New Media Faves: The Yuppie Lady on Youtube.com

One of my favorite YouTube fashion gurus is Chyanne M. otherwise known as The Yuppie Lady. She has a classic, chic sense of style that I absolutely love. She's become one of my go-to fashion inspirations because her style is similar to my own. I had requested that she do a video talking about her fall must-have items and she was kind enough to create it! Check out the fabulous video above.

Her top picks were:

1. The Tie Neck Blouse

2. The Midi Skirt

3. The Colored Pant

4. Tuxedo Dressing

5. The Chunky Sweater

She chose some great items that are very much established classics. I love the idea of the tie neck blouse, but I'm yet to buy one. I have some colored pants; one pair of pink slacks, one pair of aqua marine cords and another pair of cords in kind of a powder blue color. I have a black tuxedo blazer and black tuxedo shirt and I have myriad chunky sweaters.

So I will be figuring out ways to incorporate these items into my fall wardrobe rotation. Thanks for the suggestions Chyanne, fabulous ideas as always!

Below is my interpretation of Chyanne's favorite trends:

Fall Trends 2011: Inspired by The Yuppie Lady by naturallystyled featuring cap sleeve tops

Fashion, Accessories and Shoes: Necklaces

Necklaces by naturallystyled featuring beaded jewelry

Epic Fro: Marsha Ambrosius

Epic Fro: Marsha Ambrosius by naturallystyled featuring yellow gold earrings

New Media Faves: Web Entrepreneur Spotlight-NaturesParlour.co.uk

I am happy to present my first web entrepreneur spotlight and I'm introducing this as a regular feature starting this month.

When I was new on Twitter in May, I had the opportunity to connect with a wonderful English woman named Xina Broderick, the owner of NaturesParlour.co.uk. She is making waves in the natural hair community as an encouraging and authoritative voice in natural hair care and lifestyle.


We initially connected because I noticed that she had spotted my Tweets about natural hair care and was kind enough to give me shout-outs among many other talented and established bloggers on her Twitter feed.


I was surprised, happy and flattered and I thanked her and invited her to be featured on my blog. She has been a great encouragement to me since then and I am happy to make her acquaintance.


Below is a YouTube.com video in which Xina, talks a little bit about her business and how she got started. I was very inspired by her story and I know you will be inspired as well.

Below is the e-mail interview I conducted in June with Xina Broderick, owner of NaturesParlour.co.uk.

Naturally Styled: Your full name and title at your company?

NaturesParlour.co.uk: Xina Broderick – Director

Naturally Styled: How long have you been natural and what have been your greatest challenges and successes as a natural?


NaturesParlour.co.uk: I’ve been natural since 2002 – I wore a texturiser for a few years before that. My greatest challenge was coping with a very, very itchy scalp when I started my locs. Before then, I’d been able to wash my hair every day because my hair had been cropped. My scalp had become used to that so waiting even a week to wash my hair was almost impossible.


I also have what I call “poppers”. I have large hair follicles, so when my hair naturally sheds you can sometimes see the roots of the shed hair at the base of my locs. It took ages for me to figure out what it was and work out how to deal with it. My greatest successes include:


learning how to look after my locs myself, appreciating the freedom of my mature locs (wash and go, etc) and learning how to do nice styles for my hair as the length changed.

Naturally Styled: Talk a little about about how you resolved the "poppers" issue.

NaturesParlour.co.uk: I dye my hair, that sorted out the poppers (and my greys!), lol!!! I use semi permanent dyes, which do a little less harm than the permanent ones.


Naturally Styled: Talk about your current inspirations in the natural haircare field.


NaturesParlour.co.uk: My current inspirations include: Camille Reed from Noire Hair Designs, Akua Nimblet of Naturalites, Ansylla Ramsay of My Hairitage and Jay Adegunle of Locs 4 Life. They have helped me immensely on my hair journey and have given me a wealth of knowledge about natural hair, locs and hair health. I‘d like to publicly thank them for their generosity and their devotion to what they do. My YouTube Royalty includes Shawnta715, Chescaleigh and for natural (loose) hair Kimmaytube and Taren916.

Shawnta715 Loc Knots Hairstyle Tutorial

Chescaleighu Interviewing Josh Groban (one of my fave singers!)

Naturally Styled: How did you get started in the business?

NaturesParlour.co.uk: There was a lady in the States who was selling wonderful products but the cost of shipping was prohibitive at the time, so I suggested that I buy from her in bulk and sell what I didn’t want for myself to my friends and family. That’s how it all started.


