Best part of being in a foreign country: learning how to do your hair all over again.

During some time spent in Colombia, I decided that my usually curly/wavy hair needed to be put up as the climate was making it a little bit high-maintenence.  Where I'm from, all I have to do is massage in some leave-in conditioner and let it air-dry.  My layered haircut is really perfect for the look I like so that's all I need.  Colombia, however, made my hair bigger and frizzier.  So one night, before going out I decided to do something different.

I knew I was going to leave it natural and I was thinking of sweeping it to the side into a side pony.  But that can't be all because of the layers in my hair would come out and curl around it with their big frizzy selves.

So I did what anyone would do.  I put in a waterfall braid from behind my right ear going to my behind my left ear where I completed the braid and let it hang.  Then I secured it (and some of the cascading hair) with a couple large bobby pins (the kinds you would use for rollers).  The braid and the pins secured my hair to the side and some pretty tendrils were loose as well.

Then, I used a long necklace I have and wrapped it around my hair for fun.  I then secured the loose ends with bobby pins, also making sure to secure the whole thing to my head.  I only had to use four bobby pins, two for each side of my head.

This is the result.

Then, because my hair was so frizzy in this wonderful climate, I used a shine spray to smooth it out and give it some shine.  This also helped to define the natural curls.  As far as glossing sprays go, I like Garnier Fructis Brilliantine Shine Glossing Spray because it gets the job done well, smells pretty good, and only costs $3.47 at Wal-Mart.

Wish I had taken more pictures now, but you know what they say about hindsight, it's always 20/20.