A Natural Nigerian Bride – Tosin El-Zakir

I was really excited when an Abuja based Natural Nigerian, Tosin a.k.a Hamira Tamiko Adyms, reached out to me, asking for a referral for a natural hair stylist to style her Natural hair for her wedding. Of course, I had to refer my girl, Nat. Mane who is a whiz with styling hair – for any occasion.

Tosin’s pre-wedding photos were a splash of color surrounded by Art. I loved them! Tosin’s truly made the wedding her own. Her groom, who is quite handsome, was apparently a huge support. Plus! they look so happy and in love….all together now – Awww!

Anyway, for those of you who are wondering if you can pull off the natural look for your wedding, I asked Tosin a few questions about her preparations and how she arrived at her chosen style. Get ready for serious inspiration!

Hey! Introduce yourself please!

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My name is Tosin El-Zakir (nee Adimula). I got married recently and did the wedding planning myself. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and it sort of translated into my hairstyle.

You sported a fantastic natural hairstyle. Why did you decide not to hide your natural hair for the special day? What made you so confident?

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I wanted my wedding outfit including my hairdo to be unique, so months before the wedding I went hunting for a wedding natural hairstyle I would be comfortable with and that would look gorgeous. Luckily I found one on Pinterest. I was able to link back to the original site it was pinned from and found more views of the hairstyle.

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I showed it to my fiancé (who is really into my natural hair). He loved it and so we both agreed that would be the hairdo. I think his approval was part of the things that gave me confidence to rock the hairstyle, also of recent i have run into quite a number of beautiful natural Nigerian brides so I thought ‘what the heck’? how hard can it be to pull it off? Lol!

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How did you decide on a stylist?

The next stage was finding someone really good with styling natural hair that could pull off the style, I made a lot of enquiries, searched online and finally sent ‘Natural Nigerian’ a Facebook message asking for a recommendation. She suggested ‘Nat. Mane‘ and instantly I knew it was decided! Nat Mane had actually done my hair for me before but I thought since this was a ‘wedding hairdo’ she might not be good with that. After the recommendation though, I called Nat Mane we chatted, exchanged emails and after she saw the pictures she said she could do the hairstyle. I did not need much convincing once she confirmed she’d do it and I have also seen her different works online.

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Did you work with her to come up with a style? Did you do a mock trial before the big day?

We did not even do a test before the wedding. We only did the side weaves of the hair on Tuesday, the week of the wedding because I had to travel for my traditional wedding and I did not want us to be in a rush weaving the hair and then styling on the wedding day.

What would you advice other Natural Nigerians to do if they wanted to rock their natural hair for the big day?

My advice to other brides-to-be who want to rock their Natural Hair is ‘Do you’! Don’t be bothered by what people will think, find a great hairstyle that suits your head shape, find a good stylist to execute it, consult and discuss about what is needed to pull it off nicely and you can definitely do trials before the day if you’re not confident of the person’s ability. Get your fiancé involved as well. It’s your big day and the memories you make are yours, so do what will make it a great memory for you and your spouse and be happy! Your guests, friends and family will end up loving your hairdo!

To digress a bit, I noticed that the card for your traditional wedding was a really “traditional” card.  Were you deliberately going for something more Nigerian/cultural?

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I really love colors! And I try to show that in everything I do. I found Bibi Invitations a long time ago while browsing through one of my numerous wedding sites. I was intrigued! Their cards were different and just what I wanted! Colorful and animated. It was a plus for me that they were also Nigerian and Cultural and could be customized. I bookmarked and pinned their website because I knew I’d definitely be making use of them when my big day came.

When I started planning my wedding, I visited a number of card shops to get ready made wedding cards and all I could find were beige, cream and white cards and the ones that had a bit of color had ugly or regular designs. That’s when I remembered Bibi Invitations. I sent them an email and several emails later we had concluded on the design, colors and content of the card. They sent me the design and I got the cardstock for it to be printed on and got a Royal Purple cardstock for the main invitation.

I did a bit of DIY, manually punching and ribboning the cards and we customized envelopes for it but to be totally honest asides the work I put into it, it cost me wayyyyyy less than if I had bought ready made wedding cards at a shop, everyone loved it and it was colorful and unique!!

Where can we find you online?

Online Wedding siteFacebookTwitter,InstagramPinterestBlog

Thank you for sharing with us, Tosin. May The Blessings of The Almighty continuously be on your marriage.

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