n.

Winter Wonderland.

Alex and I finally got to visit Hyde Parks annual Winter Wonderland; a Bavarian style village with stalls, rides, food and drink and generally a good atmosphere. I'm so glad i finally got to go and have plans of making a visit next year. We ate bratwurst (german sausage) and i also had a hot chocolate, we took a peak at all the different stalls selling food and fashion items, although with the fashion stalls once you'd seen one, you'd seen them all. I also made a purchase for Alex's dad: a pot of 'gooseberry and eldeflower' jam, from a stall selling unique curds, chutneys and marmalade's which was really nice to see and taste! Alex and I went on the big ferris wheel overlooking Winter Wonderland, hyde park, and parts of London could be viewed in the horizon. We also visited the Ice Kingdom which was sub zero so our fingers and toes felt like they would fall off if we took any longer inside. Winter Wonderland isn't the cheapest of attractions but i would recommend it, look up the rides and events available and scope out what you think you'd be interested in the most to get the best out of your visit.

m.

My, my, my edges.

I've had a serious battle with my hairline. As alot of us do but it seems to be more so in the black community. I do actually have a few of those coveted baby hairs but i rarely catch and gel them so they look non existent and yes i do have a large forehead but i am unashamed in fact i have a slight dislike for fringes on myself; i love showing my forehead, and i share the forehead sisterhood with some good looking intelligent people. However something i was slightly embarrassed by was my edges- or lack there of. Back when my hair was relaxed i had trouble trusting stylists to do my hair as they were scissor happy and often experimented with old fashioned hairstyles i never asked for. The problem with this distrust was that i kept trying different salons and stylists meaning i would get different chemical relaxers (everything from QP to Olive Oil by ORS) and different techniques of applications which left my hair over and under processed. Alongside that I wore my hair in high buns and ponytails and straightened my hair more often than i should. A combination of this caused me to lose my fragile hairline. No not just lose a couple hairs but go BALD. Here's some pictures of the offending edges!

It was first brought to my attention in january 2013- the last time i relaxed professionally. I thought nothing of it until again i saw small thinning around April. Then in June 2013 i really took a good look and saw it was bald, about 5cm on the right side and about 2cm on the left.

(RIGHT SIDE) Look at those stringy relaxer ends. LAWD. i am holding my wispy hair back i can't believe i've cut this all off.

(LEFT SIDE) So plan of action: do a long stretch before the next relaxer (i used to stretch 3/4 months it was suggested i do a full year), stop manipulating my hair, massage emu oil into my missing patch and basically leave it alone.

The above image in september 2013. I stopped relaxing in July and rubbed emu oil in every night. You can see its starting to fill in.

Fast forward to the present and i fell in love with my ringlets and coils and decided to transition to natural.

My edges have grown back i won't say fully as there is still thinness but i no longer pull on my hair in anyway and stopping the relaxer truly helped not only with my hairline but to embrace my true self.
If you want to see how i grew my edges back with tips and tricks check out my youtube channel.

Hope you enjoyed this post, and had a good giggle! x

l.

The Afro Vamp

Just  few more shots/selfies from my super simple vamp makeup and twistout, the tutorial can be found on my youtube here. I always find it fun to play around in makeup so it was also fun to share the look with you all.

Hope you enjoy this post x

k.

My Old Dutch.

Me and Alex took a trip to My Old Dutch Pancake House in Holborn for brunch today. A friend at my work had told me about it and Alex and I are always on the look out for new places to go and treats to try, we're proper foodies. Junk foodies haha. Its a small chain of Dutch pancake houses dotted around London. We were lucky to beat the rush as when we left there was a queue so you definitely know the food is good. They are known for their massive, and by that i mean head size pancakes but they also do full English breakfasts, fries and other dutch specialties like Kaasballen which is deep fried cheese or Bitterballen: dutch meatballs, but what i also admire is they offer gluten free menu items so everyone can enjoy.

