Five Tips to Winterize Your Natural Hair Regimen

Winter is upon us. In Texas, winters can be extreme and brutal on the hair. In today's post, I wanted to provide five tips to help winterize your natural hair regimen. If you are anything like me, you want to maintain overall hair health as well as length retention throughout the winter months. These five tips will help you achieve just that.

Five Tips to Winterize Your Natural Hair Regimen

1. Increase your use of heavier oils. My oil of choice is Castor Oil. It can be regular distilled Castor Oil or Jamaican Black Castor Oil. Castor Oil is an excellent emollient and humectant for the hair. It is also great for hair loss and hair thinning. In addition, olive oil and avocado oil are heavier oils that are beneficial as well. So if Castor Oil isn't your cup of tea, try olive oil or avocado oil.

2. Butters are best. Butters are most definitely a staple, and they are part of the LOC/LCO method as well. Choose your butter from shea, mango, and cocoa to intensify your moisturizing treatment. I personally love shea butter. It's a great moisturizer for your hair and skin.

3. Moisturize your hair more often. Whether you moisturize your hair in the morning or at night, daily moisturizing is key. Even if you are protective styling, moisture is vital to ensuring your hair stays healthy while it is tucked away.

4. Deep condition more frequently. Indoor heating and extreme outdoor temperatures can leave hair feeling dry and brittle. Conditioning the hair more frequently will help to restore and maintain moisture levels in the hair. You may even use a steamer or some sort of method to promote steaming to intensify your conditioning treatment. Remember, healthy is hair is moisturized hair!

5. Protective styles. Protective styles, where your ends are tucked away, can be helpful in the winter months and can be essential for length retention. Braids, twists, top knots, halo braids, and the list goes on of common protective styles. Some of my past protective styles i have worn can be seen in the following posts:

My Marley Twist Installation + Top Five Reasons to Love Marley Twists

Oh chic! My mini-twists are back and more than just fabulous!

Creative Hairstyling Options for Box Braids

I hope you enjoyed this post, and you are inspired to incorporate additional protection against the harsh winter elements. If you have others ways of winterizing your natural hair regimen, feel free to share them below.

Until next time...
Be faith-filled, fearless, and fabulous,
Kurly Ken

Style Post: How to Transition White Pants into the Cooler Months

Kurlies,

This post is for those that are fearless in their efforts to wear white in the fall and winter! I am dedicated to rocking my white around. Check out the outfits below:

Look 1:

White Pants: Marshall's

Graphic Tee: Information about this clothing item seen here

Cobalt Blue Blazer: H & M

Clutch: Aldo

Shoes: Charlotte Russe

Look 2:

White Pants: Marshall's 

White Long Sleeve Shirt: Forever 21

Denim Vest: Papaya

Fur Overlay: H & M

Brown Boots: Wet Seal

Gold Chain: Rue 21

Gold Hoops: B. Supply

Look 3: 

White Pants: Marshall's

Hot Pink Sweater: Forever 21

Gold Necklace: Thrifted

Gold Hoops: B. Supply

Other looks that may also work well with white pants in the cooler months: 

Look 4: Layered Look

White Pants: Marshall's 

Red Sweater: Forever 21

Denim Shirt: H & M

Leopard Heels: Shoe Dazzle

Pearls: Gifted

Look 5: Denim on Denim

White Pants: Marshall's 

Denim Shirt: H & M

Leopard Heels: Shoe Dazzle

Pearls: Gifted

That's all I have for today! I hope these looks inspire you to rock your white pants in the winter. And by the way, my hair is in Marley Twists (for those just tuning in to Kurly Ken). Check out My Marley Twist Installation Tips and Tricks. Share your ideas for how to rock white pants in the winter as well. 

Until next time...

Be faith-filled, fearless, and fabulous,

Kurly Ken 

My Marley Twist Installation +Top Five Reasons to Love Marley Twists

Hey Kurls hey,

I recently installed Marley twists for the first time, and I am LOVING THEM. This is a GREAT protective style. These twists are so easy to install, and I thought I would share my installation tips with you. 

