Hey Guys – Happy New week! (Yes, I’m aware it’s Tuesday, Monday is a trial run for me hahahah)!
Okay so, I was minding my business, per usual right? Scrolling through my timeline when BAM! This lady’s video hits me in the face. Dr. Debbie Williams – A hair professional claims that rice water grows your hair faster, thicker & healthier.. say whaaaaaat?! Now being Nigerian, I eat rice like everyday & I was taught to rinse out the rice water.. not put in my hair; so this particular process is very intriguing to me to say the least. It’s quite easy to do actually, you’re literally just soaking rice in water for a long period (hours or even overnight) then you rinse your hair with its water like you would regularlly.
Here’s the vid for more info & instructions:
So what do you guys think? Will you be trying the rice water rinse?
Its a snow day here – well, really not really.. Just some flurries, but it was enough to have the grocery stores swamped with long lines yesterday with people trying to “prep” for the snow; meanwhile all I wanted to buy was cookie dough. But, one thing for certain is that, it was cold then & it’s cold now! Like 19 degrees Fahrenheit to be exact; winter has surely arrived – Perfect timing to talk about Skatsz New ’17 Collection!!!! *Insert a yelp here*
Skatsz satin lined beanies are designed to help keep moisture in your hair & avoid dryness, frizz, breakage and other damages to the hair that’s caused by the cotton in regular beanies. All while keeping you warm & toasty too, yeah, you’re welcome 😛
So, the new collection has three styles of beanies with two colors each (yeeeep)! I’ve inserted hyper links in the names of each style so you can click on it to see what it looks like on the website.
Happy New Week people! (Yes, my week starts on Tuesdays)
So, I found out last week that Skatsz had been featured on Essence Magazine!!! Soooooooooooo freaking cool!!!! Our satin lined beanies were listed among the necessities for hair care on Essence website. Ahhhhhhhh super excited! Like I literally didn’t see that coming, at all! It’s funny because I was at a workshop & we were asked to google our name to see what popped up & BOOM there it was! Here is the link for that:Essence Feature
Also, we were approached a while back by this really dope Mag: Fashion Gxd Magazine – to do an interview!! We really couldn’t believe it, like it was so surreal, because it’s like so people really know about our brand?!?!? Super exciting stuff! The whole entire experience was so great & the good people at Fashion Gxd Mag made it so effortless. We were so grateful for the opportunity 🙂
Hooolllaaaa Guys – Its Hump Day yayyy! I hope you all are holding on b/c we’re almost there! Its pretty rainy & gray here but oh well, that’s fall for ya, but I digress…
So, if you are a Black person that lives in the U.S. odds are you’ve been to at least one beauty supply store in your life; I mean, that’s just the truth of the matter. Me being a Black woman, that likes to get her hair done frequently, particularly braids style, I’ve visited countless BSS in my lifetime. With that being said, Black people are at the very least 98% of all the BSS customers (I left the 2% to be very generous). However, it’s no secret that there really aren’t many BSS that are owned by Black people (sad, I know). Beauty supply stores are usually owned by Asians (Koreans) – that often times aren’t the most welcoming (as if they’re doing YOU – the paying customer a favor) then there are the teeny tiny encounters where they are in fact a bit welcoming – though, the latter is very far few & in between.
So, when I wanted to get my bob braids done earlier this month, I decided to do a search for a Black-Owned beauty supply stores near me (even though there is a BSS right up the street from my house), I found a couple but they were a bit further than I anticipated. However, not one to be easily deterred, I kept searching & stumbled on this gem in Baltimore MD – Beauty Plus Their website is not up & running just yet, but you can find all the info you need on their Facebook page, which I’ve already linked above. Though it took me about an hour & a half to get there (I was determined yall), I was so grateful to make it because… To be honest, I don’t think I can ever fully articulate the feeling I had walking into a BSS & seeing that a Black person actually OWNS it, like wow! It was my first time ever in an opened & running Black-Owned Beauty Supply Store!
