Big Chop #2

So I did it!! I did my second big chop on Monday (March 19th). I absolutely love it. I decided upon faded sides and back with a little more volume up top. My next plan is to get it colored. I plan to head to RevolutionEgo and have the talented Jessica add a warm red all over.

Here are a couple pics, I will taking more soon and will post :-)







I've always had a 3c/4a curl pattern but I swear with this second chop it's all 3c. My faded parts even want to curl up lol so it's gonna take a while to train it to lay down.

My morning routine is so much quicker now. I simply cowash, apply leave-in, apply Eco Styler gel (Argon oil), and apply some EVOO to seal and keep the hair soft.

I LOVE it!!

Thank you all for your input on which cut to get :-)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

BGBH Presents: BC Poll

Ladies, ladies, ladies (and any male followers ;-] )!!! How have ya'll been? I keep trying to be more consistent with my blogging but that isn't going so well lol

Let's get right to it..

May will be 3 years I've been natural! Where has the time gone? In the 3 years since my crossing over to the natural hair life, I've tried almost every style imaginable; twa, twists, twistouts, kinky twists, cornrows, sew-in, color, blowouts, afros,..everything!!! So what am I gonna do to kick off year 3?



BIG CHOP AGAIN!!!!!

Yep, another BC :-) I'm so excited about it but I need your help! There are three similar yet different styles I'm interested in and I want your help. Tell me which style you like best and I just may choose it VERY soon :-)

The choices are:

1. Short and even all the way around

2. Faded on the sides with short curls up top

3. The Kelis (as I call it lol) with it even almost all the way around but with more curl volume up top

Tell me, which do you prefer?

Protective Style Challenge: Update Pt. 2

So last week I showed my progress in the challenge as we enter into the second month of the challenge, right? Well now I'm showing how three of the other ladies are doing. Landa, Kelli, and Dap :-)

This goes to show that everyone does protective styling different and I love the variety these ladies have shown. It's encouraged me to change it up pretty soon :-)

First up: My big sis Kelli. She recently did a 2nd big chop (which I'm uber jealous of btw lol)and her hair has grown so fast in the following months since. She has been doing two strand twists on her shorter do and they are so plump and healthy <3

Kelli was unsure about the challenge at first but she's stated to me that she's seen growth already since starting the challenge and that it's making a believer out of her.

Next up: Landa! Landa was already in the midst of a protective style challenge which would have ended this month but when she saw my challenge, she decided to continue on. She was also in the midst of moving from one state to another so not having to worry about her hair was even more of an incentive to join the BGBH PSChallenge. She's gone between a sew-in and wigs and she rocks them beautifully!


















Roundin' up the crew is Dap!! Dap has been very versatile with this challenge; she started off with kinky twists, then to a hair piece, and now she's got a full sew-in. I'm seriously tempted to steal her hairpiece because it's so natural looking :-)

As I've said on my previous update, it's not too late to join the challenge, we'll be going on thru January 1st and possibly longer. We've had two more ladies join the challenge this week already! Join us on twitter under the hashtag #PSChallenge and feel free to mention me @bigGirlbigHair. Read the original post from September to see the rules, which basically states you can wear your hair out two times a week but the rest of the week it needs to be protected, especially the ends.

Also please check out fellow participant's VetNatural's blog and see her progress throughout the challenge. She is awesome: vetsnaturalhairblog.blogspot.com

LASTLY: My hair twin J has asked that I post length pics of my hair hair before and I was going to but I've decided to wait until the end of the challenge so you can really see the growth. Sorry J! Love you still though lol

Protective Style Challenge: Update!!

Alright ladies, we are close to the 1mth mark of the BGBH 3mth PSChallenge! It has been great seeing the support for one another. I really encourage you to participate thru twitter via the #PSChallenge hashtag. One of the participants had a rough day and it was so great to hear how one of the other ladies helped her get thru it. When you are so use to manipulating your hair, it can really be nerve racking and almost uncomfortable not being able to see it and really play with it like you're use to. However that's the purpose of this challenge; by lessening your manipulation and hand-in-hair contact, it enables your hair to stay clean and not break off as much. Plus with the winter temps quickly approaching, you're going to want to keep your ends covered.

