The Great Graduation Hair Debate

Hey loves I know its been a while...but I have been doing lots and lots of thinking. As graduation season approaches, i've been thinking really hard about hairstyles that would suit my head and especially that 

LOL! So this is the GGHD! Didn't know this one existed right. Lol it does if only in the mind of the natural/transitioning hair community. 

Graduation is a time in our lives when we want to feel appreciated for our hard work during our tenure in school. For such a happy time a lot of us get really flustered not by the chemistry, calculus or accounts but by our hair, plain and simple. We may have gotten by by protective styling up until that point and want something a little different on that day. So with that said i'm here to offer a few tips the biggest one being getting around that HAT!

Graduation styles definitely have to incorporate that hat. During this season it becomes a bit harder for naturals who are heat free, have "the awkward" length hair and those that are transitioning. Like myself, being relatively heat free excluding the use of my hair dryer for deep conditioning treatments. In any event, whatever stage you are with your hair there are options. In my opinion most people think of it as two big decisions and you decide which camp you fall into. I'm not even going to bring in the "I'm revisiting the creamy crack" cause if you really want to be natural that's not the way to go. So here are the two arguments.

1. To use heat or not to use heat

2. To weave or not to weave ............that is the question? lol

I know I know, pun intended but seriously that's what graduation day hair usually breaks down into. Using heat or other methods to lay our hair down or using a weave to protect our hair from the excess heat.

I'm not going to tell anyone how they should style there hair for graduation or much less grad pictures but I hope to offer a couple solutions that will help anyone in this situation.

1. Weave it- Weaves are an excellent protective style when persons do not forge to take care of their natural hair underneath

2. Low bun - You can always rock a low bun. The length of your hair will determine a lot of factors about that bun such as its size and style. For shorter hair you can always supplement your bun using marley braiding  (more defined) hair or kanekelon hair (less defined) depending on your hair texture.

3. A braid out/ coccoon curl/ flat twist out - These are so pretty but you do have to be careful. Your hair cannot be too high in the crown to prevent the graduation hat from staying on your head. So don't fluff the crown area too much. Also don't forget to use bobby pins to keep that hat LAID! lol 

4. Flat iron- If you are going this route, please, please, please use a heat protectant, although they do not protect your hair 100%, heat protectants do offer your hair a great deal of protection. 

Whatever you decide make sure you are comfortable with it because you will have to look back at the pictures from that day. Naptural85 also has a great video with some graduation hair ideas, so feel free to check out her channel.

Hope this article was helpful to you.

Blessings & Love Drea

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My Perfect Bantu knot out

Hey guys, so I found the secret to the perfect bantu knot out. LOL...please understand my excitement because bantu knot outs, like most natural/transitioning hairstyles take a lot of practice. This was my third time trying bantu knots and I think i've cracked it.

Bantu knots/outs are a really beautiful protective and transitioning style. While blending both textures for the transitioner, if done correctly you will have nice volume and defined curls or really nice loose waves.

So here are my results.

Can you tell that I was really feeling my hair?

To achieve this look, I had about 35 bantu knots in my hair. I used my aloe and water spritz (will blog on this later) to detangle my hair and then used my whipped shea butter mix for each section (let me know if you want to see my mix).

So what's the secret?
There are a couple things that help with getting a perfect bantu knot out.

1. Determine how defined you want your curls
              For a more defined look, you need more bantu knots. For a more wavy definition use less bantu               knots (about 6).

2. Find a really good styling product
            Everyone does bantu knots differently but the one cohesive thing is that you need a good styler. Whether you use a leave in conditioner like Cantu Shea butter, a curling product like Miss Jessies Baby buttercreme or something as simple as shea butter, you need a product that will give you a really good hold. This will help the curls to clump better and give you the definition you desire.

3. Twist your hair first and then roll your bantu knots
            Twisting your hair and then rolling it tightly (not too tight), before bantu knotting helps with definition. Be sure that when forming the bantu knots, you don't unravel the twist as your rolling.

4. Your Bantu knots should have height
            As you wind the rolled twist on itself, each bantu knot should have height. You should not be overlapping as this adds to drying time and looser curls.

5. Make sure your hair is dry before the takedown
        The thing about bantu knot is that your hair must be dry, like DRYYYYYYYYYYY before you take them down. Why am I stressing dry? Well, if your hair isn't dry, you won't have the look of really defined curls. Also, your hair will drop a lot faster (who wants one side of their hair to be really curly and nice and the other side to be stretched out?).

6.Don't forget to separate
           Separation of the curls helps to give some more volume to your hair. The more you separate the more   frizz you will achieve and the more your hair will look like a nice and cute curly fro.

All in all those are my tips for the perfect bantu knot out. Have you tried this style?