On the night before I installed my Marley twist, I pre-parted my hair and placed twists all over my head. This made the hair washing process and installation process very easy for me. I highly suggest pre-parting/twisting the hair prior to the cleansing/conditioning and installation process. The next night, with my pre-parted twists, I started the hair cleansing and conditioning process.  To begin, I shampooed and conditioned my hair using the Naturally Athena Natural Hair Care Line. See how I shampoo and condition my hair with these fantastic products here. 

After, I cleansed and conditioned my hair, I commenced to blow my hair out. Blowing your hair out makes it easier to blend your natural hair with the Marley hair in my opinion. See the steps I use to blow my hair out in this recent post. The only difference in blowing my hair out was that I used Naturally Athena Goddess Curl Creme instead of the IC Fantasia Heat Protectant, which is what I normally use.

Now, for the good stuff. To install my Marley Twists, I used Blue Magic Organics Castor Oil. I used this as an additional cream to coat my hair (in addition to the Naturally Athena Goddess Curl Creme) since Marley hair tends to be on the rougher side (in regards to texture). I also used hair clips to hold the other sections back while I focused on the section I was twisting. And my comb was used to help me part my hair, which is totally optional. Some people just use their fingers to part. The choice is yours!!!

For my hair, I used the Janet Collection Afro Twist Braid Hair. It was $4.99 per pack, and I purchased four packs in the color 1B. Excitedly, I only used two packs and 6 strands of hair from the third pack. Needless to say, I have plenty left over and I will definitely re-install Marley Twist in the future.

At first, I wanted this post to be a pictorial on how I installed the Marley Twist, but I wasn't too successful at demonstrating that. However, I wanted to share my enthusiasm about Marley Twists, and I wanted to share my top five reasons Marley Twists are an awesome protective style. 

The Top Five Reason to Love Marley Twists

1. The installation process is very brief. It only took me two hours to install my whole head. At times, I missed up installing certain twists,  and I had to redo them. Regardless of my mistakes, I was still able to install my whole head in two hours! BOOM! 

2. The price for the hair was super inexpensive, and depending on the style of the twists, you don't need a lot of hair. For each twists, I only used two strands of hair. If you want thicker twists, use more. 

3. Marley Twists are fairly easy to install. I watched a few YouTube videos  that helped me learn. Here are two of the videos that helped me learn how to install Marley Twists:

Ebony Clark on YouTube

Natural Metra on YouTube

4. I can keep this style in for at least 2 weeks. That means "no hand in head" syndrome! My hair is moisturized and protected for this time period! I'm WINNING! 

5. I have tons of style options with my Marley Twists. 

It's official! I. AM. HOOKED. These will become a regular protective style for me. Let me know if you decide to try out Marley Twists. Also, let me know if you are an avid wearer of Marley Twists already. Please share your tips and products as well as any favorite YTubers, or bloggers in general, that have Marley Twist information or inspiration!

Happy Friday! 

Until next time,

Be faith-filled, fearless, and fabulous,

Kurly Ken

Oh chic! My mini-twists are back and more than just fabulous!

Hey Kurls,

As you can tell by the title, I've reinstalled my mini-twists, and let me tell you- I'm loving them!!! I watched two movies with the hubby and twisted my life away on a Sunday evening. After five hours, I was tired, but I knew the work I put in would provide me with ease throughout the next school weeks. 

Here are some mini twist styles:

Braided Beauty: Hair is flat braided and pinned on one side and the other side is loosely hanging.

Simply chic: A simple middle part with hair pulled back in low bun

When I cleaned them, I simply ran warm water over them while I massaged my scalp. Then I applied my aloe/ water spray mix and my homemade moisturizing hair cream. I shook my hair to let the curls clump together. 

Peep these curls: 

Unfortunately, I wasn't as creative with styling as I had hoped to be. If anyone knows me, I'm a hair chameleon. Therefore, it's really hard for me to keep one style in for long periods of time. So if this post didn't provide you with mini twist inspiration, check out my last post on mini twists here.

Until next time,

Be faith-filled, fearless, and fabulous,

Kurly Ken 

Style Post: The Denim on Denim Trend

Hey Kurls hey,

Today's post is dedicated to showcasing a few looks for the denim on denim trend. Denim is classic and can be worn in multiple ways to fit any occasion. 

Look 1: This look is a classic denim shirt paired with dark denim jeans. Minimal accessories are worn except for the statement necklace. As a matter of fact, this statement necklace make this outfit pop with the simplicity of this look.

