Cornrowed Headband and Curls

Bre got a new style yesterday!  I was pretty hyped about this style because it worked with her shorter hair.  It did look real cute.  Here was the end result:

We started by washing her hair.  She LOVES getting her hair washed and sitting in the tub and playing tea party with her bath toys.  We washed her hair with Shea Moisture shampoo and deep conditioned it with Shea Moisture Hair Masque.  We did a quick deep condition which for us means to put it on her hair, let it sit for 5 minutes while we detangle, and run water over her hair to get out the excess conditioner.  There is still a little product in her hair, but we leave that in.

We then divided her hair into two sections a front half and a back half.  Make sure the front section is a bit thicker than normal and clip down the back half.  Next you need to split the front section in half again so you have two equal parts.  Which each section I added hair lotion and coconut oil.  The first 1/4 of the hair by the forehead needs to be cornrowed back.  The 2nd 1/4 needs to be cornrowed to the front.  Braid until you reach the ends.

I thought it would fun to add some pink yarn as an extension to the large braided headband.  I took two strands, an arms length long, folded them over and added them to the two tiny braids by her ear.  I did a cornrow by adding the ends of the small cornrows to the large braid.  I struggled halfway through because the pink yarn was getting trapped between all the braids.  I secured the ends with an elastic and cut off any access yarn.  I couldn't decide if I wanted to clip a little flower to the end or not

Next I did a roller set on the back half of her hair.  She really likes curls and loose hair more than cornrows so I thought I'd appease her this one time.  I moisturized her hair by adding hair lotion.  I took a piece of hair a little shorter than the length of the small satan covered curlers I used and put coconut oil on the strand and rolled it around the roller.  I started from the top and moved down doing the same thing to each section.

Once I was done I spritzed the rollers with water, put on a loose sleeping cap and let them sit overnight.  In the morning I took out the rollers.  Her hair felt wonderful when the rollers came out because all of the coconut oil we used still hadn't soaked in all the way.

As you can see her roots were not taught and thus did not curl.  I finger combed through the curls separated them and sprayed them with hairspray.

The picture doesn't do it justice.  They actually did not look frizzy at all until a half and hour later when it started raining....  sigh.  She decided instead of helping to pack lunches at Kid's Church she was going to ride with me in the bus and be my runner to get kids from there houses.  Her coat didn't have a hood.  Now she's got these grandma looking curls in the back of her hair.

I like the front but I'm sure the back of her hair will be going into a ponytail tomorrow until I get the chance to braid it.

Quick Style - X Cornrows and 4 Ponytails

Ray and I took down her mini twist style which only took about 2 hours including detangling.  I was soo happy to get it out.  It wasn't that it looked bad.  In fact,  I think out of all the styles I've seen Ray in I like the mini twists the best.  I was worried that the product I put in her hair at the ends (creme wax) would start to dread up her hair.  Creme wax is used to hold twists in place until they start to dread so you can see my concern about keeping her mini twists in longer than 4 weeks.

The next style Ray wants to do is...a FAUX HAWK!  They are kind of over done in my opinion but I'm excited she's getting into picking out the styles and not me.  Because of time I decided to go with a simple style I see all over the internet. X-cornrows and 4 ponytails with twists.  Next time I get the chance to do hair we will do a faux hawk.

So obviously I didn't get the parting just right and the ends of the braids were way lose but I'm still learning.  She likes it but maybe because she just wanted to go home and sleep lol.  I used hair lotion and extra virgin coconut oil.  By her request we put the ball balls at the ends of her hair to weight them down which worked perfectly.  I've always liked this style.  It's a cute twist to the usual ponytails and ball balls.

Hair Grease

Hair grease was a common form of moisturizing curly hair back before tons of products came out.  It left your hair feeling moisturized for days.  The hair lotion products that have come out only leave hair moisturized for one day.  I could understand why so many people are confused as to why putting grease in their hair is a bad thing.  Let me explain...

Petroleum (which basis of hair grease) does not moisturize your hair.  It seals in moisture.  When you put a layer of grease on your skin and get wet the grease repels the water.  The grease does not gradually soak into your skin or hair shaft.  Instead it sits there.  This is good and bad.  It acts as a barrier so your hair cannot lose moisture.  It also acts as a barrier for any sweat or oils that is trying to escape from your scalp.  When all the sweat and oil builds up it clogs your pores and is not healthy.

Their are a few alternatives to greasing your hair.  Many people use a hair lotion or a leave in conditioner to moisturize the hair.  If you want to seal in the moisture I suggest using coconut oil as well.  It can be a bit expensive, but coconut oil has a unique property to it.  It penetrates the shaft of your hair instead of sitting on top of it resulting in build up.  It also lets your scalp breath.  Don't use a coconut oil hair dressing.  It has petroleum in it.  Look for extra virgin coconut oil.

I'm not hating on those who do use grease.  I think petroleum can be beneficial in other things, but not as a moisturizer.

Paper Bag Curlers

Bre's hair was looking rough this week and really could have been redone but we got home at 9 on Friday and it took us till 10 before dinner was made so doing hair wasn't really an option.  We decided to try an old technique I used in my hair whenever I wanted tight, coily, kinky curls.  I used to cut up strips from paper bags, wrap my dampened hair in them, and let them dry overnight.  Since the paper bags weren't perfect circles it gave me this messy kinky look to my curls which I loved.  Unfortunately this didn't really work out for Bre.  Her hair is very short so I folded the strips in half to have super skinny strips which gave me these super skinny flattened coils.

The picture doesn't really show the definition of the coils very well, but without the flash you couldn't see it at all.  It really could have been left in a cute coily bun with a small ribbon around it but Bre wanted to put a bow with korkers in her hair and it didn't look right with a coily bun so we combed out the coils and left it in a free ponytail.