This story originally appeared on InStyle.com.
New Orleans is known for its Creole cuisine, French-Caribbean culture, historic architecture, and Southern charm, and Kelly Rowland, the Destiny’s Child member and new mom, loves it all. Rowland was in town for the Essence Festival, where she was promoting her upcoming reality show Chasing Destiny—she’s putting together a new girl group and documenting the process on T.V. In between screening auditions for the show with local singers, Rowland stopped to chat on big hair, flawless skin and how she dropped 50 pounds of baby weight.
Food Faves: Acme Restaurant has the most amazing char-broiled oysters I have ever had in my life. You could close your eyes and guess what you want from the menu and it’s all-good.
Big Hair Rules: I wear a curly wig [laughs] but I’m serious. I don’t feel like being bothered. It takes some time to prepare my natural hair. So I just wanted to have a curly Afro this weekend.
Less Is More: I like my chocolate skin. So I put very little foundation on it. I like that the humidity is going to give me a glow. I put a little eye shadow, some lashes and mascara on, and call it a day. You don’t have to do much because the humidity is actually playing a part in your dewy look.
Battle of the Baby Weight: I worked out three times a day. I started with trainer Jeanette Jenkins. She started me slow right after I had the baby. It was yoga, Pilates, and then building up to a hard work out. Then we did weights and then running and cardio. She does the most incredible workout called Tread and Shred—I’d do it three times a week. I swear to you in three weeks I dropped seven pounds. I didn’t want to rush the weight loss. I didn’t want to starve myself and have it come right back. I wanted to burn it all off. I did SoulCycle three times a week with Angela Davis—she’s a goddess. I did dance classes with Aisha Francis—it’s called a Pump Camp. I did that three to four times a week. We did all these lovely sensual dances where we you don’t realize that you are working your core, legs and butt. She was killing me.