Little Brother Hair Update!!!

On Saturday my sister-in-law called and offered to take JJ and Little Brother K to Grandma's for a sleepover. Daddy D and I jumped on the opportunity to go to a concert. It was a last-minute thing, and K was whisked away right after nap, and before a good detangle. I do always try to have his hair look as "nice" as possible when he is with my in-laws, because they aren't too keen on his many curl-pattern, messy-looking afro. But the timing just didn't work in my favour this time around.

I had a premonition. I said to Daddy D, I have a feeling they are going to cut K's hair. About an hour later, there was a phone call. It was Auntie, asking if they could take K to the barber. I let Daddy D deal with this question. Daddy D continues to want K to have locs like him, but  his family is not supportive of that idea. Daddy D has been considering a cut for K for a couple of weeks now, ever since I showed him the Daddy & son haircut pictures at Mainly Braids (hi Shay!!). After some negotiation the Aunties were told not to touch the top of his hair, but that it was okay to cut the sides.

The result:

When he came home I was afraid to look, but when I did, I loved it! But I do feel a bit like my baby boy is gone and has been replaced with a 2 1/2 year old teenager. He just looks so much more mature! He loves all the attention from his friends and teachers, as well as pretty much anyone who passes us on the street.

If you like this - check out K's newest mohawk - a "loc-hawk" - here!!

Protective Style Challenge Week 2

....I'm way late on posting here, but this is what I did for Week two of the Beads Braids & Beyond one month protective styling challenge.

At the front I did some fairly small - but not quite mini twists. JJ likes them to fall over her face like long bangs.

I cornrowed the sides and did twists at the back in a mohawk style. I struggled a bit to bring the hair from the side cornrows together into the twists because I didn't want to use any elastic bands as I normally would when doing a style like this.  So for each twist I took a section of hair from each side. This worked well, but I had to really concentrate when I was doing it (oh well, less Shrek for me).

When we went out, I gathered the bangs back with some twisty rope and incorporated these into a ponytail with the twists at the back (bottom right).

These have held up very well for the week. The twists at the back became twist-outs for Friday and Saturday. After swimming lessons (today) I planned to wash JJ's hair and restyle in small twists for the last two weeks of the protective styling challenge. However, plans changed - more on that to come in another post....

Protective Style Challenge

As many of you probably know already, Beads, Braids & Beyond is doing their one month protective styling challenge on Facebook.

I watched from the sidelines last year; it was just around the time that I started spending (a lot of) time on the internet looking at and thinking about hair. Anyway, I decided to take the plunge and join the challenge this year.

For this week I tried flat rope twists. They were a little tricky at first but went better once I got my head around which direction(s) to twist. I was originally inspired by this post at Chocolate Hair / Vanilla Care and flat twists have been on my To Do List for a while.

Of course my (cheap) camera died so I only had my cell phone to take photos, but here is my week one check-in "collage":

So far they are holding up quite well.

In other news I got a huge container of pre-sorted beads at Walmart for $15.00 (approx 2300 beads!!!). Of course I am dying to use them but that would be breaking the protective styling challenge rules so I'll have to wait. Look at them!!!

In the meantime though, JJ could make about 1000 necklaces...

Rope Twists and Twisty Ropes

I found these great hair accessories at Dollarama (A Canadian chain dollar store). They were - you guessed it - a dollar per package of 5. 

They are a kind of twisty, stretchy, elastic rope, with beads at the ends. They reminded me of twists, and I thought they'd be fun to add to ponytails with twists.

I parted JJ's hair ear to ear. I then parted the back of JJ's hair into zigzag-y triangle sections (10 in total). I secured each with a non metal band (I got these at Dollarama too, they are like terry, but slightly more stretchy). I twisted each ponytail and wrapped the ends around a barrette to make the ends neater and stretch the twists a little.

I parted the front hair into two side ponytails, made three twists in each ponytail, and added the twisty rope. 

This has been a very easy style to change up the colours of the bands and the twisty rope for a new look, and it has lasted well (4 days so far...)

JJ likes the look of two ponytails (and added colour from the rope!) at the front, and I like that the back stays protected and tangle free in the twists. A great compromise style!

Evolving Mohawk

I knew we were going to have a busy week last week. In preparation for the craziness, I decided to go with a style that would last a while, but have potential for quick changes.

washed, detangled, ready for stylin'

I started with a "mohawk" style: cornrows towards the top/back of JJ's head. I gathered the cornrows in the centre of her head with ouchless bands, twisted the ends, and added spring-coloured beads and snaps.

from the side

from the back - having a cuddle with Daddy

Later in the week I took out the beads for a simpler look.

But the look was too simple according to JJ. So we went to the opposite end of the spectrum. I added in a bunch of colourful clip-on braids (okay, so I am not a fan of "extensions" on young children, but these are more about fun). I gathered the twists and clip-on braids into a ponytail at the back of her head with some matching bands. The daycare teachers called it her "Avatar" hair. This lasted 2 days.



Then I took out the ouchless bands, added star ballies, took out the twists and planned to leave the ends as puffs.





JJ was not in agreement however, so I quickly did some 2-strand twists and finished with star beads. She loved the star theme, as did everyone in her daycare class.




Then came swimming lessons, and I wanted to take the beads out. I sometimes leave beads in for lessons, but I'm always wondering if a bead falls out - will it block up the pool or something? So when I think of it/have time, I take out beads for swimming.

The cornrows were pretty fuzzy by this point (Day 8) so I decided to embrace the fuzziness (no use re-doing right before swimming). I gathered the cornrows into a few piggyback ponytails right at the front to bring JJ's hair out of her face. I then detangled the once-twisted hair with conditioner, added a little product, and made small ponytails down the back of her head. I tried to work the hair from the smaller ponytails together so they looked like one long ponytail in the back.

I was very happy to get a lot of mileage from this mohawk, and JJ was happy with all the variations!