Woven Cornrows and The Braided Crown

Do you remember this style?

I named it the Braided Crown.  I love it!  It was gorgeous with this puff.

But after a few days with the puff (you know I never keep a puff for long!) I needed something else to do with the center of her hair.

So I did this.

And I thought it was boring.
















Well a few months ago, a friend of mine posted a pic of her daughter with the cutest style!
This is little V!  Cute girl, cute style! (my friend got this idea from the blog: chocolate hair vanilla care)

This style is different than my braided crown because it is only braided from the middle of the head out and than the crown is made with the ends of the braids.  For my crown, the hair is braided from the hairline going in. (opposite)  BUT this gave me a great idea!  IF I did this in the center of my braided crown than I could braid together the braids going from the hairline IN along with these braids that are going from the inside OUT!  

It was a fab idea!  I never did it though.  

Why?  

Because I got a different idea on the fabulous Tweeny hair blog!  WOVEN CORNROWS!!!!  So cool!  And beautifully done.  I have to admit my first attempt isn't as pretty as Rae's.  And of course, I made a demo video on my first attempt.  Plus my hubby was out of town so Miss B and I were doing the filming.  All together, it probably makes one of the worst videos I have ever done.  But, I think if you are an experienced hair braider you will get the idea :)  

And if you don't.  Well, just go read Rae's instructions!

As is typical with me, I didn't like the style as much once I did it as I did when I was imagining it.  Oh well.  It did work really well with her angel costume for Halloween!

And a few days after that I changed it up a bit by braiding the crown starting at the front, left side of her head.  One braid went around the front, the other around the back, and they met up at the bottom, right side.  We made a little bun there.  I liked this look better.

And here is the video....

Katie

How to do a Twist-Out

I have another video for you all!

After I posted a pic on facebook of V's Twist-Out I had a few questions from people about how to do a Twist-Out....so this is for you!

In the video I do not really talk about the longevity of a Twist-Out, so let me address that here.

In our experience we have never had V wear a Twist-Out for more than a day. Often we will take out a hairstyle the day before we plan to wash her hair and restyle it, so the Twist-Out is just sort of the first step in that process - her hair looks cute and we are getting a jump start on hair day!

V's Twist Out at the end of a long day.  Much less defined than when we first took them out as you can see in the video.

Because we don't use a lot of gel in our styles and I don't use any kind of setting or curling cream her Twist-Out's loose definition by the end of the first day. Each of the little sections start to puff out and expand. We also don't take any special care to preserve the style over night, other than the sleep cap she always wears. BUT if you wanted to try to preserve a Twist-Out you could either loosely band the hair in sections of maybe very loosely braid the hair in big sections over night, and don't forget a sleep cap or scarf! The next day you can than either lightly spritz and scrunch the hair, or put a bit of oil on your fingers and run it over the curls.

As the Twist-Out looses definition it will start to look more like a chunky afro which is also a really cute look and fun style! So I would say you could go with a Twist-Out for several days to a week, just realize it is going to loose definition and change it's look as time goes by.

Unfortunately, when Miss V wears styles like this she tends to get a lot of attention that she seems uncomfortable with. She is used to people commenting and raving over her beautiful hair, and when she wears big puffs she gets a lot of attention too, all of which she enjoys. But for some reason the Twist-Out (which is usually pretty big and fluffy) seems to elicit stupid comments like, "wow, look at your crazy hair" or "wild hair" "or something similarly negative in feeling no matter how nicely a person seems to say it. So I think if we ever do a Twist-Out for more than one day, we would pull it back into pigtails or something.

This is V's hair after a Braid-Out.  I guess it is big and wild, but Adorable!

Have a LOVELY day!

Katie

Fun idea - Headbands from Hair Things!!!

Hello friends!

I was sitting on the couch the other night, not even playing with hair things, and suddenly this image popped into my head!  What if I looped hair elastics together to form a headband?  So I went and tried it...and it worked!

I went to bed that night, and my mind started turning and I started thinking of other hair accessories I could use to decorate my little headbands.

Then when I pulled out all of our extensive collection of hair dodads (wow there is a lot of it!) I got this idea to use barrettes to secure the two ends of the headband and avoid the little "tail" I was getting.

Which then led me to this whole new idea for how to make a headband with hair elastics AND barrettes without needing to loop them together!

If you aren't quite sure how I did this by looking at the pics - have no fear!  I filmed a ridiculously long video to explain a very simple concept!  Check it out.  At least little E is in it, and she is fun to look at.

