Kat Graham Opens Up About Her Natural Hair Journey During Quarantine

[chill music]

Hey guys, it is me, Kat Graham.

I am so excited that you guys are going to be with me

on this never before journey.

I'm gonna bring you guys into how I actually do my hair,

my makeup, and skin routine.

I'm biracial, so my mom couldn't really do my hair.

She just dropped me off at the hair salon,

and I've been doing, getting my hair done

by professionals almost every single week

since I was like nine years old,

because my mom just couldn't do it.

So I've learned a lot being on quarantine.

I haven't had a team of hairstylists that are trained

and can deal with everything.

So, when I first wake up,

the first thing I want to do is my eyebrows.

I use Anastasia's a lot.

I'll shape them with the gel that she has.

I've been sweating a lot, working out in the water,

so I've been using L'Oreal's Unbelieva-Brows,

which stays on for two days.

I don't know why, but even when I take off my makeup

at night, I wake up and I still find more.

So, I've been, love these, they're, they're little,

you can get them at like Walgreens or whatever.

They're makeup removing wipes, Aveeno.

My skin loves it.

You see, see,

There's no dirt.

I don't understand it.

I'm spritzing my Dior Eye Life Oil To Milk Cleanser

on my makeup removing pad.

So this is my favorite serum, Capture Youth.

You can see it.

It's a glow booster.

I've been really just like applying it to my face.

That's really my routine and then what I do

is I just like chill and then I get into my hair.

So I'm gonna take out my, my four braids.

I've been very careful to not use heat on my hair.

Just I've really wanted it to grow.

When I first started quarantine,

I think my hair was maybe to here, and now it's to here,

which is nice, but you know,

this is not ever something that I would have to do.

I would keep my hair in cornrows and just, you know,

throw on a wig because most of the jobs that I had done

as an actress, you know,

they wanted a certain kind of look.

Four months now and I haven't straightened my hair,

so you can see it's really healthy.

It's been really therapeutic for me to just wear my hair

really, really big.

So let's get it big.

[hairdryer blowing]

Can you hear me?

So much fun.

I need an afro pick, I never thought I would even own one.

The African afro texture is not something

that Hollywood has ever necessarily embraced.

So I hope that I, one day can play a character

that I actually look like.

My hairstylist, Rachel Lee, who's amazing,

who was actually the first person to really put me

on this journey of using my own hair.

I just love, just having a fro.

I don't know, quarantine has completely changed me.

I don't know that I would even have shown this

to you guys before.

I can do so much with it.

I don't really, I don't straighten it,

but what I've been loving to do is condition my hair,

and keep it conditioned.

So these are my favorite oils,

manuka oil, you can just get this at like the beauty salon,

argan oil, stimulates hair growth, black rice oil

is the bomb, and now for my favorite concoction

that I made myself, mustard seed oil

and Jamaican black castor oil, extra dark.

You only need a little bit over maybe spots

that have given you a bit of trouble or are stubborn

in terms of growth or whatever.

But I do love my fro and I'll show you guys

what I'm doing to condition it.

So there's really two products that I have been living by.

This is like my fifth one of this,

but originally this was a gift,

Right before quarantine, I had a week of press to do,

we didn't know what was happening.

It was just, flights were getting canceled,

borders were getting closed, and why am I

crying over conditioner?

This is so stupid, but Rachel gave me this and she said,

I want you to start to use this on your hair.

And I was like, fine.

You know, I get a bunch of products all the time.

[gentle music]

And I, it was almost like she knew I was going

to be on my own, and I've never had to be on my own

with my hair.

So anyways, I really love this product,

because this was the product that helped me figure out

that my hair will work with me, if I don't give up on it.

So, sorry guys.

So, I love it, it's super simple.

It's like 7.99, you can see.

Literally I take a whole scoop.

I love this stuff.

This is, I would never show you this.

I just put it all over my hair and my hair just

loves it so much, and it seems like a lot,

watch how quickly my hair drinks it up.

So for Vampire Diaries, I'd worn a lace front

for many years.

So the glue, and the wig clips, and the pulling,

and the braids, were hard on my hair.

I think for like the, All Eyes on Me, movie,

I had done a perm 'cause I had a pixie cut,

but then after that, I, I am so done.

I just want to have a master fro.

So if you see what it's kind of done to my hair,

is the curls are much more defined and my hair

just like really, really loves it.

So another product that I love, Briogeo,

it's amazing, black owned, and you can see this,

basically my curls will do whatever I want them to do.

This is like me loosely holding onto my hair,

and it's just completely clean,

and then when I take it out at the end of the day,

it's just like, so, you know, soft.

So let's get into some makeup.

I like makeup to last.

This is what I've been wearing.

It's super, super light, but you can change

how heavy you want it.

I've been using this Dior Skin Correct for this area here.

And then I've got to love and have my Rih Rih,

my Fenty Beauty.

So my color is actually caramel, see it's proof.

Oh my god, I've never done a video like this before.

And I just take it around my chin,

take it also to my forehead.

And now we're gonna do a little Skin Correct.

And you know, one thing that people just don't talk about

is, you know, we are women,

we have hormones and our skin changes,

and sometimes we have dark spots and light spots,

and it just changes.

And then before I totally blend,

I'm going to do my Infallible.

And what I love about this, is because it is so light,

and it does stay on, that I am able

to use it quite sparingly.

I really don't get why my mom did not let me play

with makeup when I was younger.

So what I did was I had to hire people

when I first started to get publicity,

but the only people I knew professionally

that I trusted with my makeup were drag queens

because before, Vampire Diaries,

I was releasing music, and the only people

that would let me in to perform were drag queens,

and you know, gay clubs in West Hollywood.

So I learned how to contour from Sutan,

AKA Raja, who is an iconic performer in the drag scene.

And then throughout doing more and more fashion,

I stopped wearing as much makeup.

So you'll notice if you even do like a timeline

of my makeup over the years, it's gotten a lot lighter.

So you can see it's pretty clean,

but I need a bit of blush.

I really don't want to lose my freckles.

This is Bene Tint by Benefit.

And you can see they're starting to come through.

So if you look closely,

you will see my freckles starting to come back.

You can see a bit of them there.

If I need something that is more, closer to my color,

I use the True Match from L'Oreal,

and that kind of really helps define it.

One thing that I've really, I've really loved doing

is my mascara to the point where even when I'm on set,

I ask if I can do it myself, 'cause I love doing it so much.

Telescopic mascara, it looks like this.

I'm obsessed with a little bit of highlight here,

and I love Guerlain's terracotta.

It's a bronze and you can just do.

Bam.

I've had this forever.

I have it in like three colors.

This is just Glotion, Lumi.

I wear very minimalistic eye make up these days.

This is my Dior palette.

It's backstage, it's warm neutrals, it's all my colors.

It's my favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite palette.

I use it every day.

I'm just using the dark brown right here and a thin brush,

and I just create a bit of a contour.

And then I use the, it's like a terracotta.

You can use whatever lip gloss you want.

Super easy.

I mean, all my black girls already know about this,

but this is Cream of Nature olive oil, perfect edges.

This one is my favorite.

Just do a little here and get your baby hairs right.

One thing about me, while I do my baby hairs,

is that I am obsessed with amber, the smell,

and this is my official smell,

it's Serge Lutens Santal Majuscule.

I can't pronounce these things

and that's how you know it's good.

Hopefully you guys have enjoyed my self care routine

and have learned a little bit more about my journey.

I love you guys.

Good luck.