Meet “BubblingBrownShuga” in her own words…

On going natural…
I just saw no use in relaxing anymore. My hair wouldn’t maintain the styles I tried to have when relaxed and my hair would end up in a bun. I started searcing online and looking in various websites and online albums from other ladies who were going natural or who were already natural and I took the plunge!

Hair care regimen…
I wash my hair twice a week, once a week with shampoo: Jessicurl Cleansing Creme. I condition my hair with Aubrey Organics conditioner. I only comb my hair when wet and full of conditioner. To clarify, I mix water and apple cider vinegar and do this whenever I feel my hair needs it. After washing, I grease my scalp with Nature’s Blessing pomade weekly. I then commence to styling and I use Karen’s Body Beautiful Hair Milk. I get my hair straightened monthly and to help my hair revert quicker, I use Aubrey Organics GPB conditioner.

Favorite Products…
Jessicurl Cleansing Creme, Aubrey’s Organics conditioner and Karen’s Body Beautiful Hair Milk

Hair care secrets…
Low maintenance styles, only combing hair when it is wet and full of conditoner and using primarily natural products

Repost, originally posted 12/10/07.

Meet Sanchia, in her own words…

I’ve always been natural (essentially). I would get my hair pressed once a month for years. Within in the past two years however, I decided to straighten my hair less and less because I was losing the battle of keeping my hair straight the humid climate. I don’t have an exact schedule for my hair. But overall, I would say that I wash my hair with shampoo once a week, co-wash twice a week and deep condition once a week.

Hair care regimen…
I trim my hair about once every six months. I dust once every other month. I use flat irons once or twice a month. I got highlights in 2006 and hated how brittle they made my hair feel (I now know that I wasn’t deep conditioning enough), so I never got them again. I’ve used my fair share of out of the ordinary products. Just to name a few: Mega-tek, Ovation Cell Therapy, Sulphur 8, & MN as growth aids. Only the latter appears to be working for me. I’ve also used mayonnaise as a deep conditioner, vinegar to restore my hair’s pH, cinnamon to color my hair, and baking soda to clean my hair. I’ve used both biotin and vitamins to grow my hair.

Favorite products…
Any brand of Cholesterol for deep conditioner treatments and to help set my twists & coconut oil for my deep conditioner treatments and to seal.

On salons…
I haven’t been to a salon in years. I usually get my products from beauty supply stores and occasionally from Sally’s.

Styling…
I like most styles that allow me to camouflage my heat damaged ends (particularly twist-outs and Bantu knot- outs).

I’ve considered getting rid of my heat-damaged ends, but I’m much too chicken to loose all my length at once. So in a sense I would consider myself to be transitioning from heat-damage.

Perfect for spring, an affordable and adorable denim dress is something you should consider adding to your wardrobe. The great thing about these dresses is that you can really use accessories to make it your own. They can be paired with anything from caramel-colered ankle length cowboy boots, to 6 inch bright pink platforms to a pair of silver sporty trainers. You can add scarves, bracelets, necklaces and your own touch to make the outfit match your mood. A denim dress can work your wardrobe like a great pair of jeans. The denim dress, pictured above, is by DKNY Jeans and retails for $79 at Nordstrom.

Check out these denim dresses all under $50.

*Click images for details

Check out curly-haired models Monet Stunson and Dayana Pires in the runway show for Gwen Stefani’s Spring/Summer 2010 L.A.M.B. collection. Click here to see the entire collection on Style.com.

It was all about the hair for me when viewing photos from Naeem Kahn’s spring 2010 ready-to wear collection. I typically wear my braid-outs and curly roller sets with a center part. Just last week, I was inspired by a photo of Kim Kardashian and began to braid the front 2 sections. It was similar to the braids the stylists did for Naeem Kahn except I pull the two braids back and keep them secured with a clip or hair tie. I wore it like this most of the week and you wouldn’t believe the love I got. I’ll have to post that Kim Kardashian style that inspired me later, but women of all races and ages were coming up to me saying how much they loved my hair and especially the braided part. Ah! I loved it too. I really think you should try it. I’m experimenting with lots of braid styles this spring. Not typical braids, but softer and looser braid styles. I will keep you posted on that and post photos, but for now here are my favorite looks from Naeem Kahn S/S 2010 RTW Collection. They can also be viewed at NaeemKhan.com.