What do you think?  Fun?  Are you going to try it?  Can you add to my ideas?  Please post pics on our facebook page of what you come up with!

Katie

We LOVE locs!

B and I (and Camera Guy of course) made a quick little video about one of the reasons I am jealous of her locs!  This isn't novel stuff but maybe you just never thought of doing it before.  Check it out:



Katie

Back to School 2011 - V's Hair

We seem to have fallen into a pattern of giving V yarn braids every fall.  She did not have them for the first day of school last year, but we did them shortly after.  I really only like to do yarn braids once a year for several reasons.  1) they take a long time to put in 2) I leave them in a long time -which is both awesome and boring 3) I just like variety so once a year makes it exciting every time she gets them!  

This year I decided to basically repeat the fall inspired colors I did last year because I REALLY loved that style, but I HAD to make some changes.  I NEVER do any style exactly the same way twice!  I will be referring to last years braids all the way through, and I won't be explaining much about how I did the style so you should check last years post before reading this one!

Change 1-  I added Red yarn.  I was going to use this last year but thought it was too bright.  This year I was ok with it!  So we had black, brown, burgundy and red.

Change 2 - No beads.  The beads were great last year, but again I like change, and it is easier to get the hair into ponytails and other styles without a clump of beads on the ends.

Change 3 - I went for longer braids.  These are the longest we have ever done.

Change 4 -We did a layered look instead of a blunt cut look.  I usually try to have all braids the same length at the bottom, so for a change I tried layers.  I am not sure it is as cool looking as I envisioned, but to achieve this look I just made the bottom rows really long and then with the rows after that I made them a bit shorter each time.

Change 5 - We did piggy back braids on top.  Last year we had criss cross cornrows.  Again, I will leave these in for a few weeks and then take them out and put more yarn braids on top while leaving the back as it is.

Change 6 - I also kind of changed the pattern in which I put in the different colors of yarn.  This time I did the colors row by row from the bottom up.  I did two black rows on the bottom and than did a burgundy row, a brown row, a red row, and back to black etc.

I think that covers all the changes.  I made some little braided yarn pieces to use as hair accessories on the pigtails.  I kind of liked them, but I got sick of them and took them out after a few days.

Lastly, if you don't know how to do piggy back braid, here is one of our original videos on how to do them!  They are a great alternative for those who can't do cornrows.  Notice that B is the hair model in this video - before locs!

Katie

Skip a Step

Since V only wore the 8 large cornrows for a week, I decided to skip a step with her next style and recycle those parts.  I was not yet sick of the style, it just had to be redone because it was such a mess.  So I kept it simple and just doubled the amount of braids going into the ponytail!

I have been avoiding beads this summer.  Trying to really rest her ends and gets some growth.

The 4 cornrows going up the back of her head became 8.  Similarly the 4 cornrows in the front became 8. The difference being that for every 1 cornrow I replaced it with a set of Criss-Crossing cornrows.  Well, Crissing cornrows I suppose, they don't actually Criss and then Cross.  (It's ok if you don't think I am funny.)  

The other change I made was that I took the 1 cornrow from her bang area and split it into two.  I had these two cornrows continue back into the criss-crossing ones behind it.  

If you would like to watch an OLD video of ours with the instructions on how to do Criss-Cross Cornrows, Go For It!  Miss V was quite little when we made this video and I think it is the one where she has a cold and makes a bunch of gross nosies for your listening pleasure.  This is also the one where I don't realize I was in my pajamas until I was uploading it to youtube.  Good Times.  

Katie

Hair Wrapping with Embroidery Floss

Oh you guys - I am so excited about this!

It is EASY, EASY, EASY!  I have seen this done since I was a kid, but somehow I never knew that it was so simple to do.  I am even more excited to tell you that it is even EASIER to do on locs than on straight or loose hair because you can skip the first few steps of the process!  Just look how cute this looks with B's locs!

Not only is it easy, but it requires very few materials, is inexpensive and doesn't take too long to do!  It doesn't get much better than that!  This technique can be done on ANY hair type and on just about any length of hair.  As long as the hair is long enough to get a braid in, you can do this.

Little E - Little Braid

Cousin G

We wrapped V's box braid!

I have to give a shout out to our special guest, my niece, who helped us out with this video - Thanks G!  And Thanks to my sister who filled in as Camera Girl too!  I also can't neglect to give credit where it is due.  A friend of mine posted the written instructions for hair wrapping earlier this week on her cute blog, Practical Praise, and now I am obsessed!

