I wear a weave proudly. I'm not ashamed by the term, the process or the purchase. When it comes to "dah weave," I believe the hair is absolutely mine dahhling... because I bought it. However, I only recently realized that I was an addict. After being hit by the nasty recession monster last year and having a drastic change in my career, I had to reevaluate my hair decisions because my entire bottom line was going to fund my mane. This was problematic to say the least.

On January 1st, when everyone was proclaiming their resolution, I was telling everyone that I vowed to bring in 2010 with my natural hair. But the first time I looked in the mirror and didn't see my hair cascading down my back, I had to reevaluate the whole natural hair reevaluation.I pay a good penny for my mane masterpieces, not including the price of the hair to be purchased. A lover of natural-looking weaves only, I knew I couldn't start buying 19.99 packaged hair, and I surely wasn't going to let my homegirl Alisha, who just YouTube'd how to weave, work on my hair.

Met with the difficult decision to either go broke maintaining my weave every two months, or find an alternative that allowed me to save cash but still keep my 'do done, I did some research (yes, it gets that deep). I came across a technique called a Brazilian weave, a process very similar to microlinks. Like the links, or cylinder process, your hair is parted row by row in small sections/boxes, and then the weave is attached with a thin nylon tie for a barely noticeable weave. Cue the angelic music -- my prayers had been answered! After digging deeper, I realized this technique of weaving has been used by Caucasians and others of Spanish decent since the beginning on time. Expensive? Yes, but it was a ridiculously natural-looking weave that didn't include glue, braids, needle or thread, and it can be worn for up to six months.