I love clothing and fashion — but am prone to be a little messy. You know how it goes. You put on that perfect white shirt, or your loveliest designer jeans just to dribble a little wine down your cheek at the most inopportune moment. And then your look is ruined! Style nightmare? Maybe… But not if you stay prepared for any high-fashion mishap involving trips and tumbles while eating and drinking. Didn’t you know? Food and drinks stains make up 72% of those happening while you jet about town, or enjoy night life. Here is how you can maintain your fits even if you have the nasty habit of making messes while partying up and chowing down.

Keep Club Soda Handy

If you know you are prone to spilling on your best designer duds, keeping a small bottle of club soda in your giant, fashionable handbag might not be a bad idea. It is perfect for blotting fresh stains, and keeping a stain wet while you are socializing — until you can get home and get that item soaking.

Stock up on Tide to Go

Tide to Go is an excellent product for removing food-related stains such as ketchup, coffee and wine. If used properly, Tide to Go can remove many stains right away — leaving you free for a fun night of frolicking. Let’s face it: you didn’t get all dolled up to just rush home. If you know you are an accident prone fashion queen, make Tide to Go your lady in waiting.

Scarves Are Your Friend

Many stains (and wet spots from applying Tide to Go and club soda) can be carefully hidden with a drape of a scarf — and no one will know the difference. You might even get complimented on your original signature style. Turn having slippery fingers into a secret style asset. You’d be amazed at where a creatively wrapped scarf can take your look.

And So Are Jackets & Sweaters

Of course, some stains can’t even be hidden with a scarf applied with gusto. In this case, keeping a cute sweater or jacket handy is a plus. The fall and winter weather is perfect for layering, so there will be no explanations needed for whipping another accent piece out of your carry-all. After applying Tide to Go to make sure the stain won’t permanently mar your favorite pieces, hide that social faux pas with the right topper. A classic sweater or jacket will go with almost anything.

You can be a beautiful woman and still have some unfortunate little habits. If messiness is one of them — as it certainly is for me — don’t let that stop you from dressing with aplomb. Put together your best looks with your most gorgeous finery, but have a back up plan at the ready for your little spills. Being a messy fashionista might make your life a little more complicated, but you can certainly stay fly all the time with these tips and helpful products like Tide to Go.

Summer’s over, but white is still in season, sugar plum.  Real fashionistas are not boxed in by silly old clothing mandates that revolve around holidays. Plus, winter white is still….well, white. We want your whites to stay as pristine as you are, so we have a few tips for you in conjunction with our uber fabulous partner, Tide.

Check it out!

Throw out the plastic from the dry cleaners.
Your dry cleaner places all of your carefully pressed clothing on to hangers and dutifully protects your fresh clothes with a layer of plastic. How sweet. The problem is that those plastic coverings will eventually yellow your fav white button downs. Prevent that travesty by throwing out (or better yet re-purposing) that plastic as soon as you get your clothes back from the dry cleaners. What’s the use in having freshly pressed and yellowed clothes?

Use deodorant instead of antiperspirant.
This is when that periodic table you memorized in high school comes in handy. Antiperspirants typically contain aluminum based ingredients like aluminum chloride or clorohydrate and once that aluminum mixes with your body oils and sweat, it creates a yellow stain on your clothes that is tough to get out. How do you know if you’re buying antiperspirant or deodorant? It’ll say right there on the package, luv.

Say buh-bye to coffee and tea stains.
You’re wearing the most stylish, figure-hugging dress for brunch and of course the coffee in your cup somehow misses your mouth and lands right on your otherwise perfect outfit. Have no fear Tide to Go is here! It’s an awesome (and adorable) little thing that you can toss in your purse. Excuse yourself to the ladies room and give that big bad stain a once-over with the Tide to Go pen. Watch as that stain shrinks away to nothing! It also works on wine and food stains.

Like mom said, keep those whites separate.
Your mama was telling the truth when she said to keep your whites separate. When you’re at the laundry mat, it’s so tempting to just plop everything into one machine and be done with it, but unless you like having light pink or light blue “whites,” you’d be wise to take out your whites and wash them separately. Much better to spend those few extra dollars on another cycle of the washer and dryer than to spend a whole lot more money replacing those whites you ruined.