The video explains it all.  So enjoy!



If you try this - PLEASE send us your pics or put them on our facebook page!!!!

Katie

How the Girls Move

Hello everyone! Wow have things been nuts for me lately. I am on a committee at church that is responsible for social service work for the kids, PLUS the church kid's worship service decided to raise money for Haiti this year so I have been kind of heading that up. It's really rewarding though, you can read our blog about it....we have raised $3346 so far, and we have till the end of June to maybe even get to $4000! If you want to donate a buck or two while you are there, click on the red heart in the sidebar! :)

So annnyyyyway, over at the Yahoo Adoption Hair and Skin Care Group, we were talking about relaxers and texturizers, a subject that gets brought up now and then. Some folks do, some don't,  some are considering, some get talked out of it, some want to know the difference between the two, and what it all means for our kids' hair. As usual, I chime in with "hey, locs are a great alternative to relaxing if the issue is a child who hates having hair combed, or if you are a family constantly in a time crunch, or just want a more free type of hairstyle." That is more or less my usual spiel. I love G's locs and I LOVE LOVE that I never had to relax her hair but yet we still have such an easier time with her hair, and it's much more flexible and less time-consuming. And no combing, of course!

So we were at the dog park today kicking around the soccer ball, and I grabbed my iPhone and took a quick video of her being silly with me, just so you can see how locs move and behave, in case you are considering them. Hers are more or less microlocs, I'd say the fattest one she has is still smaller than the diameter of a pencil. She has had them for almost 3 years, and I installed and maintain them myself. I took this video today because her locs are just flyin' free, she has nothing in them at all. This is just "her girls" being themselves.

And yeah, we roughhouse a lot! She thinks it's hysterical when instead of playing "clean" I just grab her arm and spin her out of the way or bump her to the ground in order to get the ball. :) She's fun!

Oh and we had a great laugh later when I pointed out that I said something dumb....."Hey, there's no kicking in soccer!" She got major mileage out of that one....

Tidbit Tuesday - Introducing "KAERO"

DID YOU KNOW???

That my cousin Kevin (aka KAERO) is about to make it big in the music business? He writes his own pop/dance songs with a killer beat. This is his first big video gig, BOOM!, and G knows the song by heart and inserts her own moves. I guarantee you will be up and dancing around!

He has a facebook page....come and "like" him!  He is also performing in the Sacramento and Los Angeles areas. You can listen to some of his other music on his official myspace music page

One disclaimer....he does use the word "ass"....as in dancin' and shakin'. G knows that we wouldn't say that word in polite company so when she listens to it she says "hips." The song is so fun and hey, it's family....so we just shrug and shake it anyway. He did record an audio version of the song and just sent it to me....with "butt" instead of "ass". You can download it here.

So Moms, get up and prepare to shake it like you mean it!

 ENJOY!!!

Gideon!

I don't know what else to title this post.  I know I haven't had much new hair inspiration to post about during the holidays, and todays post has NOTHING to do with hair.  In fact, kind of funny, my little friend Gideon doesn't really even have hair right now.  But he did once.  Adorable little three year old boy curls, in fact!  Sadly though, Gideon is undergoing chemo treatments to fight leukemia and he has now lost his precious curls.  The good news is, they will be back some day!  Because Gideon is a fighter, and his story is SO inspiring.

I have never given blood before.  Not for any particular reason, just haven't.  I am not afraid of needles, and I don't feel particularly attached to my blood that I have a reason to not share it with others.  Ever since hearing about how important Gideon's blood transfusions are, I have been wanting to go give blood.  But still, I haven't.  Life is busy, right?  I don't even know where to go?  Well, Gideon's AMAZING mom, and also, fantastic blogger, posted this video today to remind us all to go give blood.

PLEASE watch it!  You will surly be touched by his story.  And to read more about Gideon, check out his mom's blog.  You won't be sorry.



I have found in recent months that one of the key things to contentment in life is to be Thankful in ALL Circumstances.  It is part of my New Years Resolution, to not forget this.  I am well on my way.  Ever since Gideon's diagnosis last June I have been reading his mom's blog a few times a week.  The way they have tackled Leukemia head on has been truly inspiring, but it has also been a big reminder for me.  No matter what is going on in my life, there is someone out there going through something worse, harder, more painful. And Gideon's family is going through one of the most excruciating things I can imagine, but with so much Grace.  If they can do that in the face of cancer, than I can do it in the face of my trials and tribulations!  I know God is by my side and he will take all things in my life, the good, the bad and the ugly and turn them into beauty!

