Love is in the hair!

Love is in the hair!

How much do you love, adore and nourish yourself and how does that spill over into how you nurture your Natural? And more importantly, how well can your Natural tell?

Is your hair dry, brittle, color damaged, or just plain flat? Or does it have a luster or shine that dances across each coil, kink and curl? Either way, today’s Love Natural can support you in showing some Love to yourself, starting with your crown.

I met this awe-inspiring sistar during a My Empowerment, My Way: The Goddess Series workshop in Brooklyn and have been walking beside her ever since, Oooh-ing and Aah-ing at just how amazing she is and how her hair reflects one aspect of her undeniable self-Love.

Introducing Love Natural, Andriana Styles! Andriana’s been doing hair since the age of twelve and turned her deepest desires to cultivate healthy hair into attractive styles into her life work five years ago when she graduated from hair school and began working at the Ah Spa in Yonkers, New York.

Andriana personally made the transition back to her natural hair when she decided to cut it nearly three years ago. Inspired by other Love Naturals such as Grace Jones and Diana Ross and thinking to herself,  “I really wasn’t embracing myself,” and “if I love myself, why can’t I love my natural hair”. With that thought, she was off and cut off all of her relaxed hair herself, and got a clean slate with some finishing touches with the help of a barber. Looking into the mirror, Andriana found herself pleasantly surprised and saying, “Wow, this is Me!”

“Me coming into me and being myself. Me becoming Andriana Styles. Me evolving and accepting myself and knowing that’s okay.” 

Till this day, Andriana styles her hair herself and refers to this particular look as a slice of  blonde color with a rat tail in the back. And she continues to bring other curious transitioners into their own Love Naturals style. 

I asked Andriana to share with us a natural hair care color tip, and here’s the scoop. “The shorter the hair, the lighter you can go. You don’t want to dry out the hair and make it brittle.” And if you still want a little help and inspiration, cruise on over to the Ah Spa. Known as the “transition spa”, it’s a hair spa where Andrianna says you can just “forget about everything else and have that moment for [yourself]”.

You can find Andriana Styles on Instagram or email her at andriana15@gmail.com and be the next “ah factor” to step out on to the scene. Tell her Happy Birthday while you're at it!!! And maybe my SLR and I will spot you and capture your beauty-full Love Natural self for our next edition of I Heart My Coil’s Napsodik photoblog.

Until then, and as always, 


Keep It Kinky,

Kymani Jade

I <3 My Coils

Sisters Sisterlocked

Black hair like black people is so diverse and versatile. No one kink, nap, or loc is the same. And our textures vary like fingerprints. This week, we're showcasing a dramatic difference in the way we can loc our natural hair, from the style we shared last week. This week, Napsodik's Love Natural is loc'ed and loaded with over 300 love locs carefully manicured into the amazing style you see before us.

I crossed paths with this Love Natural at an ABADA CAPOEIRA batizado (baptism) for a dear friend of mine, and sat down to speak with her for awhile. This sister's name is Diana Anderson and more than being a Love Natural, she is a dancer of modern/ contemporary dance with African influence and also practices yoga and capoeira, an afro-brazilian dance styled martial art-form. And during the day, Diana serves our community as a special education teacher.

Who says we can't fully enjoy embracing the fullness of ourselves and be happily employed in our natural hair?


Diana like many natural beauties, wears her hair in locs and opted for a type of loc style called sisterlocs. She had them first installed only five months ago. As you can see, sisterlocs are much smaller than traditional, freeform or organic locs. And they are more often than not "installed" by a certified sisterlock technician and not just any hairstylist or loctician.

Interestingly enough though, many do-it-yourselfers have taken the time to master the art of sisterlocking and some even dare to venture into sisterlocking their own hair. Oh the brave and proud few!


Now some of you may be wondering what exactly are sisterlocs and how to go about achieving this intricate and fascinating style. So let us begin with the origin of sisterlocks and how they first came about. 

Just as Madame C. J. Walker is to "relaxing" black hair and the straightening process, Dr. Joanne Cornell is to the black hair care system sisterlocs and how it relates to an appreciation of self.