Brand overview from NaeemKhan.com:

Many of the world’s most stylish women are devotees to a new name in fashion: Naeem Khan. Committed to adorning elegant women in clothes befitting their refinement, his glittering fan base of starlets and socialites includes Beyonce, Eva Longoria, Debra Messing, Carrie Underwood, Kim Cattrall and Queen Noor of Jordan, and his designs have graced the silver screen in fashion film classics like Dreamgirls and Sex and the City.

His luxurious collection consists of impeccably cut dresses, sophisticated gowns and chic cashmere separates – all embroidered by hand. Khan was born in India and grew up surrounded by design. He cultivated his vast knowledge of textiles under the watchful eyes of his grandfather and father, both well known in India for designing intricate clothing worn by the royal families. As a child, he was mesmerized by the handwork produced in their workshops, and always knew he wanted to be part of their intensely visual culture. As a teenager, Khan moved to the United States and apprenticed for Halston, where he absorbed the ethos of modern restraint, and the secrets of draping and cutting fabric to create a clean, elegant, timeless silhouette. Between the equally opulent but aesthetically opposite worlds of his father and Halston, Khan’s style was nurtured and his aesthetic was born.

He launched his eponymous collection, Naeem Khan, in 2003 and began selling at Bergdorf Goodman, Harrods, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. Since then the collection has grown to be sold at more than 100 specialty stores across the world. His presentations are among the most anticipated events of New York fashion week.

A bit of a throwback, here’s Amel Larrieux’s  in the 1996 video release of “Keep Tryin’” with her band mate Bryce Wilson.

 

 

Have you seen the Spring/Summer Collection from the London design house PPQ of Mayfair? The runway was SICK! It featured great styling with an insanely fabulous cast of black models. Models including Sessilee Lopez, Kinee Diouf, Jeneil Williams and Kaya strutted the catwalk adorned in braid embellished Nefertiti buns and the season’s most sought-after trends in geometric/tribal prints and polka dots.

Here’s a little background on the brand from their website.

In east London, 1992, Amy Molyneaux and Percy Parker created fashion label PPQ, and with it came the inimitable style that continues to set the beat for London’s fashion drum today. From the early days there were zeitgeist design moves; PPQ spearheaded the drainpipe jean revolution dressing music maker’s including Peter Doherty, and the label’s signature smock dresses and mini, modern cocktail gowns became fashion insider staples. Fashion’s best kept secret inevitably rolled off tongues and on to London Fashion Week’s official show calendar to showers of success. Today, the design duo compose cutting-edge collections in a spectrum of vivid colours, strong shapes, bold prints and elaborate fabrics to a fanfare of today’s style icons and artists including Agyness Deyn, Kirsten Dunst, Sienna Miller, Rihanna, Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Daisy Lowe, Alexa Chung, Adele, Peaches and Pixie Geldof, Little Boots, Ben Grimes and Portia Freeman.

Marrying music with style, PPQ also run a record label, 1-2-3-4 Records, with acts including Whitey, The Bishops, The White Sport, Trafalgar, Objects and Cosmetique. 1-2-3-4 Records hosts an annual festival in Shoreditch, London, which fast became a UK summer festival highlight.

A few of Mane & Chic’s top picks from PPQ’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection.

Click here to see the entire collection.

Spotted these cute little curls modeling ASOS clothes. ASOS is a favorite here at Mane & Chic. OMG the clothes are ridiculous and affordable. Only problem, don’t get too attached to anything you see because often times it’s not available to be shipped to the US. UK ladies, you’re so lucky to have ASOS! Anyway, back to the little curls.

Shot out to the Ralph Lauren brand for seeing the beauty in these little girls and their curls. We love it and we support those that support those that support a more inclusive standard of beauty. I wish I saw more of this as a little girl. I wish I saw more of it as a young adult, I would have gone natural a long time ago. How ironic is it when most of the women in your family, all the real women in your life that you look up to, wear relaxers and the only natural women you see are in ads or on tv? Whatever, we’ll take it however we can get it — for now.

For those that say, “It’s just hair,” it’s so much deeper than that and it started when we were little girls watching our mothers and aunts. You ever think of how going natural has affected little girls that look up to you: your little cousins, nieces, daughters?

Click photos to be taken to RalphLauren.com.

Holly Robinson Peete, most known for her character on Hanging with Mr. Cooper, will star in the latest season of The Celebrity Apprentice. It premieres tonight at 9/8c on NBC. Other cast members Rod Blagojevich, Sharon Osbourne, Bret Michaels, Cyndi Lauper, Darryl Strawberry, Michael Johnson, Bill Goldberg, Sinbad, Summer Sanders, Maria Kanellis, Selita Ebanks and Curtis Stone.