- 2 months ago
Kinks and Curls: Ethnic Hair in the Cosplay Community with Daria LeGall
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00:00Hey everyone it's VantablackCosplay here with my panel Kinks and Curls Afrocentric
00:00:06Hair in the cosplay community and my guests today are Kia Sangria and Spidey Spice.
00:00:17Yeah sure no problem you guys are great you're both awesome cosplayers um personal friends of
00:00:22mine as well and they're two cosplayers that I really look up to they're doing great things
00:00:27for the community and also they use their natural hair too and Afrocentric wigs so let me let them
00:00:34introduce themselves. Kia you want to go first? Yes so hi guys my name is Kia Sangria I'm a New York
00:00:40City based cosplayer today I am dressed for you guys as Leeloo from The Fifth Element and I have
00:00:46my orange curly wig going for you guys tonight. What in the world is your boy Spidey Spice I hail
00:01:00from the two up two down Richmond Virginia um and I am cosplaying for you Miriel Tagoga from My Hero Academia
00:01:10aka Lameleon and as you can see I am rocking the natural baldy and the natural clothes. Yes yes we love to see that
00:01:23both y'all look great I love both iterations of them I know exactly who you guys are. But let's talk about
00:01:28oh yes of course of course you know I as soon as I heard I was doing a panel I'm like you know what
00:01:44I need Kia and I need Spidey Spice on this next panel because I want I know I want it to be a
00:01:48diverse panel I want to have a lot of different voices talking and talking about their experience
00:01:53not only as a cosplayer of color but also as a cosplayer who uses their natural hair and uses
00:01:58you know Afrocentric ways. So let's get started with the questions. So Spidey you
00:02:08Spidey you are my first panelist thank you for being here this is great
00:02:16I'm so glad you're here and I I was for a while I'm like I need I need more men on my panel I want
00:02:23I want it to be diverse who should I spidey perfect who else so how do you use your natural
00:02:30hair in cosplay let's talk about that okay so as you can see I'm using my natural hair right now
00:02:37naturally this is I call this the shine so what the shine is is when I get a Gillette three blade razor
00:02:47and I just go across the scalp ever so gently and there you have it the shine
00:02:54see I am naturally bald I am naturally bald genetics have chosen to make me bald and I embrace it
00:03:01because I feel like most characters I cosplay are iconic enough to where I don't need to put on a wig
00:03:10like most characters you cosplay the only exception I will give you is Goku and the only reason I give
00:03:17Goku the exception is because there's three people in that anime that wear the same damn thing
00:03:24so you got Goku, Krillin, Yamcha at one point Gohan wears it, Goten wears it so like if you're cosplaying
00:03:33someone from DBZ like you might want to have a wig to differentiate who you are but other than that
00:03:41like there's no question if I walk outside wearing this and you're familiar with My Hero Academia
00:03:48you know that I am a million right and like that's that's been how I've always done I don't think I've ever
00:03:56worn a wig for cosplay and I don't think I ever will unless I do Captain Planet
00:04:05yeah
00:04:06even then I think if you did Captain Planet
00:04:09enough of us grew up with him that I think as soon as they see you with the shirt and the heroes
00:04:14they're gonna be like oh Captain Planet that's it
00:04:16exactly
00:04:19now Kia I know you as like Queen of Wigs
00:04:23I know when I have wig questions I come straight to you so how do you incorporate you know your own
00:04:28little flair your own Afrocentricity into making your wigs
00:04:33um so that is a very good question and when it comes to like wig making for me uh my creativity
00:04:41fuels everything that I do when it comes to my wig and my style choices which is why you'll see me in
00:04:45orange but tomorrow you'll probably see me in blue which you just might um so when it comes to like cosplay
00:04:50I like I really love like textured wig um but they're not always curly but they're like
00:04:57textured and I guess the greatest my most recent example would probably be my beetlejuice wig
00:05:02um which has like a nice like texture to it it's not just straight and I I absolutely love it because
00:05:07I feel like myself when I'm in it um for cosplay I tend to always go for like a curly or like a textured
00:05:14wig just because that's what really gets me going myself and I just love the way that they look for
00:05:18like cosplay and like my performances and stuff like that um so yes I am the wig girl wig I love
00:05:24wigs I love them for being able to like change my style whenever I want um and I just I like them as
00:05:30a protective style too because like my hair is like first of all I'm 4c which is already a lot to deal with
00:05:36um so like for like for cosplay I just don't always have like the motivation to like deal with like
00:05:47those ancestral roots so I love like adding curly wigs I love adding a curly wig to my cosplay um
00:05:56because I'm black I'm black and I'm in cosplay and I love it absolutely
00:06:00yeah felt felt I think for me usually when I decide do I wear a wig do I not wear a wig what
00:06:07do I want to do um I think I think about the character first so with like San from Princess
00:06:14Mononoke that's one of my favorite characters to cosplay because her hair is wild she is a wild child
00:06:19and it's great because it's like oh I don't have to wear makeup because you don't have makeup in the
00:06:23wild oh I get to wear like be like all dingy and weird and just you know a wild child for the day
00:06:29of course I'm going to use my natural hair and its most natural state because I don't have to you know
00:06:33be primped and you know curled and all that you know what I mean that's why like I pick those
00:06:40characters so there's less to do with my hair and there's less to do with your cosplay so it's nice to
00:06:46hear you actually explain it yeah that's that secret's out I'm like I'm like the mo the least
00:06:54amount that I have to do with my hair the better um and same when it comes if it if I'm gonna do
00:07:00a curly cosplay or like a cosplay with like box braids I'm gonna like plan them out I'm gonna be like
00:07:07okay so um Sailor Pluto has green hair so I could do green box braids or um Rantosuka has you know
00:07:16long uh ponytails and that would look great with box braids so I like try to you know piece them
00:07:21together so it they all work together you know like get get the flow going the method to the madness
