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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Little Hair Style Recipient!

I had another small, sweet, curly haired visitor a few weeks ago.  We will refer to her as Little M.  She is 3 going on 4 and just a little doll!  It seems I am branching out from hair blogger to hair stylist, and it is SO much fun!  If you recall I did Little C's hair a few months ago.


Little M has big loose curls, very different from any hair I have worked on before.  So I am learning as I go here.  Little M is adopted like my girls and similarly has a white momma who had little experience with curly hair prior to becoming her mom.  The difference is that Little M's curls are pretty easy to care for even for someone with little experience.  To this point they had stuck to ponytails and french braids without a huge need for learning to cornrow or do other protective styles.  Until recently when they began to tire of the constant ponytail (M doesn't like wearing her poofy hair down, and it becomes quite messy and tangled if she does) so a mutual friend made the connection for Momma Kara and I.



After looking through my blog, Momma Kara decided she liked the versatility of box braids.  So that was the first style we would try.  I put one cornrow in the front and then Kara and I worked on the braids together.  This style is something that Kara will be able to duplicate on her own, but just needed to be pointed in the right direction.  As we worked I gave her some tips and tricks to doing protective styles and keeping M's GORGEOUS curls healthy.  I am not sure she needs help with that though, because M's hair is already long and beautiful!  I also showed her a few blogs of kids with looser curls that she could gain some inspiration from.  It is so fun for me to help inspire a mom in person and get my hands into some sweet little girl hair!


By the way, you would never know that this was the first time M had her hair done.  We worked for at least 3 hours to braid and bead her hair and she sat as still as a statue!

I learned something really interesting from this experience too.  I am not sure if this is true on all hair types but it was certainly the case with Little M's looser curls.  When I do hanging braids I braid pretty tightly, and I don't mean near the scalp - although I do make that as snug as I can, but I mean that each stitch of the braid is very close to the next, I have many many stitches per braid.  Kara was braiding a lot looser than I was, fewer stitches per braid.  On her side of the head, M's individual braids were making big loopy, curls as though they had been curled with soft spikes!  On my side, the braids pretty much just hung straight down.  They were more stiff.  Neither way was wrong, or bad, just different.  The curly braids were actually super cute!  But we ended up putting beads on the braids and that weighed them down and took a lot of the curl out.


You can see on the right some of the braids curling up a bit!

Since I am new to the loose curls I was unsure of how long these braids would hold up for Little M.  I have heard from Momma Kara, and they easily lasted a week!  The whole family was thrilled with M's new look and her little straight haired sister wanted in on the fun!  So both girls ended up with beads and new sleep caps!



What a GREAT experience!  I can't wait to do M's hair again!  Who's next????


Katie


5 comments:

  1. If you also lived in the twin cities I'd say "Me me! I'm next! Please give me some more ideas for my little miss!!". Thanks for all the ideas and insight on your blog! My comment is actually a question. What would you recommend for a sleep cap for a 2.5 year old? We can't seem to find something that works.
    Thanks!

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  2. @Michelle - oh man I wish I had a good answer. My friend used to sell the most wonderful caps but sadly, not anymore! I am not sure what kind of caps Mamma Kara picked up but she got them from a local beauty supply store.

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  3. @ Michelle. I have used an old pair of tights that were too small for my little one to wear. It has worked pretty well for us the downside is you can't use the same pair too many nights in a row without washing to shrink them back up. all i did though was put the tights on her head, tie the legs together in a knot twice and cut the rest of the tight legs off.

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  4. @ Michelle, I really love the snugcap from Maverick wear for my two year-old daughter. It's a bonnet style cap that comes in silk or satin and has adjustable ties and it stays on well and fits her head perfectly. I also really love the sleep caps from Africa Sleeps. They are similar to a swim caps and stay on all night. The owner is an adoptive mom in Canada, but her shipping was really fast. Pretty Antoinette also has a nice adjustable silk bonnet for girls, but it was a little too big for my daughter right now, so we will save it for when she gets a little bigger.

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  5. @CrystalHi Crystal, Maverick Wear thanks you for the shout out! We are designing a cap specifically for toddlers. Connect with us on facebook Sleep Pretty. Michele G.

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