The Loc Hawk

Little Brother K has been sporting a new 'do - the "loc-hawk"!

Last time I updated here about K's hair, I had just put in a headful of two strand twists. 

I was in a dilemma about to twist or not to twist, to cut or not to cut, and to loc or not to loc.  Now it seems I've done all three!

For a while, I went with twisting. Here is K's hair on New Year's Eve: small two-strand twists.

We stuck with twists for a while; long enough that they started to loc naturally.

K's own photo of his locs at the front

K's curl pattern in much tighter at the front and the back of his head. His hair is looser and finer in the middle. 

The varying sizes of K's curls, compared to a marker

His hair was beginning to loc quite nicely at the front and back, but the middle was not loc'ing well at all. I started to help the locs along, using my homemade interlock tool (literally a paperclip with masking tape around it to avoid snagging). 

I use a 4-point method similar to the one used in this video by DynamicRunner. 

K actually enjoys getting his hair done these days, so once or twice a week while he watches TV, I have him sit for some re-twisting/interlocking. The locs continue to be a work in progress, some are well-established while others need more time.

Here is an idea of the thickness of the locs:

K's locs are a little smaller than a pencil in diameter

And now - onto the CUT!

To give K's hair a new and interesting shape, we decided to cut the sides into a mohawk - technically a loc-hawk? Using the electric clippers on number 1, I cut down the sides and left the locs at the front, top and back. 

K loves his rockin' new look!

A Month of Yarn Twists

Hi everyone!! First, I'd like to thank you for your patience as I try to balance family/work/life/blog. Blogging has certainly taken the back-burner, but I do have a line-up of exciting hair stories to tell. Slowly but surely, I'll get them out!

I wanted to start by sharing how JJ's sparkly twists for New Year's Eve ended up becoming a longer-term protective style.

When I started the yarn twists, I figured I would leave them in for a few days post-NYE. I wasn't planning on leaving them in too long, because I figured they'd be a bit too "flashy" for everyday. But as you may remember, JJ cut off a big chunk of her own hair on NYE, while I was taking a break from finishing up the twists...

So I decided the yarn twists would stay in a bit longer to buy some time (hair growth time!) before figuring out how to camouflage the short hair in her next style.

Luckily, the sparkly-ness of the yarn twists was quite subtle. The subtle but sparkly twists stayed for all of January! I washed them as per Rory's detailed instructions about washing yarn extensions at Chocolate Hair Vanilla Care. I also spritzed frequently with diluted Taliah Waajid Protective Mist Bodifier or live clean Exotic Nectar Argan Oil leave-in spray.

Here are JJ's yarn twists, not too fancy for the mall!

The beads stayed in for about a week.

Once the beads were out, I knotted the ends.

After about three weeks, I could not take the fuzz at the front anymore! The front yarn twists came out, and I did five simple flat twists towards the back. The back yarn twists stayed in.

Too much fuzz!

Flat twists at the front

After 4 1/2 weeks, I undid the knotted ends. The twists were super easy to unravel and the yarn actually seemed to help keep the two strands of the rope twists very distinct. There was no tangling of the two strands together as I unravelled the rope twists; usually JJ's hair does tangle with long-term 2-strand twists.

I left them as a yarn + hair twist-out for a day (sorry, forgot to take a photo of her whole head!). 

The next day I took out the yarn, by simply sliding it off of JJ's hair. Again, I was surprised at how non-tangled JJ's hair was, at how easy it was to simply untwist the strands, and at how moisturized her hair had stayed. 

And the patch of cut-off hair gained some length! 

JJ's hair went straight into another protective style - cornrows and box braids - for the month of February. Hopefully I'll catch up on blogging about February's style before too long - but here's a sneak peak in the meantime...

Next up: Little Brother K's new "loc-hawk"!!

JJ Cuts Her Hair

Stop. Rewind. All the way back to New Year's Eve. JJ had requested something sparkly in her hair for the party we were going to. We decided on sparkly yarn twists. She loved them - they were exactly what she wanted.

But there was drama!

It's taken me a while to write about this - partly because my life is extra-busy right now - but also because it was soooooo traumatic ):

Mid-morning on Dec 31, the yarn twists were almost complete. There was just one small patch left to twist - right at the top of her head - maybe 4-5 twists' worth. We had been watching Shrek for the billionth time, and a good song came on. JJ asked to have a break to get up and dance, and I agreed. I let her dance, and I took a break to make a phone call and finalize our party plans.

