A Little Change

Syd's look got changed up a little bit today. She's wearing bangs for the first time in her life! She may or may not keep them. And if she keeps them, we will probably cut more to make them thicker. Time will tell, I suppose.

What do you think? Keep them? Grow them out? Cut more? We would love to hear your opinions!

Easy Christmas Style

I hope you all had a great Christmas!

My original goal was to take pictures of Syd's hair, which she styled herself in a simple twist out for Christmas. Unfortunately, I spaced out and didn't take a single picture of the back of her hair. So now all I can do is show you a picture of the twists on Christmas Eve and another of the twist out on Christmas morning. Better than nothing, right? :)

In the picture below, you can see Syd's twists that were done on Christmas Eve. She has a little side part and some pretty chunky twists.

The next morning, Syd removed the twists and put on a headband that she found in her stocking. It was nice to have her hair looking good after using up just few minutes of Christmas morning for styling.

Quick, easy, and cute.....perfect for Christmas morning!

Wordless Wednesday: Spatula or Microphone: You Decide

Want to link up? It's simple! Grab the code below, add it to your post, and add your name to the list!

get the InLinkz code

Wordless Wednesday: Ninja Monkey

Want to add your Wordless Wednesday post to the list? Grab the linky here, add it to the bottom of your post, and add your name to the list!

Product Review: Blended Beauty (Part 1)

I was recently given the opportunity to review a variety of products by Blended Beauty. I will be bringing you the results of these products in two parts because I used different products on two very different heads of hair.

The products I used for part one were Curly Cake Shake and Down & Out Styles, which are both part of the Blended Cutie line.

These products were really put to the test for this review. A family member came to spend the night with us, and for a variety of reasons, her hair had been pushed to the back burner for quite a while. It was in a ponytail, but when I took the ponytail down, I discovered that her hair was extremely tangled and matted.

Instead of feeling overwhelmed, I saw this as an opportunity to see what these Blended Beauty products could do. I used a clarifying shampoo I already had on hand to remove the build up on the girl's hair and then applied a generous amount of Curly Cake Shake. This product is a lotion in a spray bottle and is used for detangling and lightly moisturizing the hair.


The Curly Cake Shake worked like a charm and I was easily able to detangle the matted up hair. I worked in sections, first detangling with my fingers and then moving on to a wide tooth comb. When I finished detangling, I braided each section so it didn't tangle back up and grabbed another section of hair. The Curly Cake Shake provided plenty of slip and I was easily able to detangle each section with no trouble at all.

She slept with those braids in her hair. When she woke up in the morning, I removed one braid at a time, beginning in the back and working my way forward. After removing a braid, I sprayed the section with water and then added Down & Out Styles to the section. I used nothing but my fingers to distribute the product and define her curls. This product left her curls looking and feeling good. They were well defined and moisturized.

After calling to check in with the child's mother, I was pleased to be informed that these Blended Beauty products left her curls looking good for days!

I provided these products with a challenge, and they exceeded my hopes and expectations. I can't help but recommend Curly Cake Shake and Down & Out Styles for detangling, moisturizing, and defining this type of curls!

You can check out blendedbeauty.com to see their full line of products. And be sure to check back here in the near future for an upcoming review where you can see the results of different Blended Beauty products on Syd's hair!

*Note - These products were provided by Blended Beauty for review and at no charge. The opinions expressed are my opinions based on my personal experiences.

Twists and Side Cornrows

We've been in a creative hairstyle slump lately. Life is hectic at this time of year, so we've been sticking with basic twists, twist outs, and ponytails. Here's an easy way to add a bit of interest to an otherwise simple twist style.

I did 6 cornrows halfway back on one side, secured them with lime green rubber bands, and twisted the remaining hair. It didn't take much time at all, but it was a nice change from the "boring" styles she's been wearing so often.

This style had a bit of staying power, as well. After the twists started looking fuzzy, we removed them and she had a twist out for a couple more days.

Relatively quick, easy (as long as you can cornrow), and lasted an entire school week. That makes it a winner in my book!

Wordless Wednesday: Three of a Kind

Wordless Wednesday: Curls Then and Now

Winter Wonderland Giveaway: Huffleblossoms

It's time for the Winter Wonderland Giveaway! This is a huge giveaway event that has been put together by the amazing Brooke, who you may know better as Untrained Hair Mom.

For this event, Tweeny Hair is hosting a giveaway that is near and dear to my heart. We are giving away a set of 9 handmade hair accessories from a brand new business called huffleblossoms. Why is that so near and dear to me? That's easy.....because I'm the one making them!

That's right, Syd and I are launching a new line of hair accessories that will be for sale beginning in January. But the winner of this giveaway will have NINE huffleblossoms flower accessories worth $47!

I'll tell you more about huffleblossoms as we get closer to January, but for now you can take a look at the nine flowers that are up for grabs in this giveaway. You can see each flower individually (along with a detailed description of each one) when you head over to the new huffleblossoms facebook page, which can be found here.

These four flowers are actually made out of duct tape!

These are different sized ruffle flowers, with the medium sized one created with fabric promoting Autism Awareness.

These two are different variations of kanzashi flowers.

This giveaway will run from December 1 - 6. To enter, you can simply use the rafflecopter form below. The winner will be announced December 7.

Be sure to head over to Untrained Hair Mom after you enter here! Not only can you enter to win her prizes, but the Winter Wonderland Grand Prize entry form is on her site, as well. You don't want to miss this!

