Baltimore Natural Hair Expo

Hello!

Two weekends ago I was on Instagram (as per uzsh) and I saw that Tiffani from JiHe Jewelry had posted a pic from the Baltimore Natural Hair Expo.  She wrote that Miko Branch of Miss Jessie's, a brand of hair care products that I love, was there doing a Q&A session and giving out samples!  I left a comment saying that I looove Miss Jessie's and Tiffani wrote back and said that I should come!  I looked up where it was...it was right by our apartment!  I walked over there and met her at the front!!

Right when I walked in Tiffani showed me the Miss Jessie's booth.



I got right in line to take a picture with Miko!  She is so friendly and nice, and has such cute hair, of course!





I told her that I learned about Miss Jessie's when I got a sample of their Leave-In Condish in one of my first Birchboxes.  I've used it ever since!

She has a book coming out and you could preorder it there.

Everyone got a bag with a bunch of great samples in it!  So exciting!!



The building where it was - the Fifth Regiment Armory - is HUGE!



The picture is a little blurry, but you can sort of see how huge it is inside (this shows maybe half of the building)!

There were so many vendors selling clothing (I saw a lot of pretty Ghana fabric!), hair and body products, jewelry, books, and even food.





Tiffani had her JiHe Jewelry booth there so I spent some of my time there and some of the time walking around looking at the other booths!



There was also a stage set up where they had fashion shows and people speaking.



After I walked around for a little bit, Tiffani and I went back so she could meet Miko, too!



We took a pic together :)



I saw a few other people that I knew there!  I chatted with Danielle from Sweet Tea and Cornbread for a while.  Tiffani and I saw Michelle (Thea's intern who I met at the first Exchange), too!  I also saw Madonna who sold jewelry at The Exchange last month!

I was there probably about an hour and a half.  I had improv rehearsal at 6pm so I couldn't stay until the end, but I'm so glad I got to go!

Oh!  Look at this super cute necklace I bought from JiHe Jewelry.



I can't wait to wear it!

When I was leaving, I asked a woman at the Miss Jessie's booth if I could take an extra bag of samples for my cousin Brookie and she said yes!  That was so nice :)  I'm going to send them to her soon!

Thanks for reading!

PYT Hair Ceramic Styling Tool

Hi!

While we were in St. Louis, we went to the Galleria (a huge mall!).  When we were about to leave, a guy at one of the kiosks stopped me to ask if he could show me something.  He wanted to show me how well the ceramic styling tools he was selling would work on my hair!  I always kind of hate when people stop me haha :) so I was a little annoyed but also wanted to see how it worked so we stopped!



The company is called PYT Hair (Pretty Young Thing).  I think I just wasn't even considering that I would get one, so even though it was making my hair so straight (so quickly!), I wasn't really thinking about it.  When he finished straightening my whole head in only about ten minutes, my dad was asking him what else he would throw in if we bought one.



My brother Carl's girlfriend Alicen made the before and after collage above!

At first I was thinking he was going to sell it to us for too much and didn't want to get one, but then he gave us a really good deal (way less than the original price he said and the price on their website).  My dad bought one for me!  I picked the redish-orangish one, of course :)  Plus they threw in some shampoo and a lifetime warranty, too!  I'm happy my parents wanted to get one for me :)



I couldn't believe how long my hair was straight!



My hair stayed straight for a few more days and then when I washed my hair the next time, I tried straightening it myself that night.  It worked just as well and it only took me ten minutes!  



Here it is in a ponytail.

I can probably count on two hands the number of times I've straightened my hair in my life.  It would just take me so long!  Plus I usually just like to leave my hair curly.  Part of the problem is that I would try to blow dry my hair straight before straightening it, which just takes forever and is so hard!  The other part of the problem is that I would have to run the straightener over my hair several times to get it really straight and I feel like I'm damaging my hair.  Now I know to let my hair air-dry and straighten it later!  Also, I only had to run the straightener over each section of hair once to get it completely straight.

The plates on the styling tool are completely ceramic, as opposed to some tools that just have a ceramic coating.  Supposedly this makes it so that your hair doesn't get (as) damaged.  He showed us on a cotton ball that even at 450 degrees, the cotton ball didn't get damaged at all.

Since then I've also used the tool to curl my hair (sort of straighten/curl it) which I really like.  



On the left is my air dried hair, and the left is after I used the tool to curl it!

I also straightened it before our Puerto Rico trip so it was still a little bit wavy.  It's really easy to do any of those styles with the tool and it's also easy to go back and forth.  I had curled my whole head and decided it was too much, so I went back and made each section a little bit straighter.  



Here it is half curled, half a little bit straighter.

It's fun to experiment with!  I know that it's still a really hot tool to use on my hair so it can still be damaging, but I won't use it every day.  I've been having fun with it because I hardly ever really do anything to my hair!  Especially now that it's grown out so much, it's fun to see what kind of styles and hair dos I can do :)

Thanks for reading!

Toni and Guy Casual Sea Salt Texturising Spray Review

Hi!

Last week I won a full-sized bottle of Toni & Guy's Casual Sea Salt Texturising Spray!  I promise that's how you spell it :)

I won it through a Birchbox contest on Twitter! :)  I have tried it several times since then and I love it!!

I got it at the perfect time, too, because I've just about finished my bottle of mark. Curl to Curl Reactivate and Defining Mist that I mentioned a few posts ago.

I've used it after showering on towel/turban-dried hair.  I put about a nickle-sized amount of Miss Jessie's Leave-In Condish in my hair first, I scrunch it all over, and then I use the sea salt spray all over and scrunch a little more.  It makes my hair very shiny and soft and it somehow manages to add texture while smoothing out my frizz!  It also seems to keep my curls more defined than they usually are on the second day.  The smell is so good and subtle.

Here's a pic from the first time I used it.

Like I said, I've also used it on the second day on dry hair to give my hair a little more volume!  That works great, too.

I used it again today after washing my hair and I still love it!  I would definitely recommend this sea salt spray if you want to give your hair some texture and hold!

It's really cold today...in the 30s!  We will have to bundle up when we go to my improv show tonight!

Thanks for reading!

Lord and Berry, Milani, Macadamia

Hello!

A few weeks ago I wrote about some Milani eyeshadow that I won!  I never wrote about how much I like it!

Today I'm wearing that with my new Lord & Berry sparkly black eyeliner that I got in my Birchbox this month!  I really like both!

I'm used to using cream eyeshadow, so using a gel powder eyeshadow was a little different.  It works well if you layer it on to get the intensity you want.  I've been using these Avon eyeshadow applicators that my mom got for me!

I really like the Lord & Berry Paillettes Eye Pencil!  It's easy to apply and I love that it's glittery!  I don't wear eyeliner that often, but I think this is fun because it's not just plain dark black.  Love it!

I used my Macadamia Professional Flawless Cleansing Conditioner this morning, too!  This is the second time I've used it.  I was so excited to see this in my Birchbox!  When I've tried cleansing conditioner before, I didn't love it.  I really wanted to try this brand because I loved their Healing Oil Spray I got in last month's Birchbox (I wrote about it here) and thought I might have better luck with their brand.

I love it!  It smells good, I only need one or two pumps to get it through my hair, it makes my hair feel so soft, and a lot less of my hair comes out in the shower!  After my hair dries, it's shiny and less frizzy.  I think I will probably use it every other time I wash my hair!  The sample is huge so I'll get a lot of uses out of it!  Today I used the Cleansing Conditioner and my Leave-In Condish by Miss Jessie's, which I use every time I wash my hair!  I got it in my very first Birchbox and have been using it every since.

Thanks for reading!