Half Up Half Down Styles - Simple Cornrows Into A Half Ponytail

The next few weeks the blog will feature styles that are what I call "Half Up Half Down".   Bre's mother decided to start a style on her hair that she didn't finish.  She put mini box twists with 10 beads on each strand on the back half of Bre's hair.  It was cute but it made me cringe to think of all the damage to her hair.

The things that are doing the damage:
1.  No oil or moisturizer
2.  Rubber bands at the roots of her hair (she complained for 3 days how much her head was hurting from the bands being too tight)
3.  10 beads on each twist.  The weight of all those beads are most likely breaking the ends of her hair.

It's not bad to do mini twists, in fact I think they are gorgeous, especially in natural hair.  You just need to make sure your not tugging the hair where it will cause breakage.


Style #1 - Simple Cornrows Into A half Ponytail

Her hair was very dry to start with so I deep conditioned it (top half only) while I did our laundry (yay for multitasking!).  Before I rinsed the conditioner out of her hair I split it into small sections and detangled it.  Even though she has had her hair relaxed it still has a fair amount of curl to it so running a brush through her hair dry hurts.  The conditioner makes this process much more pleasant for the both of us.

I then sectioned out a small half circle where I wanted my half ponytail to be and put that hair into a single braid.  The circle allow the braids to fit better when I gather them into a ponytail because where the cornrows end is wider and I'm working with thicker cornrows which means thicker braids.

Then I went ahead and sectioned her hair into 8 parts leaving the side parts to be a little thicker than the ones on the top of her head because her hair is thinner on the sides.  Before I started each cornrow I used a good amount of coconut oil and combed it through the section of hair to add moisture.  I ended each braid with a rubber band and no beads.

Lastly, I tied all 8 cornrows plus the hidden single braid into a half ponytail with 2 ribbons of her choice. She liked the result and is happy to keep her box twists and beads for another two weeks.