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

Box Braid Update

Hey friends!  Hope you all still consider me a friend even though I have been neglecting you big time!  Besides trying to squeeze in every little bit of quality time possible with my kiddos now that they are home on break, we have also had a wedding, funeral, birthday, anniversary, end of school year, soccer, soccer, and more soccer going on here the last few weeks!!!!!

I have to update you on V's box braids though because she is SO in love with them, that it finally happened.  The girl asked for locs.  Yup, she did.  She was able to put two and two together and realize that all the freedom I have been allowing her with her braids was pretty much what her sisters life is like with locs.  My reply to her was, "But wouldn't you miss your puffs and other styles?  Maybe we should give it a few more years and then think about it again?"  My powers of persuasion win again, because she thought this was a brilliant idea.  Isn't it great when your kids are still young enough to think you are SO SMART!

What we did decide to do was to keep the box braids for awhile longer!  I was going to switch to a different style and then come back to the box braids later in the summer, but I had a plan that I thought would be easier and V was so pleased to keep the braids!

I just gave her hair a really thorough washing with the first set of braids in.  Then I took out the braids a few at a time and put them back in.  I took out a few at a time because I was making them a little bit smaller this time.  So in some places where I had 2 braids, I put in 3.  Or where there were 4 braids I put in 5.  In some spots where there were really large braids I just split them in half.  But when I did this I made triangle parts this time.  Just to change things up!

The last set of braids we had in for 4 1/2 weeks.  I am hoping since these are a bit smaller I can stretch them out for 5 or 6 weeks.  At the end of the life of the braids when they are looking super fuzzy, I just keep them in french braids or pigtails and they are fine!

Here are a few pics of how we have styled the braids:

Half up French Braid

Two French Braids

With Bangs

Wavy Pig Tails (from the French Braids)

Two Cornrows into a Ponytail

Bangs only on one side

Those were all from the first set of braids.  These are the newer braids.  They have been in for almost a week now.  Last night she rinsed them in the shower and afterwards when they were wet we put them into 5 big braids to make them wavy.  From the pics it looks kind of sparse (especially in comparison to B's full locs) but in person this looks darling!  

I have a few other posts in my brain waiting to be written.  But I am making time with the kids my number 1 priority this summer!  Last summer I was going to school and I barely saw my family.  NOT GONNA HAPPEN this year!  So, please be patient.  If you don't hear from me for a bit, just know we are having a good time!

Katie