Thank you Amanda!  You and Gideon and Brody and Tom truly ARE a God sent inspiration for my life.  And I WILL be going to donate blood soon.  I mean it.  Ask me next week :)

Katie

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

Steph, Katie and the kids would like to wish you ALL a
VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!


We also want to say thank you to all of our loyal readers and faithful fans.  You have made the launch and running of this blog for the last 6 months so much fun!  We have enjoyed getting to know you, we have loved the ideas you have shared, and we have been blessed by your kind comments.

Our prayer is that this Christmas you will be surrounded by the love of your family and have plenty of time to stop and enjoy some special moments with your precious children.

Lastly, the kids themselves wanted to get in on sending you some Christmas love, so here they are:

Katie & Steph

Tidbit Tuesday

Did You Know???????

What position we sit in to braid cornrows up the back of V's head?  Well, I am sure many of you have figured out good ways to do this, maybe you even have a better technique than I do!  But I have been asked this question many times, so I finally made a video to demonstrate!



V actually HATES it when I braid up the back.  Mostly because she doesn't want to peel her eyes away from the TV but also because it can be slightly uncomfortable.  Even so, she is used to it and with a slight grumble here and there she puts up with it pretty well.  This is probably because I generally don't put up with much complaining when it comes to hair time.  (here comes some un-asked-for parenting advice - oooOOOooo, it's like a double tidbit!)

Whenever my girls get whiny about hair time my standard response is.  "I am sorry that you are getting bored (uncomfortable, whatever the complaint may be) but please don't whine about it.  I am also ready to be done with hair time, but we still have a ways to go and I really don't want to listen to complaining the whole rest of the time.  My arms and back are starting to hurt too, but we just have to remember that you are going to look SO GREAT when this is done!  So just hang in there, we can do it!"

That might sound a little harsh, but it's honest.  I try to keep hair time as positive as possible so that they don't have negative feelings toward their hair, but I am not going to sugar coat the truth.  Yes, every few weeks we have to put some long hard hours into hair time.  No, that is not always fun.  But you are always super happy with the results, so the hard work is worth it.  And after we are done you will get to go at least 3 weeks without having to worry about it!  And they get enough positive reinforcement about how amazing their hair is that I think they can handle being honest about the sort of negative parts as well.

Well, that is your double tidbit for today!  Thanks for stopping by!

Katie

The Braided Crown

Hey everyone!  After 7ish weeks it was time to take down V's yarn braids.  They held up wonderfully and we were a little sad to see them go, although excited for a new style too!  I had been holding on to this idea for months and I LOVE the way it turned out!

I am calling this "The Braided Crown" because I am not at all creative about naming hairstyles!  The video should tell you all you need to know about how to do it yourself:



Her Gorgeous Puff has held up fantastically for the last 6 days, but tonight I am going to braid it up somehow (still a bit undecided) and I'll post pictures of the style conversion in a few days.  I am getting a lot better at letting parts of her hair be free for longer lengths of time, but I think a week is about the max.  I plan on keeping the rest of the style in for another 3 weeks - until it is time for her Christmas do - so we need to put that puff into braids.

Any ideas for a Christmas style?????  I haven't really thought about it yet.  Hmmmm.........

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

DID YOU KNOW???

Today I let G handle Tidbit Tuesday. It only took us about 6 takes to get it...plus it was way past her bedtime...hence the tangents and eye-rubbing.

She wants to talk to you all about STYLE for just a minute :) And some random comment about me warning against using hot oil on the head. I don't remember saying that, but....ok...DON'T use hot oil on the head. Unless it's not-so-hot. :)



It's true! Life got MUCH easier during our adjustment time when I stopped trying to control the clothing. When she was 4+ we would have battles in the morning about her not wanting to wear what I picked out, and one day I thought "why am I doing this?" The child has clothes on either way. She is happy with her choices. Let's call it good and go from there!

Do you have a headstrong child who wants to choose his or her own fashion, even at a young age? Do you let him or her? Even if the end result makes you slap your forehead?

Tidbit Tuesday

Here is the oft-requested instructional video on how to make the Fleece Comfort Dolls that we made for Social Service Sunday at our church, which we will be sending down to the Haiti Rescue Center, where they are helping the starving and the sick transform from this:

to this:

Many apologies for the crummy video. It was midnight and I had no one to help me hold the camera. So you get some nice shots of my sweatshirt and my lap as I try to hold the camera under my chin...not to mention my cluttered living room! Hey, now....some of that stuff you see there is waiting to be donated! LOL







Hope that was clear! If you are interested in sending these dolls to the Haiti Rescue Center as well, please let me know!

