I grew up getting my hair relaxed about age
six, I believe, until I moved out after college.
I decided then that I wanted to transition
and not do you relaxing.
Through that transition, that was when I
started to do my own styles.
Hi, my name is Michelle.
Today I'll be getting faux locs
but before you watch my transformation, subscribe below.
So I moved to New York about 10 months ago
and one of the things I was really excited
about was being able to explore my hair
more and finding stylists.
I moved here from San Francisco where
there was not as much of a culture around
hair and maybe two years into that, I big chopped
and also started to wear my curls.
And since then, it's been about four years.
I have wanted faux locs for a long time
and I typically do my own protective styles.
But faux locs is something that I have
not been able to do myself.
So I'm really excited to get them done.
Hi, how are you?
I'm Koni, I'll be your hairstylist today.
Hi, Koni.
I'm Michelle.
Nice to meet you.
I hear we're doing some gorgeous, hip length
faux locs today.
Yes, I am very excited.
So am I.
Great, let's get started.
I'm just going to give you a very quick,
gentle blow dry.
A couple of weeks after I got my hair done,
quarantine started.
And so I was pretty bummed
out and there was really no clear end in sight.
So this is a really exciting time for me.
I think it's awesome that I now get to have my hair
done here in my home.
I know there were stylists that had started doing
that as things started to lift and so
I'm super excited to have that opportunity
again, because for me, that's a part of the
New York culture that I was looking forward to
before things started to change with COVID.
Okay, so you are all blown out.
Next we're going to subsection your hair
in really small squares and braid your hair down.
Sounds good.
Whether you're doing cornrows or box braids,
if you're starting the braid with your actual
hair, you are creating more or less
a tension free start.
Naturals are starting to realize when styles
are tension free they often can look a little bit messier.
And because of that, you have to embrace that
bit of a messy look, which is why fake styles
like we're doing today, the faux locs and the
boho locs and the passion twists have become more
popular because they are a style that
is messy starting off.
So they only look better as they get older.
I absolutely love my hair now.
I really, really do.
And I try to take great care of it because I feel
like my curls are a part of my identity
that I didn't have when I was growing up.
My grandma actually got sick when I was about six,
and that was a period of time when she
actually wanted my mom to get me a relaxer.
And then from then on, it just became standard.
It was easy and it was comfortable for me.
Braids also, I think at that point I just no longer
felt it had been a choice of mine.
But then once I got older, I did want to go back
to getting braids.
From there, that was when I started to do my own
hair as well.
YouTube really helped me there.
I think the natural community was starting
to come up and I learned a lot.
You're all sectioned off and brought it down.
Now it's time to loop in the crochet.
I'm so excited.
I feel like Lil Yachty.
It's the parting for me.
We're going to loop the crochets through
your actual braids and double extend them.
How long do you think it'll take?
Maybe between six to eight hours.
I typically protect a style, maybe
once every three months.
When I was first learning, it was more
about like learning as many different ways as possible.
The first time I did my twist, it was same day
Stranger Things came out, the first season.
And the reason I know this is because I watched
the whole season while I was doing my hair.
It was eight hours of the show.
I ended up watching something else.
I think it took me 12 hours.
So all of your crochet are individually attached.
I extended the length by doubling the crochet
right at the end for a little bit of a hip length look.
Now we're all set to add in your extension for some texture.
Let's do it.
I absolutely love protective styles because
it actually takes the load off of me for not
having to do my hair for a while.
There's so many ways that we're now seeing
people put a spin on what faux locs are.
New bohemian and like just even curl them
and do all kinds of things.
And I really appreciate that switch up.
I feel like similar to how braids are now.
You know, there's just so many different ways
that people are wearing their braids in so
many different styles.
I really feel like it gives you more expression.
And I love that you can do that with
temporary faux locs.
Okay, so we're on your last loc
and you truly look like a goddess.
Aw, thank you.
Do you have an alter ego?
Yes, I've decided that I am
Venus, the goddess Venus.
So I'm ready to see and debut.
I can already feel it.
Let's do it.
Wow.
Okay, how do you feel?
Wow!
They are unbelievable.
Look at how long they are.
And I am tall.
So this is like- I feel like a goddess.
I am Venus.
Koni, thank you.
You have changed my life.
One of the things I think I was worried
about is all of the length,
that they might be very heavy,
but they're actually so lightweight.
There's no tension.
It feels really, really comfortable.
And I just feel really good about how long they
are and how it's going to feel over the
course of having this.
This is so nice.
It's even better than some of the past protective styles
I've had in the past that were a lot heavier.
And I'm just so happy.
Thank you, Koni.
Thanks for watching my transformation.
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