How to do Curling Rod Set (short hair) & Styling Pictorial

DIY Curling Rod Set from unwashed hair Video

Pictorial of how to style curling rod Set:

Step 1: Take curling rods out carefully

Step 2: Take time to separate each curl into about 3-5 parts depending on the size of the curl.
Step 3: Brush edges/burns with edge control or gel of your choice.

 

Step 4: Fluff and fill in holes and with separated curls.
Step 5: Use hair pins as necessary to pin hair into the direction you want curls to go.

This curling set lasted me or 5 straight days. I'm rocking a twist out now and no, I still have not washed my hair since the steam treatment and cayenne pepper treatment. My hope is to repeat the cayenne treatment this week and give myself a nice trim on the top...The hair is getting too long again. that's all for now. MuAh & CiAo!

First Snow - No curls Today!

First Snow in MD - Boy am I glad I didn't roller set my hair last night...It was raining when I left and now it's flurrying and it's supposed to snow all day. On top of that, I can't bring my umbrella in to work and I didn't have my shower cap. Judge me if you like, but my shower cap keeps the curls on point!

My Top 10 Natural Hairstyles for 2013

I wanted to my celebrate Natural Hair, so I created a collage of my top 10 Natural Hairstyles for 2013. I had so many pics to choose from, but I narrowed it down to these ten looks. It's filled with various types of textured fros created through twist outs, twist out and curling rods, bantu knots and two strand braids. I even have a braided updo and sculptured look there. Such variety! I love my natural hair. Our Natural is Beautiful Campaign ends today, but our natural will remain Beautiful yet and still.

Use the word cloud to locate blog postings that shows how to do these various styles. Also, I have a few how-to-videos on youtube. Check those out! For dry hair, look at natural hair regimen on the word cloud. Thanks for reading in 2013 and I hope you join me in 2014!!!!  Share your favorite 2013 pictures with me, I'd love to create a collage of pics collected. Shoutout to my new followers the Brezzells on IG. Much Love!

Life of a Naturalista is launching new site. New address www.lofanaturalista.blogspot.com on New Year's Day! Follow me on IG @lofanaturalista MuAh & CiAo!

Hair Essentials - Hair length Check

SIGH, now that Hurricane/Storm Sandy  aka Frankenstorm is gone, I can come out and take my hair outta rollers. If it were up to me, I'd keep my ends nice and neatly tucked away in my rollers to preserve the care of my ends.

So, update. I washed my hair, blow it out, braided it into about 6 plaits, came home, pressed it out old-school style with a hot comb on a gas stove, with my white towel....THEN I went to Hair Cuttery to get a nice trim and then got it curled with a flat iron....Came home, and pinned curled it and tucked my hair away nicely until Sabbath morning. I had to recurl a few because my pinned curls got shifted and created a couple little creases, nothing I cldn't flat iron out and rocked it. Here's a pic after I went through it with a hot comb and then the pic right after I left Hair Cuttery.

I'm awful at taking pics of myself, wish I had a pic of it with my camera right out the chair. Talk about Boun-caaaay. But anyway, if my hair is pressed well, it stays pressed for awhile if I do little to no exercising.

Speaking of which, the roots in the back and around the hairline got sweated out from doing P90x. I'm blaming it all on my bf! He put me up to it. It's his fault that I have to go and put heat on my hair again in the near future, but i'm thinking, i'm going to exercise again before I do so.

Oh and to keep the curls, I just put in a few curling rods and use a small amount of jojobal oil to add luster and shine to my tresses. :-)

Let me see if i can find an old pic for comparison....hmmm....this is an old enough pic, taken in March.

And you know what, I don't like wearing my hair bone straight. I like flips and a little curl, so Saturday, I thought the hair was bouncy and fresh. I love my pressed hair, mainly because I don't hv to put too much heat to maintain it and it can last WITHOUT causing heat damage to my hair. I'm going back to twists after I take this out and then I may press again because I have a few events to go too and I don't like wearing my natural hair out in the dry winter, especially since it's harder to protect before going to bed. Well, that is all for now. MuAh & CiAo!!!!! :-)
Anyhoo, bye for real! :-)

Hair Essentials - Love my Curly Twist Outs!

Hey Everybody! This moment is so much better than this morning. So glad to have some things sorted out in my mind. I wanted to share this pic with you from the night out with some ladies. Don't judge me for the On the Run sign in the background. I ran outta gas and had to make an earlier exit at the party. But natural girls can have fun too!

 I have another wedding this weekend and it's scorching hot, so idk about the the press I was going to do for sunday. I might just rock my curly twist out. It's really beginning to look like that. This heat. People drink water, don't pass out. I'll catch you guys up on my hair issues next week. 

Rock it out! Live on Purpose!MuAh & CiAo!

Hair Essentials - Natural Do, I Love It!

So, i absolutely looove this do. Took forever for my girls to send me the Memorial Day BBQ pics, but finally got em. Here are a couple pics of my hair. Love this do by the way. Sooo crrute. I got many compliments. It's such a carefree do, easy to do as well. I simply twisted it, sprayed it and put curling rods overnight. Then, remove curling rods and untwist hair to create this airy do. Hope you love it too.

