The Past Year .... Work/ Coporate Wardrobe and Natural Hair

It's been a HUGE learning curve for me. I wasn't too impressed with my hair's progress. I suppose that's why we call this a "hair journey." You live and learn. I didn't have any set backs as such, but I didn't see as much progress as I had expected.

What do I think was the problem? Well, I was wearing a lot of plats and twists (without extensions), which I was redoing every 2 weeks or so. I gather that was too much manipulation for me. While I think they were better for my hair than having it out all the time, I think I would have seen more progress had I chosen a longer-term style.

I see other ladies being able to keep in their twists or plats for longer, but I couldn't do it. It would get too untidy to be presentable for work, so I redid mine often.

I also started working in June in the industry I studied for. I wanted to make a good impression and dressed really well (semi-coporate), even though no-one else did. It was an entry level position while I was on the homestretch to finishing my degree. You know, the whole dress-for your-next-position-type-thing. Before, I make my point, it may be good to add that there are not many black people where I live. So, I didn't want to wear extensions because I felt that if I took them out, I'd have to be answering too many questions that I didn't want to. It would cause people to focus on my hair rather than my work. So I wore my hair in a bun for the first 2 months or so .... which I redid everyday. Yes : (. As a natural 4b this is something I learnt I shouldn't do for 2 months straight. For a few weeks, it's absolutely fine, but by 2 months, it will have taken its toll.

After those two months I'd settled into the job well. So I started up again with the twists and plats which I tied back in a bun. Much better than the lose hair bunnning! But I redid them every 2 weeks or so ... which for me, is too much manipulation. This carried on into my next "real" job after graduating about 5 months later. Stictly coporate, so I went back to bunning for the first couple of months .... then into the bunned twists and plats ... until I unleashed the yarn braids on them!! LOL. This was after the 3 month probationary period was over.

You probably know how that went. How did you do it? How long did it take? Oh, is it painful? WHAT?? You do them yourself? How do you do the back?! People touching the braids with their dirty hands. One of my Eastern European coworkers who likes to think she knows everything 'black' said in an ebonics-type accent, "girl, you should get a weave!" While rolling her neck and bobbing her head from side to side. I just smiled and continued working. AND THEN, she came back to tell me my hair was "unbeweavable." LOL.

So yes, it did cause a bit of a shift of focus to my hair for a couple of weeks. But I suppose I felt that I had established myself in the new job for it not to matter too much. I didn't want my hair to define or influence too much while I was still starting. I wanted people to just focus on me being a good worker in those first 3 critical months while I started my career.

It's funny. Part of this work thing is really a game. You have to learn to play smart. Especially if you're Black and Natural.

So, I'm opening up the floor. I know natural hair in the workplace has been discussed on a lot of blogs. BUT I truly and genuinely want to know, if you're natural, how have YOU handled your hair in the workplace? Have you felt limited in your styling choices? Have you used the gradual, unleasing technique (LOL) like I did?

Yarn Braids - Yarn Braids/ Genie Locs Directory of Sorts

So in my last post, I promised to make a post that would serve as a type of yarn braids directory. Like a one stop shop of links, to save you from having to trawl through hundreds of websites for information. Some of these links I've used and revisited again and again. Some I think maybe to useful to others.

Please note that this is a work in progress and will be updated as I find more links. So bookmark this page and check back regularly. If you have links that you think may be helpful to others and want it added here, leave me a comment and I'd be happy to. Here goes!


Yarn Braids Videos

Vlog - Yarn on the Brain

My Yarn Braid Results

Yarn Braids

My Yarn Braids Experiences (Answers and Styles)

Yarn Braids

Yarn Braids - Results

My Genie Locs/ Yarn Braids



Yarn Braids - How To's

Yarn Braids - how to start and end a yarn braid (demonstration, not talking)

Yarn Braids Tutorial - how to start and end a yarn braid (talks you through)

Yarn Braids / Genie Locs - nice close up of how to start a yarn braid and how to end it, with great style pics at the end (demonstration, no talking).

Camouflaging Your Hair in the Braid or Yarn Braids - You know how you get those frizzies sticking out of the braid, especially if your hair is natural? Here's a potential solution. Haven't tried it. Let me know if it works for you! (talks you through).

Yarn Braid Tutorial - One of the best braiding tutorials I've ever seen. She does such a good job of explaining step by step. Not a fan of the color combination, but that's besides the point (talks you through).


