Big and Little 'Fros

I've been doing lots of experimenting with Big Hair. I'm even working on a post about it! But in the meantime here are a few photos that are just too cute (in my humble and totally non-biased opinion) to keep to myself. BTW - please ignore the product residue on JJ's hair - like I said - I am experimenting!! I was checking to see if the residue would be gone when hre hair was completely dry. It was not. I think in my zeal I used too much leave-in condish - but it came out well with another rinse. Sigh...always learning! 

My hair is bigger than yours!

But I still love you!

For the record: JJ's major shrinkage

Quick and Easy Puffs 'N Twists

JJ rocked a great 'fro over the weekend (more on that later), but this morning I wanted to protect her hair from the sand and woodchips at daycare. I needed something quick and easy.

I pulled the back into two quick puffs, and the front into two smaller ponytails. I twisted the small front ponytails into two twists each and added some beads at JJ's request. 

Voila! Quick and easy!

Beautiful hair ! Yara Shahidi

A few days ago we stumbled upon a movie called Imagine That starring Eddie Murphy.

The movie itself was alright, but the highlight was Eddie Murphy's daughter - played by Yara Shahidi. She is an incredible young actor, and had gorgeous hair to boot. I just had to share:

Criss Cross Twists - Inspired by Diva Locks

This weekend I didn't have any plan at all about how I was going to do JJ's hair for the week. I usually have some vague idea, but this time - nothing.

I checked out my blogger dashboard for inspiration, which was delivered immediately by one of the amazing blogs I follow:  Diva Locks, where The Diva's talented Hairdresser had created gorgeous criss cross braided ponytails.

I added my own twists to this style - literally. Instead of the braids I did two-strand twists. I also added in some purple yarn, because 1) I had promised JJ a while back that we could try adding some yarn to her twists, and 2) as you may have figured out, I like to experiment.

I started by washing and conditioning JJ's hair, and banded it in 6 sections.

I twisted each section into two two-strand twists and added purple yarn.

halfway done!

halfway done!

I then criss-crossed the twists (see  Diva Locks' post - criss cross braided ponytails for an extremely thorough description).

I ended the twists with beads - adding beads to the ends when they are just yarn seems so much kinder to JJ's ends, allows her to have the bling she craves, and it's so easy to just tie a little knot in the end of the yarn versus using snaps and/or elastics.

THANKS to Diva's Hairdresser at Diva Locks for the inspiration!

And a shout-out to the fabulous Precious for technical assistance with my blog!!!!!!!

Ghana Plaits - Update

My first attempt at Ghana Plaits went okay but, as always, there were lessons to learn.

First of all, it didn't take long for the beads to start falling out. Over at Cherish my daughter, Mocha Mom used sidewinders to end her plaits.  I can really see why. Some beads simply fell out from JJ's constant movement. Also, as the thread loosened up over time, sometimes the beads became detached from the ends of the hair. Without the anchor, some of the plaits unraveled.

Threads hanging from where beads fell off

Loosened thread, beads detached

Ghana plait that unravelled
completely after the beads came out

The plaits still looked good though, and were saved by adding small barrettes to the ends:

I think Ghana Plaits have a lot of potential - I'll definitely try again - maybe with the Sidewinders (still saving the pennies though - haven't ordered any yet...)! I guess I'll have to add them to the wish list.