Work Fab: Twisted Pin-Up

One of the secrets to my best twistouts and braidouts is that I leave the twists in for at least 2 days. 

The only exception is if I'm refreshing my twistout mid-week by re-twisting at night; in that case, I only keep the twists in overnight and unravel my hair in the morning to rock a refreshed twistout... I hope that makes sense? Lol

Anyway, here is how I like to wear my twists. I never actually wear them down because I want my hair to be as stretched as possible for the twistout. Here's an excellent way to stretch your twists and be effortlessly edgy at the same time!

I used a LOT of gel, which gave my hair magnificent shine and smoothed my tresses' cuticles

I was inspired by Rihanna's audacity to wear a doobie wrap with huge bobby pins out in public. 

I'm not sure what we call it in Nigeria, but the doobie is basically when we wrap our hair and pin it up after getting it washed and rolled or straightened at the salon, so that the hair can be bouncy and straight the next morning. 

Photo Source: Huffington Post

I was so shocked when I saw Rihanna on the red carpet at the 2013 American Music Awards. But of course, Rih Rih can do no wrong, because most fashion critics and fans loved it. I'm a big Rihanna fan, and the style eventually grew on me.

My scalp is shiiiiining, and it's super moisturized!

Notice how my parts aren't super straight? They don't have to be perfect. Just make sure your front part is straight (like my side part for example), make sure you twist neatly, and use gel to lay down your edges and your hair will be neat enough to wear in a professional setting. 

Team five-head with my layed egdes. Yep, I love that forehead. :-)

Work Fab Natural Hair

As a woman with thick, long, free-and-don't-care hair, I have to be creative about how to wear it in a professional setting.

First, let's get this out the way: natural hair can be professional. Relaxed hair can be professional. Transitioning hair can be professional. 

And all hair types can be wild and free party hair! It's all about how you style it. 

In my opinion, professional styles are ones that:

1. Don't get in the way of you being able to get the job done

2. Are not overly distracting 

I find that the best office-friendly styles for me are ones that don't involve too many hair pins (lol), are easy to do, don't need to be re-done everyday week, and keep the hair out of my face. 

Here's one of my go-to styles. This time I did the style on old blown-out hair. It has a deep side part with very loose flat twists on both sides of my head, and the hair in the back is rolled under and pinned.

What are some of your go-to professional looks?