this video could change your life
in fact it's going to change my life and
i think it's probably the biggest video
i've put out to date
now let's get into it i think hair is a
huge part of my identity i'm alexandra
and i think a lot of people would
probably notice my hair
as a very identifying factor in my
appearance
now i think hair is going to affect how
i feel on so many levels and i've used
it as a tool to boost my confidence but
it hasn't always been easy for me to
love my hair in fact i have a very uh
difficult hair texture to manage and
i've gone through a long journey of
really not enjoying the way that my hair
looks
now i don't have hair that like is easy
or effortless and
that is why i've done so many things
including a keratin smoothing treatment
and really since i've had this hair
texture that is smoothed out and a
little bit more straight
i've never done a video with all of my
tips and i've got a lot for
volume cleansing properly growing it
long and like a million other
tips these are hair secrets every girl
should know
if you want get a snack because this
video is kind of long and i'm going to
go over
everything so i want you to be comfy
cozy give this video a thumbs up if you
enjoy and if you don't
then give it a thumbs down because i'd
want to know that as well let's get into
the video
i want you to know where my head's at
like when it comes to my hair i have a
vision and staying in my natural color
range has been a big change that i've
made and like
a commitment to myself that i'm going to
keep i looked back on photos and i was
like
damn i used to lighten my hair a lot and
i actually realized this is a bit of an
addictive pattern
with me i would go really really light
and then i would see a photo and then
want to go dark again and then i'd be
like oh my god i gotta go light i would
see a celebrity do it
i was like 18 in these photos and i look
so old like i feel like it just made me
look
worse and my hair would always look even
worse when i went back dark because the
blonde would like peek through
and when i really realized this never
actually looks good and it's also
something i can't really afford i could
never afford to keep it
not brassy i couldn't afford the salon
visits so i've realized here's where i'm
at
i'm going to optimize on what i already
have i'm going to use some cool styling
techniques really double down on what i
have
and optimize it every single day every
single week and year
by learning more and more it's a big
reflection of self-love
to be able to like have my natural hair
color but it doesn't mean that i don't
change the color i still do that for
example
i did a season shift for my hair and
i've lightened it up ever so gently
i go from a flat brown color which is
very close to my natural one and then i
get something done that is very
intuitively placed a very low volume
bleached highlight and i make sure that
i tell my stylist every time make sure
this looks really natural as if it's
done by the sun and not a stylist i want
this to be
almost an undetectable and this shows up
on iphone for some reason really really
well
i don't know why i'm bringing that up
it's just like camera and lighting can
totally change things but i think you
guys can see that i look a little bit
brighter a little bit fresher for the
season change and that's cool i like it
so i've made it my mission to go from
day one to day five but look
really good not have to use hot tools
every day and i realize willpower is a
tool
a tool not a means to live your life by
you're not supposed to be using
willpower at every turn in life because
you will exhaust yourself
this goes for your beauty regimen as
well by the way all the products these
are going to be in the description below
and i wrote some stuff that you might
want to read too okay
what i'm saying with willpower is
essentially it does apply in your beauty
life as well
you might want to look beautiful and
amazing every single day but if you are
using willpower to style your hair every
morning and it becomes exhausting
it's not sustainable so what i've
realized is i need to adapt my routine
to extend my style make it look better
for longer with less effort
we want to work smarter not harder in
all areas of life
okay we're on the same page that was
like a four minute really powerful intro
i think
because i really want you to understand
where i'm coming from now hair oils are
the first thing i want to talk about
because when i think of hair especially
when i go online and i try to purchase
hair products
the first things that are kind of like
suggested as great solutions for dry
damaged hair
are hair oils and i really find this
kind of funny you know why it's because
hair oils cannot fit into the hair shaft
most hair oils will not fit the molecule
is too large to actually go inside the
hair so it'll sit on top which is going
to give the user a false sense of
hydration
and hair health now for some reason when
it comes to hair oils we're really
comfortable as women buying such a small
amount of product
for a very high price point so it's a
very appealing product for brands in
terms of profit to create but uh
i don't find them functional for that
reason of course greasy hair is actually
a really great time to use hair oils
i find this so counter-intuitive but it
makes a lot of sense when i started to
think about the logic
