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?

 

 

 

 

Yes, it has been awhile again, but look at the hair growth !

Lots has been happening since I last blogged.  In fact, my hair product JDNatlady's Creations Moisturizing Hair Creme, which I make by hand, has taken off locally and I just got my first order from the U.S. mainland online at my Etsy shop.  As you can see from the picture, my hair has been growing a lot.  Shrinkage continues, but, hey, that's what my hair does.  I wish you could feel my hair.  I am wearing my hair product and it makes my hair feel so soft.  The crochet scarf is one of the items that I make for one of my other Etsy shops, so you can see I am staying super busy.  Hope to hang out more here and on my other blogs.   

Wow! It's been awhile but I am back!!

Hi.  I have been gone far too long and missed posting to my natural hair blog, but I am still moving forward with my natural hair journey even though I missed getting to share it part of it with you.  I celebrated my third nappiversary a few days ago and am happy with my progress.  Educating ourselves about our hair is the key to a successful natural journey.  One thing I have learned over the past three years is to avoid, as much as possible, combing my hair when it is dry.  If I don't want to use a hair spritz, my trusty spray bottle with just water is great for wetting my hair enough to comb it. I even use if when I want to seperate my strands to make big twists at night before I go to sleep.   

Loose or locs . . . all are welcome

I wear my natural hair loose (afro, shake and go, etc.) or in protective styles, but do not have locs.  Whether you wear locs, keep your hair loose, wear protective styles such as braids, or are just transitioning to natural hair, I welcome you to be part of this blog.  I will be doing interviews later so if you are interested in being interviewed, please send me an email.  Many people just want to use a screen name, so I respect that.  You will need to provide me with your photo when you respond to the questions if I have not taken a picture of you myself so that we may see your beautiful tresses.  This blog will be interactive, so please stop by often and comment on the posts so we may get a dialog going and help each other along this hair journey.

Pulling hair up into small bun. . . careful with those edges

Over time when you visit this blog, you will see that I like to wear a variety of styles.  Sometimes, I pull my hair up into a small bun like this.  This style was created by spritzing my hair with homemade leave in spray and then some distilled water when I ran out of the spray.  The style that it was in before this was a shake and go that I had done the day before, so my hair was in curls/coils.  I just dampened my hair and then stretched out my curls/coils with my fingers by holding a large section of  damp hair and then just pulling the curls/coils until they were all stretched out.  I have alot of hair, so it took about six or seven sections to get it all done.  The hair was then finger picked out into a giant 'fro.  I used a hair brush and gently brushed my damp hair up into a small bun and took a large elastic that I usually use for big afro puffs by wrapping it once around and wrapped it three times around the small bun.  This was done so that the hair was not pulled to tightly, which is not good for those edges.  I then used a little Kinky Curly Gloss Pomade on the smooth, brushed parts and finished it off with a little clear Eco Styler styling gel. 

Here is a picture of the products and tools that I used.