Use the right detergent.
This sounds like a no-brainer, but in these tough economic times you might think to just grab whatever is on sale. All detergent is the same, right? Wrong. Using a value detergent may not get the job done and could cost you money in the long run. Using a high quality detergent like Tide could help keep your clothes looking newer longer by fighting stains, fading, and dinginess.

What tricks do you have for keeping your whites nice and bright?

About The Episode

For “Weave Wisdom”, our mini-series on how to install and maintain a fabulous hair weave, we tapped the award-winning hair stylist Anthony Cherry to host. In this second installment of our series, Cherry finishes the installment of a hair weave on a client, demonstrating the proper use of a mesh cap in the weaving process and  discusses “adjustment rows” to keep your weave looking tight.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

About Anthony Cherry

You only need to look at Anthony Cherry’s celebrity client list to understand just how good he is at his craft. Having worked with with the likes of Lala Vasquez-Anthony, Evelyn Lozada, Claudia Jordan and Paris Hilton, the St. Louis-bred, Los Angeles-based stylist has been working his hair magic for over 10 years. Along with his celebrity weave styling duties, Cherry also works as an ambassador to the packaged hair company, Sensasionell.

Want more Madame Noire Hair Videos….check out links below:

NATURAL HAIR

• Noire Naturals – The Natural Twist Out
• Noire Naturals – Maintaining Your Twist-Out Style
• Noire Naturals – Creating A Sophisticated Elegance
• Noire Naturals – Accessorizing a Sophisticated Updo

RELAXED HAIR

• Relaxed & Real – From Daytime To Evening
• Relaxed & Real – How To Prep Your Hair Before A Relaxer
• Relaxed & Real – Protective Styles For Working Out

WEAVES

• Weave Wisdom – How To Prepare For A Good Weave
• Weave Wisdom – How To Install A Hair Weave
• Weave Wisdom – How To Maintain A Hair Weave

Transcript

Hello, Madame Noire. I am celebrity hairstylist, Anthony Cherry and I’m back for part two of our Weave Wisdom series. If you missed part one, I talked about a few things that you might need before installing a weave, such as straightening the hair before braiding, and using products to make sure the hair is not dry.

In this episode, I’m going to focus on installing the weave, and of course, let you in on a few of my secrets. Let’s get started by emphasizing the importance of using a net. Here are three reasons why a net is definitely essential. Number one: A net is used to make a weave last longer, as well as give a full coverage to place extensions anywhere you want to.

Number two: A net protects your hair by relieving tension. Finally, it helps achieve our main goal, which is to make a weave flatter. So now we’re going to apply the Mesh-Net cap. Model, can I get your particular Patient please. One finger like a hook please. Right there. Okay. We’ll take this. Have him grab that.

A little pressure. And it goes right over the head. Head back a little bit. Just bring it from above the eye, move this out of your way. And there we go. The next step is actually sewing the net down. Okay. We have a needle, which is very, very imperative to doing any weave. So I’ve already pre-threaded my strands and my needles.

I actually like my needles very long ’cause the longer I can make my thread, the longer I can keep on sewing. So what I’m gonna do, I would like to start first right on the inside, not the outside, the inside because I wanna cut along this way to leave that braid nice and free. I want to actually start on the inside of the braid.

Sometime if you go and you start sewing on the outside of the braid, sometime you create a little bit too much clumpiness, so we don’t wanna do that ’cause that will stop your weave of having the flow of being tucked directly up under. So, you just basically sew on the perimeter. And I never really create knots.

What I do, I just sew, I tuck, hold this under, this out and create like a little line that goes in. And I’ll do that all the way around the perimeter. But you can move very fastly. It doesn’t have to be totally perfect because you’re going actually go back and reinforce it. Once you start to actually putting the extension hair on.