i came up with this because i was
thinking my hair gets so greasy by day
seven
like there's i mean dead cells that i
can literally see and the oil cleanses
the only thing that i've noticed
really lifts the oil while
simultaneously hydrating the scalp
before you're ready to wash take a
couple pumps of a natural hair oil that
you like and put this into the roots of
the hair
while massaging the scalp nourishing the
skin on your scalp will not only
encourage longer hair growth and faster
hair growth but it's also going to help
those oils from
the actual shaft of the hair lift off
during the shampoo process
thinking on why greasy hair happens
often it happens prematurely because the
body is
providing protective oils since we've
stripped them during the shampoo process
but when we add oils before we go in
with shampoo we can assure that the
actual oils from our hair will be lifted
but the scalp will remain nourished and
hydrated
extending the life of your hair after
your wash give this a try
and let me know how it goes just come
back to this video oh and thumbs up if
you're enjoying this so far
one real pillar of my personality is
like identifying patterns and taking
action to change those patterns if i
don't like what the result of the
pattern is and i noticed that i was
always feeling like one
really high energy way about my hair or
i felt like complete crap about the way
that my hair looked
and so i have made a change in my life
which means i
invest in blow dries regularly no one
really told me this in life but like
once you become an adult there's really
no
getting around doing things like emails
and like paying bills like it can
literally take so long to get the most
mundane things done
but it all like i look at life like time
is money right because i could be
working i could be doing something that
feels good for me but
if i can double down and get something
done while getting something done i'm
like holy
this is the best this is a really great
time for me to go get my blow dry
yes it might seem pricey but i have
things to do on my phone regardless as
somebody who works
you know i'm self-employed so there's a
lot to do and this is a really great
time for me to be massively productive
and then like look up in the mirror and
be like wow my hair looks amazing
now the trick with these is that i'm not
doing it for a special event or anything
in fact the day i get the blow-dry is
not the day i usually love it the most
this is like third day
after my blow-dry and it looks like it
hasn't been brushed and that's because
it hasn't i wake up with hair that i
really enjoy and i really don't have to
do anything to
this is coming back to the willpower
thing because i'm not the type of person
to style my hair every morning
the reason i don't have to do anything
to it is because i sleep on it properly
i think that there's some things i could
be doing better i could sleep on a silk
pillowcase i could put it in a scarf or
something but
all i do is wrap it into a bun on top of
my head every
single night and this maintains not only
what we have done with the hot tools
during the blow dry
or like the blow dryer rather but it
also encourages your natural body heat
to maintain like this squirrel one
direction
do people still go crazy over one
direction should i say bts
okay listen you just want the hair to
stay the same so that when you wake up
it's got a natural loose wave
that looks amazing this is something not
everybody is aware of it's called the
golden triangle it's that area in the
middle of your face
including the eyes lips and nose and
this is
where you want the attention to be drawn
anytime we can draw attention to the
golden triangle the middle of the face
we are going to automatically look more
attractive and
be able to captivate with our natural
the hairline is the number one way you
can distract from the golden triangle
and this hairline that i have
is rather asymmetrical it's uneven
and it's a little bit sparse so i use
hair powder this is my favorite beauty
secret by far
i bought this like six years ago i'm
still using it i love hair powder so
much because it transforms the way you
look in a subtle way
check out the darkest shade that is in
the range of colors that are in your
hair most people don't just have one
pick the darkest and find a hair powder
that matches now i'm going to blend
and diffuse this into the hairline to
make it look more
rounded check out the areas where it
peaks up and then focus the powder
in that area until it looks natural
using your finger to buff away any
excess color
that has gone on to your forehead this
is really really soft and
just like eye shadow you use a soft
fluffy brush to diffuse color
but if you have a lot of hair coverage
that you want to add
or a lot of shadowing you want to add
use a dense brush that's what i used to
do when i had that big bald patch on
both sides of my head
not only does this make the hairline
look fuller not only does it make
the golden triangle the main focus when
people are looking at your face
this is also a great way to look better
in photos for some reason it's a much
less i guess for the same reason
distracting element and it really does
make your face look more beautiful as a
whole
so something i notice with myself is
that since my hair texture is very
coarse
and i am mixed race so i think that this
