Cornrows into Tucked-in Twists

This style evolved from a previous style (see more here, at Making the Most of a Hairstyle).  JJ had a few braids at the front, and some cornrows at the back that still looked decent - even after 3 weeks - so I wanted to incorporate them into this style. 

I started with still-decent-looking braids at the front (bangs) and back (under the puff):

I undid the bottom row of braids, and undid the braided ends of the cornrows.

Then I cornrowed the sides up & towards the back. I secured each section in the middle of JJ's head with an orange ouchlesss band, and twisted the ends.

I added Halloweeny-colored beads to the bangs. JJ loves to whip her hair. 

I also twisted the twists and tucked all the ends in. JJ's hair is long enough that I didn't need to use pins.

Finally, for school and for eating and drinking, I tucked the long, beaded bangs into the twists. This helped to keep the braids clean (e.g., out of her food!!)  and helped keep her classmates safe. Did I mention she likes to whip her hair?

This style lasted another 2 weeks!! And got tons of compliments too!! 

Yes, I am patting myself on the back -  almost exactly one year ago I wrote my very first blog post!!  I have learned sooooo much since then! 

Thanks to all of you who have inspired me, and to all of you who have stopped by over the past year to take a peek at my hair-raising adventures! 

Bye bye beads!

JJ's beads from this style with small braids came out last weekend.

They'd been in for 6 days, which is by far the longest we've ever left beads. I try not to leave beads or rubber bands in for long because I want to take good care of those precious ends! But JJ LOVES to swing her beads and adores their clickity-clack sounds. She convinced me to leave the beads in for a birthday party on Saturday, and spent almost the entire party in the bouncy castle, clickity-clacking away.

My last post went into some detail in terms of putting the beads in, so I thought I'd also detail taking the beads out.

SIDE NOTE: My strategy for getting those beads in and keeping them in really worked because over 6 days of JJ's usual high activity level general not a single bead fell out!!

Over time I've tried lots of methods to remove beads, this is what works best for us. 

I use a seam ripper to cut the rubber bands. 

When I put a rubber band in, I try to wind it so the last that bit of rubber band is directly on top of the rest of the band, versus being directly on top of hair. (Hard to describe, will take a pic next time!!) That way I can easily cut the rubber band without worrying about accidentally cutting hair. 

The bands I used this past time also had the advantage that they were pink and purple, and very easy to see against JJ's hair. In the past I have often used black rubber bands which are more easily camouflaged in JJ's hair, but are harder to distinguish between hair and bands when taking the bands out.

I used Proclaim rubber bands from Sally's. They claim to be soft and flexible and do not cause breakage. I had pre-soaked them in coconut oil, which can sometimes make rubber bands weaker, but these did not weaken much (did I mention, NO beads fell out over 6 days!!). So once the band was cut once with the seam ripper it unravelled easily and the beads slid right off. In the picture below you can see my pile of cut rubber bands. What struck me was that I saw almost no broken hair, JJ's ends had not become tangled at all. 

almost no broken hair!!

In fact, her ends looked quite good! I tried to get a picture but my camera's close-up focus function refused to cooperate.  

Here are (some of) her braids, pulled into a side pony. The rest were in a pony at the back, but JJ (as you can see) was in no mood for photos! 

Very soon - as soon as I get time - I will update you on how much I LOVE my special new braid removal comb...  

Small Braids and Many Beads

Not long ago, we had an Unhappy Hair Day. JJ had worn her hair in small box braids for a few weeks, and the lengthy take-down time made us both grumpy. I swore I'd never do small braids again.

But - a couple of months have gone by, and I wanted to take the time to give JJ a style that would hold for a couple of weeks. Braids tend to last longer than twists for JJ, and I found a couple of ways to cut down on the total number of braids for easier take-down of the style. First of all, I made the braids a little bigger than last time. Secondly, instead of putting box braids over her whole head, I added some cornrows on one side. In total, there were 53 small braids, which seems like a much more manageable number.

JJ and I were browsing facebook photos and saw a picture of the beautiful Baby O from Intermittent Babbling - she had braids with lovely pink and purple beads and we totally copied the colour scheme. Our end result:

 

I am **hoping** that neither one of us has a temper tantrum when these braids come out. Besides the fact that there are fewer braids,  I recently picked up a comb that promised to cut braid take-down time in HALF. 

That is a big promise, and I am a skeptic, but the comb was only $1.99 so I took a risk. I'll let you know.....!

**DETAILS ABOUT ADDING THE BEADS***

Often I add snaps at the ends of JJ's braids to secure beads. But I find that snaps and daycare do not mix well. There's always a little pile of snaps and beads waiting for me at the end of the day when I pick her up. I've decided snaps are for weekends only. This time around I used the tried and true method of wrapping hair around the bottom bead and securing with an elastic.

See how the black bead has a slightly larger diameter hole than the purple bead? I used this to my advantage to camouflage the elastics I used to secure the beads.

I used 3-4 beads per braid, making sure to use a smaller purple (or pink) bead at the bottom, and a black bead next in line.

After stringing the beads onto the braid, I wrapped JJ's hair around the bottom bead, and secured with a matching pink or purple elastic (pre-soaked in coconut oil). I then pulled the wider black bead over top of the elastic. The elastic is just barely visible, and it looks relatively neat.

I am happy with way the beads look, and NOT A SINGLE ONE has fallen out in 4 very active days at kindergarten, daycare, home, and  sleep. JJ has been wearing a satin scarf at night:

JJ just started Kindergarten and loves to "read" while swinging her braids around!

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.

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!

Diagonal Cornrows & More Sister Twists

I'm now officially obsessed with sister twists. In my opinion they are less fuzzy, stay longer, and have cooler twist-out effects. But I haven't quite figured out: do sister twists = rope twists? Would love anyone's insight on this.

Anyway here are a few pictures of a more recent style with cornrows and sister twists. All bling was purchased at Snapaholics.

Have I ever mentioned that JJ is not one for posing? Or sitting still for that matter? Even if I haven't mentioned this you've likely noticed. These pictures all feature JJ, and pizza.