Denim shirt: H & M

Jeans: J. Crew (thrifted)

Leopard heels: Shoedazzle

Necklace:  Jewelry Party

Look 2: To winterize the first look, I added a white fur vest! Fur vest are a style staple for the cooler seasons. This won't be the last time you see this fur vest make an appearance on the blog. 

Denim shirt: H & M

Jeans: J. Crew (thrifted)

Vest: thrifted 

Leopard heels: Shoedazzle

Look 3: This last outfit was totally inspired by Olivia Palermo. I love her classic style, and this outfit just kept calling my name. I had to recreate it and put my own spin on it. 

So here goes! With Olivia's outfit, she had black accessories (belt, purse), and in my own, I opted for tan heels and purse with gold accessories! 

Denim shirt: H & M

Denim skirt: GAP

Clutch: thrifted 

Shoes: Aldo

In this post, I'm rocking mini twists to the moon and back. Check out my post on my mini twist here. 

Also if you haven't checked out my other  latest style post, check out the link to find out how to rock a graphic tee.

Until next time...

Be faith-filled, fearless, and fabulous,

Kurly Ken 

Box Braid Hairstyle Pictorial: Braided Pompadour

This is a super easy hairstyle I tried while I was in Austin 

to add a little pizzazz to my box braids. Enjoy! 

Section off your hair so that you have the small front sections.

Split the front sections into two sections. 

Now, literally tie the two sections together.

Take the two sections and tie it again.

Continue to tie the two sections of hair until it looks like this. 

Then take the the "tied" hair and roll it under. Continue rolling it under until the hair is in a tied pompadour.

 Ta-Da! That's it! 

Recap Time: 

Until next time...

Be faith-filled, fearless, and fabulous,

Kurly Ken

Creative Hairstyling Options for Box Braids

The title speaks for itself! Enjoy, kurlies!

     Twisted Halo

Side Tuck and Roll 

Side Ponytail 

Coined by my husband as "The Tomb Raider Braid"

Side Upsweep

Ninja Bun

Simple center part

Braided Pompadour 

"I dream of Kurly Ken" side ponytail

#yeahi'mcornylikethat;-)

Lastly, never underestimate the power of accessories.
Hats, headbands, hair clips, oh my! Have fun with them

Whatever you do to your braids, be creative and moisturize your natural hair. 

Let me know if you want to know how to achieve any of these styles. 

Box Braids: Part 2 of My Summer Regimen

Hey Kurl Fam, 

I finally installed my braids, and I am loving them! When I was growing up and even as a young adult, my staple hair style was braids. I wore braids so much people called me Brandy! I always kept a fresh set of individuals or micro braids! Fortunately, I learned how to braid my own hair so I never went broke with my braiding session. For my box braids, I installed them myself, and I'm pretty happy about them. My hair can rest for at least a month. 

To install them, I pre-pooed with a mixture of coconut oil/honey, clarified my hair with baking soda/water mix, and deep conditioned with Organic Root Stimulator Hair Mayonnaise. I let my hair air dry and used my signature products for the braiding process, which included my hair cream, aloe/water spray, hair clamps, and a hair band. I used five bags of kanekolan hair from the beauty supply for $2.99. 

The installation process took several days! My schedule was very hectic, as I was taking final exams and concluding class projects. I braided my hair over a total of four days, doing a little each day. I literally studied and braided, which led to a series of late nights and early mornings. 

I was so sick of braiding! Peep that facial expression! On this picture, my hair looks completed, but there was a giant patch if my natural hair still incomplete in the center. I always braid the perimeter first and then I do the insides last.

When I finished, I was so relieved. My hands, on the other hand, were a cramped mess! These braids are super long and took longer to do. For my regimen, I'll shampoo them every two weeks with V05. Nothing fancy! I'll spray my braids with my aloe/water spray mixture, specifically concentrating on the part of the braids where my natural hair is located. Then I'll apply my homemade moisturizing cream, again concentrating the application in where my natural hair is. Every other day, or as necessary, I plan on spraying and moisturizing my hair. That's it! Easy peasy! I plan on doing a post with some hairstyles for my braids!  

Until next time...

Be faith-filled, fearless, and fabulous,

Kurly Ken