Sunday Cuteness: A-Keys Cornrows

I can't tell you how much I miss Alicia Keys gorgrous braided designs. She is still amazingly beautiful with straight hair, of course, but I can't help but find myself yearning to see her stunning braids. People say she has adopted a more "polished" or "sophisticated" look. Bah humbug! Braids and cornrows ARE elegant too! To me, that is such an example of looking at Black beauty through a White/Non-Black lens. So I decided to dedicate this Sunday's Cuteness all to Miss Key's lovely braided locks from yesteryear! Summer 'do anyone?!?!

Gotta love the beads. I can imagine it was hard to keep this look going when people are urging you to straighten or "soften" your look to gain crossover appeal.


How can you tell me that these lovely shots below are not elegant. She looks stunning to me with them swept to the side like that!


I used to love the braid wrapped around the front!


When I was in college that was a girl who could do my hair like these. I LOVED it! She only charged 5 dollars!


Just beautiful! She looks like some kind of princess with this one.

She does amazing things by the way with the Keep A Child Alive organization. Click HERE to visit.

My new favorite song...

...by my favorite singer. I have the Spanish version of the Italian CD this was on, so I am hearing it for the first time tonight. I could be disappointed that it took this long and I'm just now hearing it. But then again, it's kind of like discovering a little hidden treasure, like finding money in a pocket you haven't checked in a while. By the way, it was a song she wrote for her sister's wedding. Couldn't you just imagine a lovely bride walking down a rose petal-covered aisle to this? Ahhh...I just love love. *sigh*


Here's the translation:

I Take You
I take you
Your hands
And I take us.
Look at me

I take the one who
Is my tomorrow.
Love me.
I am here

Love me
For however much time next to you
I will tell myself at night
And I will protect you

I will have more feeling together with you
If I think that you have me.
Always close to each other

Ask me today
Ask me today
About sharing with each other
If it will even turn off the darkness

I take you
I take you
Your hands
Love me
I am here
Love me
Love me

For the Fellas...and the ladies too ;)

I know a lot of women worry about what some men might think about them going natural. They wonder if they will still find them attractive, sexy, desirable, or beautiful. Truth be told, some men DO prefer the straight look and considering the fact that they have grown up in this eurocentric culture just like us, that is not much of a shocker. But, I think we sometimes forget that there are sooo many men out there who LOVE natural hair and rock their own fabulous manes in a variety of styles. Some days nothing is nicer that when a man compliments my hair out on the street, making a point to say he appreciates the natural vibe. Love it! So, I wanted to post this video showcasing men with lovely locs, amazing afros, and just cool hair in general. By the way, 4:22 is the hotness.
Tell me what you all think!

I bought this Kawaii Kitty Print print from my mom's Etsy store to hang in my apartment.

Don't forget to comment on yesterday's post to enter into the free cookie giveaway!

Reader Question!!!

Tamandra asked "can you tell us the steps you took to straighten your hair? what products did you use?" Sure Tamandra!




So here is what I did:
1. Washed with Taliah Waajid Total Body Black Earth Shampoo

2. Conditioned with Pantene Relaxed and Natural Mask

3. Sprayed slightly diluted Infusium 23 Leave In Treatment to my whole head

4. Applied Taliah Waajid Black Earth African Healing Oyl to my whole head (I got a sampe of this stuff from the hair show and LOVED it!)

5. Pulled my hair back into a low bun (like I had it for graduation) and applied a scarf - I do this to minimize the blow drying time and it straightens some of the roots in the front.

After these steps I let it dry a little so that the front would be pretty much be flat.
Then, I blew out my hair (on medium) in sections, detangling as much as I could beforehand. After that, I flat ironed in sections with a Revlon Ceramic flat iron . I could see where many of my ends had those annoying little knots so I took that as an opportunity to trim. I ended up taking off up to an inch in some places but at least a fourth of an inch in others. I then curled my hair with Revlon 3/4 inch curling irons.

At night I have been adding a little coconut oil to the ends, putting my hair in a satin bonnet and that's it!

What I would do differently next time:

1. Prep freshly washed hair with some kind of heat protectant before or after the leave-in.

2. Instead of pulling hair into bun ( I used to do this a long time ago when I straightened but since my hair is so much longer it does not work as well), I would make four braided sections to let my hair dry.

3. Not do it during summer since, duh, it's so freakin humid.

So that's it! Any suggestions???

Free Cookies!

I'm holding my first free cookie giveaway! Leave your comment and I will randomly select one lucky person next Friday, May 29, to receive a Fabric Pattern Cookie Sampler, which comes with 6 of my super delicious Orange Vanilla Spice Cookies.

To see these and more fabulous cookies, visit my Etsy store.

E-STAN

ESTAN
Originally uploaded by iwantapony

'poo did the hair for this fun saturday afternoon photo party?

photos-jill johnson
set-amy & mike
hair/makeup-kari
model-estan