Okay, so now we have the top, that is out. By this being mesh, it stretches. So what I’m going to do now, I’m going to connect the hole that is at the top of the mesh. And by it being mesh, it’s going to be very, very easy to grab and come back without causing extra stress. And we have created a full surface to where now you have the freedom to sew whatever you like.

So, I’m going to show you how to cut it off. Any excess strand or thread, just go right around, just nip them and cut them. How I like to do this; be very, very careful, not to cut your client or to cut their hair. So you want to lift this up. In one snap, see it’ll break away. Lift it up, then we can see exactly where the thread is, so we don’t have to cut the thread or the hair.

Lift up. And there you have it. The net is applied. And now we’re going to move on to the next step and that’s actually applying the extensions. We are beginning the method to the madness. We’re going from one extreme to another. Okay. By using our extensions, becoming “unbeweavable”, might I say.

Okay, so what I am going to do, I’m going to start to sew the weave and extensions on to the track. Okay. What you would like to do, is to actually get the track right up in here. Sometimes you can actually start to track up this far. But then sometimes when you start that far, you see how that projects and jumps out, we don’t like that.

We’re going to take this and pull it down to where we see where it falls, nice and natural. Where it can come down. So, we’re going to start just about right here, to sewing it on. We’re going to take this, tuck this under, and we want to get like, to balance it out, it should be like that on both sides, you want to take this, get the duck bill, and that’s lit up in there.

And cut this to about right there. Take this bad boy. Sit that there. Grab your pre-threaded needles. Which I actually like to use the nylon thread. Because the nylon thread is amazing. It’s slim, it’s fitting and it doesn’t get clogged up. Because you don’t want to get clogged up doing your sewing process because it will slow you down and cause a little bit of frustration.

Okay. So what I’m going to do. I’m gonna tuck this track right under the braid, okay? And what I’m going to do, I’m going to go to the bottom of the outside of the braid, okay? Take this, tuck that under, I created a little loop in the bottom of it and you just pull. And you pull. And you pull until you know that that is nice and tight, and you can see where your braid is being tucked under, by the pulling of the thread.

You should have that singed or that sits there for a second. You go back again to reinforce it, step away from it. Pull, give yourself a little bit of room to work with. Okay.

We’re going to do this again. Now that we have sewn in all of the hair. On the next and final episode, I will give you a few tips on how to style and properly maintain your weave. Well that’s it for today. Make sure you tune in to the next episode, to learn how to maintain your hair, and make all the hard work worthwhile.

If you have any questions for me, contact me @AnthonyCherry on Twitter. And if you want to see more videos like this one, please log on to madamenoire.com and follow them on twitter @madamenoire.

This week, our life advice expert S. Tia Brown answers her first series of questions from Madame Noire readers. Here’s her personal advice regarding how to tackle their career challenges.

By S. Tia Brown

Being honest is a challenge — but I am up to it. When it comes to our professional lives many African-Americans have to deal with grim realities, such as being among the first in our family to go from college to a career — which is different than merely holding a job. This will be a forum to speak frankly about possibilities in work and all areas of your life. I’m all about two things: strategy and preparation. It’s a one, two combo that’s killer. Check out this week’s questions and answers on these topics — and share your thoughts.

Madame Noire is pleased to expand our life-enhancing content featuring black female experts with the latest addition to our roster: life and career coach, S. Tia Brown. Ms. Brown is delighted to be joining our team — which includes the Luv Coach Rebecca Brody and natural hair care expert Anu Prestonia – to focus on general life advice. A certified practitioner in this field, who is quite fabulous herself, S. Tia Brown has a wealth of tips and tricks to help you make make personal improvements. She will answer one user question every week to share personalized advice that can benefit all of us. As an introduction to our intelligent and engaged audience, Tia sat down with Madame Noire to share her background and vision of service for the site.

How did you get started as a career and life coach?
I always knew I had a passion — and knack — for helping people. Initially, I gave advice to family, friends and colleagues. I’m also an entertainment and lifestyle journalist, so that gave me a national platform to talk about issues. I’ve talked about everyone from Anna Nicole Smith and Brangelina to Whitney Houston, Bobby Brown, and Alicia Keys. When I dished on celebs I always kept it honest, and helpful. I was more than a talking head; I dispensed life skills. A few years ago I decided to research life coaching certification programs to learn more techniques. I selected one I thought would complement my talk therapy style — and budget. I loved the program but knew I wanted more skills, so I enrolled in a degree program and eventually became a licensed therapist.