As I'm typing this, I'm sitting under a bonnet dryer on low heat to dry my freshly washed kinky twists. I've had them in right at a month as of today and I have really loved it. I've been making sure to do styles that aren't pulling the twists, especially at the edges and always making sure they aren't getting knotted up or loc'ing at the roots. My hair is very curly and coily and easily locs up, especially all around the edges of my hair so I've been doing mostly styles where my hair is pinned up and back, instead of in tight pony tails. I wore a ponytail for the first time this week and used the leg of a pantyhose so it's not as damaging to the hair while rubbing against it.

Here are pictures of a ponytail with a pompadour, side pin-up, and pin-up bun:




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They are are in really great shape, I've been making sure anytime I'm in the house, they are covered with my satin bonnet. The only products I use are water to mist them and then some olive oil mousse to enhance their natural curl. For my edges, I use a little aloe vera gel as it is non-drying (for ME). My plan is to keep them in until I get back from the Bahamas in December from my birthday weekend getaway. If they are still looking good, then I'm gonna try to keep them in until the challenge is over January 1st, otherwise I'll take them out and get my hair twisted or braided up with the ends tucked away :-)

By this time next week I will have an update with pics of the other participants and their protective styles!

PS It's not too late to join! Just drop a comment or hit me up on twitter @bigGirlbigHair and use #PSChallenge to interact with everyone :-)

Protective Style Challenge!!

It's been A WHILE since I've blogged or made hair accessories. I won't go into details but I'm feeling much better and ready to get back to spreading the natural hair love. The last few months I've had a few of my close friends tell me I've inspired them to go natural and they miss reading my blog. I know how hard the transition and journey can be so here I am, I'm back!

I've decided to do a protective style challenge. Here are the details:

Who: Anyone natural :-)

When: Officially starts Oct 1, 2011 - Jan 1, 2011

What: Protective styles (twists, wig, sew-in, braids) either your own hair or added synthetic hair. You are allowed two days out the week to wear the hair loose.

AND

I would encourage to do a length check both at the beginning of the challenge and at the end.

Extra: There will be two prizes given out. One will be the most creative style(s) during the challenge and one prize for the most retention so I would highly recommend you to document your progress via pictures :-)

Prizes are sponsored by the beautifully talented Daphne of IMadeYouLookSC and I am the other sponsor. My store, Arym's Creations is currently empty, as I'm working on new accessories. We both do custom orders and here are some pictures of our work:

Aryms Creations

















IMadeYouLookSC














If you're interested in joining me in this challenge please either leave your email address in the comment section or (if you prefer) send me a direct email to bigGirlbigHair@gmail.com with Protective Style Challenge in the subject line and I will send out an email once the challenge officially starts! I hope I'm not alone in this :-)

Midlands Natural Hair Meetup

Daphne (@ThatgirlDapSC) and I decided about a month ago to host a natural hair meetup for the ladies of Columbia, SC. We went into this having no idea what kind of response we may get but we were wholly committed to it nonetheless. I began reaching out to companies for sponsorships. Thanks to twitter I have a really good relationship with some amazingly talented ladies who are creators/ceo's of their product lines who gladly agreed to sponsor our event.

WeRockRoots, Wonder Curl, Created by Nature, Mei Fashion and GloryRest. Additionally, Daphne and I donated pieces from our accessory lines; IMadeYouLookSC and Arym's Creations < Currently under maintenance!

