Natural Hair Updo Tutorial

A lot of naturalistas are of the opinion that styling their hair is difficult to do. Even some of the styles i shared in my Simple Natural Hair Style series, some people would say were hard to achieve. But really if you just break up styles into different steps, then you can easily copy some of the natural hair styles you see.

Recently I did an Instagram takeover for African Naturalistas and I shared the great news that my husband and I are expecting our first child. I wasn't 100% sure if i would do a maternity shoot but decided to do so at the last minute. A month prior to the shoot i had seen a tutorial for a pretty hairstyle on Instagram and decided to recreate it for the pregnancy shoot.

I didn't get a picture of the hair itself from the shoot day but i managed to take a phone picture a few days afterwards.

I hope this inspires you to try new styles with your hair and not be intimidated when you see lovely styles online.

Best wishes for the weekend!

Easy Natural Hair Styles - Part 6

Welcome to the last hair style from this easy natural hair styles series. There was actually another hair style (a side puff) but I forgot to film it, and only took photos. I hope you have enjoyed the series, and seen that if you're pressed for time, and aren't too good with your hands, you can still manage at least 6 easy hairstyles.

Thanks for following me along this series!

Berry Dakara.

Easy Natural Hair Styles - Part 5

Hi there,

Today's the second to the last easy natural hair style I will be showing you. This is actually a natural hair high/mega bun - remember when I showed a tutorial a few weeks ago. I decided to try it out myself and I think it came out okay - could have been better though, but it's all good.

Again, remember the hair styles in this series can be done in a matter of 2 minutes or less!

Have a lovely weekend everyone. I know there's a holiday on Monday, which happens to be my birthday as well.

Also, don't forget to log on to African Naturalistas Instagram this Sunday, as I will be doing a takeover and showing you my wash day with our products!

Berry Dakara.

Easy Natural Hair Styles - Part 4

We're just about halfway through this little series of my easy natural hair styles. You might be wondering why I didn't just post a video with everything at once... well, some people may not want to watch a long video; also I wanted to show you how QUICK these styles are - some of which can be done in a minute or two.

Easy Natural Hair Styles - Part 3

Hi there!

I'm back with Part 3 of my Easy Natural Hair Styles. This one is particularly easy and simple to achieve. I like simple natural hair styles that take literally less than a minute to do, and this is one of them.

Come back next week for another easy natural hairstyle! Have a lovely weekend.

Berry Dakara.

Easy Natural Hair Styles - Part 2

This is a continuation of my Easy Natural Hair Styles series. Please see Part 1 here.

This is easily one of my favorite styles, as it's easy and looks like I put in effort, when it really takes a short amount of time and just 2 bobby pins.

I have a few more styles up my sleeve and will be sharing in the upcoming weeks.

What are some of your go-to natural hairstyles?

Berry Dakara.

Easy Natural Hair Styles for 4C Hair - Part 1

Last weekend I filmed a video showing some of my easy, go-to natural hairstyles, but for the benefit of African Naturalistas, I'll break it down into short snippets that I'll share over the next 6 weeks. My first hairstyle was a simple braid out, turned into a parted afro.

Check back next week for Style 2,which was easy to transition to from this style.

Have a nice weekend!
Berry Dakara.

HIGH BUN - Natural Hair Style Tutorial

I like BIG BUNS and I cannot lie! Actually, that's not really true. I prefer the smaller, simple, classic buns, but for today's tutorial I decided to try the large, high buns that make you look like you're carrying a house on your head :p

Check out the video below for the tutorial. If you don't have much data, then check the pictorial from Nappily Nigerian Girl. And finally, my results at the end :)

Nappily Nigerian Girl

If your hair is short and you want to try something similar, check out my faux bun tutorial here.

Berry Dakara.

TWISTED KNOTS Natural Hair Style

Earlier this week, I came across this very simple but elegant hairstyle on Youtube by Naturally Temi. I've decided that when I share videos on various hairstyles, it would only make sense for me to include my own attempts at recreating them. This was a very easy natural hair style to try and you can see my results at the bottom!

I think it's a cute hairstyle, and a nice variation of the bun (I've shared about natural hair buns before here, here and here), and it's easily a style I could wear for a few days, provided I keep the style wrapped up at night.

What do you think of the style, and my attempt?

Have a great Easter Weekend! God bless.
Berry Dakara.

Is Long Natural Hair More Beautiful?

