Don't Touch My Hair: Why You Need a Real Hair Stylist
Weekly Recap & Why you need a routine hair appointment with a licensed hair stylist.
WEEKLY RECAP
I welcomed in the new year with a nice slow week full of me just getting into/maintaining my routines. Thankfully the first week back to work was relatively chill (I say this as someone with a very demanding job so my “chill” probably looks a lot different than other people’s lol). My main priority was making sure I still stuck to my self-care and home routines each day. One of my intentions for 2024 is to not take my pre & post-work time for granted. I work from home, which is a blessing, so as long as I wake up early enough I’m usually able to take my time getting ready in the morning and pour into myself before I head into my office and open my laptop. Currently, I get off of work at 4pm and I’ve pretty much headed straight over to the gym each day this week. Our apartment gym is small so I love getting there as early in the afternoon as possible to hopefully beat the crowd of people who don’t get off until 5pm or 6pm. After the gym comes taking my dog for a walk and then my post-workout shower & skincare. My evenings were pretty much a combination of prepping dinner, house chores, reading, watching YouTube etc. before settling into bed.
DON’T TOUCH MY HAIR
My routine hair appointment also fell during this week so ya girl is feeling herself something heavy! Listen, there was a time in my life where I thought it was best for me to save my money and do all my hair care at home but, while that’s great for those who have the skills to do that, want to know where it got me? With extremely damaged hair and being forced to “big chop” my hair (the shortest it’s ever been) in order to course correct. This was late 2021. Don’t get me wrong, nothing is wrong with short hair but, girl, I have a big head and a TWA or Auntie Pixie look just isn’t for me. I attribute that damage to a combination of laziness in routine and lack of knowledge of my hair and the products I was putting in it. So now? Girl, I don’t take real hairstylists and routine appointments for granted. Emphasis on real, because I’m not wasting my time or money on unlicensed IG hairstylists who require you to come with your hair already washed and don’t know how to do anything other than lay frontals (and only on women Lauren London’s skintone or lighter). I prefer my hairstylists to not only be licensed but to cleanse and nourish my scalp, know how to care for my hair (whether relaxed or natural) and operate themselves with professionalism (but still be someone you can kiki with).
As I mentioned before, I am a relaxed girlie but I do stretch out my relaxers for at least 13 weeks now to ensure I’m not doing any excess damage to my hair. This week, however, I got a sew-in and my hairstylist and I opted to only relax the portion of my hair that was being left out and to leave the rest of my new growth unprocessed since it was just going to be braided up. Braiding relaxed hair can cause excess breakage and it’s also just harder (but not impossible) for stylists to grip. Being intentional with my hair care routines and being picky about the hairstylists I allow to touch my scalp is the reason why I currently have healthy relaxed hair that has grown past my shoulders in just the two-years it’s been since I chopped it all off. I write all of this to say, one of the best things you can do for your hair is to invest in it and make it part of your monthly or quarterly routine/budget to have a licensed hairstyle nourish your scalp. You won’t regret it.
Don’t know where to start? Do what I did and ask your friends! Full transparency, I have only been going to my current hairstylist for a few months, after having to let my last one go, but I found her via a recommendation from my girl Caty (thanks Caty!) and I trusted her because I knew my friend wasn’t going to steer me wrong. Especially not when it comes to hair. Don’t have a friend to ask? Get online (and I don’t mean Instagram). Don’t get me wrong, a hairstylist being on Instagram isn’t a bad thing. In fact, I think it’s great for hairstylists to be on Instagram in order to promote their work and find new clientele. But I don’t recommend someone’s Instagram being the only research as you do. Instagram doesn’t have reviews. Go onto StyleSeat or Booksy to locate local stylists - check their work (usually their profiles have photos of their work and they’ll also have their Instagrams linked), their prices, their policies AND their reviews (fyi, Google and Yelp also may have reviews). This is your hair girl, don’t let just anyone touch it. Cue Solange…
WEEKLY R.E.P.O.R.T. CARD
Reading: Circe by Madeline Miller. I purchased this book almost two years ago after hearing so many great reviews from people and I am only just now cracking it open.
Eating: Vegan cookies from Sprouts. Also drinking Kin Euphorics (non-alcoholic beverages). Please note that the one in the above below, “Energizing”, tastes like straight ass lol. But I also tried out their “Calm” drink (blue can) and it tasted good!
Pinning: February nail inspo & work-from-home outfit inspo. Excited to get my nails done for Galentine’s/Valentine’s Day. Also, trying to make more of an effort to actually get dressed for work everyday even though my office is right across the hall from my bedroom.
Obsessing: over Get Fit with Rick YouTube videos. My mom and little brother actually got me hip to him and his walking workout videos. Perfect way to make sure I get my steps in everyday.
Recommending: 1-800Contacts. I talked about this before but I am still on a high from how convenient this service was for my 6-month contacts refill.
Treating: myself to an abundance of selfies after getting my hair done. Nothing makes you feel more like a baddie than freshly laid hair.
MY CURRENT WORKOUT SPLIT:
if you’re curious…
Sunday - Pilates/Flexbility Day
Monday - Treadmill Day
Tuesday - Upper Body/Core Day
Wednesday - Leg Day
Thursday - Rest Day
Friday - Upper Body/Back Day
Saturday - Active Rest Day
DECEMBER 2023 BOOK
Good as Dead by Susan Walter (Genre: Thriller, Suspense)
Synopsis (from Goodreads): Holly Kendrick’s husband is dead. Holly saw it all. In one violent moment, a hit-and-run accident turns Holly’s life upside down. Then a fixer for the high-powered guilty party approaches Holly with an offer she is in no position to refuse. Holly and her daughter, Savannah, will want for nothing, beginning with a luxury dream house—all for the price of their silence. But when their sudden appearance in privileged Calabasas, California, piques the curiosity of neighbors, the price becomes greater than they imagined. Because Holly and Savannah aren’t the only ones in the neighborhood with something to hide. Told from alternating points of view, Good as Dead draws together an unlikely group of people bound to one another by a crime, a cover-up, and compounding deceptions. As carefully constructed lives begin to crumble, how far will everyone be willing to go to bury the truth and protect the people they love?
My Review: Great set up that gets you engrossed into the story right away but it does start to drag in the middle making you wonder how things were going to eventually connect. The plot twist is jaw dropping but the ending wrapped up everything up too quickly for my taste.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 3.5 / 5 Stars.
A PODCAST I’VE ENJOYED LATELY
For the Girl who is ready to step into a new era of ‘Her’…
Bonus: This episode of For The Girls was great but I’m not sharing it due to the main topic of the episode. I’m actually sharing it because the host starts off talking about the recent passing of her dog and I empathized deeply with her. My own dog was recently very sick with pneumonia and we almost lost her… literally, if we hadn’t trusted our guts and taken her into the emergency vet when we did then we would’ve lost our girl in just a matter of hours. Mind you, she’s only a year old and otherwise very healthy and strong — to give you a sense of how severe the pneumonia was. Much like the host, I used to be one of those people who never really understood how people got so attached to their pets and would call off work/school due to the death of pet. But now, having my first dog, I get it. When you spend everyday raising, feeding, teaching, playing with, and caring for your pet — they become your family. Losing them is as scary as losing a family member. I was an absolute emotional mess the night we almost lost her and I am forever grateful to the vets who saved her life, and thankful that I have many years to look forward to with her. I share this because I hope that those of you who do not have pets, and may not understand how devasting the loss of one can be, will take care to show a little more compassion to anyone you know who may be greiving the loss of their loved pet.
And if you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading! 🖤✨
xoxo,
Bae