We had about 19 ladies RSVP via facebook that they would attend and amazingly, 16 showed up! It was a great time of just talking natural hair, eating some great food (Thank you Red Bowl Asian Bistro! Shoutout to our awesome waiter Sam!!), and having a Q&A with my natural hair stylist, Nora

Onto the contest!
We came up with various giveaways for the ladies to win prizes from our sponsors:

Deshanda won our Wonder Curl prize of the Get Set Hair Jelly and Butter Than Love Whipped because she's been natural the longest. An amazing 10 years!:


Chelsea was our youngest member and won our Wonder Curl sample pack which consisted of Get Slick Hair Smoothie and Get Set Hair Jelly. She transitioned the longest. 8 months (sorry for the fuzziness):


Our MEI Fashion sponsored giveaway was a beautiful handcrafted bag. The question to answer was "What is the natural way to both color and condition the hair?" The answer was henna. Kionna was our winner:


The following winners shared with group what the following acronyms meant (in order their pictures are listed); PJ, PS, Pre-Poo, EVOO. These ladies won accessories from IMYLSC and Arym's Creations:

Crystal knew that PJ= Product Junkie



Chelsea (she KNEW! her natural hair trivia lol) knew that PS= Protective Styling



Kisha knew that Pre-Poo = Using an oil as a pre-treatment before shampooing the hair



Kryshinda knew that EVOO= Extra Virgin Olive Oil


We then did a "What's In Your Purse?" game. The ladies who had bobby pins and headband won prizes also from IMYLSC & Arym's Creations:

Johnessa had bobby pins on hers, Owww!:



Chelsea (once again, this girl KNOWS natural hair!) had headbands with her:


Mixed Chicks was gracious enough to send two 1 liter bottles of their deep conditioner. We gave one away by randomly selecting business cards from a pile.

Kisha was our business card winner:


For the second liter, a participant had to tell us one ingredient to avoid, one styling tool to avoid, and one treatment to avoid.

Kionna correctly named to stay away from mineral oil, hard bristle brushes, and Brazilian keratin treatments (sorry for the fuzziness):


Huge THANK YOU!! To all our sponsors. Every attendee was able to walk away with a great goodie bag full of products to further their natural hair journey:


Special thank you to our jr. host, CiCi! She took great pictures!

BGBH Feature: Daphne

I met Daphne on twitter early 2011. She is super sweet and supportive. It turns out that a position I applied for was at the same company so now we're coworkers. When I launched my online accessory store, she was one of my first customers and spreads the word for me about my store and continues to do so at our job. When she FINALLY (lol) launched her store, I wanted to do something to show that same support so I've decided to do a feature of her and her store on my blog :-D

How long have you been natural? Since Late 2009



What prompted you to go natural? I had decided to to go natural 3x over the last 3 yrs prior but really wasn't interested until I couldn't relax all of my hair due to scalp issues & I participated in a 2009 breast cancer walk & saw that most of these survivors had no choice but they are walking with pride with their afros!

What's your favorite/go-to style? Comb twist; love them, quick length check also I like to look at 1st pic of them & compare them to the current ones



What are your staple products? Unrefined SHEA BUTTER and Tea Tree & Herbal Essence Totally Twisted

Piece of advice for those transitioning to natural hair? My transition was quick I had a spikey hair cut so didn't take me long. Whether it's weaves or wigs, maintain your hair as if it was out, edges and all! Stick with a regimen! If you compromise your hair because it's hidden you will have a long road trying to recover!

Your accessories, you make these yourself? Yes! I, well correction, I scroll the aisles of different stores and if the items speak to me with inspiration & I can see someone wearing it I buy it and glue it to different hair attachments!

What inspires your pieces? Elegance, exotic images, a persons character!

Do you design custom pieces? Yes, I just finished some clips for an 8yr old princess and now I'm working on a wedding head piece due in August.

Where can people purchase items from you? www.etsy.com/shop/imadeyoulooksc



Piece of advice for those who are interested in the art of designing accessories? Have a plan, research sites to sell/buy from, make sure you are making a profit, wear your pieces, test them a full day know what do's & don't's that apply to wearing them. Critique yourself and let others do the same. Try to find pieces that no one else can wear but your buyer. Lastly, have fun! No such thing as bad art, all art is creative!

Where can your pieces be bought? www.etsy.com/shop/imadeyoulooksc