Hiya,
Hope all is well at your ends!! Here's a quick tutorial for a cute mega bun I made at Savvy Chic Hair Beauty Hub the other day!


Start out with a a small weave pattern right in the middle of your head...
 Then we went ahead to crotchet some colored kinky hair on the weaving...

Sleeked up the rest of my hair and Voila!!!

WELCOME TO THE NAIJA HAIR CAN GROW HAIR PRODUCTS AWARD FOR THE YEAR 2016!!!

(APPLAUSE)

 PLEASE TAKE YOUR SITS AND REMEMBER TO GIVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE TO THE WINNERS OF EACH AWARD CATEGORY!!!!!

Without Much Ado, let's start with the first award (Earlier announced on Instagram)- The award for the BEST DETANGLER IN 2016 goes to- THE MANE CHOICE SLIK & SHINE LEAVE IN DETANGLER CONDITIONER-








The AWARD FOR THE BEST LEAVE IN CONDITIONER CREME- There's a tie!!! I couldn't pick just one from the array of hair cremes/lotions I used this year ( And I used  ALOT!!!) But I decided to give the award to NATURAL NIGERIAN'S LEAVE IN CONDITIONER AND BEAUTIFUL TEXTURES TANGLE TAMING LEAVE-IN CONDITIONER!!

The award for THE BEST HAIR REPAIRER has got to be OLAPLEX No.3
 It's such a hair strengthener especially if you color your hair or relax it...it reminds me so much of Henna, you use it and instantly feel your hair get stronger!! Get it if you have weak ends!!!





The BEST HAIR PUDDING FOR 2016 is the NN FLAX SEED GEL HAIR PUDDING!!! Love this hair pudding, it's great for twist outs and braid outs!! I love that the hold is defined but not scrunchy and strong, smells great too!! I see it being a staple for a lot of naturalistas !!!

The award for THE BEST SCENTING PRODUCT of the year has got to be the AFRO BY NATURE COLLECTION!!!! I LOOOOOVEEEE the smell of these products!!! Think rich vanilla butter cream cupcake scent!!! soooo good!! 





The ALL ROUND PRODUCT OF THE YEAR- The AFRICAN NATURALISTAS  VEGETABLE GLYCERINE!!! I love this product!! It's affordable costs less than N2000, you can use it in anything, shampoos, pre-poos, leave- in's, detanglers etc...just a few a drops is all you need and it gets the job done!!!!
And with that, we round up the awards for 2016!!!! Please give these winners a round applause!!!!



Please share your faves below, I'd love to know what you think of these products if you have tried any of them!!! I wish you all a merry  Christmas and a prosperous New year!!!!


Xxx
Dabs

Hiya Ladies,
This past weekend was so much fun at the Savvy Chic hair beauty hub. We had a blast hosting Nigerian hair care brand KUI CARE.

Below are pictures and excerpts of Majiri Otobo's( CEO KUI CARE) session with us.



She went natural a few years ago after working in a manufacturing plant and being asked by her supervisors to take out the weaves she was wearing as a safety precaution. She tried to explain to them her need for a weave and soon realized how absurd her heavy dependence on weaves was and decided to go natural.

On starting a Hair care brand
Since she was sixteen years old she always wanted to own a business, after working as a chemical engineer for years at a production plant, she was inspired first to create makeup suited for black skin tones but soon turned her attention to products for natural hair. She came back to Nigeria and decided to incorporate a company which birth her brand KUI CARE.

On the Journey from incorporation to certification to retail- This was a long tedious and painstaking journey. To get NAFDAC certified, she had to incorporate her company first, finding a name that got approved was a challenge until a friend told her to just pick a number!! She picked the year 1988 as her company name and voila, it was approved. Her brand name has a little more meaning though....KUI means STAR in ijaw language and so KUICARE essentially is a brand that brings out the star in you  :)

NAFDAC had it's own hurdles, she said she visited their offices over 40 times!! She had to be very humble and patient making sure to have extra photocopies of all her documents each time she went. Making sure to greet everyone kindly and pretty much suck up to get what she wanted.

KUICARE is made in Nigeria through and through!! From the products to the containers...she narrated how she had to deal with omoniles tasking her trucks which conveyed her empty containers to which she exclaimed they are EMPTY!! Nothing of value to you please!!

On her target...
When she started, she wanted to have about 15 products in her range but she decided to narrow it down to the absolute essentials...shampoo, conditioner, hair mist and hair cream so that customers could start then finish a wash day with ease using her products. She also targets average income earners so her products are affordable with nothing retailing more than N1500. This is so that people can see her product as an alternative to the imported natural hair products...as quality is not compromised. 

On Challenges...she has faced a few, some raw materials like the tea tree oil and cinnamon are imported and the currency crisis has had it's effect on the business. Getting the right team has also been a challenge she has had to navigate through....I love what she said here...she said she doesn't pay herself a salary and put in all her energy working on the brand, marketing etc. when her staff drop the ball and she has to pick up from them she is essentially working FOR them and of course that cannot happen...it was based on that she let go of one of her staff.


On Branding...
She was very deliberate about choosing the fluorescent green her bottles are made of. She made a logo in teal green which signifies the spa like relaxing essence of her brand  and put it on different bottle colors until she picked the show stopper green. She also was deliberate about her brand ambassador, an upcoming male musician Ycee....she wanted to peak curiousity by picking him and so far it seems to have worked.