Live on purpose, people! Muah & Ciao!

Hair Essentials- Curls Galore

So, I'm bursting with new of this event I took pics for and I was waiting until the owner put the pics up first, but I'm gonna blog about it and I'm certain the professional pics will come to pass. (stay tuned for that blog post) Anyhoo, for that photoshoot, I got a wet set done with rollers and went under the dryer.  

 Hrs later I had nice curls, but then I got home and wondered wait a minute, I'm too tired to do anything else to my hair, so I took my time and reset my hair one night after the curls became messy. I mean, I really took my time and reset my hair, but used my curling rods with a little bit of grease on the tips. I'm not heavy handed either, plus grease would not be super heavy on my hair. Without taking a hot curler to it or going under the dryer or applying any kind of heat, I just put in about 20 rollers tops. Then, when it was time for me to hit the streets of DC, I took the curlers out. And took my time separating each curl.

So, now it was time to style the curls that I patiently separated out. All I did was pull the sides back and secured it with a bobby pin on each side. sometimes I may use two pins to secure the hair for added support and pin it in making a cross with the previous hair pin that is already in its place. I liked the look. And my curls were shiny, beautiful and bouncy without having to apply additional heat. Love it!

Another beautiful curly look with curling rods! I used the orange sized ones...the ones I have used in previous postings. Hope it works well in your hair too! I washed my hair the very next day and did another do, natural this time, so I'll post pics of that tomorrow. For now MuAh and Ciao!

Hair Essentials - All About Curling Rods

Here's what you need to know about curling rods:

1. Different sizes
2. Different lengths

This makes the difference in the type of curl you are attempting to produce. Also, the way you set your hair helps as well. If you want curls against the scalp (flatter looking, bigger; use the bigger curling rod in diameter about a nickel in diameter like the roange ones in my previous post and you'll get the kind of curls seen in the video I posted, as well as the pics I've attached)

Now if you want a curl that curls away from your hair, you have to set your curls with the smaller curling rods, even the longer ones if you have more hair for a longer curl, similar to this pics attached:

Personally, I really prefer this set, but when trying to cut the time in half I do the set that I do in my video or the full head set that I showed in my how to pics. Based on the time you have, purchase the curling rods that will work for your length hair.

Keep in mind, the wider the diameter of the curling rods, the wider the spirals of the curls will be. If you ahve short hair, it would look nicer to have more spirals by using a smaller curling rod set.

When setting, a completely wet set may work for hair that is less course (in my experience) and hair that is permed/relaxed. However, for my type 4a hair and for my sister who's type 4b or 4c, I would do a damp set (Where the hair has been dried completely and then spritz before setting) Hey, this is what works for me. Also, keep in mind your drying method. If I did a wet set in my hair, I would go right under the dryer with maximum heat for a short time. Otherwise my hair would be puffy and my ends would look a HOT MESS!

So, with this knowledge, choose your curls, choose ur set and make ur curs work for you. I hope this information was helpful. :-)

Hair Essentials - Freshen Up Your Curls!

I tried my hand at making another video to show you how easy and fast you can freshen up your curls after it's lasted a few days. What's NOT easy and fast is editing this video and getting it on youtube, but anyhoo, I semi-worked it out. Some people's curls will last longer, others not so much. Unfortunately for me, my curls last a few days (mainly because I don't spend A WHOLE lot of time in preparing my hair for bed) I'm working on it though, I have plenty of lazy moments, but the key is to take care of the ends of your hair and don't slip too often. One mistake could lead to a disaster where natural hair is concerned.

Watch the following video to see how to freshen up your curls. After about 3 days of wearing my curls out in a fro-like manner, I decided to pin some up. Here's a pic.

After that, I wanted to freshen up the pin-up style while also securing my ends, so I created a video to show the quick and easy set to the styling of the curls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Vs6Q-pFgI&feature=youtube_gdata

(Don't judge me, this is my first video, hopefully, the videos will improve with time, ENJOY!)

Prep Time  - 15-20 mins.
Styling Time -10-15 mins.

Hair Essentials - Curling Rods

STYLE FOR SHORT TO MEDIUM LENGTH HAIR...if you have really long hair, add additional 30/15 mins or more to prep/styling time respectively. There are also various sizes of curling rods to use for your length of hair. (this info will be posted in another blog)

Oooooh curling rods! They can be your best friend or your worst disaster! It's all in the way you take care of your ends and roll your hair on to the curling rods. Seems simple enough to some people, but others may have some difficulty. Assuming that everyone knows how to use curling rods, I'll proceed. If you need a tutorial, I am in the process of beginning to post videos on youtube, I did a tester this morning

*clearing throat*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAV_rUc_IKg

(nothing much to see, just seeing if the format that video was taken in would post)

Anyhoo, I did a curling rod set and the results were pretty cute. Prior to starting, I spritz my hair with plain ole water and put some regular grease in it as pictured below. Click more to see step by step process.