A note for those who are new to braiding: A few of the tutorials will have a different way of starting the yarn braids, braiding and ending the braids. Watch a few of the videos and see which methods you're more comfortable with. You can combine techniques from different videos if that works. Don't get overwhelmed. There's no single way of doing this!


Yarn Braid Photo Albums

Yarn Braids/ Genie Locs - by Kellum (she has lots of styles here too!)

tjk25's album - tjk25 was my inspiration for yarn braids, he's made a lot of progress with the, lots more albums on his fotki.

My Yarn Braids - by Kaleela1


To be continued ...

Yarn Braids - Yarn Braids/ Genie Locs Photos Finally

Drum roll please!! I know I promised to post pictures of my yarn braids forever and a day ago. Better late than never. Here they are:

This set of yarn braids has been in for about 6 weeks. I re-did my edges after about 3 weeks, so they are due to be re-done again soon.

I'm really enjoying these braids. But I'm still yet to improve on the styling front.

This has been my only attempt at a real style. I'm going to go through BlackOnyx's Youtube channel again and look for quick yarn braid styles. Another trick I found is to also looked at styling videos from ladies with proper locs. The end result with yarn braids is very similar. Clearly, I haven't really been putting effort into trying all the beautiful styles I've found. lol. That's about to change the! In one of my next posts, I'll make a yarn braid video directory of sorts so that you won't have to dig around too much.

Anyway, so far here are the pros and cons of yarn braids:

Pros

• Easy to maitain
• Light
• Gentle on my edges
• My hair was soft and moisturized when I look out my edges

Cons

• Take ages to dry when washed
• Laborious to take down

Clearly the pros are outweighing the cons. I'm really happy with the way my hair is coming along. I've also had good growth:

The red line is at about 1.5 cm (around 0.6 inches). So give or take, I'd say I'm hair has been consistently growing at the normal average hair growth rate of 0.5 inches per month.

A maintainance/ washing/ conditioning/ regimen post will be coming up soon. Stay tuned!

Bobbi Brown Pretty Powerful - Vote for Amina

A fellow natural, Amina, is a semi-finalist in the Bobby Brown Pretty Powerful contest. She's a product junkie like a lot of us. Her blog Coup de Coeur has tons of reviews of hair, make up and bath and beauty products. She has the cutest video entry:

Pretty Powerful Sponsored by Bobbi Brown

You can vote multiple times, no need to register. Just one click! So please bookmark the page and vote as many times as you can. I just even got the SO to vote! lol.

Yarn Braids - I Did yarn braids/ genie locs!

These yarn braids took forever and a day to do but I'm so happy I did them. It's been about 2 weeks since I put them in. I know, I need a smack for not updating sooner. Better late than never, right?

Ok, I'll go straight to the point as to why I'm absolutely loving these yarn braids/ genie locs:

• They are extremely light. So they don't pull on my hair at all, especially my edges. This was the whole reason I'd given up on extensions ever since April 2009. But these babies are extra gentle on my hair. There are quite a lot of them, but they're not heavy at all.
  

• The yarn is soft and I'm guessing this limits breakage as it doesn't cut into my hair.

• I've just undone my hairline today (since it's been two weeks) and my hair is well moisturized, as opposed to being dry and breaking when I use normal extensions.

• I'm loving the 'locs' look!
  

What I don't like?

• They take FOREVER to dry when they are washed. Well what did I expect, really? It's like trying to dry a thick cardigan on the washing line. Of course it's going to take a while. Duh, Urban! lol. But I haven't been going anywhere special lately so it doesn't bother me too much. Even then, once they've dried out for a 2-3 hours, you can pretty much leave the house, without dripping water everywhere.

• That I had to burn the ends. I hate burning braid ends because they stick to and pull on clothes. I tried the knotting the end method, but that started unraveling after a couple of days. Maybe I should've sealed them in hot water?

• If you have xray vision like I do, and look very very closely ... umm... i think the yarn is kinda turning blue??? : o But it's a very dark blue which I don't think you can notice unless you're very... very close to my head ... and well, I don't plan on having anyone that close to my head so I think I'm good.

Yeh, I see you tapping your foot impatiently, "Urban, you're not posting about a new hair do without pictures are you?" Well yes and no. I am, but only till the next post (in a couple of days), I promise I'll have pictures of my yarn braids in that. I'll also be doing posts on:

How to do yarn braids
How to maintain yarn braids (moisturizing, a few styles, products, tips, etc)

For now have a look at my yarn braid inspirations:

TJK25's fotki
Blackonyx's YouTube

Talk to you soon ladies (and gents?!).