Yall!! My random researching brought me to this article. Still, I’m sure you wont be surprised which app is number most intrusive, scary stuff! Here’s the top 10 list below:
Instagram
Facebook
LinkedIn
Uber Eats
Trainline
YouTube
YouTube Music
Deliveroo
Duolingo
eBay
Linkdin????? Wow, I trusted you!
Here’s the remainder of the list, top 50
Hol’ up do yall see AOL OLD SELF on that list?? Whaaaaaaaat?! The audacity!
It will come as no surprise to many that Instagram and Facebook share the most data with third-party advertisers, collecting info on purchases, location, contact details, user content, search history, browsing history, and more.
According to macrumors.com Instagram collects 79 percent of personal data, while Facebook collects 57 percent. LinkedIn and Uber Eats were also serious offenders, collecting 50 percent of data. This study was done prior to when Google shared App Privacy labels for its Google Search and Chrome apps, but YouTube and YouTube Music were found to be collecting 43 percent of personal data to share with third parties.
All jokes aside this is quite unsettling like why are these apps so hell bent on locking down our info?!
Now as we all can tell, Old Man Winter is here to collect all the moisture and sunshine out of our lives to leave our lips, skin & hair parched 😒 But no worries, I have compiled some quick & useful tips on taking care of (y)our hair during the winter. Now bear in mind as I am compiling this mini list, I am also educating myself as I go along. Also, I’m quite lazy when it comes to things like this (judge me not) so I’ve selected the simplest steps to do below:
1. Wash hair less often –
Great news for those of us that dread wash day! Because shampoo tends to strip your hair of its natural oils, you want to lessen how many times you wash it. So, if you were washing your hair 4x in a month, you can reduce it to maybe 2x instead. You can also opt for Co-wash – short for “conditioner-only washing.” It means skipping shampoo and relying solely on conditioner.
2. Deep condition like crazy! –
As often as possible, I would say once or every two weeks should suffice. I was using the Hollywood Beauty dc for a while but I now make my own deep conditioner DIY Deep Conditioner but any over the counter conditioner should suffice. Please make sure to read ingredients before purchasing.
3. Wear protective styles – such as braids, twists, weave, crochet wigs; this way your hair gets to rest, while your ends are protected & aren’t exposed to the harsh climate. The duration of time you keep your protective sytles in is entirely up to you.
4. No shower cap!
Yes, you read right, leave that shower cap alone! The steam in your bathroom while taking a shower will do wonders for your hair’s moisture retention. What I do after I shower is I seal the moisture my hair just retained by applying oils (I use Olive oil/Castor oil). If you’re antsy about not wearing a shower cap at all, you can poke holes into it, that way you’ll still get some sort of moisture.
5. Wear hats with satin/silk lining –
Kinda like Skatsz hats ha! Would you look at that, 😂😅 No, but seriously there’s no point in doing all that work to retain moisture only to throw on a cotton/wool hat that’ll suck out it all right out; leaving your hair brittle & dry and prone to breakage! Whoo chilay hahaha I wish you guys could hear me laughing so hard as I write these blog posts yo!
Do you have any winter hair care tips you would like to share? Comment below xx
I know I’ve been crazy inactive, so instead of me apologizing only to be inactive again, I’m just going to do better 🙂
So, topic of today is African Threading – A traditional method used for centuries across Africa to stretch afro hair without heat; it is also commonly referred to as Banding Method. African Threading is known to be a great way to retain length, stretch hair without heat, thus averting the chances of getting heat damage & breakage (we all know how heartbreaking that can be) & also can be worn as a protective style.
In Nigeria we use a specific elastic shinny thread:
However, you can also use brading hair extensions or sewing thread – some people have used yarn, it’s really your prerogative (that’s a Bobby Brown reference hahaha).
Quick story: I was at the salon last weekend & a little girl, no more than 7 yrs old had gotten her deep-conditioned & it was time to stretch her hair – using that hot ass, dragon breath ass dryer, that I even as an adult still dread greatly! Chiiillleee the way she was screaming & hollering, my heart could NOT take it, I just had to approach both the mom & the hair stylist to suggest threading that poor child’s hair. Lucky for her, her mom was very receptive to any help; it was clear as day she too was in complete distress! I stood in front of all three explaining for all of maybe 4 minutes but I’m sure all the mom heard was “Your child will stop screaming if you use this method” & she was like “YESSS!” Long story short, the baby stopped crying & was enjoying her little juice as she got her hair threaded. The stylist did it in a way that it was so clean that she ended up wearing it as a protective style. I thought the absolute cutest most rewarding part was when the baby came up to me to say thank you in the most genuine heartfelt way (I almost shed a thug tear). Meanwhile, her mom couldn’t stop thanking me, asking about other natural hair tips I may have, which I was more than happy to help of course. This also inspired this blog post. It’s just so funny to me how far we’ve come only to understand that some ancient methods still beat the technology we have now.
