February '16 Hair Check

NOT a Length Check

I took out my vacation crochet braids recently and felt now would be the right time for a hair check. It's not a length check, but a check to see how my hair now compares to my hair before the two sets of crochet braids.

A Hard Reset

Setting Hair Goals

I've spent the majority of this year trying to do a better job of caring for my hair. Let's just start there.

I spent about five months with my hair under 2 different sew-ins. I needed to hide my hair from myself, protect it, and give it a chance to grow after a major cut. I was successful at doing that and happy with the progress and growth. While my hair was under wraps, I had a heart to heart with myself about how I would approach my hair once it was out. I set some goals. Even thought I haven't been here in a minute, I've started this process already. I needed to lay out the plan here, and do a better job of documenting what's going on, so let's take a look:

Trying Again

My Third Wash and Go

I tried this wash and go style for the third time in my natural life. I'm not a fan of SHRINKAGE!! Summer's coming and I know I'll have to battle very hot weather and humidity. I wanted to jump out in front of the ball by figuring out some styles now that I can wear to combat with the elements!

Since this is a wash and go there aren't too many products or steps to achieving this style, but I'll reveal what I did to get the look along with how I preserved the look overnight.

Girls Weekend

This past weekend was Girls Weekend. I needed a fun break from the very strenuous events that have taken place in my life lately, so even though this lengthy post will highlight the good time I had.

Me & Nicole (@ Pharr Away)!

Way back in February, one of my girlfriends took the initiative to get a group of us together for the Beyonce concert in Charlotte. Now, I like rap and hip hop more than R&B, so if I was looking for concerts to go to this year, the Beyonce concert would not have been on my list. Quick story - During the trip, I decided to play some of her songs on my iPod to get us ready. When I searched her name, I only had 6 songs!! LOL. If it were Drake (95 songs on my iPod) or J. Cole (114 songs)...we would have been good to go...lol...but I digress. I listen to her (I guess just not on my iPod) and from the little bit I've seen and heard she's a good entertainer. I knew this would be a good opportunity to hang out and I didn't want to be a party pooper, so I decided to go with them. It just so happened to be restaurant week in Charlotte too, so we all decided to try a new restaurant as well. There were 32 restaurants in the Uptown area to choose from, so we all narrowed down our choices and decided on going to BlackFinn American Saloon. Let's discuss.

First up, BlackFinn American Saloon.

I've never heard of this place before, but from the menu there were good things to choose from. I ordered:
House Wine: White Zinfandel

Seared Ahi Tuna

-Pretty self explanatory. It was the sweetest of the wines and tasted like Moscato, so I was happy with that.
Starter: Seared Ahi Tuna
-Sushi grade, garlic and pepper crust, seaweed salad, pickled ginger, wasabi, soy sauce)
-I read the description and thought I had an understanding of what would come on my plate, but I was mistaken. The crust was good, but I wasn't a fan of the sushi grade tuna itself. I'll try anything once...I tried it and now I know I don't like it.
Salad: Caesar Salad
-I like my salad a little more on the wet side. This salad was dryer than I would have preferred.
Entree: Lime Seared Salmon

Lime Seared Salmon

-Roasted corn and black bean pico de gallo, rice pilaf, fresh asparagus
-The salmon was good. I could have done with the black bean pico de gallo. This was also my first time trying asparagus and it was very tasty. The rice was good too. It tasted like beef rice-a-roni. LOL
Dessert: Strawberry Shortcake
-pound cake, strawberry sauce, fresh strawberries, whipped cream
-I don't really like pound cake, but I absolutely love strawberries and whipped cream. The edges of the pound cake was burnt side, so I ended up cutting the edges off and eating what was left of the cake with the strawberries and whipped cream.

The Girls

The experience with trying new foods at a new restaurant wasn't all that great, but it wasn't all that bad either. Being there gave us a chance to catch up with each other because I hadn't seen my friends since the last birthday gathering we had in March! It's so hard to keep up with friends these days with everything we all have going on. (Sidenote: I finally got the chance to tell my friend how hard it was to keep her upcoming engagement from her!! We all knew how much she wanted it and when she brought it up at her birthday gathering we were all like...take the key out and zip those mouths!!! I'm just glad none of us spilled the beans.)