What I Am Is....

Sesame Street is really coming out with some awesome empowering songs!

This is totally worth singing with your kids. Go Will.i.am!!!

Braided Yarn Ponytails

G has been asking and asking for a new ponytail and I FINALLY got to finishing it! And JUST in time for her to now have long hair so she can sing "Whip My Hair" and "whip it real hard!" See the end of the video for a sample ;-)

 

The video walks you through how to install the ponytail once you have all the yarn braids done. To create the ponytail, basically, all you do is get your favorite yarn (it's most fun when you just let your child choose the color scheme. If you don't want it to be too insanely colored, choose black or very dark brown and then let your child choose what the accent color will be), decide how long you want the ponytail to be, then cut your strands TWICE as long (you'll be doubling it over). I try to vary the lengths of the braids a bit so that it hangs like a real ponytail (which would not have all strands the exact same length), Then braid away! Six strand braids work best, I think, otherwise you'll be braiding till you fall over. Nine would be ok too, they'll be a little thicker. I put some beads on the ends for weight, then just knot the yarn below the last bead. I leave some loose yarn hanging down like real hair would be. Once the ends of the ponytail start to get a little raggy at the ends of the strands of yarn, then you have some excess to trim off.

So, just make enough braids to suit your liking, till the ponytail is as full as you want it. If you are doing a ponytail on each side, like this:

make sure you do some extra.

Remember, though, all the braids will be folded over when you install them...

I will now let the video do the rest of the talking!

What Language Is That?

I could NOT resist posting this video of G with her new favorite song....7 year old plus headphones plus Willow Smith song = "Whip My Hair" in an alien language. I got to hear this thru about 5 times. The hardest part was not jiggling the camera because I was laughing the whole time.

Ok, I admit it. After watching this, I DID kinda Whip My Hair!

I'm sure a whole lotta people have a whole lotta opinions on Willow Smith's debut video, "Whip My Hair." She's 9. If you have been living under a rock since Monday, when it came out, here it is for you:



Personally, I think the thing rocks, I've watched it about a dozen times, and it makes me want to dance and do all her little saucy moves in the mirror. And yes, I'm 41! Till now, I haven't found a catchy tune that I wanted to play over and over and over again since Beyonce's "Single Ladies." Unfortunately, I cannot in good faith share many of the lyrics of Single Ladies (at least not the video) with G. As to which dance moves I look more hysterical doing, Willow's or Beyonce's, no one will ever know, except me and the mirror!

I love that Willow is not dressed in any kind of a sexual way. She has her fashion grind goin' on, but is not wearing anything that a 9-year-old ought not wear (I'm not sure if rhinestone lip-stickers are "ought not" or just kinda eyeroll-worthy). She sings about being herself, not paying attention to the haters out there, how she's gonna keep on keepin' on, and that no one whips it like she does. Yeah I'd probably agree! The darn thing has infected my mojo and all night I couldn't wait to show it to G.

G watched it this evening and it only took about 20 seconds for G to start singing "I whip my HAIR back and forth...!" I love that she saw a girl that looked like her, that was her age, being confident and shaking her braids around, and having big fat zulu knots on the top of her head. I love that there were all different kinds of people and hair whipping around in the video. And I sure hope whatever new songs Willow comes out with to go on her first album are this fun, catchy, and appropriate. This would be a peer role model for G that I would wholeheartedly support. I think as long as Will and Jada don't allow Willow to start singing about things that are way beyond her years, and keep the videos appropriate and fun, we have a winner here.

Here is what G had to say about Whip My Hair:

It's so RADICAL! (is this word back in style??) I like how you can dance to it, and that they have crazy hair. And that you should be yourself (I told her what Willow said the song was about) and just shake 'em off, shake 'em off.... (she shakes it off like Willow)

I explained to her what "haters" are and she agreed that haters should be whipped off and shaken off like paint on your hair. She loved it when Willow's hair painted the walls, which it looked like they actually did for the video!

RADICAL!

And before we left the house she declared she wanted to watch it again tonight because it was

"...soooo BUMPY!"

Which is good, I think :)

Dad Life

This is a viral video on youtube. It's just totally funny. And awesome! It's completely un-hair related, but I guarantee you'll watch it over and over.

Let's hear it for the Dads out there!