I was vaguely aware of JJ checking her hair in the mirror, and was also vaguely aware of her saying something about how she didn't like the look of the puff of untwisted hair at the top of her head.

After a few minutes, I was off the phone and JJ was back in her "hair chair". I went to add in some yarn to one of the final twists and my heart skipped a beat. I had in my hands a section of short hair, it was only about an inch or two long!? I immediately thought "Yikes! Major breakage!" and I sat for a minute, trying to figure out how this could have happened. Her hair had been in small twists for all of December...a PROTECTIVE style - how could such a large section break off?

I hadn't even processed my next idea in my head when I asked out loud..."Did you cut your hair?". JJ smiled at me. She looked almost proud of herself (??!!!) and said "Yes!". She looked over at the scissors I'd been using to cut the yarn, and back at me again, still smiling....

In the few minutes that I had been on the phone, and with little brother, big brother and Daddy D all in the room, JJ had somehow managed to cut off the last bit of hair that was to be twisted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was in complete shock. I asked "Where's the hair??" and JJ pointed to the kitchen floor. Yup, that was her hair. A fair amount of it, too. EEEEK!!!!

Channeling as much of Daddy D's "go with the flow" attitude as I could muster - and thanks to some much-needed words of wisdom and support from awesome facebook/blogger friends - I pulled myself together and finished the style. I was actually very "lucky" that I was in the middle of yarn twists! I was able to re-do some parts so that most twists had at least some long hair left in them. In the end, there were 2 or 3 twists that were mostly yarn. In the photo below you can see a more-yarn-than-hair twist. The circle shows where JJ's hair ended, and I matched the length to her non-cut hair. Yeah, that was a lot of length...GONE.

BUT...No one even noticed! And we had a great New Year's Eve.

JJ and Uncle E - Cheers!

The yarn twists ended up becoming an unplanned long term protective style.  I decided to leave them in because JJ loved them, but also to buy some time (hair growth time!) before figuring out how to camouflage the short hair in her next style. The twists actually stayed in for the entire month of January!

JJ is definitely not the only child to have cut her own hair. I know I've seen and heard other stories out there. Anisa from Braid With Me cut her hair twice! You can read more about Anisa's accidental hair cut here at Beads, Braids and Beyond.

How about you? Did you - or your child - ever cut your/their own hair? Please share - I love stories!!!

Thank you for reading - it has been very therapeutic for me to finally write about that fateful New Year's Eve. Check back soon for more on the our month of twists, and how we've handled the camouflage job for 2012 so far!

Sparkly Twists for New Year's Eve

This year JJ wanted a special style for New Year's Eve. She requested a  "sparkly" look. This look was initially inspired by a photo shared on Hair-Raising Adventures' Facebook wall, of Des from Girly and Curly.  In the photo, Des has some gorgeous braids with sparkly Bling String woven in.

gorgeous, hey? see more at Girly and Curly!

Although I wasn't able to find Bling String here in Canada, I happened to come across some sparkly yarn (Vanna' s Glamour™in onyx) at Michaels, and figured I could incorporate this somehow into JJ's hair. When I showed the yarn to JJ she absolutely loved it. We looked through some blog photos and decided to take the plunge and do some yarn twists, inspired by Boo's recent yarn twists at Chocolate Hair Vanilla Care.

I pretty much followed the tips detailed at Chocolate Hair Vanilla Care in this post on tips and tricks for yarn extensions. I added 3 strands of yarn per twist; folded over to make 6 strands of extra yarn thickness per twist. Volume-wise, there was more hair than yarn per twist. In terms of length, the sparkly yarn was just long enough to add some beads to the yarn ends. I was not looking to add length other than what was required to add the beads to yarn, versus hair. The sparkly effect was subtle (and kinda hard to see in photos), but was exactly what we were going for.

some stray ends visible just above beads

As you can see below, I added some flat twists on JJ's left side. She loves to wear her hair "up and over". For NYE I gathered her hair into a ponytail on the right side.

Although she is **not** smiling in the photos below (need to work on that posing, JJ!)....JJ was very pleased with the look, and it was perfect for the New Year's Eve party we attended!

There's a little bit more to this story - some drama!!! But that will have to wait for another post - stay tuned....

JJ with Uncle E shortly after midnight!!

Happy New Year everyone - All the best for 2012!!