Wearing your Natural Hair in the Workplace: Why is there a Debate?

Happy Monday lovelies; I hope your workweek is off to a great start!

Today’s blog topic is something that’s been on my mind for a while so I decided to share my stance on it.

Over the past few years there’s been debates and articles about whether natural hair is professional enough to wear at work and the answer is “YES!”, but some people disagree.

Just last year a black, female journalist and television reporter got fired for fighting back against her company because her boss considered her hair “unprofessional” for the news station’s viewers. This year, she is still fighting that battle against the company’s discrimation towards her.

Now that is just one situation, but I know that it’s not the only one out there. Natural hair is professional hair. Nobody should have to hide the hair that grows from their head to appear professional to someone else.

I have thick, type 4 hair and I’ve been natural for a little over 5 years. Luckily, I’ve been in the retail business for majority of that time so the company policies are heavily focused on freedom of expression and style.

I wear my fro majority of the time, but when my fro isn’t out I usually have my hair in braids, twists, or under a headwrap. I’m happy that some companies see natural hair as professional and is welcomed in the workplace, we just have to continue to work towards it becoming a norm everywhere.

My advice: wear your natural hair to work and don’t be ashamed to do so. Style it how you like and be proud of your unique look. If someone doesn’t understand it or considers it unnattractive or unprofessional, speak up about it, defend yourself and your hair. You have the right to wear your beautiful natural hair just like women of other races wear theirs as well. Stay strong sis!

And for Day 18 of Motivational March: Be proud of your differences, it’s what makes you unique. ❣

I hope this post inspired you today. Leave a comment below if it did and share with me your natural hair in the workplace experience.

Removing Marley Twists

Happy Monday! Start your week off with a smile and stay positive. You can make it!

Today I wanted to share my Marley Twist takedown process. What you need: scissors, your braids/twists, and an hour or less!

It’s a super easy process, check it out below:

1) Cut your twists about halfway down making sure to not cut too high in order to avoid cutting your real hair

2) Take out twists by pulling two strands apart which in turn untwists them. They unravel naturally!

3) You then are back to your natural hair!

Stay tuned, I will soon be posting a braid/twist install process with more pictures and maybe even a video. 🙂

Have a great week!

Shrinkage 101

Hey everyone! Welcome to Shrinkage 101 class. Today’s lesson will teach you about what shrinkage is and how to manage it.

1) What is shrinkage?

When your wet hair starts to decrease in length as you hair dries. Your curls/kinks get tighter and usually more defined.

Dry hair

Wet hair

2) Is shrinkage good or bad?

Shrinkage shows how elastic and bouncy your hair is and shows how tough your hair is against breakage. So it’s a good thing!

3) How do i control shrinkage?

There are 2 main ways to control shrinkage: straigthening and stretching. The straightening method is when you use a blowdryer or flat iron to straighten your curls, which adds length to you hair. This usually requires heat to be applied to the hair, which I try to avoid.

That’s why I prefer the stretching method; which is elongating your hair by using a specific hairstyle or hair tool. Hair tools you can use are curlformers, rollersets, and flexirods which are all items that curls your kinky hair.

Hairstyles you can do include the pineapple method, which is similar to a ponytail and the twistout/braidout method in which you twist or braid you hair, when wet, to help elongate your curls. My twistout is shown below.

4) Enjoy your hair!

Do what works best for you and your hair. What works for one 4c chica may not work for you. Also, drink a lot of water to keep your body and hair nourished!

Hope this mini hair lesson was fun and informative. Have a great rest of your week lovelies!

One year LA Anniversary!

Just four days ago was my 1 year anniversary of moving to LA. It’s crazy to think that I’ve already been living here for a full year. It really flew by! This post is going to be a timeline of a few of my favorite LA moments over this past year. Enjoy!

Moving to LA – 10/22/17

Visiting Echo Park – 10/31/17

Visiting The Grove – 11/3/17

First birthday in LA – 11/18/17

First holiday season in LA – 12/8/17

New year, new look – 1/1/18

First rainy day in LA – 1/8/18

Visiting Griffith Observatory – 1/16/18

Visiting the Love Wall in Beverly Hills – 2/8/18

First Valentine’s Day in LA/Visiting the Natural History Museum – 2/14/18

Attending my first wedding – 4/21/18

Celebrating my 6 year Anniversary – 4/25/18

Visiting Santa Monica – 5/4/18

Visiting La Brea Tar Pits – 6/6/18

Attending Janelle Monae concert – 6/28/18

Visiting Manhattan Beach – 7/10/18

Visiting Little Tokyo – 7/24/18

Visiting the Beverly Hills Sign – 8/9/18

Hiking to the Secret Swing in Elysian Park – 8/23/18

Visiting Universal Citywalk – 9/27/18

The adventure continues – 10/2618

Hope you enjoyed traveling through time with me and I look forward to bringing you all on many more journeys! Have a lovely weekend!

Hair Spotlight: Marley Twists

Happy Friday!

Today I wanted to showcase my most recent hairstyle, Marley Twists!

I’ve been getting my hair braided/twisted by other people for the past few years and I realized that I save money by doing my own hair and it’s also a cool skill to have. After numerous youtube videos and attempts, I’ve begun to master doing protective styles on my own hair.

This is actually my first time twisting my hair, the other times before this I did box braids. The purpose of the twists is to be a protective style for my natural hair, meaning it gives my real hair a break. My hands aren’t constantly in my hair and my hair grows while it’s in the twists.