What kinds of questions can MadameNoire.com readers ask you?
I’m open to answering an array of questions about life skills, self-improvement and careers.

You are highly qualified to give life advice. Please describe the nature of your training.
I have a certification from the Coaches Training Institute (CTI); I have a masters degree in Clinical Social Work from New York University and a certification from the New York State Office of Mental Health in evidence-based practice.

When people receive answers to their life questions, how can they realistically apply your advice?
I’m a fan of cognitive behavioral therapy and my philosophy, “Do Better, Be Better,” ascribes to the theory’s core premise — small changes can radically transform your life. So if you’re overweight don’t focus on losing the whole 30 pounds — we focus on losing each ounce. One step at a time.

What general wisdom gained through your practice can be applied to everyone seeking to better themselves?
I believe that change is in the moment, so if you decide you want to make your life better, or different, you can begin whenever you decide. The perfect time is now.

What is the best piece of life advice you have ever received?
Don’t play small. There are times to be realistic and other instances when you want to take chances. I rarely miss an opportunity to go for what I want. Regret is worse than embarrassment.

What is the toughest coaching project you have taken on, and how did you help solve your client’s issues?
I’ve worked with clients who have severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia. That experience taught me the true meaning of celebrating small changes. Most important, I learned that all issues cannot be solved. Sometimes it’s about managing, or maintaining.

Share your hopes and goals for working with the Madame Noire audience.
I hope to be a resource. I’m a straight shooter, so don’t expect me to sugar coat responses. I am also an advocate of being strategic and prepared. That said, when it comes to careers I’d like to assist our audience with looking at the big picture, creating goals and life skills that can help them thrive.

More on Madame Noire!

• Making It: Stars Who Were Once Homeless
• Is His Appetite for Adult Films Killing Your Relationship?
• Ask The Luv Coach: “I’ve Got Drama With My Male Best Friend’s Girl”
• 10 Ways To Be A Better Friend
• 7 Silly Ways You Are Ruining Your Relationship
• Light Skinned Women: Let Go of the Guilt
• Should They Have Stayed? Flames Before The Fame and Fortune

Michelle Thornhill is the Senior Vice President and African American Segment Manager at Wells Fargo/Wachovia. Michelle has over 15 years of experience developing consumer initiatives for diverse audiences in the financial services and non-profit sector. Michelle earned a Bachelor of Science from Virgina Polytechnic Institute and State University, a Master of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University, the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Michelle resides in Charlotte, N.C. with her husband and two sons.

Along with stocks and bonds, real estate is one of the most common forms of investments. There are various types of investment real estate. They include residential, commercial, industrial, retail and mixed-use. Profits are generated in numerous ways. One is when the real estate appreciates. That means the value of the property has increased. You receive cash flow income when you collect money in the form of rent. You receive commission income from buying or selling property and ancillary income is earned when additional ways to make a profit are developed within the property. Providing coin laundry services inside an apartment building is an example of this kind of profit. If you’re interested in real estate investing, there are many lending options available to consider.

For more information on how Wells Fargo is helping customers who are facing financial challenges, visit www.wellsfargo.com/homeassist.

by Alexander Cain

How To Win Friends and Influence People is considered the father of all people-skills books and is a classic in the self-help genre. Despite being written more than over 50 years ago, the lessons imparted in the book are still relevant today. Whether you are looking to leave a great impression at a networking event or looking to leave people with a better impression, How to Win Friends and Influence People has lessons that will help to make you the life of the party, the person who just seems to know everyone, or being better at getting people to work in the way you envision.

The book is broken down into three parts with underlying principals to practice everyday until it becomes a habit. Keep in mind that self-improvement is a lifelong process and with these principals in mind, one can become an effective leader or communicator.