Majiri's Tips for Entrepreneurs
* Just Start....for three years she was working behind the scenes on her brand concept, marketing etc even before NAFDAC registration.


* Use your connections...it's easier to forge ahead if you make connections with the right people in your industry and use it to your advantage. 


* Grind hard!! No one knows your brand like you do, believe in it enough to talk about it to any and every person.

* Get the huge obligations out if the way....NAFDAC registration is inevitable so be tenacious and focus on that....if in other fields, make sure you make compliance to necessary regulations a priority.

Next up we had live demos using the products, our hair models Deola and Tomiwa were awesome...


I thoroughly enjoyed the party- we ended the evening with socializing and chatting with fellow bloggers and Hairlistas.








Thank you so much to all who came and I look forward to another sample party with another proudly Nigerian brand.

You can purchase Kuicare from Ebeano Supermarket stores, Hubmart, Shoppers Delight and of course the Savvy Chic Hair Beauty Hub.

Thanks for stopping by.

Xxx
Dabs

Hiya Ladies!!!

It feels like forever since I put up a hair update so I am here to do just that!! 

Ladies I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT I AM 20 WEEKS post relaxer!!!!!! 


*Yes I am screaming in my head* You see this thing called the mind, it is POWERFUL!!! Something that feels so daunting and impossible can become totally attainable when you just switch the ignition in your mind and go for it!!! I used to be the girl who relaxed my hair EVERY MONTH so this is a mega feat!!! I'm just going to keep going and see where this lands me!!!

So what have I been up to...I trim my ends quite a bit because I want to maintain really thick ends...that plus my new growth have made my hair appear shorter than before and that A-OKAY with me!!

To manage my textures I have been using an array of products from the beautiful textures leave in conditioner to Shea moisture JBCO leave in also the profectiv leave in conditioner in a tub to organics...I have run through at least 6 bottles/tubs of leave ins in the past 4 months!!! If you know the products I have mentioned, you know they are not cheap! So I decided to look in wards to see if any of our made in Nigeria products could give me the results I desperately needed and also not hurt my pocket in the process...that's when I found KUI CARE!!


Their leave in conditioner which costs between N700 to N800 depending on where you buy it leaves my hair feeling super moist...this is after I use their tea tree and cinnamon hair mist which is not more than N1500 for a generous 16oz bottle and is great for soothing the scalp in between wash days. 

This is my bun at 20 weeks!!! I cannot believe how flat the base is all thanks to the Kui care hair mist and some Eco styler gel!!!




I recently read about stretching the new growth with threading to avoid less tangles and knots at the base....so last night I gave it a go!! Made sure to pull together all the new growth I could in each section after intensely moisturizing and sealing!! 




I'm rocking the thread look for a few days to work ( Don't worry everyone at work is now used to the HAIR LADY!! lol!!!), can't wait to unravel and see how it turns out!!!




Xxx
Dabs

Hiya Ladies,
As this year comes to a close, we all know that the inevitable is upon us here in Nigeria!! Harmattan! When the weather changes, the sun is at the he all time high, the air is stiff and dry and the leaves fall and ground hardens!!
Lips begin to crack and chap, skin is dry and ashy...

What of our hair? Without any kind of TLC, prepare for some UV damage from the sun causing the hair to dry out and ends to split. The lack of humidity will also cause the scalp to dry out and those prone to dandruff and scaly scalps with have them in excess, your hair line will move a few steps backwards if care is not taken.

So it's Dabs to the rescue!! Here's my ultimate tried and tested survival kit to get by the Harmattan season!!


Spray bottle- This is a must for daily water based hair spritzing. Just add drinking water or Aloe Vera juice or Rose water with a few drops of essential oils, keep the mix light and use as regularly as needed. What you need this season is hydrated hair, so small mists of water on your hair will give it that hydration before wash day....use the spray bottle from a distance, the idea is not to leave your hair dripping wet.

Satin sleep cap- is an essential for ALL WEATHERS but more especially during the dry season to help retain moisture and protect especially the edges.


Hats/scarves- Did you know your hair can suffer from Sun damage?!! Excessive exposure to the sun and it's UV rays can damage the cuticle of the hair and cause it to be dry, brittle and discolored!! If you know you will be out in the sun for a long time this season, I advice you carry along a hat or scarf to cover up your hair.

Light Hair oil for your scalp- This is an essential for the scalp and pre-poos which should be regular this season because you don't want your scalp becoming dry and scaly with dandruff or shampoo drying it out hence the need for the pre-poos. Why light oils? Well because you also don't want to clog your scalp pores with heavy oils like castor oil for instance....lean towards light oils like grape seed oil, jojoba and sweet almond oil.


Whipped butter for your ends- when it comes to sealing your ends, this season demands that you go heavier than usual. So using hair butters like whipped Shea butter, mango butter, cocoa butter etc to seal your ends so they retain moisture more than ever in the dry air is very important.

Detangler Comb- This is the only comb you should use!! Anything smaller in this dry weather is asking for trouble!! Finger detangle if you can...less manipulation this season is key.


Water based moisturizer- This is another essential especially when you want to detangle on any day other than wash day. Any product with water as the first ingredient, shouldn't contain glycerin for this season, doesn't contain mineral oil and all the bad stuff like parabens and sulphates is A-Okay!!


So don't fret!! We've got this!! Harmattan who?
Please share more tips if you have any.


Xxx
Dabs