Naturally Styled: What are some of the challenges that you faced starting your business?


NaturesParlour.co.uk: I was working a full-time job and single parenting my son, so I although I could devote money to my business, I couldn’t devote as much time. Then, I tried to run the business in between contracts and found that although I had the time I didn’t have the money, lol!!! Also, a big company took a payment from me for stock and never sent the stock or returned the money. That was very, very disappointing especially when their tag line “Black owned and proud” had given me a false sense of security – I’d wrongly assumed it would be like working with family. Although I’m not bitter, I’m not so naive anymore.


Naturally Styled: What are some of your proud moments and favorite accomplishments so
far as a business owner?


NaturesParlour.co.uk: My proud moment was our first day of trading, 11th October 2007. Other proud moments include seeing the website when it was first completed, having nice integrated labels in our invoices (such simple things make me very happy!!) and seeing our branded tape. Yup, simple things, lol!!! One of the most proud moment had to be launching our range of natural oils though. I know a lot of people are sick of being duped into buying “pure oils” in their local black hair shop, only to find that it’s pure oil in a lot of something else – very misleading! Our pure oils are exactly that and nothing else and our customers are showing their appreciation.

Naturally Styled: What occupation did you do before you began Nature's Parlour?


NaturesParlour.co.uk: I was a project management consultant working on engineering, IT, building construction and research projects.


Naturally Styled: How many employees do you have?


NaturesParlour.co.uk: This is a small family business consisting primarily of me and my husband and other family members if and when they’re needed.

Naturally Styled: Do you make your own products in addition to selling other brands?


NaturesParlour.co.uk: Yes, I own the Nature’s Beauty Essentials brand.


Naturally Styled: What business growth opportunities are you looking forward to during this year and next year?


NaturesParlour.co.uk: I’m looking forward to getting to know my customers better via You Tube videos. I did one video before I had my baby and I look forward to doing more this year.


Naturally Styled: What are some of your favorite natural products, events and information resources that have been indispensable to you?


NaturesParlour.co.uk: Water is my favourite natural hair product – I kid you not! It’s the number one moisturiser and I drink plenty of it too. I love my cordless steam cap, castor oil, coconut oil and avocado oil. I love the Curls moisturising spray and I love conditioning with any of my favourite oils or with one of the Curls conditioners. YouTube videos are a great resource, reading natural hair blogs but I also speak with qualified hair dressers/locticians, beauty therapists and aromatherapists to ensure that what I preach is of a professional level and correct. Oh, and I love my book "Hair Structure and Chemistry Simplified" - I used to read that book over and over again.

Note: The author of "Hair Structure and Chemistry Simplified" is John Halal and Xina has the 5th edition of his book. (Click here for more information on Mr. Halal)

Naturally Styled: What advice would you give others wanting to start a natural hair care retail business?


NaturesParlour.co.uk: Instead of looking at yourself as self employed, look at yourself as being employed by your customers. Demonstrate that you are worthy of their employment (customer loyalty) and a promotion (recommendation). Look after them and you’ll keep your job :o)
*We at Naturally Styled love this amazing quote!*


Naturally Styled: In your opinion, what are the most important considerations to keep in mind before going into business?


NaturesParlour.co.uk: Having a plan. Failing to plan is planning to fail.


Naturally Styled: What else would you like Naturally Styled blog readers to know about you and your business?

NaturesParlour.co.uk: We genuinely care about our customers, we genuinely love our products and we all have natural hair! My sister, mother and I have locs. One of our four sons has long natural hair, which he maintains in cane rows. We have some mixed race nieces and nephews who use the Curls and Blended Beauty ranges – we use them too in addition to the other brands and oils. We are very enthusiastic about the business and the greater responsibility of promoting our natural hair and educating black and multi-racial children that our hair isn’t a problem, it’s a blessing.

Naturally Styled: Can you explain what cane rows are? Are they similar to corn rows?

NaturesParlour.co.uk: Cane rows = corn rows. My ancestors went from Africa to the West Indies, where they mainly farmed sugar cane (hence cane rows). The Africans who went to the States mainly farmed corn (besides cotton), hence African Americans say corn rows. West Indians may now say cornrows due to the U.S. influence, but I'm not entirely sure. My parents left the West Indies and came here to England in the 60s. Sometimes we say the same things that were said in the West Indies back then.




Check out NaturesParlour.co.uk for an extensive array of natural products, tips and advice on care for skin and natural hair of all textures, follow them out on Twitter at @NaturesParlour UK and on their Facebook fan page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Natures-Parlour/77023095424 and join the conversation!