KISFORKINKY TWA Holiday GIVEAWAY

If you got short hair, put your hands up. If you got curly hair, make noise! I rock my short hair proudly. While I do love big & curly and long & sleek looks, this little TWA fits me so well. People are constantly asking what products I use in my hair and how to style it. You know me, I'm low maintenance when it comes to this stuff. If it takes more than five minutes, then I'm not having it. But my girl Kurly Bella at KISFORKINKY came up with a great idea. Make an adorable video about hair accessories for the chick with short textured hair. Uh yeah!

As a woman with cropped curls, you may often feel like you don't have many options. You can't do as many styles as the girls with longer hair so you feel left out. I totally understand. I mean seriously, how many hair tutorials are there for short hair styles? Well, now you've got a really good one. TWAs need as much love as big hair, so that's what KISFORKINKY's giving you. The team really pulled out some tricks to make this happen. There are so many different looks for the lady who likes to toss it up and look fly. You'll see. We're going H.A.M.

Whew! Now comes the fun part. Because it's the holiday season and we're in the spirit of giving. We've got a GIVEAWAY for you. One lucky person will win all the hair accessories in the video, except for the Brooklyn hat which belongs to my girl Faith. I tried to borrow it, but that wasn't happening. Anyway, you'll get everything else including the cute Tough Kitten beanie. Oh, wait there's more. That banging orange OCC lip tar that I'm rocking at the beginning... you can win that too. Click here for details and subscribe to the new KISFORKINKY YouTube channel for more hair, fashion, and makeup videos. You know how we do!

Hot Chocolät Hair

The cooler temperatures are totally messing with my hair routine. I'm normally a "co-wash and go" kind of girl allowing my curls to air-dry. But for the past week it's been so cold in the morning that I barely want to shower. You can't forgo that. Wetting my hair just wasn't happening. Did I mention that I'm fighting a cold? To get through the hump, I've been hiding my short hair under a big curly wig for some days. It was super cute, but then I got a call for an audition that required me to go back to my usual do. What a predicament. I needed a great shampoo and conditioner that could fight frizz, work with my texture, and protect my hair from blow- drying damage. Thank goodness for Carol's Daughter Chocolät.

Lather it! The oil and dirt was really starting to weigh down my curls. But one wash with Chocolät sulfate-free Shampoo knocked all that out. My curls just sprung right back. My hair is super thick and coarse, so I'm really surprised the shampoo was able to clean without stripping my coils. After my wash in the sink, I applied the creamy Smoothing Conditioner, put on a shower cap, and then wrapped my hair in a towel. I needed to do a few things before actually showering. Wrapping your hair in a towel allows for deep conditioning just like if you were sitting under the dryer. Your own body heat can work wonders. After 10 minutes, ready to rinse. Chocolät includes ingredients that clean, nourish and train your hair to be more manageable. Keravis and sunflower seed extract latch on to every strand of your hair and tame it for you. No misbehaving.
Blow it out! This is the part that makes me nervous. My hair responds so differently after heat styling. It always ends up feeling fried and crunchy. But I needed it to be soft, touchable, and not all over the place. You know what I mean. Blow dry cream to the rescue. Carol's Daughter Chocolät actually contains cacao extract which helps to smoothes the frizz. This line is designed for curly girls who want to wear straight styles, but I figured it would work on my kinky cut too. I applied a small amount to my damp hair and used the "scrunch and lift" method while blow drying.

Style it up! My hair is still short enough that I can finger comb and style without using extra tools. That Chocolät really worked some magic, because I barely needed to style it after blow drying. A little Macadamia Finishing Shine Mist and I'm done. Now my hair looks fantastic without air-drying. And the process was actually more painless than I thought. No heat damage, no fried hair just pretty, springy healthy curls. Sweetness.

Get the three-piece Chocolät starter kit here. Enjoy!

Boy Cuts

Fussing over their hair is not something men typically do. Sure they mess with it and say they need a cut, but you'll rarely meet a man as obsessed with his perfect coif as John Travolta's character in Saturday Night Fever. "Ma, watch the hair!" But don't think guys aren't concerned with their hair at all. The right hairstyle can make a man while the wrong one can wreck him. Girls can pick up a thing or two about good cuts from a dude's style book. Don't you just love a woman with a short, sexy haircut? So, grab a seat in the barber's chair and let's getting chopping.

When you're considering cutting your hair like a guy, take a few things into consideration. Can you really rock short hair? Does the style you want fit your features? It really sucks when a girl with fantastic long hair chops it off and loses her appeal. So how do men find the right cut? A guys goes for something that works with the angles of his face. Our features are a little softer, so we need hairstyles that frame our cheeks and bring out our eyes. I'm super partial to cuts that are really cropped on the sides and the back, but a little longer on top. This way you still have length to play with if you want to do something fun with your hair for special occasions.

Getting a guy cut can be tricky. You don't want people to say "Oh, what a cute little boy," so make sure your hair still looks a little feminine. You don't want to look like you just stepped out of a barber shop, so make sure your hairline isn't edged up and precise. Let your hair be a little messy, it will make you appear more easy-going and carefree. Also, scale back on the styling products. Don't you hate it when you go to play with a man's hair and he's got tons of gel in it? Well they feel the same way about ours. Your coif should look awesome, but still be touchable. Instead of overdosing on hair serums and pomade, just use a dab. Remember, a little goes a long way.


The good thing about a short cut is the idea of not fighting with your hair to get it to do what you want. I always pick styles that are easy to handle everyday and won't look weird when when my hair is growing out. My routine is so simple, even a kid can do it. I wash my hair when it feels dirty. While I'm in the shower, I condition everyday with a tea tree conditioner. Once I towel dry my hair, I apply a leave-in conditioner to seal in the moisture. My tiny curls hold perfectly without any extra product, and my hair is still touchable.

And that's it! There's no detailed perfect hair formula when you've got a boy cut. Come on, do you think dudes put a lot of thought into their hair routine? Of course not. So why should you? Snip-snip.

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.