Hey babes! Welcome back to another post! Today I wanted to do a special spotlight edition for one of my studio guests, Holly. I met this beauty through the Crossfit community. She is the owner of Crossfit Coordinate as well as a wellness coach. I had the pleasure of being trained by her for a few years. We connected over conversations that were wrapped around hair, fitness, and all things beauty. A badass chick after my own heart…. a fitness guru AND a glam goddess. Yas Queen!
One of the first things I noticed about Holly (aside from her fit figure) was her gorgeous long locks. She always had the cutest hair styles and braids at the gym. Holly was daring when it came to hair, rocking pink hair to an undercut. She had the ability to try dramatic styles because her hair would grow faster than the average head. After competing in a few figure competitions she started to notice her hair wasn’t bouncing back like normal. Her hair has been blonde as long as I have know her. After suffer sever hair damage and breakage from a routine hair appointment along with some other health concerns she decided to visit a doctor to get some answers.
That is when she learned that she was suffering from a hormone imbalance. This imbalance effected her entire body… including her hair. So now on top of the loss of her gorgeous long locks she did not feel like herself. Imagine this, being in a body that no longer feels like your own. She started working with her doctor to help balance out her hormones. If any of you have had any kind of hormone imbalance that you can relate to the long and agonizing process of trying to balance them out. In the midst of everything she was feeling extra low because her hair had broken off and was now above her shoulders. Can you imagine going through all of these changes and looking into the mirror and not recognizing the person staring back at you?
Holly tried to grow her hair back. She had taken a break on the chemicals thinking that would help as well as trying new products recommended to her. She wasn’t seeing any progress and that is when she reached out to me. I was thrilled to reconnect with Holly! When she came in for her consultation I could tell she wasn’t feeling like herself and I was eager to get her on my schedule because I knew that NBR was the boost of confidence she needed to start moving in a new direction. Her first set of Natural Beaded Rows we opted to keep it modest with a style of 14” hair. As I started applying the hair it was as if each row lit her up more and more. I could tell by the expression on her face that she was feeling herself! She no longer had to look in the mirror and be reminded of the health issues she was going through, she was just Holly.
She rocked her 14” look for about 6 months and we both started noticing some real progress with her hair growth. I was impressed with the length she was able to gain in the 6 months of wearing extensions. One stereotype of hair extensions is that you are unable to grow your hair out while wearing them, but I have noticed just the opposite when it comes to wearing Natural Beaded Rows. It is similar to watching a plant grow, the more you watch it the less it seems to grow, but when you walk away and forget about it then all of the sudden one day it blossoms. It was the same with Holly’s hair, when we took out her 14” extensions after six months we were both excited to see that her hair had grown out to her collar bone. That is when she decided she was ready to go longer with her second set.
This time we went for it by adding 18” hair extensions using NBR. And damn, I thought she lit up for the first set of hair extensions but girl was on fire when we gave her inches!! That was the Holly I always remembered. Gorgeous flowing locks down her back, and you could tell she was a smitten kitten! She even announced how this look made her feel like herself again! Hearing those words warmed my heart! This was more than hair, it is about feeling. A feeling of beauty, a feeling of empowerment, a feeling of confidence, a feeling of having the outside matching the inside.
This new look sparked a beautifully and well written post by Holly that really spoke to me. She spoke about how people can label you as ‘high maintenance’ because you’re wearing hair extensions. Or they can question your decision to wear them by asking you ‘why don’t you just grow your hair out?’. What a lot of people don’t realize is that if it were that easy to grow your hair then there would not be a need for hair extensions. Some people can’t grow their hair out because of many different issues. For Holly, it was because of her medical issues her hair was not growing. Holly also touched on how these issues made her feel like some many things were out if her control that making the decision to invest in herself and get Natural Beaded Rows made her feel like her self again! Some may view it as ‘high maintenance’ but for others it is a form of self love.
Man, that post reached the depths of my soul! I have encountered so many women that have verbalized their interest in hair extensions but shy away from the process because of what others may think. I think about just the opposite. Let me explain, when you create a difference in someones life, you not only impact their life, but you also impact everyones life that is influenced by them. Imagine how it could positively impact your children’s life to have a more confident parent. How could it ramp up your marriage if you felt sexier? Or what if showed up to work feeling more powerful? Those are just the tip of the iceberg. I hear hundreds of stories of how my art and feeling beautiful has changed my guests life for the better. That is why I am obsessed with what I do. It is the most natural high. Now I know what it means to be high on life and so do my guests!
Check Holly out @hollybuilds
We want you to hear from Holly herself about her personal experience with Natural Beaded Rows, so we asked her a few questions at her last appointment. Check out what Holly had to say!
Have you worn hair extensions before and if so what was your experience with them?
Holly: I had tape in extensions for a pretty short period of time, like three-is years ago. I felt like they were really hard to maintain. They actually fell out of my hair several times, which is the main reason I stopped doing them. And they didn’t blend well when I was doing them, especially when I did a ponytail. So they weren’t functional with my life style.
What have you loved most about NBR?
Holly: I think that I like the confidence it has given me. When my hair was shorter and it wasn’t growing, it felt like I had lost a part of myself and having my hair longer, although it didn’t change the situation I was going through it gave me a boost in self confidence and made me feel more like myself.
How has NBR made your day to day lifestyle easier?
Holly: It made my life a lot easier. When my hair was shorter it was impossible to style and so I would get really frustrated. I would do my hair and hate the way it looked and then I would have to re do my hair, so I was spending way more time. I work out a lot, so I get really sweaty at the gym. Having NBR and longer hair, is actually easier because I can put it in a braid or a ponytail and it maintains my style. I just have to give it a quick blow dry when I’m done and I don’t really have to fix my hair all over again.
Julia: I have to say when I didn’t have NBR in my hair, because my hair is so fine I would be washing and blowdrying my hair everyday.
Holly: When it was even two months before I ultimately decided I needed to do NBR, I literally couldn’t do anything with my hair. The length was like a mullet and pretty much thee only thing I could do with it was straighten it. Like if I gave myself a blowout, I couldn’t curl it because if I curled it it just made it shorter.
What made you decide “this is it I’m doing it, I have to”?
Holly: I saw a post that Julia made about somebody. I don’t remember exactly what it said but the post
itself wasn’t about the hair, but more about the person and their feelings. It resonated with me because it felt like it was something I’ve been saying. So it was more than just hair.
You know I had looked into it myself, because you had explained it, but I wasn’t sure about it because my only experience was with tape ins. And I wasn’t sure what you had meant by it being sewn in. So when I started reading about NBR, I was like “oh this is amazing, this is perfect”. And this is what you do, and this is what you told me about, why didn’t I do this sooner.
If you could give any tips to someone considering NBR, what would it be?
Holly: I would tell them that it is an investment, and to think about it like that, just like anything else they would invest in. It’s worth while. So you would never put your money into something that you didn’t find value in or that you didn’t think you would get your money out of. I think that this process is that. You could do it cheaper or alternative route but you would probably end up spending more money in the long run and you may not get what you want for it. So you can compare it to a house or a car, that if you went for just the cheapest option, you’ll probably have more problems along the way.
What is your favorite go to hair style?
Holly: I love doing braids, I’ve always done braids just because I’m active, but just the ability to curl my hair and hair like a beach wave has probably been my favorite part. It is the easiest to do and maintain. The style feels like it last forever even with living an active life style. Some days I’m like this doesn’t make sense, there’s some magic potion in my hair that I didn’t know existed.
The only thing I would consider to be high maintenance about hair extensions is the time. It’s just like getting eyelash extensions. It just takes time, but the outcome is always worth it.