Anywho, my sister helped thread my hair a little while ago & I sent the pictures to my mom, and she said “It’s called the Sungas style back in her day 🖤 & it grows hair by the seconds!” Here is a picture of my insane shrinkage vs when it was stretched:
Before Threading
After African Threading
My hair was completely stretched & the threading was only in in my hair for about an hour! Yeah, no more blow dryer for me (crosses fingers).
Here is a really good video/tutorial on how to African Thread your hair:
Will you be trying African Threading to stretch your hair? Or is it already apart of your routine? Let me know below xx
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?
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?
So I wanted to share with you my experience with one of the more popular “protective styles”- Crochet aka Crochet Braids. I discovered crochet a while back, through a friend actually. I remember when she was trying to get me to understand just what crochet styling was & I was completely lost haha. But fast forward to last year, there I was, completely in love with the concept of C R O C H E T ! ( I spaced out the words for dramatic effect hahah) If you’re not familiar with just what crochet styling is, Click this link —-> Crochet 101 for better & in depth explanation.
Now before crochet, I always preferred to have all sorts of braids & twists in my hair but we all know how just how long that whole process takes. I would also get weaves here & there, maybe like 5/6x my whole life so you know I was about that braid life. So once I understood just how much crochet eases the whole process & just how versatile it was?!?! Chillllleeeee I was hooked! So naturally my lazy behind decided to do crochet back to back…BAD IDEA!
Now I did the curly sue style & the faux locs; Both styles below.
When the crochet was being installed (very blurry, sorry)
Finished Product (Bathroom pic, judge me not)
Crochet -Faux locs (I really enjoyed this style)
I kept each style in for about 4 weeks which I think is pretty standard for keeping in protective styles. However, I noticed that whenever I took out both styles I had ALOT of single strand knots! Below pictures aren’t mine, but they were the closest depiction to what my hair looked like once I took out the crochet.
I had endless single strand knots!! So much so that I had to cut out so much of my hair because it was impossible to detangle, it was HORRIBLE 😦
Needless to say (I’m going back to Cali, Cali, Cali I’m going back to Cali… hmm, hahaa) Nah but I am going back to to my regular braids & twists! It just sucks because I really did enjoy crochet styles 😦 I have to wonder though, what caused all those knots? Because when I take my braids & even weave out, I don’t ever get single strand knots.. like at all.
So have you ever experienced crazy single strand knots from crochet styles? Or even any other protective styles? Please share below.
Hey Guys.. I know, I know, its been a looooooooooooooong while. I have no excuses, life’s just been super hectic (in a great way)! Trying to organize everything I have going on is um.. challenging! But I’m proving to myself everyday that it can be done, so here I am.
I’ve been attending quite a number of events – networking, conferences, expos, meetups
& the most recent event I attended was a natural hair event ‘Its A Curl Thing’ organized and held at McDaniel College; actual organizers were Kylah Chadwick and Khadijah Poston. It was a really great, very well put together event & it was executed accordingly. I am so proud to say I was apart of this awesome program and to think these young ladies are juniors in college & can still manage to pull something like this off is amazing! When I was in college I could barely remember what room # my classes were (judge me not), talk less of organizing an event of this magnitude.
I was there as a vendor and met such wonderful people, both the McDaniel students & non-students and even the staff. Seriously, everyone in attendance was so welcoming & passionate about natural hair.
Here is a quick footage below
Some pictures:
My view from my table; as they were setting up
Me in my Skatsz Satin Lined Beanie.. My face when they said the pizza was finished hahah
She couldn’t wait to wear her Skatsz Satin Lined beanie hahah & I couldn’t wait to snap her pix ha! Too Cute!
A raffle ticket winner & other attendees
Kayla & Khadijah – Awesome organizers
The amazing volunteers.. But why is her Afro is luscious?!
You can also check out the article on McDaniel’s website: Click this link
Let me know what you guys think of the review in the comment section below.
I’ve been gone for a while & I promise I had every intention on blogging but so much has transpired in such a short amount of time (yes a month to me is like a day). I honestly hadn’t realize how long its been since my last blog post till I got an email asking if I had abandoned my blog hahahaha! At that very moment I had to look at my life & get it together, so here I am!
I’m super excited to show you guys this new review of our satin lined beanie! The review is done by one of my personal fave YouTube vloggersMona B.Her channel has been a go-to of mine for a while now for many different reasons, so I was beyond ecstatic when she agreed to do an honest review of our Skatsz beanie. Check it out below
I’ve also attached her (Mona B) social media accounts below. She has several videos about makeup, natural hair styles & plenty more on her channel & her social media account. You’re welcome 🙂
Tomorrow is thanksgiving so we decided to start our sale of Black Friday through Cyber Monday with 30%off the whole website. Its getting cold out so instead of wearing cotton hats that strips your hair of moisture thereby causing breakage & hair loss, purchase our satin/silk lined beanie that will not only keep you warm this winter but also help to keep your hair’s much needed moisture intact, amongst other benefits!
Skatsz 