I forgot to mention I even got second day hair out of this and I did not re-knot. I simply placed a hair band around my curls and pulled them to the top of my head like the pineapple method.

2nd day hair pics

The curls are a bit more frizzy as expected. If I want to change it up later, i'll make a high puff out of the curls.

Thanks for reading.


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I love you for reading

Blessings & Love

Drea

Kinky Curly Product Review

Ever wanted to try the Kinky Curly products, but wasn't to sure about them? 

The product review consists of Kinky Curly Come Clean and Kinky Curly KNOT TODAY!

So here's my review! Hope it helps you when purchasing these products!

Connect with me on Facebook & Twitter @242Naturalsita

Blessings & Love always

Drea12:9

Combating the urge to become a Product Junkie

Source: http://ldnshopaholic.com/category/products/

Truth is, it's so easy to become a product junkie especially when first transitioning. You're just starting to care for your transitioning hair and everyone is recommending some product that you should try. You get captivated by new ads all the time....you go crazy to shift from all of the products that worked for your relaxed hair and you search the internet and stores for products that contain no parabens, no sulfates, no mineral oil and is EDTA free. (PS that is not a copy of my bathroom)

I can say that although I tried a number of products I would not consider myself a product junkie. My nature is a little to frugal for that and that's the reason I titled my blog BUDGETED ELEGANCE instead of my Youtube/Facebook/Twitter tag name 242Naturalista.

A product junkie is someone who constantly is buying and trying new products. Nope this may not seem bad at all, right ladies? but the truth is the buying and trying of new products gets to the point that they honestly can't get enough. As soon as a product line comes out, or even if they have products that work for their hair, they shift to a new product. Sometimes PJ's don't even allow a product to work properly because before they find out how it works for their hair, they've already shifted to a new product.

Are you a PJ? Yeah the example above is a little scary and does not only include natural hair products, but any type of products really.

Here's a few tools for avoiding the product junkie phase while transitioning and even being fully natural.

1.You don't have to throw out all of your old products
 I know, I know we're told to care for our transitioning hair as though its already natural..and I agree this is a good method but a lot of people take this to the extreme by throwing out or wasting products that have been working for their hair. You really don't have to do this..If you have excess products that work on your hair use them and allow your hair to determine if you should change those products. You may need to switch up the amounts you use or the method of application and that may help you to get your money's worth out of an old product. When it comes time to change those products (because it really isn't working with your hair and you have quite a bit of it left) you can opt for something like a product swap or just giving it to someone who it will benefit more (Ain't nothing wrong with some good Samaritan status lol)

2. Allow yourself time to test out a product
The product junkie phase can be considered a testing phase because your trying out a number of different products. As indicated above most PJs in my opinion don't give themselves enough time with a product. To help out with this, keep a log of the product your using currently and even when trying new products. I mentioned this in another post already but write down how the product makes your hair feel. If you're pleased, keep the product. If not test it out in a number of different ways for at least 2 months. If it still doesn't do what you would like then you can swap it with someone else and buy something new.

3. Spend some time doing your research
Research is key to healthy hair, especially when you just start out. Focus on products that have quality ingredients (first five) and by following your hair notes (hair assesment), you'll be able to already categorize which products could possibly work better for you. In essence you will already know how to shop and that will help curb the PJism lol.

4. Rotate products and use what you have
If you have more than a couple products in your arsenal rotate them from time to time...You many find that you don't actually need to go out and purchase more products because what you have already may be all that you need.

5. Homemade products
Sometimes we buy lots of products that have a fancy name just because it has that fancy name, when we have homemade concoctions that serve the same purpose. NO i'm not trying to tell you not to buy your fave labels, but lets think about this/ If you have a homemade product that's working then stick with it and that'll be one less product and a couple extra bucks in your pocket.

6. Product samples
Find company's that give product samples. This may be a little bit tougher in some countries than others but to combat this you can try a subscription service like a CURLKIT or curl box. These services give you a few products each month and you can test out to see what products were for your hair.

Last but definitely not least, believe in yourself. Just because a lot of other people go through this phase, doesn't mean you have to..You can find products that work for your hair without going overboard and you can also participate in product swaps with your girlfriends or fellow curly hair meetup participants.


I think the bulk of this post tends to favor what you already have working for yourself. The rotation of products is not a bad thing and i'm definitely not telling you how much of each essential product you need but  I have definitely found out that those with the healthiest hair usually don't do too much to their hair so I guess its like a word to the wise. Each of us at some point may lean in favor of being a product junkie but even if we go that way, lets try to be cost effective. Y'all should already know i'm big on saving and using my money and time efficiently so my next blog post will be somewhere along those lines in terms of products.

Hope this article helps you in any way.

Blessings & Love always

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242Naturalista@gmail.com