00:07:29the method there is a method to the madness yes now Mike what advice would you give to male
00:07:37cosplayers when styling their hair or you know doing some ball painted whole okay here we go
00:07:47this is spidey spice tips all right number one take care of yourself stop washing your skin with bar
00:07:57soap actually get some damn products Rihanna got fenty skin line that works
00:08:07get you just take care of your skin that's number one number two if you bald like me
00:08:15when you moisturize your face moisturize your entire head because this too is skin
00:08:23protect that shit can I say shit can y'all bleep out shit I've already said it like three times
00:08:29but yeah protect it moisturize it use some SPF whatever you need um if you hair um I don't have
00:08:43hair on my head but I have hair on my face also take care of your beards yes because you have one
00:08:51doesn't mean you can just leave it high and dry and let it grow take care of it um I'm gonna drop a
00:08:58product name I use EBO beard butter it's on Etsy Etsy.com slash EBO like or you can just search it EBO
00:09:07beard butter EBO beard wash he is a black owned um business based out of Washington DC I've been
00:09:15using it for the past two years and my beard looks fresh and healthy
00:09:21every single time it grows it's nice and fluffy it's soft and it smells really really nice so I highly
00:09:31recommend getting that um so just know that self-care isn't just for women men can have self-care too
00:09:42so those are those are Spidey Spice's tips also take a comb through that shit
00:09:49all right
00:09:51that was like five thousand times
00:09:54all right
00:09:55I'm gonna stop I'm gonna show I'm gonna show up but that's what I do to take care of my skin and my beard to prepare for cosplay also
00:10:09like I shaved right before this happened so like okay okay so extra extra crisp perfect got it
00:10:20what do you do for your wigs or your actual hair when you're gonna cosplay
00:10:25okay so I take care of both obviously because they're both a very big part of me so when it comes
00:10:30to the care and keeping of my wigs I tend to keep them all in the boxes that they came in so like here's
00:10:36an example of like one of my wigs and the packaging that it comes in that's the packaging
00:10:40that it goes back into when the day is over um or it lives on like my my mannequin head over here
00:10:46um I detangle my wigs after I'm done wearing them with this brush here I also use this on my
00:10:52wigs and on my natural hair as well to detangle before I put them away in their box so
00:11:04I have a wig addiction actually so under my queen-size bed over here it's just tons of like
00:11:08wig boxes it's quite the annoyance to my husband but you know that's my life and that's also who he
00:11:13married you know he deals with it um but for the keep of my for the keeping of my wigs one of the
00:11:20things I really want to share with people is fabric softener especially for their synthetic wigs
00:11:26yes thank you fabric softener this is new to me for angling your wigs whether they're human
00:11:35human hair blend um synthetic synthetic hair blend fabric softener is going to help you detangle them
00:11:42you can wash your wig in this or you can just get a little spray bottle with some water and some
00:11:46fabric softener and just spritz the wig like you know nightly or in the morning before you wear it
00:11:51and just detangle it like that it takes the static out of it and it also removes the shine if you just
00:11:57have a brand you know you just got a brand new wig and it's really shiny like one of those ten
00:12:00dollar amazon wigs we've all been there you know fabric softener or even like a fabric softener sheet
00:12:05you just wipe the hair down with it it'll actually remove the shine so that it's not as like
00:12:09party costume store looking and then another product that i swear by for laying wigs down
00:12:16especially if it's curly like this just to keep the corals uniform is the elastic qp styling foam
00:12:22i use this for keeping my wigs from getting frizzy um because that's something that happens a lot like
00:12:27if it's a human hair wig so that is like those two things are like a must for my synthetic wigs but
00:12:32in terms of taking care of my natural hair i take care of it on the outside with my moisturizer but also
00:12:38internally as well and one of the products that i've been using for years is the nature's bounty
00:12:45hair skin and nail gummies i have been on these for i think about five years now and i absolutely
00:12:50swear by them um for just your hair like healthy and thick um because i wear a lot of lace fronts too
00:12:58so one of the things that people complain about is like you know losing their edges because they're
00:13:02wearing lace fronts i don't have that issue we don't do that over here okay we keep our edges
00:13:07we don't wear wigs um and that's just by taking care of our hair like externally but also like
00:13:14internally too when it comes to the things that we eat perfect perfect yes thank you for sharing that
00:13:21um tip about the fabric softener because i do that as well when i first get a wig i'll get like a nice
00:13:27like lukewarm little pot not pot but like a bucket full of lukewarm water with fabric softener and i soak my
00:13:34way to like get the synthetic dot like the synthetic dyes and the powders out and then i like let it hang
00:13:39dry and then brush it out um starting from the ends of the hair and then moving my weight up because
00:13:45if you start at the like the top of it and like you're like ripping the shreds the hair out and
00:13:50you're shredding it and like that really messes up with the hair so that's how i like i clean them
00:13:55first but i also like when i pack my wigs up i don't use the case the boxes they come in usually
00:14:02sometimes i use a ziploc bag not the best but sometimes it works but i um i'll put like a dryer
00:14:08sheet in it so that it'll you know stay smell good and it won't like smell weird or anything you know
00:14:14we're black right season on everything so um just yeah salt bay just salt bay everything
00:14:21that's what i do with my wig right now when i'm if i'm gonna wear a wig you know during a con
00:14:27i will apply jamaican castor oil around my edges if i'm wearing a lace front which i usually prefer to
00:14:34wear and that helps you know keep my edges intact because i know like you said a lot of people have
00:14:38that issue but if i'm also i have my natural hair out all day i make sure at night i like brush out the
