Braids again and this time even smaller

 

I told you recently about how I don't wear braids that often, but it was so nice I had to do it twice :)  This time, I did really small braids.  My hair was loose in a big 'fro, and I just did them while watching TV.  Many people use braids, especially small ones, as a protective style for weeks.  I will only keep these in for part of the week, because I will be vending at a big hair show on St. Thomas and St. Croix next weekend and must rock my 'fro for it!  Braids are great as a protective style to cut down on manipulation of the hair.  If you keep them in for a week or two, you avoid the daily styling and the wear and tear on the hair caused by pulling on your hair, detangling it, or styling it.

 

 

 

 

 

Braids, Plaits, or Box Braids . . . What do you call them?

 I don't often wear braids and tend not to wear them when I leave the house, but yesterday I decided to plait or braid my hair and wear it braided today.  

Three-strand braids are great for stretching out your hair.  When you take them out, you can wear them as a braid out and may get a little more length showing with your hairstyle than if you just do a twist out.  My hair still shrinks some even when braided, but much, much less so than when I wear it in twists.  When I take these out for a braid out, my hair will not be in a rounded afro.  It will hang down. Many people wear braids on a regular basis without adding additional hair to make their braids look longer or thicker.  I don't add any extra hair.  I prefer a less "scalpy" look, so I just grab a portion of hair and braid it.  Some call them box braids or plaits or just braids. What do you call them?    

 

 

Double-strand twists as a protective style

 

 

Double-strand twists are a great protective style. What's a protective style?  It's one that keeps you from having to keep combing and manipulating your hair every day and allows your hair to get a rest for a period of time.  A tightly twisted double-strand twist hairstyle may last for a few weeks or a month or so. The bonus is that after you have worn your double strand twists for a few weeks or a month, you then get to do a twist-out hairstyle by undoing the twists and wearing a twist-out that you get from the nicely "set" twists.  I usually wear a twist-out for several days to a week to get more mileage from having done the twists.  There are many types of protective styles and a double-strand twist is just one of them. 

 

I did these twists using one of my products that I create for my business.  It's a body butter that doubles as a hair product and gives nice tight twists.  Click here to see the Lemongrass Body Butter that I used.  In a future post, I will explain a little bit more about how to do this style.  Have you ever tried doing protective styles?