My Bitty Braids

I shared in a previous post that I randomly started braiding my hair in small sections. I started on Thursday and finished on Saturday. That's all I can truthfully tell you about how long it took because I really didn't pay attention. I just braided here and there whenever I got free minute.

If I just had to guess I would say that it took me somewhere between 5 and 8 hours to complete it. That's pretty vague I know. When I have styles that take a while to do I rarely have time to do them in one sitting.

I did stop every few section a and snapped a few photos. These shots are not posed in any way just so you know. I was all over the place doing these things. Lol.

I've had the braids in for 3 weeks now and I LOVE them. They're so care free and cute. I had plans to do all types of different things to them but I have just enjoyed wearing them down. They're finally srtaring to look a bit old to me but I promised myself I'd leave them in for a full 4 weeks so I will. I think I'll do bantu knots on them and see how that turns out. Stay tuned for that I'll be sure to post pics.

My Dilemma Update : Braid Challenge Postponed

I planned to start my new challenge this past Monday but I failed to take into account that my children would be starting swimming lessons again so I decided to postpone this challenge for a few weeks. If things go as planned I should start the challenge on Monday July 26,2010.

My Dilemma, My Plan.

As you all may know, I have three daughters. Theirs plus mine makes four heads of hair that I'm responsible for keeping together. I have to tell you, as much as I love all things hair related, it gets quite overwhelming. Not to mention we all have different hair types so I am dealing with 4 different textures. Six if you count the three different types I have in my own head.

What you may may not know is that I work full time and homeschool my children as well. That doesn't really leave a lot of leisure time so I don't always stay on top of the hair like I should. My youngest two daughters have fine hair that is prone to frizz, so there are very few styles that will last longer than a day on them. This means doing their hair quickly, every day and spending more time, less often on my oldest daughters' hair or vice versa.

My oldest daughters' hair is very tightly coiled and very prone to tangles. When I wash her hair it is an absolute must that I detangle it while it's still wet. If for some reason I don't get a chance to detangle it then I have to rewet the head of hair before continuing.

(This is a picture of her hair texture)

Once I've detangled her hair, which usually takes about an hour, I style the hair. This usually takes at least two hours. If I'm low on time there is no quick protective style for her hair. My only choice is a puff. Her hair is too thick for anything else. The problem with that is that even though I've spent an hour detangling her hair, one day or even a few hours in a puff undoes that whole process so the next day I either have to rewet or co-wash the hair and spend the combined 3 hours detangling and styling ir or simply re-puff it and worry about the "worsening by the day" detangling situation that's happening on her head later. I usually go with the latter.

I know these long detangling sessions when I allow the puff to remain for more than a few days, cannot be good for her hair no matter how gentle I am. I haven't even gone into full detail of the trouble I sometimes get myself into with the two younger girl's hair. In short, when I'm super busy I tend to re-puff or ponytail their hair by brushing and geling the edges without detangling the length. I know, I know. It's a disaster in the making and we both pay for it later. I've also noticed the stress that all these ponytails and puffs put on the edges.

Miraculously my children are not bald and do have edges but I know I owe that to the routine deep conditionings I do weekly or bi-weekly as well as using good moisturizers on their hair consistently. Still, I want to find ways to take better care of their hair.

Now that I've shared my dilemma with you I also want to share my plan with you. I guess I should mention another small dilemma as well. This one is easy. I feel like my job could be easier if I french braided my eldest daughters hair more, but simply put, I'm not a very good french braider and I don't particularly like doing them. I'm not terrible but I could be so much better. Especially when you consider that I have three daughters.

This leads me to my plan. I have decided to create a challenge of sorts for myself. I want to begin doing weekly or bi-weekly french braid styles on my oldest daughters' hair in an effort to better protect and take care of her hair as well as to perfect braiding. I am also focusing on length retention.

I plan to chronicle this journey/challenge right here on "Coiffure". It should be fun. If any of my readers have a situation that is similar to mine feel free to join in with me and don't hesitate to share any results, progress and even pictures as I share mine with you.

Here is my plan:
-Shampoo the hair
-DC the hair with heat for at least 15 minutes.
-Blowdry the hair with a good heat protectan. (Blowdrying isn't necessary but I plan to so that the detangling process will be easier and so that her hair will be elongated.)
-Braid the hair.

I'm hoping to redo this process weekly or bi-weekly depending on the condition of her hair after the first week. One more thing; I plan to continue this process for a full 6 months. If things work out as planned I will begin this process on Monday July 12, 2010.

Stay tuned!!!

2nd Natural Anniversary!!

It was 2 years ago yesterday that I officially returned to the natural state that God created me in. So exciting! I planned to do many fun things to celebrate this day but I didn't calculate the fact that I would be out of town right up until this came so....yeah that didn't really happen. That said, it is still my anniversary and I want to atleast acknowledge it.
I initially planned to straighten my hair for a length check and even purchase some goodies for my hair. All these things never happened. Booo. I suck. Lol.
On to other things; today I just randomly picked up a small piece of my hair and started braiding it and when I looked at it I thought, "wow, this is really cute". So I decided to do my whole head, Now the thing with this is that the braids are reeeeally small so it's gonna take me forever, but I'm game, so I'll update with pictures as soon as I finish. I'm hoping to keep these in for atleast a month, washing them while I have them. It should be a good rest for my hair.