Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The hair of a Princess

I know it may be quite unorthodox to think of hair as like a clay, to be fashioned into a crown of sorts.  But with our hair- it holds forms and shapes and can be sculpted.  Men have been rocking boxes, gumbies and high-tops since the 80s.  No product needed.  It grows up and out and makes an intricate and unique decoration to top our lovely features. (Yes. I'm feeling very "black is beautiful"!) But I have been thinking- I am going to work on a few more of these over the winter.  They last a good week and styles like the princess braid, below, are work friendly.  (and by work friendly I don't mean "allowed" or "permissible", but rather not a distracting conversation piece.)

One of the hairstyles my BF loves, and I also got tons of FB comments on, is my princess braid.  I actually saw this in 17 magazine when I was pretty young, maybe 14, and they had a picture of the up and coming Tyra Banks with her brown colored hair fashioned into a french braid around her head.  Eureka! I had never really thought of my hair that way- as something that could be intricate and feminine in a large pattern... but it would be yeaaaars before I also let go of the straight pre-requisite too.  
Here's my version of the princess braid.


But here is what prompted this post- I was watching TV and saw this girl. 
How dope is her hair???!!  I rewound the show and literally took pictures of my TV- lol. 

Her hair reminded me of the girl from the Noisettes, Shingai Shoniwa. She is and English singer of Zimbabwean descent (wikipedia). Read/see more HERE on Fly and HERE on Franchesca.net and HERE on ManeandChic.  I have seen her videos and images on occation, though I can't say I'm a true fan of the Noisettes music.  I always try to remember her name so I can look up her hair.  She, (before Janelle monae) creates beautiful, sculptural crowns with her hair and I just love it. 

Here are some of my favorites real quick...


6 comments:

  1. i adore shingai! and that girls hair is fiya. your recreation looks great!

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  2. I love that song! This is my first time listening to any of their music. I always love the way that she's styled in her photos. She is so beautiful! And her hair is amazing!

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  3. Could you do a tutorial on that style pretty please? My hair is very similar to yours, fine 3c/4a strands, but super dense and I struggle to do more than the simplest styles because of my huge volume of hair.

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  4. Hi @Lori> I learned how to braid when I was like 8 or 9. My mom had me getting braids with extensions for the summers, and after a few weeks of swim lessons they would begin to slip out. 9 yr old + chunk of fake hair + (plus little brother with a "tail" lol) and I figured a few things out. I was one of those girls who made intricate friendship bracelets, things out of gimp, did everyone's hair- etc lol.

    @ME - nisusdesigns@gmail.com will get me :-)

    @Nicole- that is a great idea! I will do that next time I wash my hair :-) stay tuned. And yes- "dense" is a word I use all the time. An impossible amount of hair sometimes.

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  5. I dig her hair too, it's very unique.. People compare me to Janelle when I wear my hair pinned up.. it's cool n all but the style I'm inspired by is from the 40s era..and Shingai did it very early on :)

    I love seeing the vintage styled natural hair styles coming back, so regal and pretty!

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  6. ^ I was logged in google as my job lol.. oops!

    ~CurlyChronicles

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