think I really knew how big it was. Was almost like it was another object slapped on top of my head. One day last week on a crowded elevator a white dude said, "Wow, that is some hair!" Wasn't sure what the hell he meant by that, but I took it as a compliment and said, "Yes, it is, thank you! and kept it moving.

Meh.

Went clubbin' with the hubs to celebrate our 16th anniversary and he told me the next morning that I kept hitting him all night with my hair, LOL! Girls were laughing at us, but I was having a good time and didn't notice, nor did I care.

Today, I did a new wash-and-go technique and I'm proud to say I achieved 2nd day hair for, like, the first time EVA!

Here's what I did:

  1. Co-washed with Herbal Essence Hydration
  2. Sealed wet hair with Dax (yes, I said, Dax, HairNistas!)
  3. Applied Eco Styler with Argan oil
  4. At night, I put my hair in five or six stretchable hair bands and twisted with no product.
  5. Fluffed the next morning
This is big for me, because I've never, ever had 2nd day wash and gos. The Dax made my hair super soft and moisturized, an idea I got after reading it on CurlyNikki.com. I've used Vaseline to seal before, but I'm heavy handed at times and my hair can look dull if I'm not careful and apply too much.

Overall, I like it. Seems like the Dax stretched my hair a bit and I got less shrinkage. This morning. doing my hair was easy. I put a little gel on my bang, since I like it curly, fluffed, and I was done in less than 5 minutes.



I've never used Dax on my hair, so I was a bit skeptical. As a kid, my grandmother always used Ultra Sheen and Bergamont grease. My favorite conditioner is Silicon Mix -- which is chock full of mineral oil. And it does wonders on my hair. I figure my hair will tell me if grease is bad -- despite the doomsday warnings about crispy, dry, crunch hair from those in the anti-grease movement.

The real test will be using it on my daughters' hair, because it's only been a few years since I completely stopped using grease on their hair, in favor of moisturizers. You know, I'm all all about doing me and doing what works for me.

So far, so good. Think I'll see how many days I can wear it like this.

Oh, and about the wig. I'll probably still wear it _- heck, I may put it on tomorrow if it's a bad hair day -- but I'll probably only wear it for a week or so at a time. I'm due for a trim, so I'll probably get it professionally straightened in the next week or so.

Am I the only one who's scared to let a stylist go near my hair? I don't have a regular stylist, and to be quite honest with you, the only person who I trust 100% with my strands is the woman who did my hair for 15 years, since I was 12, back at home in Detroit. Unfortunately, I lost touch with her and don't know if she's even still in the business.

If you're out there, Dorothy, I miss you. She labored with me through all my hair iterations -- relaxed, natural, damaged from relaxers, cried with me when I lost a good 4-5 inches of hair when I didn't detangle it and wore it in a gelled ponytail for months when my kids were babies, refused to cut all of my hair off when I wanted to wear it short, asked me what the hell I was doing when I tried to get the curly look by wearing Creme of Nature shampoo (don't ask, but I didn't know about co-washing in the early 1990s, LOL)... You get the idea.

You were a "natural" stylist before natural stylists were in.