Next, “to calm it all down,” Keys mixes an aloe vera gel with Epicurean’s bulgaricum probiotic powder to create a DIY exfoliating mask, followed by a spritz—or “a thousand” spritzes—of rose water. “[Rose] opens your heart, and don’t we all need that?” But it also “just feels so good,” she adds with a smile, before moving onto moisturizer in the form of a roller ball for the undereye area and a face cream formulated with SPF for the day ahead. As for the finishing touch? “You have to have a good lip ointment,” she says of the Lucas Papaw balm that she always keeps by her side.
“My hair definitely takes a beating for sure,” she says, noting that braids can pull at the scalp, causing damage and breakage. So she’ll reach for an argan oil (“definitely get in on those ends!” she advises) and then apply a thick mask, which she leaves on throughout the day to “do good stuff”—two at-home hacks that extend the life of her lengths, even as COVID-19 continues to keep salon doors shuttered. “We gotta do what we can do in our own little bathroom.”
With her hair prepped, she is ready to reveal exactly how she has mastered the head scarf, which she wears on red carpets and at home with her family alike. “There’s so many gorgeous ways to wrap your head,” she explains—but for Keys, it all begins by brushing her hair up into a ponytail and then twirling it into a neck-lengthening bun at the very top of her head. Rest assured: “It doesn’t have to be all special-looking at this point.”
Folding a large rectangular scarf in half at the base of her head (pro tip: “the less slippery the material, the better”), she crosses the two ends over each other in front of and around the bun “as many times as [they] can” before tucking the edges inside. While many people might stop there, Keys grabs a second, square-shaped scarf featuring a prismatic, eye-catching print. “The thing I love the most is by the time I wrap it on my head, you have no idea what the color is gonna be…It’s a beautiful expression,” she muses while twisting the tails together (a creative tip suggested by her very own son) to achieve a one-of-a-kind sculptural updo. “Even if I’m just gonna be able to walk around the block because I can’t go anywhere, I’m still gonna be shining.”