According to the sisterloc's official website, Dr. Cornwell "is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies and French at San Diego State University. She is also a third generation  entrepreneur and beauty specialist. She has researched African descended cultures worldwide, and understands how deeply hair issues relate to cultural  identity. This understanding was the driving force behind her decision to found  her trademark company, Sisterlocks." And she has authored two books "designed both to provide information about Sisterlocks, and also to focus attention on the historical and cultural reasons why natural, African-type hair is such a thorny issue among African Americans."

For Dr. Cornwell, Diana and many Love Naturals, wearing our natural hair is much more than a fashion statement, it is about an attitude and a lifestyle. For more information on how to get this style or to speak with a certified sisterlock consultant please visit www.sisterlocks.com and search their registry (as shown below) to find the perfect person for you!

And as always, Keep It Natural, Know Yourself!

With Napsodik Love,

Kymani M. Jade

I <3 My Coils

The Pompadour

Welcome back to Napsod!k, the photoblog bringing you closer to the people and stories beneath and behind that neck breaking natural hairstyle you're just living to find out more about. We bump into Love Naturals all of the time and what we want to know is just how they do it, right? So come and join us as we get to know more about the care routines, stylists, D-I-Yers, and locticians who all come together to make Loving our natural hair a bit easier.

This week's Love Natural is a born-beautiful sister whom I met at the Magic Johnson Theatre in Harlem during the season two screening of The Misadventures of the Awkward Black Girl. This sister shall remain nameless but her fashion and style speaks volumes. Introducing, Love Natural #1!

Lovely in lace, this sister's crown is adorned in seven year long love locs which have been highlighted with bronze accents that carefully complement the melanin that holds so true to her beautiful brown hue.

When asked how she styles her hair, the sister shared that she styled her hair herself with a french roll up-like do finished with a Janelle Monae inspired pompadour, fanned out so that it falls arranged just over the forehead like a bang would.

Many of us covet this classic, funky, timeless style in locs or loose hair and may want to know how they too can get this awesome look. Well, I Heart My Coils would like to (re)introduce you to the awe-inspring Chescaleigh of YouTube's hit sensation, "Sh!t White Girls Say... to Black Girls". Follow Chescaleigh's channel, Chescalocs and subscribe for her personal Hair FAQs and a host of video how-to's on loc styles. I did! Check out this alternative take on the style above:

 

And until next week, as always,

Keep it Natural, Know Yourself,
Kymani M. Jade

I <3 My Coils

Welcome to I Heart My Coil's NAPSODIK Photoblog!!!

Top Left: Kymani Jade, Top Right: POZ

Welcome to Napsodik, the best natural hair photoblog you’ll EVER visit... well, since the last one I suppose...and maybe even the next one. But that’s neither here or there. My name is Kymani M. Jade (you may remember me as Fotki's or Nappturality.com's morelyrical)and along with POZ (YouTube’s naturallymeunique) we present to you, I Heart My Coils. You may be familiar with us through Facebook. Well this is us here...(just let your pretty little eyes dance on over to the right).

Whether you’re following “naturallymeunique”, Napsodik, I Heart My Coils or another love naturals site, just remember, there’s no competition. You can be sure that we are ALL going to take you with us through a coily, kinky, springy, natty journey of nappturality -- that is the love of natural hair, it's care, styling, and the empowering attitude it manifests.

This photoblog is for the woman, teen, or man who is excited, eager, ready, NAPSODIK about their organic, natural, hair and how it can be nurtured, maintained and all the versatile ways it can be fashioned and protected. As I sound off in my spoken word piece, perfectly titled "Napsodik", this photoblog is for the “long and bushy, short and wooly... with our nappy afros, parted cornrows, natty lovelocs and kinky twists”.

Napsodik, like rhapsody, is an enthusiastically ecstatic expression of full joy for our natural crowns, and in this photoblog, I capture natural sisters and brothers on the road, in the street, on the subway and the like, and sit with them for a moment to chat about their style, routines and journeys. Then I come back to this comfy (or creepy, I'm still trying to decide) living room like space to share that info with You.

And I hope you enjoy because this, like I said, is bound to be an ab-soul-ute, phenomenal, napsodik adventure. I'll be journaling every week, so stayed tuned for the inside scoop, nook and cranny with this Napsodik Love Natural, right here...
 

Until then, thanks for joining us!

 
Keep it K.I.N.K.Y,

Kymani M. Jade
I <3 My Coils