00:14:46ends because they're gonna get snagged from like bumping and you know there's 50 million people
00:14:50when you're in a con yeah not good i also recommend people if you're gonna be wearing
00:14:56your natural hair at a con to get a silk pillowcase and travel with it because you know the hotel
00:15:03sheets are not silk you know a lot of people forget that they're like don't forget you're all faithful
00:15:10yup that that i can add to this part i can add to this part it's not for me but like
00:15:17like so i was like looking for stuff for um for bay and everything and i found out that there are
00:15:24um silk lined hoodies yes for those cold days so yeah boom so look at me balls and adding things for
00:15:35people who have anything this is why we have you on this panel you know what you know what's up the
00:15:41silk line hoodies are great silk line anything honestly i have um a silk line hat that i wear in
00:15:47the winter she's great i've had it for like three years if it's really cold and i like my hair's just
00:15:55up i will put that hat on and it's great i look cute don't have to worry about anything oh lifesaver
00:16:00but yeah definitely during cons like make sure you bring a silk line pillowcase or you bring you know
00:16:06good old faithful bring your bonnet bring a detangling comb um tangle teasers are really good
00:16:12too because it's it like i don't know it just glides through your hair the brush kia if you could just
00:16:16show that really quick that brush is a lifesaver i they're on amazon they detangle everything i said
00:16:25i'm like mike you should get one oh sorry we may have to cut that out i said spidey spice you may you
00:16:31should get this brush because it's a life changer mike sorry spidey spice it's okay baby you can use
00:16:41the real name they gonna find out anyway they always do they don't find out but spidey spice can you
00:16:46talk about the brush really quick why that is a game changer for you too all right so i have a five
00:16:54year old daughter who has coarse hair and so doing her hair can be a little bit of a hassle but that's
00:17:07only with like regular combs and like regular brushes the lovely comb that kia is modeling right now
00:17:16our lovely hand model right now is on amazon.com right now for ten dollars 12.99 with shipping and
00:17:24handling it's a prime order so it will be on your doorstep next day if you have it by now no um no
00:17:32real talk like it is definitely helped um in the hair department so what i also do is i compile that
00:17:40so the process is wash for shampoo condition condition again then after we're done um i found that um
00:17:54using the comb with the conditioner it like helps detangle it even better so after you know we get
00:18:03out out the bath or whatever i can use like so here's something else i learned i learned this also
00:18:10promoting that epio beard butter again we can use the evio beard butter on that coarse hair and it helps
00:18:16keep it um moisturized longer so you have an easier time to like you know put it in whatever style that
00:18:25you want to put it in i myself am not that good i'm still working on it um but i'm still learning if i
00:18:32don't get better i'm just gonna start paying someone who knows how to do it because i don't want my baby
00:18:38walking around looking like her daddy did her hair not saying daddies don't know how to do hair
00:18:44her daddy just don't know how to do hair so yeah that's a good point that's a good point
00:18:50that that's that's that's that's all i gotta say about that like i'm sure i'll be looking at deals
00:18:59i agree post i whenever i find something i like try to throw it off and send to you because i know
00:19:06like you're trying to learn and that's you know another question i was going to ask you you know
00:19:10how do you how do you juggle both how do you juggle you know your cosplaying and being a dad at the same
00:19:16time oh she do it with me so frank so obviously i've been cosplaying since before she was born
00:19:25um well actually i kind of started cosplaying like the year before she was born and you know ever since
00:19:31she was a toddler she's always seen me in um some type of spider-man outfit so at first she was um
00:19:39afraid of the mask um because you know uh infant is like oh snap i recognize faces i don't recognize
00:19:47bodies that's not my dad that's a monster i don't like that so over the time as she got older she
00:19:54realized it was just you know it was not necessarily me in a mask but she recognizes me as these characters
00:20:02so as we're watching cartoons together and everything like the spider-man commercial comes up
00:20:07she'll be like daddy that's you you're on tv daddy and i'm like yes yes i am and you know
00:20:16she loves into the spider-verse she loves dc superhero girls i took her to a convention where
00:20:20this is like completely off topic but we went to a convention and you know she was being really good
00:20:27she dressed up as moana i dressed up as superboy and you know i took her to this pop figure um vendor
00:20:34and i was like okay baby pick whatever you want now i'm thinking she's either going to pick one of
00:20:39the teen titans because she really loves teen titans go to the movies or she's gonna pick some disney
00:20:45princesses she goes and picks batgirl and batman completely threw me off but then after she picked them
00:20:58i understood why because she thought batgirl and batman were a couple wrong but hey you know what
00:21:09she was three at the time she was three at the time you know like in in certain canons yeah it happened
00:21:15but like we don't like that they could happen because it's weird but anyway so you know throughout
00:21:21all of that she's always seen me cosplaying going to events doing um charity um conventions whatever
00:21:30so she had mentioned um that she wanted to be um spider-man 2. her words exactly daddy i want to be
00:21:40spider-man but i want to be girl spider-man and we were watching into the spider-verse at the time
00:21:46and then gwen shows up and she's like her i want to be her daddy so for her birthday um actually last
00:21:55month on her birthday i ended up getting her a um a spider-gwen suit
00:22:03so she cosplays with me great that is great that's right i i love it yeah i absolutely love it um
00:22:13i have a niece um and she is a weeb like straight up weeb like wears ramen and naruto shirts naruto runs
00:22:24around the house like she's a weeb and her mother yeah exactly and her mother's also like a baby weeb so
00:22:34like it was inevitable but she's also a huge star wars fan and i took her to a con
00:22:39um gave her the full you know princess leia buns she did jedi training she's got like a little
00:22:45certificate that says she's now an official padawan and you know cosplaying with her was such a great
00:22:51experience because you know again she got to use her natural hair she got to meet she met nichelle
00:22:57nicole's of the original uhura which is cool she met the voice of um cyborg and she got to you know
00:23:03like be in this element and be around the things that she loves and that's kind of what i love about
00:23:08cosplay too you know like we get to we get to meet our heroes and we get to be our heroes you know
00:23:14that's that's the cool part and what i want you know out of this panel too is that you know other
00:23:19little kids and you know weebs growing up they'll see us and they'll say oh they're they're using their
00:23:24natural hair oh they're bald oh they're using cool kinky wigs i can do that why can't i mean if
00:23:30they can do it why can't i so that's what that's the vibe i'm trying to give off that's what i'm
00:23:34trying to encourage everybody to do that's right black tober what what yes black tober that's what
00:23:42we're here for black tober now kia this way i love this one i love the color how did you curl it what
00:23:49did you do tell me tell me the process so this wig actually came curled thankfully but thankfully
00:23:58i do i do curl wigs i i use three different methods for curling legs so the first one depending
00:24:06on how curly i want it i'll use a curling wand um which is basically like a a curling iron but without
00:24:12the handle it's literally just like the wand and it's hot and you just wrap the hair around it and
00:24:17you can kind of make the curls as big or as small as you want and then there's also flexi rods this is
00:24:23the boil method um i like this method a lot but not everyone will get it right because it's it's hot
00:24:32but basically what it is is that you i mean try this at home at your own risk i guess like i don't
00:24:40you know do this at your own risk but um you'll basically wrap the hair around
00:24:44you'll you'll wrap the hair around like perm rods um and so you'll just have like little pieces of
00:24:52plastic like all in the hair and then what you do is you put the wig in a pot of boiling water
00:24:58yeah yeah yeah then you kind of leave it for five minutes while it's boiling for synthetic hair
00:25:03you'll probably add a little bit of conditioner to make sure it doesn't burn but you'll have to use
00:25:07like tongs to kind of like fish it out and then what you'll do is you'll like shock it you'll shock the curls
00:25:13by taking it out of the hot water and then quickly putting it into cold water
00:25:17and leaving it there oh okay i was
00:25:22i know i'm thinking you taking like some actual electricity to these curls like
00:25:28clear you got a laser on hand or something like you just like
00:25:36so yeah i like i put it in a cold water bath and then i dry it by like laying it on the towel
00:25:41and then just like blow drying it or i let it dry overnight but what happens is that
00:25:45once i put it like on the mannequin i just take the rods out it's curly like this like how i want it and
00:25:51i'll just like brush it out if i need to or whatever but that's when i want curls like these that's the
00:25:56method that i'll use if not i'll just use like my curling rod and sit there for like a half an hour like
00:26:01curling the wig like so what i've done in the past was um i made bantu notes i had a lace front
00:26:08and i just turned and curled like wound up the bantu knots in the wig um pinned it and then i also did
00:26:16the hot water method where i stuck it in hot water for a little bit and then took it out and then dipped
00:26:21it in the cold water pulled it out and then let them dry overnight and then i left it and i forgot about
00:26:28it for a day and then i took out the pins and it was set them curls were popping pristine like
00:26:38once you do that too it's hard to make the wig like straight again because those curls won't hold
00:26:44especially if you use like again like some type of styling foam or something like that on them like
00:26:48they're not gonna go away like at all which is great no they're not they they're not going nowhere
00:26:59nope um and so another question for both of you and how do you feel about this but how do you feel
00:27:05about people who want to be natural do you have any advice for people going natural in mike's case for
00:27:12guys who want to stay who are bald or want to be bald you know any advice for them kia girls who are
00:27:19you know newly natural what what do you recommend whoever wants to go first agni kai right now no
00:27:25just kidding so first off i want to say since we did say agni kai i'm still upset you don't actually
00:27:33shock the hair with electricity like that's wild like i'm just mad you just don't take a taser to it
00:27:39or something just like and it's set like i feel like that's nice like like just try
00:27:52but um any tips for people who want to go natural um just do it um like my man you know miles is dead
00:28:03um not even just like miles and um peter said it's a leap of faith you know you gotta know
00:28:09be confident because you know it it does for me um i tried to hold on to my hair um and because i
00:28:19lost at a very young age so like i was trying to like grab on to it and funny enough i'm gonna make
00:28:25fun of myself real quick i was in the military and um i had a warrant officer he's about he was about
00:28:34you know 45 between 45 50 and you know i cracked some type of joke on him and he was like flood
00:28:42i know you're not talking your hairline look older than me and that
00:28:47that was the moment i realized i needed to let it go
00:28:58so i now no longer have a hairline because i have no hair and i look younger for it
00:29:09so um rock whatever makes you feel the most confident if you are self-conscious about that
00:29:17bald spot you know my advice is go ahead and get rid of it like you'll feel a lot better once you do like
00:29:24i've gone back and looked at old photos of myself and realized that i look way better bald than i ever
00:29:30did with hair and i think anyone who knows me now who's only seen me bald who sees a photo of me with
00:29:37hair is like a cursed photo if i'm not a child child it's a cursed photo like that's not even me
00:29:44um so that's number one um number two like i said earlier just start taking care of yourself um whatever
00:29:57that might mean to you um whether it's starting a skincare regimen you know taking care of your beard
00:30:04um taking bubble baths with epsom salt and you know just reading a book or what whatever that might be
00:30:12you know to build that confidence in yourself you know like you know putting on deodorant bro like
00:30:19come on like no like cleanliness is self-care and the better you feel about yourself more confident
00:30:26you'll be yeah yeah yeah that's a really good point this is literally how men get advice like it's this
00:30:33aggressive sometimes it's more aggressive but like this is toned down aggressive because it's you guys
00:30:42um i think my advice for going natural it's very very short and sweet because first of all we're
00:30:51living like in right now 2020 it has never been easier to go natural because there are so many
00:30:56resources out there there are so many people with like different hair types every hair type
00:31:01there you can go on youtube and be like hair regimen for like 4c hair or 3a or 2b like you know
00:31:08whatever um and so you can find someone with your hair type you know on youtube who can give you style
00:31:15advice for you know taking care of your hair and it's accepted like no longer are people really made
00:31:21fun of for cutting off their relaxed ends i cut my relaxed hair off right after my wedding
00:31:26in 2016 and i had no idea what i was going to do with it um but i think the key to like loving your
00:31:33natural hair is being patient i don't even touch my natural hair if i am not like in the mood to
00:31:40actually take the time that's needed to detangle it condition it clip off whatever ends i find because
00:31:47for me taking care of my natural hair that's a ritual it's very it's a ritual and it's very intimate
00:31:52it's a very intimate you know sequence of events when it comes to doing my hair and so having that
00:32:00patience with your natural hair is so important because when i first went natural it was just like
00:32:05first of all i went out and bought everything that i saw that one of my favorite youtubers was using
00:32:11because i thought it was gonna work with me never mind that me she and i probably didn't even have the
00:32:15same hair type i just went out and bought it and so i think like you really need to develop a relationship
00:32:20with your natural hair if you are not natural yet but you haven't relaxed in a couple of months
00:32:25because you're thinking about taking the plunge get to know those natural curls i won't say cut off
00:32:30your relaxed ends right then and there but get to know your natural curls and start doing things
00:32:35specifically to take care of those natural curls because once you see those natural curls start to
00:32:41thrive you're not gonna feel any type of sadness when you cut off those relaxed or like dead ends
00:32:47you can do it slowly you don't have to like do a big chop because that was very popular too for a
00:32:53time i'm gonna do a big chop you don't have to dive right in like that take your time be patient and
00:32:59learn to love your hair slowly because once you do it it's a game changer it's really a game changer
00:33:06you know what products work you know when you can or cannot be bothered with your hair you learn to
00:33:11respect your hair a little bit more um yeah so my biggest thing is just like be be patient be patient
00:33:20with yourself and be patient with your hair because for a lot of us this is this is all new and uncharted
00:33:25territory but we could all get there together though like you don't have to do this by yourself
00:33:30there's somebody out there that probably has the same hair type as you ask people ask around like the
00:33:35resources are out there there's never been a better time to take that plunge yeah yeah definitely and
00:33:42you know we're all stuck inside now like there's nowhere to go so you might as well you know learn
00:33:46how to do your hair experiment i yeah i agree um i've been natural my entire life um my mom had my mom
00:33:56permed her hair for a while um and then i said to her i'm like you know perms aren't really the best for
00:34:02your scalp you shouldn't do it you keep complaining why don't you just you know grow it out see what
00:34:07happens you could have a cute little fro and so she listened to me maybe a year and a half ago and
00:34:13now she's natural and it's been great she's having a lot of fun trying different products and every week
00:34:18she calls me and she's like what about avocado oil how can i use this and it's great you know just
00:34:24talking with her about you know learning how to care for her hair because she has 4c hair like
00:34:28really really thick 4c hair okay yeah yeah and i've got like three all the threes and a little
00:34:38bit of four a in like the center of my head so you know i've got lots of different textures so it's
00:34:44also been a challenge like trying to figure out you know what products work best because some products
00:34:49work for the front some products don't work for the back and like you said kia you know that's a
00:34:53really good point of like being patient with your hair and if you're not in the right mindset to do
00:34:59your hair then you shouldn't do it because you're going to rip and you're going to tug and that's not
00:35:03good and to piggyback off of what you said too mike um you know it starts from self-care is really
00:35:09important you know when i do my hair i have to think to myself like you have to love yourself and you
00:35:15also have to love your hair because it's fragile you know it's growing and you got to take care of it
00:35:20and like you said epsom salts bubble baths like all that stuff though the wellness you cultivate
00:35:26from within will manifest in your hair as well it's not just a let me just put some stuff in it and go
00:35:31no you have to cultivate your hair um if you want to jump you know jump into being natural i say go for
00:35:38it it's fun the community is great you learn so many different things the history of hair you know
00:35:45from uh madam cj walker all the way through there's so many different hair combs colors dyes like
00:35:52there's so much to learn about our hair so i absolutely love it you know if you if you're
00:35:56anxious you can always come to us and talk to us about it um our ids will be up you can always you
00:36:02know ask with questions especially people who have kids who want to ask questions to mike or if people
00:36:07have questions about wigs and protective styling you can ask kia sangria all of it you can ask and if you
00:36:14want to ask me about like how do you do your hair every day what do you do you can ask me stuff so
00:36:19there are resources out there and we are definitely willing to help now i do have a clean baldy
00:36:27and yeah and if you want a baldy talk to mike i have a spicy question to ask y'all um and you guys
00:36:35know me you know how i you know how i feel about this topic but my name where is the disconnect uh with
00:36:46black hair in hollywood where is the disconnect why is there a disconnect and how can we fix that
00:36:56so first things first hollywood can't even get non-black hair right because like i don't know if
00:37:02you've seen some of the wigs that um like please please tell them please let them know
00:37:17it's just okay so you know what okay so the one late point i will say that hollywood got right for
00:37:23me in the past year was henry cavill's wig and the witcher henry castle hard but that lace front was
00:37:33working harder okay but for the rest of hollywood nope i have been seeing some really dry some really
00:37:44dry some really dusty things some unplugged hair lines some unplugged hair lines and you know so i
00:37:54gotta trust you to get my hair right too and you can't even do theirs right
00:38:04we saw the walking dead we saw and listen that show is phenomenal no shade to them but
00:38:11michonne's wig was kind of tired and it was struggling so i don't know where's the problem
00:38:17even in game of thrones which is you know which was a trillion dollar show you know some of cersei's wigs
00:38:24not laid some of danny's wigs danny's season one wigs what what was those what were those what are we
00:38:32doing here so i agree some of these lace fronts i don't know i don't know what they're doing they're dry
00:38:39they're very dry but to answer the original question of where is hollywood disconnect when
00:38:46it comes to black hair um i don't think it's ever connected and that's why we need to be in those
00:38:54rooms um because there's a science to black hair and it's not a science that everyone can learn
00:39:02um you know that's just kind of the reality of the world that we live in currently that can change
00:39:06but i think there needs to be more black people on these sets to manage these wigs because
00:39:14in my book and it's not just because i'm black but also because i'm black nobody slays a wig
00:39:19better than us okay nobody do it the way that we do it you know all these things
00:39:25bathing hairs having your edges laid all those things that's black culture that that's black
00:39:32culture that's us so we need to be in those rooms when this stuff is happening and i don't even want
00:39:37you know what like i know you know where's the disconnect i just think we need to be in those rooms
00:39:41i'm not really wanting to share our industry secrets um nope you know
00:39:52i want to gatekeep the thing that is like black hair okay i want to gatekeep that
00:39:59i mean you have a right to because that's what makes us that is that is what makes us us and then spidey
00:40:05you know i see some lineups not lining up
00:40:12yeah um we're not going to talk about a train from the boys right now
00:40:20please please no no we gonna talk about it i'm if you don't talk about it i will y'all seen that man
00:40:26hairline where is it why they do my man's dirty like that
00:40:31why is it from new york why do you want to light that don't don't do that this is how i know so
00:40:38this is how i know it's the actual production of hollywood um and it's because i saw um the cast
00:40:48together for an interview and his he had his his cut was looking nice like lines was crispy so i know it's
00:41:00not him and once again you know i think it's because there is a like he has said there there
00:41:10is a lack of representation in that room when it's happening you know like not to quote hamilton or
00:41:18anything but like we need to be in the room when it happens you know like we have to be and like no
00:41:25sometimes i just think you know these no people in charge of hair and makeup just need to take a trip
00:41:32to the hair capital of the world in atlanta and you know maybe learn a thing or two
00:41:37like just just walk into a salon you know and you know see them like doing it up
00:41:44like i don't even have hair but i know that's where it happens
00:41:52when quarantine first happened and we were all like damn i missed going to the beauty class bar
00:41:56and somebody was like oh but there's sally's
00:41:58i pretend not to see it i didn't hear that i saw that i was like it was something like sally's
00:42:14i'm like sally's listen the only sally i know is that west union restaurant that's in brooklyn okay we
00:42:21don't that's it no sally's don't go to sally's who's sally i was just like this no that's not the
00:42:30beauty class store that's that's no that's not it that's not it i don't think i've ever seen that in
00:42:36the hood of course not you're not gonna see a sally's i've seen like i've seen it in like
00:42:45like yeah like i've only seen it in strip malls i'm like the only thing i've ever seen in the hood
00:42:52are you know the beauty supply stores like that are either like doubling as corner stores where you
00:42:59can also get like a cup a couple wings and why are y'all laughing i know i'm telling the truth
00:43:07you are you are spitting fats you are you laughing i'm like i'm in there she is right here this is us
00:43:15right now like no but you're right though you're right though you can get a wig you can get a nice
00:43:24comb you can get a durag and a 16. and maybe and maybe a corona maybe some beers too i'm just saying
00:43:34i'm just i don't drink so i get eliminated i get eliminated right well they probably have
00:43:41lemonade a little refresh a little refresh but back to what you were saying about a train's hairline
00:43:47i i think i just oh my man's hairline was fucked up oh my bad um
00:43:56listen i think i just noticed this season and no it's been like both seasons it looks like my
00:44:03daughter has some crowns i think yeah we're seeing more of him this season maybe that's why it's so
00:44:11visual but like last season i think i was like something's off but i couldn't figure out what it
00:44:17was and then this episode i think we saw more of him first season because like the main plot kind of
00:44:25centered around him um running through old boy's girlfriend so it always kind of came back to him and
00:44:31like following him but in this season it was more so him as a person and not the the persona
00:44:42of a train okay if that makes okay not to spoil anything that goes in season two because it just
00:44:47ended right you know we're not gonna talk about that we just gonna talk to talk about how jacked up
00:44:53his hairline was like that that's all we're gonna speak on listen queen maeve's wig is also dry
00:45:04that yeah that and i think i've been saying that since last season i'm like why is why does her hair
00:45:09look like that what's wrong here and i i her wig is just dry it it's it's a lace front i know it's a lace
00:45:17front but like there's no there's where's the flavor where's the the finesse like there's
00:45:25it's not there it's not there it's not there and then i'm looking at a trains you know not even
00:45:31lined up his lineup looks like the damn a train all rickety and crazy and he's got like supposed
00:45:36that we have an a mission like a cut a in his hairline that's supposed to be an a
00:45:42i think so i don't know but every every episode it looked like two jacked up lines
00:45:50i i mean queen mace didn't even have a part i just looked at a picture there's not even a little
00:45:56like a parting space it could have been a spirit halloween wig honestly
00:46:06hold up wait so then so then you know that furthers the point we know this
00:46:12and we aren't you know i'm not i'm not gonna we're all we all work with hair but i'm not gonna
00:46:18say we're not hair stylists we haven't gone to school for hair styling but because of our culture
00:46:24we know you know what looks good and what doesn't look good and we know the difference and i really
00:46:28think like you guys both said we need to be in that room i think there needs to be a push for more
00:46:34people of color in those in those deciding factors because that does matter a lot you know and
00:46:40costuming as well because uh and kia you can speak on this you know sewing is very also very integral
00:46:47in black culture you know our ancestors were always sewing and making clothing and clothing is a big part
00:46:53of black culture too you know you've got we've got the drip we've got style we've got fashion that's
00:46:58integral into our our passions so why is it you're not seeing more of us in hollywood why are we not
00:47:04direct you know head of booty head of um not marketing but head of costuming we need to push
00:47:11ourselves and push our people more in those facets so that you know we don't have messed up jacked up
00:47:17hairlines like that i mean that's that's what i'm seeing and i and i i see it and i want to fix it
00:47:26but we can't fix it until we push ourselves in that direction right i just got a close-up of a-trans
00:47:32hairline and it looks even worse in this form so i mean the two lines are supposed to make an a
00:47:41but like one line is way thicker than the other yeah and it looks like they gave him manufactured
00:47:50waves so like i don't know if y'all was at the school table um with the boys or anything but like
00:47:57what they would do is they would like take a little pencil and just like run it across their hair
00:48:04to give themselves fake waves
00:48:08that's what his look like right now i'm sorry i've cursed way too many times like
00:48:15i'm like watching her expression while you're explaining this was priceless
00:48:20i'm just thinking now about all the boys whose hair i thought was like wow and now i'm just wondering
00:48:27was it all like was i bamboozled now i'm thinking you probably were you probably were
00:48:36if you ain't never with a wave cap or a do-rag on i guarantee you you've been bamboozled
00:48:42i didn't wait wait hold on you've been hoodwinked you gotta be brushing you gotta be brushing that
00:48:47brushing that with some waves man yeah you probably were hoodwinked you were bamboozled
00:48:54you were a fool it's a fraud like me no matter what i did as a kid i couldn't get waves i had like
00:49:01really naturally curly hair like as soon as i had enough it naturally curled up so like and it was
00:49:09soft too i miss my hair sometimes but it's okay it's funny i was gonna ask you that do you miss
00:49:17having hair um sometimes um but mainly in my case because i lost it at such a young age um
00:49:27i started balding at like 21 so i'm 29 right now so and at the age of 18 i immediately joined the
00:49:36military um so little background on that so from 18 on like i never got to do anything with my hair
00:49:46i was never i never had braids i never had an afro um i never had a mohawk and nothing so
00:49:56i do miss it for those reasons because i don't know what i would look like if i did have those things
00:50:03right so um that's what i miss that i miss the opportunities i could have had yeah yeah other
00:50:14than that i look good as shit bald tell me i don't
00:50:18no i i have never been bald um but i used to flat iron my hair a lot i you know i hate to say this
00:50:36but like i went to private school i was one out of five and a half black kids you know you want to
00:50:42assimilate and you want to look cool and you want to be cute and whatever whatever and so you
00:50:46flat iron your i flat iron my hair once a week to fit in and then i got to college and i'm like man
00:50:52i'm not doing this like i'm just tired it costs a hundred and something dollars to do my hair because
00:50:56my hair is down my back and i have a lot of it and i'm like no i'm nope i'm not spending that money
00:51:01i'm a broke college kid i eat ramen every day no so i just let my hair be curly but you know all the
00:51:08time i'd spent trying to flatten my hair and frying it to bits i'm like this this was a missed
00:51:14opportunity i could have been dying it i could have been doing box braids i could have been
00:51:18twisting it i could have been doing so much stuff so being natural really to me is like an expression
00:51:22it's a freedom of expression now i can you know leave it up leave it down dye it twist it put in
00:51:28box braids do all this cool stuff and it's it's pretty fun so i'm sorry mike you don't get to have
00:51:33that opportunity but your daughter does so let's you know you get to help her do that so that's a win-win
00:51:39yeah plus i've been thinking about braiding my beard see what that looks like you know maybe that
00:51:47you know grow that out a little bit get a little beer from you know what i'm saying you know get
00:51:52some nice hang time with that jump no but i've really been thinking about dying my beard because
00:51:56that's a trend that has been you know happening a lot so i don't know maybe that might be something
00:52:01i do do for a cosplay i said do do but i might do for a cosplay that is lit that is lit yeah have
00:52:14you done any like anything interesting with your hair recently anything have you experimented with
00:52:19your hair is my question um i've gotten into like using like rice water when like washing it
00:52:26to like stimulate growth but that's but i i had to i need a little bit more time before i can report on
00:52:33the results of that um yeah but otherwise you know i've been keeping it moisturized like under my wigs
00:52:40and i'll probably go wash it soon and then just kind of like cut some ends off in preparation for
00:52:46winter because honestly i'm in a way like 95 of the time you guys see my hair on like a really really
00:52:52wear occasion because like um i look like a lion like when it's loose um that's okay i mean okay
00:53:04so like so truth be told i tend to like i tend to like go and do my hair when i'm going to see my
00:53:09grandmother because she likes to see the hair that she gave me um so i might do something soon because
00:53:15i'm gonna go visit her uh very soon so i'll probably wear it she yeah she only likes she can't stand my
00:53:21colorful wig she really can't um i know i know how that goes yep yeah so i'll probably do the hair
00:53:28that's nice for her that's so precious i love it i love it yeah yes yes yes yes yes yes yeah natural
00:53:37hair is dope natural hair is dope having taking care of your beard is dope definitely um mike if you're
00:53:44going to dye your beard let me know so i can tell you the cool brands to use because there's so many
00:53:49awesome black owned brands and kia yeah i definitely want to see pictures when you let your
00:53:53hair out because that's gonna be super fun um this is kind of the first time my hair has been out
00:53:59it's been out now for a week but i had it in braids for a while and then i had it in wigs for a while
00:54:04as well you know as a protective style like you said kia winter is coming so i want to keep it up and not
00:54:10have it snagged um i'm at the length now where i zip my hair up so if i put on like a bodysuit like
00:54:18this is your that's not okay yeah once again the terminology you said you
00:54:27yeah she said don't you say it y'all are wild i'm talking about the hair on my head spidey spice
00:54:51okay yeah i like i would say i was going see look at y'all being all gross and negative and stuff
00:54:58i was thinking that you actually had like a zipper in your hair that you like zipped up and i was like
00:55:04how did you even get that in like i know sew-ins are a thing but i didn't know that was like what they
00:55:09meant like y'all just nasty y'all just nasty it's like y'all just see see i thought i was the nasty
00:55:18one both of y'all no see look yeah you embarrassed my guy we got zip-ins now we don't have sew-ins we got
00:55:25zip-ins that's what i don't this is this is hilarious this is this is great i and i love
00:55:40watching you learn the terminology it's great it's great because you know kia sangria we're talking
00:55:47about this and mike's like to do with electricity i know zip-in has nothing to do with putting
00:55:56zippers in your hair which i think would be really cool no no it wouldn't someone has figured it out
00:56:07because like there is a whole i don't know like i'm it listen if you can make an entire bird cage
00:56:17out of a beard i'm pretty certain you can figure out how to put zippers in somebody's hair but why
00:56:26like what i'm just saying it can be okay i'm not saying it's a good thing but it can be a thing
00:56:32it could very well be a thing i'm just i i would not want that to be no i have too much hair in my
00:56:40head i'm having war flashbacks to the last time i zipped my hair up with like a bodysuit no
00:56:49i saw like i could see around the world that's how painful it was i like transcended it was painful
00:56:59it was just it really wasn't a fun time it wasn't fun it was no guys don't zip your hair don't zip
00:57:14your hair up tie your hair up before you put on your cosplays that's my number one tip because if
00:57:19you zip your hair up you will regret it that's that's it i'm more than certain we have enough
00:57:26footage we have enough time i will edit this mini segment i think they're beeping at us on discord
00:57:32but um if you guys could just do an outro really really quick um i will say a quick ending and then
00:57:39you guys say your titles and your instagrams and i think that's it that should be good yeah did you
00:57:47guys have fun yes yes i did spidey is like what i found it what did you find she got a big old afro
00:57:59and it's a zipper in her hair please show the class oh
00:58:07i didn't say it was a good thing but i did say it was a thing that's right you didn't say it was
00:58:19good you said it existed it could be done okay yeah i stand i stand corrected i i somehow we're
00:58:27gonna have to put that in this video because it's gonna be hilarious um yeah but thank you thank you
00:58:33guys so much for being on this panel you answered a lot of really great questions you like i said
00:58:38you guys are two of my favorite cosplayers um i i can't thank you guys enough for being here and
00:58:42viewing this panel with me if you could please let the audience know who you are where to find you
00:58:48and your upcoming projects and all the cool stuff so they can go and give you some follows
00:58:52you want to go first mike or oh oh okay um i'll go first um give me one second yeah
00:59:04i had to keep cover the booty yeah all right oh god there's a lot happening here so um once again my
00:59:14name is spidey spice you can find me on instagram um at spidey spice and i got a couple of cool
00:59:22projects coming up and i'm not gonna really divulge what they are but one involves something like this
00:59:32and a red hood so i kind of gave y'all a nice little hint yes and what that is you're here for this yes
00:59:44just a hint is like i'm gonna give you another hint it's the best bat brat so go with that
00:59:52if you will we love we love our boy kia sangria tell us yes i am kia you can find me on youtube
01:00:00instagram and twitter at kia sangria 93. um i am working on my final costume for halloween
01:00:09uh it's going to be snow white and if you follow me on instagram specifically you will get to see a
01:00:15couple of sewing tutorials on how i am making this costume yay and i'm waiting i'm i'm excited for
01:00:29this i like i'm like yes no way keep it going keep it going um thank you once again i am your host
01:00:35fans of black cosplay you can find me on instagram as vanta black cosplay the projects i have coming up
01:00:40for more spooky stuff check out a bunch of hair tutorials i am partnering up with um stitch please
01:00:48the black woman stitching podcast that teaches you how to sew so make sure you check out that podcast
01:00:54link as well um all the links will be dropped down below and you can find me on instagram as vanta black
01:01:01cosplay thank you so much for tuning in and i hope everyone has a great one bye
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