Glossy Love

Photography by Taye Hansberry

Hey Mom, look at me! I am fortunate enough to be feautured in the debut issue of It's My Hair Magazine. Words cannot the describe my gratitude for this. There's actually a really funny story about how this happened.

My childhood best friend Alisha Cave was working with Selena Milbry, editor and creator of the magazine, on the first edition. This quarterly glossy is all about natural hair, so somehow my name was brought up when they were talking about well-known naturalistas. Anyway, Alisha says "Oh, yeah, I know Nikki". And that's when the plan was hatched. Next thing I know, Alisha is interviewing me for the feature.

It's kind of funny when you sit down for a formal interview with a longtime friend. Alisha and I were chatting for a while before we got to the actual questions for the piece. I had to remind myself to be professional and respond in complete sentences instead of being super relaxed and overly conversational. While many people know me as a model and blogger, to Alisha I'm just the freckle-faced little girl who used to put on at-home talent shows with her. I'm the girl she went to kindergarten and years later went to college with. Even when we've been apart, our lives have always run parellel to one another. It was great to be reunited with Alisha for this feauture.

Thanks to my dear friend Taye Hansberry for taking the awesome photos that accompany the story. We banged these out on Saturday when we both would have rather been lazy by a pool than trying to fight the light to shoot. But the beauty we produced makes it worth it. See what happens when you create with friends. It's epic.