After catching up on everyone's life...it was concert time!

The Mrs. Carter Show - World Tour

Luke Jennings was the opening act. As I've said before, I don't like R&B, so I wasn't paying attention to this guy. He was on stage for about 45 minutes. After the fiasco we experienced trying to get into the arena, I needed to rest. Beyonce began right on time...which was awesome! I love timeliness.

Inside the arena

I've seen bits and pieces of this show in different places and even with having done that it was still a different experience seeing it in person.

"All the single ladies...."

I decided to post only one picture. I would hate for the Beyonce police to arrest my blog for posting pictures of her show...LOL!!

To say the least, she's definitely a great performer. I've never been interested enough to go to one of her concerts before. During her last concert tour I heard her ticket prices were outrageous so being the curious person I am I checked it out. From what I remember, the lowest priced tickets were in the mid-hundreds (about $130-$150).

I love a good concert, but I love a good ticket price even more. I've been fortunate enough to see some artists I really wanted to see for some great prices. So I'll just say I have a cap on what I'm willing to pay for a concert ticket.

A few other things about Beyonce. She's a great singer. I remember when she and Destiny's Child came out. I was a little unsure about her singing ability...not saying that she couldn't sing because I loved DC and their albums. I can see the maturation of her voice over time and it's beautiful. She's very pretty and has a GREAT body. If I had to have a body role model, it would be her. She's hippy and wears it very well. I really don't like when she gets too skinny because then she looks awkward. I just feel like she's made to have curves so when they're not there she doesn't look like herself. She has great physique and with that great physique she can dance her butt off!! I wouldn't mind being able to dance like her either but that's a post for a-whole-nother day!

Shrinkage is real.

One last thing, then I'm done! Y'all know how I am with my hair and this shrinkage, right?! My hair was on point Satuday! For some odd reason, I didn't check the weather for the day. I guess I figured, I'm going to this concert with my friends to have a good time so I know it's going to be sunny. Wrong! Unfortunately it rained in Charlotte. Thank goodness it stopped before we got there, but there was so much moisture in the air...and my hair soaked up every little bit of moisture it could. I was so upset...lol...but I learned I need to always keep a headband (or something to tie my hair up into an afro puff with) in the car. If all else fails, I can turn a shrinking afro into a beautiful afro puff in 30 seconds! Lesson learned, my friends, lesson learned.

To say that least I had an excellent time with my friends. When things get rough it helps to be in the good company of people you know have your back, understand you, and love you wholeheartedly. There was food, much laughter, and a great show to top it off!! Oh, the stories we'll tell. We must definitely do it again.

I wish the weekend and the week would switch places, but who am I fooling?! 

Have a great week y'all!

:-)

My favorite post of the week!

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Beach Hair

My little sister got married this weekend y'all (*tear*...and a great big congrats to her) but that's not exactly what this post is about! I don't know what's been going on with the weather lately, but it's been all over the place like a roller coaster. One day it's super hot and sunny, the next day it's cold, and the very next day it's raining cats and dogs! It's hard to prepare outfits for the week let alone figure out what to do with my hair!!

Cute, right? (I'll be doing an OOTD on this next week!)

To make things easier on myself, since I usually don't have a lot of time, I've been wearing different variations of an afro. This would be cool if the weather would pick a weather condition and stick with it, but nooooo...

Prime Example: Last Friday! It was a very hot day, so me and the bf got up and out, bright and early, to play some miniature golf. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, let's look at some temperatures. The high for last Monday was 64...the high on Friday was 90 degrees!! It goes without saying that it was an extremely hot day to be playing mini golf!! However, I got cute and Afro'd my hair for the day and everything went as planned...let's have a look see....

BEACH HAIR!!

So, I'm thinking I'll just do the same thing to my hair for the wedding tomorrow. I was wrong!! It rained that morning plus we were at the beach, so it was moisture in the air times 2!! My afro shrunk so much, it wasn't even funny :-/ (take a look at the picture on your left)  LOL!

Can you tell the difference?? This just tells me that I have to do something different with my hair when it's moist outside...whether it's raining or I'm at the beach...because shrinkage is real!!

I don't exactly know what my solution will be, however...I'm curious. What do you do with your hair when there's so much moisture in the air?!?

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