If you're a girl that has gone natural, is natural, or is in the in-between stage, you've likely got tons of products under your sink, in baskets, in drawers, and wherever else you can hold them scattered throughout your bathroom. Or maybe that's just me, and I just told y'all my deepest darkest secret. Either way, we've all tried a product(s) that haven't vibed with our hair texture.
I've been natural for about six years, so I know what works and doesn't work for my hair, but lately I've been struggling to find the right gel that gets my curls to pop without it possibly affecting my health (hey, Eco Styler), or that leaves my curls with flakes of gel shaking down like snow — oh, and let's not forget, one that doesn't have a pricey price tag.
After Google searches, watching YouTube reviews, and checking out consumer reviews on Target.com, I sprung for a $14 eight-ounce jar of Kinky Curly Curl Custard Gel. I recognize the $14 price tag is a little much for gel, but if it works, it's always worth it.
I wanted to see how it would work with my 4c coils with a wash and go. With nearly a five-star review on Target.com, I had high hopes, but many reviewers noted that the gel didn't work well for 4c hair because it didn't help stretch the hair. Since I am a 4c girl that doesn't mind shrinkage and a kinky 'fro, I still went for it.
Step One:
To prep my hair, I washed it and deep conditioned it, but instead of towel drying my hair, I left it soaking wet. The directions on the side of the jar recommends that curly girls with "thick coarse curls" apply to hair when dripping wet. Before I hopped out of the shower, I sectioned my hair into six sections, sprayed my hair with Jane Carter Solution Revitalizing Leave-In (a must have for me), and got out the shower with my hair dripping wet.
I started with the back of my head, first gliding a touch of jojoba oil onto my coils before adding the gel section by section. One thing I noticed right away, since I can be heavy-handed when applying a product, was that I needed very little to get my coils defined.
Step Two:
After I was done with my entire head, I covered my face with a towel and shook my head from side to side with my head upside down to get my curls to separate without touching them. The more you touch your hair, the more frizz you'll get as your hair dries. Since my hair is thick, I blow dried my hair on the lowest heat setting and let my hair do its thing. I'd come up now and then for cool air and to shake my curls with my head turned upside down.
The End Results Looked Like This:
Before I headed out for my audition, I touched up my lipstick and separated my coils, and to my surprise, there was no flaking, and my hair felt moisturized. Success!
I Tried It One More Time and Got This:
This time my hair shrinkage was tighter, but I also was in a rush and didn't take the time to add the product in small sections as I'd done before, but I still loved how it turned out.
I recognize that this isn't a product that everyone will love, especially if you're a curly girl that loves a stretched style. Will I try other gels in the future? Yes. But, for now, I am pleased with my results — shrinkage and all.
Featured image by Bianca Lambert/Instagram
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Originally published on February 23, 2019
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The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak