00:00Braids naturally feel prettier.
00:02It's like you wake up and you don't have to do anything.
00:05Next week, I'm going on a business trip,
00:07and it's so important to me to show that braids can be
00:09professional as a Black woman.
00:16Hey, I'm Najah, and today I'm getting Design Lemonade Braids.
00:20My aesthetic is mostly girly.
00:22I love to wear colors.
00:24Recently, I've been really into brown.
00:26I just dyed my hair brown, and so I
00:29want to be fully chocolate.
00:31I've always had very thick, coarse hair,
00:35so I had a relaxer until I was about 18.
00:37Over the pandemic, I really started getting braids again.
00:41I've been following Kia on Instagram for a long time,
00:43and I'm really, really excited to get started with her today.
00:47Hi, guys.
00:48I'm Kia Harper of Kia Harper Braids,
00:51and I am a professional celebrity braider.
00:54Hi, Najah.
00:55I'm Kia.
00:55It's nice to meet you.
00:56It's nice to meet you.
00:57So we're doing a Lemonade design style with the heart in the back, right?
01:02Yes.
01:02All right, let's get started.
01:04I'm excited.
01:05As we know, the Lemonade style came from when Beyonce did the iconic look
01:11of the long blonde braids to the side in her Lemonade video.
01:15So I'm pretty excited to add a little twist to it.
01:19We're going to start by putting oil on the hair.
01:22I'm going to run the hand brush blow dryer through the hair just really quickly to get
01:27the roots a little straighter.
01:29We're going to carve out the design for the heart right behind the ear.
01:32I like to use the conditioning gel first,
01:35and then I'll put the edge control on on top of it to slick down the hair more.
01:42We're going to part the top of the heart, and we're going to braid the hair in the stitch method.
01:48Once we get to the edge of that braid, we're going to take the hair that's in the middle of
01:53the heart,
01:53and we're going to slick it down with a product.
01:55We're going to do the same thing to the other side, and we're going to connect the braid.
02:00I started braiding hair at a pretty young age.
02:02It was actually a chore in the household that I grew up in, and I decided three years ago
02:08to move my business to LA. And within two weeks of being in LA,
02:13I got the opportunity to do Kehlani's hair, and things just took off from there.
02:19It's also like an outlet for me because I'm a very creative person,
02:23and to take something that's in my mind and put it on someone else to wear and advertise
02:30is something I just really enjoy doing.
02:33After we do the heart, I like to go over to the other side where the braids will hang,
02:37and I added about four braids, just regular cornrows for placement so that at the end,
02:45the braids that are on top, they will fall seamlessly instead of buckling at the ear.
02:51After we do that, we're going to part the client's hair in half.
02:55This is pretty much separating the braids that are going to come to the front,
02:58away from the braids that are going to come around to the side.
03:01So we're going to section that off.
03:02For this particular style, I'm just going to freestyle the design.
03:07I like to kind of go with the shape of the client's head and the way their perimeter is made.
03:14So I think I'll just bring this braid around and continuously follow that pattern,
03:21and then gradually allow the braid to thicken.
03:26After college, I went into the workforce and I was working in local politics.
03:30So it was really important that I look the part.
03:33I wore my hair straight. I got my hair done at least twice a week, and I would always pin
03:39curl it.
03:40Now that I'm in LA and my job is still very professional, but I work from home,
03:46I'm experiencing a lot more with my hair.
03:49Now we're going to go ahead and bring the braid to the front.
03:52And I like for it to stop kind of in the middle of her face, but not really covering her
03:58eye too much,
03:59because that can get annoying for the client.
04:02One thing that I like to keep in mind is once I part the hair or section the hair off,
04:07I want to make sure that wherever is going to come off of her face,
04:12that I'm parting as thin as possible so that the braids don't end up overlapping each other.
04:18And then now I'm going to go ahead and go through all of the braids and braid them down.
04:23I like to add product while I'm doing this so that it minimizes the flyaways.
04:28Also, I like to add strands of hair to the ends, depending on how it feels in my hand,
04:34just to keep the density of the braid consistent.
04:37Now that we got the braids all braided down,
04:40we're going to go through and just clip away some of those flyaways.
04:45Then I like to put some edge control on her edges and just lay them down,
04:51because who doesn't like slick edges?
04:53We're going to now put some mousse on her hair.
04:57This is my favorite part, and it's also the client's favorite part because it just feels good.
05:02And saturate those braids so that once she's under the dryer, it sets beautifully.
05:09I like to use black paper strips to go over the mousse, and we're going to tie it around her
05:15head.
05:16While you're doing this, you want to make sure that each braid is laying in the place that it's going
05:21to lay.
05:22You don't want anything to buckle the braids while she's under the dryer.
05:28Okay, now is my favorite part. I really love dressing up my hairstyles because I feel it adds a lot
05:35of character.
05:36I just use my discretion wherever I feel it looks the best and not as busy,
05:41because it can get busy if you put too much accessories on there.
05:45Now we have our final look.
05:47All right, we wrap. You can open your eyes now.
05:53Thank you! Yes! Come through, Beyoncé.
06:01It feels great. I feel amazing. I feel extraordinary. I feel like Beyoncé.
06:08I feel like I can take over the world with my hair. It's just giving me a new level of
06:13confidence that I just have to tap into.
06:16I love the color. I love the design. I love everything about my Kia Harper braids, and I'm so glad
06:21that I got this style.
06:23All right.
06:25We'll see you next time.
06:25.
06:25.
06:25.
06:26.
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