My happy ass & Megan (Store Co-owner)
Sorry for the grainy pic but it looked much clearer on my iPhone -__- & I wish I took way more pics but thats is all I have.
The customer service was great! The store was very neat & had everything I needed for my braids. It was super easy to find, especially for my geographically challenged self (judge me not). I spoke with Megan for bit & asked her how biz was doing, she replied that the support from the community has been overwhelming from day one; which of course, warmed my heart. Honestly, before Megan even made the statement about the community being so supportive, I was in the store for all of maybe 6 minutes (because ya girl was parked by a meter that I didn’t pay for, shhh) & while I was there at least two other customers came in & bought stuff! So, I definitely got a sense of what she meant by support from the community.
All in all, I was super impressed, but more so grateful – its hard to explain. I was so excited!! Definitely just became my go-to beauty supply store!
The great news is there are more & more Black-owned supply stores springing up in the country, thank God! Here are some links that have lists of Black-Owned beauty supply stores:
How is the Beauty Supply Store scene where you live? Have you ever been to a Black-Owned BSS? Do you plan to? As I was finishing up this post, I thought to myself: I wonder if this is the case outside of the US?
It’s now hat season for me…summer is over and the cold weather is upon us. Hats are a must for me in the winter to keep warm, however the fabric can absorb the moisture in your hair, leaving it dry and frizzy.
I like wearing beanies but the fabric rubs on my hair and constantly snags on my hair which is annoying. At the end of the day, my hair would be extremely dry, frizzy and breaking. I would have to cover my hair with a silk scarf before putting on a hat which isn’t ideal.
Over the summer I was contacted by Zainab from Skatsz hats. We had a lovely chat over Skype and she sent me one of their hats to try out.
Skatsz Hats is a US based company who create stylish and affordable satin lined beanies. It was created by sisters Zainab and Kozy and…
Okay, so I took my sister’s braids down last weekend and she had it in for too long like 8 weeks (yikes, I know) but that’s not the point of this post hahah, I’ll judge my sister later.. So because she kept her single braids in for a while, she had some build up especially because she’s so active, (gym: which equals sweat) plus she oils/moisturizes her scalp every other day (which equals product build up) & a bunch of random lint from scarf etc. All of those factors into what I call Braid Gunk. You know the sticky build up you get after wearing braids or any protective style for too long? This:
By the way her hair has grown sooo much!
Yeah, she had quite a bit of that. Well, instead of fighting through what seems like a losing battle by trying to finger detangle through that mess. I used Apple Cider Vinegar & water mixture as a detangler. Which made getting rid of that gunk a breeze!
Here are the simple items I used to make the ACV water detangler mixture:
Bragg ACV
Water
Spray Bottle
Table Spoon
I used the organic ACV that was already in my kitchen (thanks to my sis and/or brother) You don’t have to use this same brand, this is just my preference since it was both organic & free!Then I filled up my old Bath & Body Works spray bottle. It previously had olive oil inside so I rinsed that out & I filled it up with water more than 1/2 of the bottle. I didn’t measure, I simply just eyed it.I poured the ACV into a table spoon & added it to the bottle filled with water. I did this step two times – Meaning I poured 2 tbl spoons of ACV into the spray bottle.Finished ACV & Water Mixture. Hopefully you can see the color change in the spray bottle after the ACV has been added but not much of a difference in the amount of liquid inside.
I was so impressed at how much easier the process was using the ACV detangler that I actually recorded a whole vid, because you know, I just had to share the gem! Here it is below:
*Bonus* = The ACV basically cleaned her scalp like a shampoo would, so after we were done, we just deep conditioned using my homemade hair mask, here’s the link for that ===> DIY Deep Conditioner
Lemme know what you guys think below. Will you be trying the ACV & water mixture as a detangler? What do you typically do to get rid of your braid gunk?
I’m working on my ACV post (which should be finished soon) & I saw this hilarious meme & just had to share! This is an ode to the holy grail of natural hair products before all the fancy stuff we have now. For me, it was Ultra Sheen, Doo Gro & Super Gro.