It took me almost 7 hours to do this marley twist style so if you are planning on learning how to do your own hair, make sure you set aside one of your days off to do it and have a few movies or tv shows to binge while doing it.

I would eventually love to do a video showcasing me doing my own hair. Stay tuned for that!

What protective styles do you like? Let me know in the comments below. Have a great weekend!

California Crop Top

Can you believe that September is almost over and in a few days it will be the first day of fall!? It’s crazy because in LA it still feels like summertime.

It’s been consistently in the 80’s or high 70’s these days. That’s why the outfit shown below is perfect for a sunny, September day.

I wore a blue crop top with the word California on it, adorbly decorated with flowers and butterflies. I paired my crop top with denim cut-off shorts and yellow Vans to accent the flowers in my top.

My top is $15 from Topshop, my shorts were $20 from Forever 21 and my Vans were a gift!

I recently realized that I don’t smile often in my pictures, so I made the decision to smile during every photosession from now on. I can have more serious photos taken as well, but I want to make sure I get a few smiling shots in the mix since it is outside of my comfort zone.

I love my smile, but for some reason I just don’t feel like I photograph well when I’m smiling, so I want to break down that wall I have on myself and challenge myself to embrace my smile more in pictures.

I posted the pictures featured in this post on IG @coralbuttons, so if you follow me you saw my caption saying: “Smile more, #lifeisgood” and it’s true so smile and make the most out of your day everybody!

Is there something you want to improve on when it comes to your style or your photos? Let me know in the comments below!

Secret Swing at Elysian Park

Happy Monday beautiful people. I hope your September is off to a great start!

Today I want to take you to a land far far away…well not really far away but moreso up in the air. I recently visited a hiking trail in Elysian Park in LA to try to find a secret swing and to my surprise I found it!

It’s called the Secret Swing because it is up a secluded hill and not many people know about it unless you did some research like I did. I really wanted to visit the swing because the view is amazing.

To visit the swing I wore a simple black maxi dress paired with floral vans. Shawn and I rode a Lyft to the bottom of the hiking trail and from there its just about a 5-7 min hike up to the swing.

I wouldn’t reccomend swinging too hard on the swing because it is very high up and there is no fence to protect you from falling. Gently sitting on it like I did will still make for a great shot.

If you are in LA and want to do an easy hike I definitely reccomend visitng Elysian Park and the Secret Swing.

Do you like the view? Would yoy be scared to sit on the swing? What do you think of my outfit? Let me know in the comments below and have a great week!

Teal Takeover

I’m excited for today’s post because I get to talk about my favorite color, teal!

In case you have no idea what teal is, it’s a gorgeous shade of blue-green.

I love teal because it looks great on literally everything. Teal clothes, jewelry, shoes, even hair, are all gorgeous.

My OOTD is a lovely, teal and floral crop top paired with teal cropped trousers and white flats. I love the sleeves of this top because it resembles the ones seen on a kimono.

This top was an affordable $17 from Nordstrom! My trousers were $20 from ASOS and have a side zipper which I love much more than the traditional front zipper and button combo.

My flats are also from Nordstrom and cost around $25. I love the bow detail on them!

Teal is just one of those colors I feel looks great on me! It’s the perfect shade to match my complexion and hair.

What’s your favorite color and how do you think it looks on you? Let me know in the comments below and have a lovely week!

Janelle Monae concert at The Greek Theatre!

Happy humpday lovely people!

I realized I never posted my outfit from the Janelle Monae concert I went to a few weeks ago so here it is!

It was amazing seeing Janelle Monae in person because she is a great performer and her new album, Dirty Computer, is so empowering.

It touches on topics such as love, racism, sexuality, America, and so much more. It was my first time going to the Greek Theatre, here in Los Angeles.

It’s an outdoor venue set up where the stage is in the middle of the venue. Below is a sunset above the theatre.

My outfit for the concert was definitely fun and colorful since I know Janelle Monae loves unique and outside-of-the-box looks.

I wore a baby blue, Free People bralette, paired with FashionNova black jeans and yellow Birkenstocks. For my accessories, I wore blue and gold hoop earrings. To complete the look I wore a rainbow cardigan, also from FashionNova, over the bralette.

I also tried out blue-gray lipstick which was a big step outside of my comfort zone, but I think it was a perfect addition to my look.

I was dancing and singing all night and even ending up losing my voice, that’s how you know it was a lot of fun 🙂

Next time your favorite musician is performing at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, definitely try to go. It’s a great concert hall!

Who is your favorite musician/artist right now? What do you think of my outfit? Leave a comment below!

The Mondrian Wall

Los Angeles is full of art! Every few blocks there’s either a wall painting, a stylish modern building, or an awesome tourist spot where you can take gorgeous photos.

Recently, I found a photo spot called the “Mondrian Wall” here in LA.The wall is on the side of an art store called, Artist & Craftsman Supply LA.

It’s super colorful and makes for a perfect photo op.

At the wall, I wore a black, ruched, bodycon dress. I decided to go with a black dress to make the colors behind me on the wall pop.

I paired my black dress with yellow Vans and Quay, cateye shades. This is a look that definitely can be dress up for a nighttime dinner or kept casual like how I wore it.

I challenge you this week to find a new photo spot in your city. You may have to walk a few blocks or drive a different route, but it will be worth it!