does mean i do have some differences in
texture
now if you have hair that is not fine
and straight
naturally you might notice what i'm
talking about in yourself
that you struggle to create the same
hair texture from root to tip
and i always notice that stylists will
take like big sections of hair and they
run a hot tool through it as if that's
really going to smooth it from the edge
and the root and that's not the case you
need to be taking paper thin
areas of the hair when you have a mixed
hair texture and using a rat tail comb
can really help you get specific
so what i'm doing here is taking these
tiny little sections of the hair
and with a really hot flat iron i'm
going to go in as close to the root as
possible and just straighten it in any
direction it will naturally fall
and this is a really great way to make
your whole entire face
actually look more elegant with a very
subtle
subtle change that just makes all the
difference for me this is something i'll
always do after my blow dry
and i'll do it again and again
throughout the week as i wash my face
because i always get my edges wet
now as i've started to take a more
actualized research
approach to beauty hair skin i've
realized that masks
i used to not really know i mean i used
to buy a lot of hair products and be
like is this working like is this
actually doing anything
and then i realized when i kind of
shifted my focus away from using hair
oils
that masks are actually a very important
and very very easy way to
nourish the hair that is no longer being
nourished from the body
when the hair disconnects obviously and
and ends up being kind of just dead
growing out of the scalp yes there's an
opportunity for the roots to get some of
that nourishment
but we need to add it back into the ends
and the mid shaft of the hair because
if we don't the hair essentially just
gets more
aged day by day now these are really
great to apply to wet hair in the shower
that's a really great way to make these
absorb
one of my favorite things to do since i
don't like to wait in the shower for 15
minutes and i hate the idea of not
getting my money's worth is i'll apply
this to
my hair dry and then i'll take a t-shirt
and get it wet before
putting it in the microwave for 30
seconds depending on your microwave i'm
using
steam to penetrate the mask into the
hair shaft and letting it sit while i do
some computer work and then i wash
it out at a later time this really gets
the mask working well
now to really grow your hair long you
want to support the scalp
you want to support the scalp because
that's where the hair grows from and
using an exfoliating shampoo is a really
great way to add
a skin care practice that we know is
functional and works but adding it to a
place that we don't normally treat which
is the scalp
in science you learn that every six
weeks is what you can expect for
a cell to turn over in the skin and when
i look at it like that i think okay
doing this once every six weeks is going
to support my skin
in that cell turnover process and
encourage my hair to be on a six week
growth schedule so it's growing every
six weeks and this helps that happen
so i'm going to massage this into the
scalp and then i'm going to move on to
my best
friend this is a shampoo brush i love
this this is something i used to see
online like photos and i'd be like oh
that is so not gonna work for me because
that looks hard and it looks like it's
gonna tug on my hair and it's like
why would i use that i'll just use my
fingers but then i'm like wait no that's
actually one of the biggest problems in
my hair life like since i was a kid i
could never
get my hair clean like it would bother
me so much because i would spend so much
time like trying to shampoo it and then
lo and behold dry it and i'm like oh my
god it's still kind of greasy and it's
so annoying
so i love these silicone hair uh shampoo
brushes because they actually work and
they don't tug on the hair they're
really good
okay so now i'm gonna talk about volume
a lot of people ask me about volume for
me
as the week goes on and it comes closer
to wash day my hair naturally becomes
more sleek and greasy
and that looks really great when you
want to wear it nice and sleek and shiny
so
this is the only time when the hair is
really greasy and dirty that you can do
sleek polish styles and really pull them
off so use that time for that but
midweek and early in the week i want a
ton of volume i want a lot
in fact i always noticed hairdressers
would always do this back in the day
they like
put their hands to the side and like
push the hair up as if that does
anything
that bothers me so much because it like
literally doesn't do anything and the
hair is just gonna fall back
flat what i like to do is create these
little crayfish hands
and i scrub the roots of my hair i
literally put my hands
into my like roots and i like almost
scratch at the roots so that i can
really really cross hatch the hair this
gives the hair a really effortless
lived in sexy very like almost bridget
bardot
like i just love this look i don't love
hair that looks too perfect i love the
way that this just
gives that elevated volume but it looks
like you didn't try and it really is
effortless the next step in like
pumping up volume to like the next level
i mean this is something i've always
known about because
it's an old school product this is a
