Introduce yourself!
M: Well, I’m Martina McFarlane from the island of Jamaica. I pretty much lived there my whole life up until I got accepted to The Fashion Institute of Technology here in New York, when I decided to pack up all my things and move to the city of dreams. I’m currently a full time student studying Fashion Design in women’s apparel, and I am also a full time personal style blogger of The Style Alien.
What is your style philosophy?
M: At a very young age I always viewed myself to be very experimental and tried out new styles. This resulted in me having a massive eclectic personal style.
How would you describe your sense of style?
M: I love to combine inspiration from the 90s era of grunge (I’m a 90s babe), with elements of a bohemian vibe and a mash up of my own weird ideas.
What is the process of deciding what to wear in the morning?
M: Because I tend to derive ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources, I have so much difficulty getting dressed in the mornings. It really just depends on what my mood is that morning that makes the decision of what I end up wearing.
What are the three favorite things in your closet?
M: Right now I’m into wearing a lot of neutrals this Spring, so my three favourite things right now are firstly a pure white crop top from Zara, second this graphic tee I got from Chicwish, which I absolutely love because I think the combination of black and gold is brilliant, and for the third one it would have it be my chunky platform Jeffrey Campbell shoes!
What are some of your favorite shops/websites for clothes, shoes and accessories?
M: Nasty Gal, Romwe and Zara
How long have you been natural?
M: Well I would say that I’ve been natural my whole life, but then I made that one stupid decision when I was in high school to get my hair relaxed. Huge mistake, I literally did it once and never did it again…I knew it wasn’t for me.
How and why did you transition into natural hair?
M: The transition process for me personally wasn’t very hard since I went from a relaxer to a wave noveau perm, then I decided to just grow it out and wore braids for a very long time. From my high school days I always knew I wanted to loc my hair and even attempted it once before I got a relaxer, but unfortunately I went to a very strict all girls high school that wouldn’t allow me loc my hair, so I had to wait until I graduated. As soon as my hair was completely natural again I went to a salon in Jamaica to get my hair loc’d. I don’t think I would have done a very good job doing it myself. I believe they started my locs out using the palm rolling method.
What is your signature hairstyle?
M: A lot of times I like to just wear my hair down (yea I know that’s a bit boring) but that’s what works for me, and sometimes I’ll use flexi rods to curl the front section of my hair.
Describe your styling regimen over the course of the month.
M: I don’t consider myself a product junkie, but I did try out a lot of products during the younger stages of my loc process, but now that my locs are more mature I really don’t put anything on them aside from coconut oil. I don’t think too many products are good for my hair anyway.
Is there a blog/webpage where we can find you?
M: Yea! You can check out my blog at www.thestylealien.com.