While scrolling on Instagram the other day, I came across a post by Aisha (who we featured as a Natural Hair Bride). She wrote about how she got quite a bit of negativity when she cut her hair. If you're not familiar with her, this is what her hair used to look like.

Source

And this is what is looks like now.

She actually wrote a blog post about it, and how some people actually unfollowed her because her hair was now a tapered TWA. First of all, this is not the first time she has cut her hair, so I'm not sure why people responded in that manner. Additionally, she explained why she cut her hair - due to postpartum shedding. However, I don't think it's anybody's "business" as to what you decide to do with your hair and why.

I remember once reading a recap of a natural hair event in Lagos, and in the comments, someone said something in regards to Felicia Leatherwood (who I've written about here and here). The comment was something to the effect of, "What can anybody possibly learn about natural hair from someone who has low cut?"

Even when you look online, those with long natural hair generally have more followers than people with shorter natural hair. And that's funny because most of the comments you see are "How I wish I had long hair like yours." or "When will my hair reach that length?" So if your hair is still in the short or medium stage, why are you seemingly shunning people with the same length of hair, in favor of someone with long hair that takes more work and care to handle? Could it be that subconsciously we don't think shorter hair is as beautiful as long hair?

What do you think?
Berry Dakara.

Braid Out on Natural Hair

We saw a video yesterday from Chizi Duru, and I'm about to share yet another video from her. Let me tell you why I like her videos. First of all, her hair texture looks like mine. It's very important that when you watch Youtube videos for hair tutorials, you're following people with similar hair texture to yours. Secondly, I like that her styles are not complicated at all. Don't you get a little sad and irritated when you watch videos with techniques that just fly by you? Thirdly, I like that her videos are short and straight to the point. Ain't nobody got time for loooooooooooooooooooooooong videos.

With that being said, check out her video on how to do a braid out on natural hair.

Similar products that you can use are our AN Leave-In Conditioner, our AN Gel, and any of our Oils. Check the African Naturalistas Store now and pick out your products!

Have a great weekend!
Berry Dakara.

Individual Crochet Faux Locs Styling

I still have my individual crochet locs on my head, and at this rate I'm not 100% sure when I'll take them off, because I'm lazy I keep finding new ways to style them. I thought I'd share photos of some of the styles I've done - and all of them were done WITHOUT any tools at all. Not one hair band, or pin, or anything!

What style's your favorite? Let me know in the comments!

Berry Dakara.

Caring For Your Hair in a Protective Style

I've had my self-styled individual faux locs for about three weeks now, and while I plan on taking them down soon, I am trying my best to make sure I take care of the style, as well as my hair underneath. As far as moisturizing goes, I've been doing the following:

1. African Naturalistas Daily Hair Mist - I try to spray my hair at least every other day. This gives my hair and scalp much needed moisture.

2. I follow it up with the African Naturalistas Anti-Dandruff Herbal Spray -

3. Then I apply Leave-In Conditioner (Cantu or African Naturalistas) to my roots. When I did the hairstyle, I attached the locs loosely to my roots, so that I would have easy access to them.

4. I apply African Naturalistas Hair Growth Oil Elixir to my scalp.

5. I finally finish with the African Naturalistas Anti-Breakage Butter Lotion (and sometimes, add the butter as well).

These steps have largely kept my scalp and hair in pretty good shape.

Individual Crochet Faux Locs!

As you might remember, I did crochet faux locs 2 years ago - see post here. I absolutely loved the look on me, and think it was one of my best looks ever. It hurt a lot for the first few days though, so I was never sure I'd try them again.

However, I found a new method of getting crochet faux locs done and amazingly was able to recreate it myself!

The method I used is in the video below:

What do you think? Is it something you might like to try?

Natural Hair Bun - Different Ways!

I'm all about the LOW natural hair bun these days. I had been thinking about putting my hair in that style for a while, and after I saw Michelle Obama's low bun at the recent Presidential Inauguration, I knew that I was definitely doing mine. I've posted a video and tutorial here on how I achieve a natural hair bun, so you can check it out if you want to do the same.

Anyways, one thing I like about bunning your hair is that you can put the bun in different positions.

From a Mega High Top Bun...

Source - Rehairducation

To a Regular Bun like this...

To a Low Bun like this...

Source - Whitney Madueke on Bella Naija

Source - The Chameleon Blogger

Or a Side Bun like this...

Pinterest

I like that buns are so versatile, and are instantly classic and chic. What style of bun is your favorite?