Nura Magazine Fall/Winter 2016 | Page 50

Your Curl Friend Who influences you? The person that influences me the most is my grandmother. She is one of those Christian women who has never had their ears pierced, very disciplined, goes to church every Sunday and attends bible study faithfully. She was a teacher and she’s very intelligent. She also inspires me because she’s a business woman. My great grandmother had a museum called the Black Fashion Museum. It was founded in New York and then it came to Washington, DC. When it came to DC and my great grandmother got Alzheimer’s, my grandmother took it over. She has always been in that type of business with my great grandmother. She is a business woman to the T. Even with the opening of the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, she will have an exhibit in there from her museum. I just feel like even in her older age she is still inspiring young African American women just like me. In the natural hair community, I would say one of my major influences was this natural girl on YouTube (Longhairdontcare2011). She actually passed away but she inspired me so much because of how delicately she was with her hair and how intelligent she was about African American hair period. It really inspired me to learn more about my hair more than anyone else. 1. Coconut oil 2. Apple cider vinegar 3. Trader Joes Tea Tree Tingle conditioner & shampoo What would you say your most rewarding experiences have been since you’ve began blogging? My best experience is to have people DM me. I had a 12-year-old girl message me, asking about her hair and how she had just came from Africa. Her and her family had only been in the States for 3 years. She was asking me for tips about her hair because she didn’t know what to do with it. She actually used my tips and sent me pictures. It made me tear up a little bit because I am a big softy. It’s really cool 50 Fall/Winter 2016 | NURAMagazine.com What is something that your followers don’t know about you? I don’t think my followers know much other than my MAC laptop breaking down on me and having to purchase a new laptop. All my natural hair videos disappeared. I can usually only edit and do videos on the weekends because I am also a loan officer. I work 14 hour days and that’s why you will usually see me post every two to three days. A lot of people don’t know that I work in the mortgage industry and I am usually exhausted working 14/15 hour days. How do you balance your career, blogging and your personal life? Time management. I learned that at Norfolk State. University. It was very difficult for me because I also write articles for RollingOut Magazine. It’s just time management. You can’t do everything every day. Make sure you make enough time to see your friends, your family, write articles, take a nap, do your work and do everything else that you need to do. Time management is key and it has been kicking my butt. Having a schedule works. What can we expect from you in the future? What are your top 3 go to products? to have people reach out to you. Although, I can’t answer everyone all the time, it’s nice knowing that I am helping someone. It’s good seeing people living with their natural selves. You can expect a website launch of YourCurlFriend. I will have products up there and much more blogging than I use to. What advice would you give to someone who wants to start blogging or start their hair journey? Research, research, research and have fun! I feel like a lot of people take it so seriously because they do these videos and they make people think that they are perfect. I did a couple videos on my personal Instagram before I even started my professional YourCurlFriend Instagram page. On my personal page I was messing up and it looked a hot mess but usually those are the videos that most people draw closer to. They realize that my hair messes up just like theirs. Half of the girls in the natural