Growing up in Detroit, YouTube star La'Britney Franklin taught herself to sing and dance by watching Aaliyah, Britney Spears, and Destiny's Child videos. "I would literally sit in front of my TV learning every single dance move, mimicking all of their choreography," says Franklin, who parlayed her video obsession into cheerleading, talent shows, and a stint with girl group Savannah before striking out on her own.

With a new video for her single "Xxxtra" and an EP on the way, Franklin is preparing for a huge year, starting with teaching fans how to pronounce her name. It's lah-Britney, not el-aye Britney, for the record. "My name is La'Britney, but a lot of people think my name is LA Britney. And my friends do call me La," she says. What better way to set the record straight than with a monogram braid by New York City hair stylist Guin Gui. "Because La'Britney is way too long to braid into my head."

We caught up with Franklin to chat about hair dye hacks, natural curls, and why coconut oil fixes everything.

Do you have any early memories of experimenting with your hair?

Yeah! It's crazy because when I was a little girl I was always into doing my hair, braiding my hair, braiding my little sister's hair, dyeing—I used to dye my hair with Kool-Aid packets. Like red fruit punch Kool-Aid. I became a mom when I was 14-years-old, so braiding hair was my way of making money. I was the girl at my high school that braided everyone's hair and I would be like—you know how Guin Gui braided "LA" into my hair? I used to braid people's names into their hair and just have everybody looking swaggy. I was the girl to do everyone's hair so of course, I was always doing things cool things with my own hair, a new hairstyle every single day.

How did you learn?

I don't know! I think one day, one of my older cousins taught me how to braid and I just practiced. I practiced every day on my little sister. She was like my guinea pig. And I just became really good at it. And now I'm a little too busy to braid my own hair, but I always have dope ideas for different hairstyles and I love braids.

What hair products do you use when you're doing your own look?

I gotta have my Edge Control for the baby hairs. I also use any type of hair conditioner, because I have naturally curly hair. I'll use CVS cheap Pantene Pro-V conditioner, or a more high-end conditioner, but the conditioner just keeps my hair slick and my curls poppin' when I'm wearing my natural hair. Really just my Edge Control and hair conditioner. I live by those two.

And what about shampoo? Is that kind of secondary?

Yeah the shampoo is secondary. I wash my hair—I don't really wash my hair often. I maybe wash my hair like twice a month. I don't wash my hair. I can co-wash it. So I'll rinse my hair and I'll wash it with conditioner instead of washing it with shampoo because sometimes shampoo—I feel like it dries my hair out a little bit. My biggest issue with my hair is that it gets oily really fast. So if I rinse it and I do the co-wash with the conditioner, it kind of buys me a little bit more time, gets the oil out a little bit. I also have a dry scalp sometimes, so then I have no choice but to shampoo it up.

Do you have any hair regrets?

Yes! There was this one time where I dyed my hair blond, but it was the ratchet orangey, brassy blond. And every time I see pictures of my hair like that I wanna barf. I used to wear my hair bright red. I actually loved my hair bright red. It was a crimson, really popping red. I wore my hair that color for two years. And I ended up having to go back black because the red really damaged my hair. My hair is just now getting back to a place where it's healthy and growing and longer and looking my vibrant because dyeing my hair when it was red I was bleaching and then putting the red color on top totally killed my hair. It was dead. It was so horrible. And it took me maybe a year and a half to pull it back together. You know what helped? Coconut oil.

Do you just put it all over?

Yup. I would just drench my hair in coconut oil. I would wash it and then just put coconut oil and massage it into my scalp and massage it into the ends of my hair and now my hair is poppin' again.

Coconut oil fixes everything.

It really does! I use coconut on my hair, I use it to remove my makeup, I use it to moisturize my skin, I use it for a lot of different things. Coconut oil is definitely a life-saver. That's another must-have. Air Control, coconut oil, and my hair conditioner.

For more on La'Britney Franklin, Visit YouTube.com/labritneyf.