Part 1 lists six simple ways to get people to like you. While these principals derive from common sense, they are definitely something to keep in mind next time you are engaged in a conversation with someone new.

1) Become genuinely interested in other people. This seems very easy, but people can sometimes struggle in paying attention to the other person when engaged in the conversation. For example, during an interview, have you ever been so focused on preparing your next question that you completely blank out during the current conversation? The key is being genuinely interested and really getting to know someone.

2) Smile ☺- A smile is always welcoming and it not only affects the mood of everyone around you, but you will see your attitude will change.

3) Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language. Always try to remember people’s name even if you need to carry a small notebook and write down their names when you are by yourself. You can also use word association to help you remember names.

by R. Asmerom

Have you ever wondered what it takes to start your own liquor brand? Needless to say, news of  reality star Bethenny Frankel selling her Skinny Girl margarita company for over $100 million and reports that Diddy’s Ciroc deal composes much of his net worth has certainly peaked the interest of many a budding entrepreneur.

It is indeed a lucrative business, but not for the faint of heart, nor for those lacking the weighty financial means. It takes tenacity and creativity to produce your brand and get your product noticed to the point of viability in the crowded marketplace.

“Building a brand of liquor is very analogous to walking into a bar as a single guy,” said Charles Vaughn, Chairman and CEO of Premium Beverage Imports, Ltd. “If you see something that catches your eye, a beautiful woman, you tend to focus on it, you may approach her, and you start to talk to her and get to know her a little bit. It’s the same thing with liquor, if you see something that catches your eye on the back bar, you’ll ask the bartender about it, maybe you’ll try a sip of it, get a taste of it.”

To help us demystify the business of liquor, we consulted Vaughn, an expert who consults entrepreneurs on building liquor brands and who launched two vodka brands himself, Atomiq and LeSin, as well as Walter Moore, the co-owner, president & chief evangelist of Campo de Encanto Pisco, to help us understand the steps involved in starting and building a successful product line.

By Alexis Garrett Stodghill

With the summer coming, many African-Americans in the corporate world will be heading to various locations nationwide to partake in the conference season, during which many professional organizations leverage great weather to combine business with pleasure. Attending conferences is an excellent way to build your network, which is critical to current and future job searches. For entrepreneurs, meeting new people is essential for finding customers. If you plan to partake in one of these premiere meet-and-greets, don’t just show up with business cards and hope for the best. Gisele Marcus, Harvard MBA and networking expert, offers her top tips for getting the maximum benefit from your conference investment. Make your registration and travel costs worth the expenditure with her easily-applied advice:

1. Set an objective for conference attendance.
This could be to find a mentor or meet new customers.

2. Plan your schedule beforehand.
Many things occur at conferences simultaneously, so use the information on the conference site to determine which panels and social events are most important — and schedule some down time!

3. Find out which attendees you want to meet.
It’s great to let chance lead you to new contacts, but ideally you will also plan a list of panelists and guests to connect with. This will narrow down the flow of new contacts to navigate, and ensure potential contacts are in alignment with your goals.

4. Research the persons or organizations you’re interested in.
Once you know who you want to meet, or what companies you’ll seek introduction to, do a thorough web search to learn important details about these entities. Knowledge of these parties can serve as the common basis for striking up conversations.

Like these tips? Read the rest of Gisele Marcus’ advice on Your Black World, and leave your comments below.  What are some of your favorite ways to make the most of a conference? Can you recommend some interesting, approaching affairs? Leave your comments below!

For many, penning hits and creating music is just a far fetched dream on par with the fantasy of becoming an international pop star. Sure, songwriting is not a common occupation but for those who are focused and who have a knack for words, it is possible.

Songwriter Makeba Riddick started seeing her dreams come to life by the age of 20, when the song she wrote for Jennifer Lopez “All I Have” hit number one on the charts. Since then, the trained musician has been living a pretty charmed life as a songwriter, having gone on to write more hits for the likes of Beyonce, Rihanna, and Fantasia. TAP correspondent Brandi Fowler caught up with the Roc Nation singer and songwriter to talk about how she broke into the business and how she maintains her craft.