powder volumizer and i feel like i
should include it in this video because
if i really really want to add some grit
and like dirt to the roots to really
volumize the hair
i will use this it's not like an
everyday every week thing but
i don't know sometimes i'm feeling it
and it really does work so i definitely
use this as part of my routine on a
special occasion
if you have made it to this point in the
video you're going to see something that
i've never seen somebody talk about
before
and it's something that we all engage in
like we all wear a ponytail sometimes
but i don't think i've ever seen anybody
really bring this up
now the high pony is a really hot
ponytail a lot of people love it a lot
of celebrities wear it
a lot of people when they think of
wearing a ponytail that should look good
or would look good for an event or
something they automatically put it at
the crown of the head they put it at the
highest point
which is uh right you know almost on top
of the head
the problem with the high pony is that
it actually doesn't suit everyone's face
in my opinion and i have a very macro
eye i mean i see things very detailed
and precise
and i see a lot of mathematics in
visuals so for me what i see
with a very high ponytail is that it
would optimize a very structured face
but since it creates a very intense
amount of contrast
it can actually create a contrast that
draws attention to the lower half of the
face
and by low points of the face i'm
talking about having like a double chin
or having softer cheeks look at ariana
grande for example she's got a very
structured face and at the lowest point
of her face it is extremely structured
the chin is very pointy
and it's very very sharp so a high
ponytail is only emphasizing how much
structure she has and how beautiful she
looks
most people for whatever reason are
going to have softer faces maybe they
have fuller cheeks or you're like me and
you have a mix of
some structure but you'd rather lift
your cheeks rather than draw attention
to the lower half of the face
in order to do this when you're choosing
your ponytail height follow the line
from your cheekbone and go all the way
back to the middle of the head
this should create a line and it should
essentially continue the cheekbone that
you naturally have
and emphasize it by placing the ponytail
there not only do i like the subtle lift
effect that this gives i also love the
effortless and kind of
almost sexy curve that this gives the
back of your head it gives you a really
pretty profile from all angles
random underrated tip that not a lot of
people do
uh it's just really awesome and i think
the natural hair community really
alerted me to the value of doing this
a really clean part can literally make
you look so polished and put together
and it literally takes a second
when your hair is all cross hatched in
the part it just
looks lived in and that can be a really
cute look but
try out parting it in a very specific
and precise way
using your rat tail comb this pairs
really beautifully with pin straight
hair which can bring so much drama
or a low polished pony so since i know
and coming back to the whole willpower
thing i know i'm not going to style my
hair every day
this is not a product i think everybody
should go out and buy i don't think it's
something everyone's going to love but i
think a lot of people might love it i
don't know
it's just the thing that i've found and
you're going to find things in your life
that just work for you
for me not brushing my hair not
restructuring it with a hot tool
is definitely on the agenda because i
just can't be bothered
but i like to depend on a product that
can refresh the hydration level of my
hair
and make it look its best today i'm on
day four and i haven't done anything to
my hair in days but it's looking really
good it just looks a little dry and what
i can really depend on with this hair
elixir
which is actually a combination of oils
vitamins and other
liquids that can really nourish and
replenish the hair i can
mist this into my hair and it's so fine
that it will evenly distribute so i
don't need to like
brush through it or do anything like
that because i again can't be bothered
i think what i've noticed in my life is
that ultimately my hair brings me a lot
of
feelings regardless of if they're
positive or negative my hair has a lot
of power
over my mood and how i feel about myself
and coming back to the willpower thing
the sustainable force
behind me learning more about my hair
but like doing my hair making it look
good
is the fact that i am curious to know
more about feeling good
through beauty feeling good through
practical tools that we can do
in our morning routine because i really
think of it as a meditation to style my
hair or to
have it done or to make it look good it
really does make me feel good on some
deeper levels and
real inner beauty can be achieved
through
uh practice with outer beauty and i
really commend you guys for being here
and learning more about
your own hair and learning how to you
know refine your look
it really is something to be proud of
and i appreciate you guys spending time
with me for that reason
thank you so much for watching this
video i love you so so much
thank you for 3 million subscribers i am
so over the moon and i can't wait to
make more videos for you guys
love you and i'll see you soon
you