I loved the decor, the walls were covered in large tulips, there were transfers of windmills and pancakes, lots of grass and two old style fireplaces with, what looked like, old hand painted tiles. Even the lighting was something i would expect of a small dutch village, its was done very tastefully to get a sense of 'Dutch in London'.

I went for a classic bacon and maple syrup pancake, you can make any pancake you like- oh, i should say these aren't crepes. Crepes aren't as big as traditional dutch pancakes or 'Pannekoek' and some argue that crepes are filled, whereas pancakes aren't. They're all similar as they culturally flow through Belgium to France but since we're Dutch here: its a pancake. Alex went for a menu favourite: 'Hot Dutch' which has chorizo, pepperoni, cheese chillies and tomato sauce.  I loved mine, naturally, but Alex said he wished he went for something sweet, there was so much to choose from. It hasn't put him off in fact its what is drawing us both back (yes). I will certainly go again, maybe with a party of friends and try all sorts of different pancakes, hopefully i'll be a pro at making (and eating) the stuff by next Pancake day.

Hope you enjoyed my post x

j.

Evolution of the twistout.

When i started my natural hair journey i envisioned all the masterful twistouts i would be able to achieve. My hair would unravel to show cascading dark bouncy curls. It would naturally stay in all day because i have curls anyway and i wouldn't need to bobby pin or secure the ends overnight because my coils would lock around each other doing the job for me. I had seen many different ways of achieving twistouts on youtube and instagram but they never seemed to work for me. For one my hair wouldn't cascade but rather ascend to the heavens and for the life of me i couldn't figure out this 'definition' people spoke of. All frizz. All day. This worried me because i thought i would have to wear my hair in an afro constantly (which i mainly do) and therefore my hair would become boring to me as i couldn't do anything with it and also wearing hair out all the time to face the environment can sometimes result in breakage be it snagging on clothes or rubbing against clothes/car seats. I hated twistouts and often didn't get on with braidouts either but one fateful day i decided to give it one. more. try. Voila! i liked it! i could face the public in it, you could see curls, it was somewhat hanging downward; there was no definition but by Jove i done it! Practice most definitely makes perfect and i think its worth exploring your own hair by yourself not looking to others- heck my headshape and the amount of hair i have is different to others so sometimes i can't do 15 twists on my head- So if you're struggling with natural hair styles try and try again and TRY THEM ALL. invent your own as well, we need more than a pompadour. I hit another bump in the road when i tried some gel to get more curl definition and all i got was grey flakes allllll over my hair and shoulders, how embarrassing, but i suppose that's why its called a journey and not a destination. Here's a picture of my first voila moment after a twistout and the second picture is my most recent twistout (before the gel disaster). I now have my method and am exploring other ways to getting that good good soft like butter twistout. Hope you enjoyed my post! x

i.

Pictures from Paris.

My boyfriend and i took a short break to Paris, France recently. I went when i was young but this time doing all the touristy stuff and walking around myself has truly pushed me to want to explore the wonders of the world more as a lot of twenty-somethings do. It rained heavily pretty much the entire time but it was still hot so i wore shorts and dresses around and despite the weather we really enjoyed ourselves. My afro hair didnt keep well even though i tried to protective style it was far to humid and wet; shrinkage got the best of me but i like my shrinkage as i dont have to deal with frizz/flyaways and i can be lazy like we want to on holiday.

We ate well and explored so much considering we only had three days. If we had more time we would probably go on to discover the nooks and cranny's that only those that live there would probably know about. The buildings were stunningly crafted and I'm usually not into architecture but i am now.

Like many women i love the style and glow that Paris seems to give off, the only thing that didn't live up to expectation was the Moulin Rouge! that being said we didn't see a show there as its quite expensive so maybe i'd feel differently inside the building. The food was amazing and we had more ice creams in that break then we've had in many summers. I was also disappointed with myself because i couldn't speak more of the language, i'd absolutely love to go back for a couple of weeks pretending i was a local and exploring more of Paris.

Hope you enjoyed my post x