Wordless Wednesday: Making Baba Smile

Twist - Twist Out - Retwist

Syd has been wearing a LOT of twists lately. It's quickly becoming her signature style. Here's a picture of some medium sized twists she wore last week:

She only wore those twists for one day because we wanted a big, full twist out for our Thanksgiving get together with my family. It was almost painful to remove such pretty twists when they were still looking so good! Luckily, it made for a wonderful looking twist out.

She wore that twist out for two days, but we had to twist her back up because this week is going to be a busy, rainy week and we won't have much time to worry about hair.

Since her twist out was still really defined when I was doing a new set of twists, I decided to let the definition help me out. I simply grabbed each tendril that resulted from the first twists, lightly misted it with just water, and twisted. Her hair still had enough product in it from the first twists, so we didn't have to add any more product.

Each defined section of hair went from this...

...to this!

Since each twist from the first set made two defined tendrils, the second set of twists had twice the number of twists as the first one did. Here was the final result:

These 78 twists (yes, we counted) should definitely get us through the week. Maybe even longer!

Thanksgiving Fun!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you all had a great day!

Check out this picture....Syd was looking fabulous today. She's always thrilled to let her big hair come out to play.

We had a wonderful day with family. Now we're back home and somehow found ourselves playing with the webcam. I thought I'd share some of our fun pictures. Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday: Playing Peekaboo in Guatemala

Sharing the Spotlight: Sophisti-Web-Bun by Beautiful Biracials

Today's spotlight is shining on a style done by Latorria and her daughter, Princess. You may know them from their website, Beautiful Biracial.

Latorria writes:
"Here's a style that can be done for girls at any age. I call it the 'Sophisti-Web-Bun because it's webbed into a bun (obviously lol). This style is definitely for more formal occassions. The flower is completely optional of course."

This style is great because it's can be age appropriate for girls of all ages. And you just can't go wrong with a big flower! Thanks for sharing!

Be sure to head over to Beautiful Biracial to see more styles and get some great hair care info!

We're always looking for styles to put in the spotlight. Check out the Contribute tab at the top of the page to see how your style can be featured!

Wordless Wednesday: Pillow Hair

Box Braids and Curlformers

Syd has been wearing her box braid style for over a week now. She has worn them down almost every day, so there hasn't really been anything interesting to share. Eventually, though, she got bored with the same hairstyle every day and asked me to put her braids into Curlformers.

Usually, we put Curlformers in while her hair is wet and she sleeps in them overnight. I was curious and wanted to know what would happen if we just added a bit of product to her dry hair and then used the Curlformers. So that's what I did. Just a bit of a product with hold onto dry hair and then I put 3 braids into each Curlformer.

Sneaking a brownie with a head full of Curlformers :)

She slept in the Curlformers and we removed them in the morning. Since we started with dry hair, the braids did not curl all the way up to the root like they do when we start with wet hair. Instead, only the bottoms of the braids were curly. Still looked great...especially since this was day 9 of these braids!

We pulled the front part of her hair back into a half-up, half-down style and added a big pink flower. Super cute!

It's definitely getting colder...she's wrapped in a blanket every morning!

And just for fun, I decided to share this picture I snapped of Syd during a dance party with my home daycare kids. Look at those braids fly!

Hair Care in Winter

See that? That picture is proof that winters where we live aren't always nice to us. Snow shovels, boots, and lots of layers are necessities. So are changes to our hair care routine.

Some people completely change the way they take care of their hair every time the season changes. Luckily, Syd's hair isn't that particular, but we do still need to make a few changes to keep her locks at their best. I thought I'd share those little changes in case you find yourself working with a head of unhappy hair this winter.

1. Less Shampoo, More Co-washes
 During the spring, summer and fall, Syd shampoos her hair about once per week and co-washes if needed in between. During the winter, we step up the co-washes to at least once per week and reduce shampoo washes to just once ever two or three weeks.

2. Extra Moisture
Winter air is cold and dry. As a result, Syd's hair needs more moisture during the winter months. We just add a daily leave-in before she leaves for school in the morning, paying extra attention to the ends.

3. More Protective Styles
We keep Syd's hair in more protective styles in the winter than we do during the rest of the year. These styles include cornrows, box braids, and twists. She almost never wears a wash-n-go style in the winter and twist/braid outs are rather rare during those months, as well. Manipulating her strands as little as possible is a big part of keeping her hair happy during those cold, dry months.

4. Choose Hats Wisely
When the temperatures dip down below the freezing mark, hats become necessary. But this doesn't mean your hair has to suffer. There are some amazing satin lined hats out there. Unfortunately, they often cost more than I am willing to pay. But a few years ago, I came up with a cheap and easy fix. I bought a satin sleep bonnet at Walgreens and sewed it into the inside of Syd's hat. It didn't look perfect, but let's face it...nobody ever looks at the inside of someone else's hat!

These few little tricks are usually all it takes to keep Syd's hair soft, happy, and healthy all winter long. If you have any other tips or tricks, be sure to comment and share your info with me and other readers!

Happy Veteran's Day!

Let's prove the picture wrong. 

Yes, today's date is a once in a lifetime kind of thing. Pretty cool. But today is something so much bigger.

Take time out of your day today to thank a vet and remember the sacrifices they make. Our veterans are our heroes. 

To all who have served, THANK YOU!