*Prepared for BGLH by Meosha Tall of 1MeNaturally
Introduce yourself!
A: My name is Ari. I’m from Detroit and I live in the Chi.
Why did you make the decision to go natural?
A: This is actually my second go at being natural. I’m pretty sure I’m sticking with it. I went natural because I got sick of relaxing my hair and I couldn’t afford it. When I was considering going natural again, one of the dudes I was crushing on at the time saw a picture of my hair when I was natural in high school and he had a fit. I thought, “Oh snap, I must be hot.” That helped concrete my decision. Man that makes me sound shallow, lol. When I chopped it off, it felt like a weight had lifted off my shoulders and you couldn’t tell me nothing about my hair. I’ve been natural now for 4 ish years, almost 5 I think.
How would you describe your texture?
A: I think my hair is a mix between 4a and 4b. I have thick strands but medium to thin hair…I think. And it shrinks to about 50% of its natural length. My hair is between my shoulders when it’s straight and shrinks to my ears.
Describe your styling regimen over the course of the month.
A: Throughout the month my styling is all over the place. I wash it once a week, or once every two weeks. I wear it out a lot, but pin ups are my favorite too. I love my faux Bette Davis Bangs :). I have also been getting into mini twists and braids lately! I use coconut oil and shea butter mostly and R&B from Lush Cosmetics. I also make my own flax seed gel.
What does wash day look like for you?
A: I wash my hair in six braids to make detangling and product distribution much more effective. I wash with Shea Moisture Moisture Retention Shampoo. It’s super moisturizing and my hair feels so soft after washing. Then I condition using Nature’s Gate Jojoba or Aloe Vera Conditioner and detangle. I then put the braids into whatever stretch technique I want to do, or a protective style using shea butter and coconut oil to seal, and/or flax seed gel. I re-twist when I feel like I need to and add some moisture with shea butter and water.
Describe your favorite go-to hairstyle for days when you don’t have a lot of time to style.
A: An extremely high messy bun or neat ones sometimes too I guess. I like big messy buns the best though.
How do you combat shrinkage?
A: I stretch my hair with twists or braids. If it shrinks after that, I just go with it.
Tell us about your hair color?
A: I had it professionally dyed a long time ago. It’s probably been a year. I don’t really know what they used, but it didn’t affect my texture at all. I also don’t re-bleach often but when I do I make sure to deep condition the day before.
What are some of your problem areas (if any) that require special care and attention?
A: My ends definitely need some extra love. I’m always moisturizing them.
What are 2 do’s for your texture?
A: DAMP styling, not wet or dry. DAMP. This cuts down on breakage for my hair type. Also, creamy products and buttery sealants.
What are 2 don’ts for your texture?
A: Bad combing Techniques. My coils are too tight to even attempt that nonsense. And not washing after two weeks. I learned that the hard way.
Is there a blog/webpage where we can find you?
A: http://thriftstoremaven.tumblr.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/user/rockyfiend90?feature=watch
Gorgeous girl with gorgeous hair!!! And to BGLH: I really, really, really wish you would change the way we view photos on this site. It is such a nuisance to individually click on each photograph & be taken to a new page. With the pictures the way that they are, it makes me not even want to view the Style Icons feature, which is unfortunate because I really, really want to. I know you guys want higher page views; trust me, I get it. But I’m pretty sure I can speak for most of your audience when I say that it would… Read more »
+1
+2. It’s a nuisance to be directed to a new when I take a peep at a picture or two. You have beautiful hair Ari. I like the versatility.
On a side note, is it possible to have some of these style icons do a tutorial or two when they are featured? There are so many wonderful styles shown and no description or video to show how they did it.
Hey, If you want to you can go to my youtube or tumblr and tell me what hairstyle you wanna see. Lemme know.
Ev’Yan… The gallery feature is not as functional as we’d like it to be, but we did have to switch to this model because of the increasing number of style icon photos we receive. When the site first started we got, maybe, 2 or 3 photos per style icon, which we posted throughout the feature. Now we receive, on average 10 to 12, which makes it harder to post within the feature without creating an annoyingly long page. We are currently working on a site redesign, so we can work on installing a new gallery function that is easier to maneuver,… Read more »
I don’t think anyone would mind pushing numbers 1–5 to look at hair pics, it was just a pain doing that for text.
Thanks for the response, Leila. I apologize for assuming that you have the gallery feature that way it is to increase page views. While I see so many bloggers try to manipulate their readers, it wasn’t fair for me to lump you into that category. I’m not sure if you use WordPress, but if you do, there’s a free plugin you can install that will fix the problem until you guys do the site redesign. Check out Lightbox. When people click on an image, it’ll pull up a box on the same page with the enlarged picture & we can… Read more »
I really really admire your honesty Ari, in all your answers. It made reading intresting. Also, I agree to your point not washing hair after 2 weeks, I dont know if we experience the same consequences, but my hair breaks if I dont wash it every week..great article 🙂
It TOTALLY broke…and it took two hours to detangle lol
You have beautiful hair
First time I saw that top picture I thought it was just the light that gave your hair those colors…then I read on and saw your hair was actually dyed! WOW…besides those being among my favorite colors, they’re one of my favorite color combinations. Gorgeous! 🙂
Beautiful hair! I usually style my hair when dry and never thought about doing that when damp. I usually spread my wash days over the course of 2 afternoons, so when it’s time to twist my hair — it’s completely dry. May give the damp styling a try though.
Thanks for sharing!
I Looooove the colours in her hair!
Beautiful hair and lady. Go team type 4.
I love every colour in her hair, especially the blue. I never imagined I would like blue hair except in an anime. Makes me want to colour my hair so badly
I just love her hair and colors and style. What did she use to get the blue and purple streaks?
I used whatever the stylist used. Whenever i dye it myself I use Punky.
Would it be possible for you to make a tutorial of the hairstyle in that first major picture in the article? I’ve been trying for ages to get bigger curls like that but haven’t really succeeded in it.
Yes Ma’am, Im currently on a protective styling kick, but i will definately do it.
Hi! You said u had thin hair Fo wat did u do to get it at the volume it is now b/c I have thin hair & the same texture as u 🙂
I dont really know, I just fluff and fluff
My hair is something like this but super dense. It has coils everywhere but my twa shrinks extremely tight. Looking for some advice in managing my type of hair. I just cut my relaxer off. Will it ever stop being dry?