SCORE!

in the past week or so, i posted an ad on craigslist to start braiding hair as a side hustle. i haven't necessarily given up on mystery shopping, but this is something i can do to get paid THAT DAY, which is a drawback of my other side hustle. i charge between $75 and $100 (although it's so time consuming, i may just move to $100 soon) for kinky twists, senegalese twists, box braids, crochet braids, and yarn braids, and $35-50 for two strand twists, straw sets and the like. it's going pretty well, as i have had 3 clients who have wanted kinky twists or senegalese twists, and hopefully i will have more business next week.

anyway, my client yesterday wanted senegalese twists, and all she told me was that she is natural. i ask her if she has any favorite moisturizers (sort of an over-the-phone consultation before she got here), and she tells me no, but she doesn't use grease in her hair. as soon as she said this, a bell went off in my head....she must know about nikos! i kind of hinted at it once she got here, but she just kept mentioning youtube. eventually i came out and asked her if she was a member of lhcf...and she told me no, but some of her youtube browsing takes her there. the whole time i was twisting her hair, we talked moisturizers, sealing, hair goals (i even showed her pics of my natural hair, curly and straight, since i am in crochet braids and she couldn't see my hair) and more. it turns out she is a pj just like me, but her thing is buying essential oils and butters online. i almost started drooling when we got on the topic of skin care/fitness and she told me about the huge block of black soap she had purchased and all of her uses for it...she learned on youtube how to make it into liquid soap, adding glycerin, honey and all my other favorite DC additives to it. you guys may know by now about my struggles with sulfate shampoos and how they dry out and tangle my hair to the MAX, so when she mentioned she uses this as shampoo, i had to stop and look at her! then she offered to bring me some so i could try it, and i wanted to kiss this child!!

we ran out of hair last night, so she came back this morning to get the twists at her crown finished. not only did she bring me black soap, but she also brought me small containers of mango and avocado butter! y'all know how i am about playing in my hair, so i am realllly fighting to keep these crochet braids in...i just wanna wash my hair and...i don't even know, i just wanna seal it with one of these butters! LMAO...i feel like a fiend who got a fix...but i will let you guys know (of course) when i use them.