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

Back to School 2011 - B's Hair

Nothing really new or impressive here, but I think it looks really cute and the best part of this kind of style on B is that it keeps the locs OUT OF HER FACE!  Kids- I'm telling ya!  Why on earth would you want to walk around and talk to people with hair hanging in your face????











All we did for this style was put in 7 cornrows from front to back:

 These cornrows on their own turned out pretty cute and we might do a variation on this for a style sometime, but it wasn't quite the look we were going for on a special day.

So, she washed her hair in the morning and I put in these rows.  She wore them all day and night and I took them out (half way) the next morning to get the wavy locs!

At the point where I stopped taking out the cornrows I used 2 of her locs to tie off the braids so they wouldn't unravel.  You can't even see them!  Then we added the pretty butterfly headband - EASY!

The style looked just as adorable on day two without the headband.  And as a bonus we didn't need to wrestle with her bangs to get them out of her face for soccer practice - we didn't even put in a ponytail, she just wore it like this and it was perfect!

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

Not Always Picture Perfect

Today's post is to let you all know that HAIR is NOT ALWAYS PICTURE PERFECT IN THIS HOUSE!  You all get the benefit of seeing freshly done styles, but the reality is that that only lasts so long.  And I am the queen of stretching a style.  It took me years to get comfortable with the idea, but fuzzy hairstyles are no longer my worst enemy.  I surely have occasions when I want my kids to look their best.  And I also have my moments where I find myself suddenly wishing my girls were looking a bit tidier - eek!  But for the most part, I have learned to let go of obsessively caring about what other people were thinking about my kids hair.  It's a good feeling.

So after 5 1/2 weeks with V's second set of box braids I decided to take them out because it was one of those moments where I wanted her looking her best.  We spent last weekend in Illinois visiting with family that we only see every couple of years.  I needed to do something simple due to time restraints so I went with an old favorite, 8 large cornrows into a ponytail.  Click the link to see the last time this style made a blog appearance.  The difference this time is that I wanted to show off Miss V's big beautiful puff!  So instead of braiding or twisting to the ends I only braided up to the ponytail and than banded off each cornrow.  Which I then gathered into one ponytail holder for a GIANT puff!  Gorgeous!  This is a picture perfect moment.

Our second day in Illinois was a beach day.  I was not keen on the idea of this much free hair playing at the beach.  That is why I banded off each cornrow individually.  It made it easy for me to go back and continue each cornrow into a hanging braid.  It was a pretty fast process and looked cute.  Also fun to be able to sort of show off 2 different styles in one weekend.

Now for the not so pretty part.  These bigger cornrows are only meant to last a week - TOPS!  V was pretty rough on them over the weekend, I had her wear a swim cap at the beach because I still have fears of sand and seaweed, but unfortunately I think putting the cap on and off can mess the hair up a bit.  Then she had swimming lessons on Monday, where we have NOT been using caps.  I am proud to say I am no longer afraid of water!  On top of all that I have been super sick the last few days and she has not been getting her hair sprayed daily.  So this is how V looks after a week of all that....

Thank goodness I am feeling better.  Looks like tomorrow will be hair day.

Katie

Update! Update! -Reverse Sun Ray

I am SO EXCITED!

You know how those lopsided pigtails from our latest style were bugging me...

Yeah, I was only able to put up with them for 2 days!  I was kind of bummed to just throw them into a ponytail because I though it would loose all of its originality.  So, I took the pony holders out and I just started cornrowing the twists together (like I have done in a lot of previous styles).  But because of the placement of the cornrows, as I worked form the right side to the left, everything started curving almost into a circle!  It was starting to form a bun without me even trying!  So after all of the twists were incorporated into the ONE cornrow, I braided them all the way to the end.  Then I just brought the end around and tucked it up under to form a circle.  I used a couple bobby pins to hold it firmly.

I absolutely love it!  Since the ends were in twists instead of braids, it gives a whole different look when you cornrow them together!  And I think this is the cutest bun!  All of the cornrows sort of swirl into the middle!!!

I added the white ribbon (I know I need to buy some other colors of ribbons!)  I just wrapped the ribbon around the bun, but I ran it under the one part of the cornrow on the right side.

This is not at all what I had originally had in mind when I started this style, but I am SOOOO loving it!  I like buns, they have such a princess/ballerina look about them.

On a side note, I LOVE seeing all of the beautiful pictures of hairstyles you mamas have been posting on our facebook group!  Keep them coming!

Katie

Sun Rays

Maybe my craving for Summer and Sunshine led to my choosing this cornrow pattern, but I have always liked the look of this one, and I haven't done it in awhile.  I am hoping even though V's hair has been giving me some trouble lately that this will last us 3 solid weeks, because I will not be doing any more hair until after we are all moved in to our new place!

I don't have any step by step instructions for you.  This is a pretty basic style.  She has 8 cornrows going down the back.  1 Cornrow across the forehead to try to tame her bang area.  And 9 cornrows in the Sun Ray pattern on the top.  To do the Sun Ray - Just choose a starting point off center and make triangles going out from that point.

I added 3 BGP chubby beads (get yours here...they rock!) to the end of each braid.  DONE!

Katie

Quick Style

Hello everyone!  I am feeling a bit out of touch with you and I apologize for that.  I have a lot going on in my life right now that is taking up my time and energy and I have neglected you :(  We are going to be moving in a few weeks and it is a bit of an unexpected move so bear with me as I continue to be infrequent with my posts for awhile.

V's valentine style didn't hold up very well.  I am not sure if it is the winter time or what it is, but I only had it in for 3 weeks and MAN was it looking ROUGH this whole last week!  They were pretty small sized cornrows on top so I don't really have a good idea why the style didn't hold up as nicely as usual, but I decided to go with a one-week style this time around.  Probably a mistake when I am going to be so busy packing the next few weeks and I will need to redo her hair next weekend, but oh well!

Someone on the facebook page mentioned this style idea.  It was a little while back and I don't remember who said it, but she said she had gotten the idea from a little girl on Sesame Street.  I don't know if my interpretation of her written explanation is accurate or not, but I think it turned out cute and it was pretty quick and easy!

Cute right?

Step 1)  Part hair into 4 sections.  I did this the night before after I washed her hair.

Step 2)  Take the front right section and put in 3 cornrows.

Step 3)  Use the 3 cornrows as the beginning 3 strands of a french braid.  French braid all of the hair from the bottom half of the right side.

Step 4) Repeat on the Left!

I put two ballies on the bottom for extra bling!

Do you se that little dragon V is holding.  That is Spike, the class dragon.  He is visiting our home for the weekend.  Now he can say he made an appearance on our blog!

Crossing my fingers this style will hold up all week.  I'm not so sure about the back part!

Katie

Valentine Hair!

Well here it is!  The Valentine Style!  I have to admit (keeping in mind that I am overly critical of myself) that it didn't come out quite as cute as my mental picture of it - but I am still pleased.  This was my first time braiding yarn into a cornrow and I think it might take a few more attempts to work out the kinks.  As you can see, the yarn kept wanting to hid in the hair, but I wanted it to be much more prominent on the heart.

I think I made the heart a little too big, and yes it looks really lopsided from this angle, but you can't really tell from other angels.  I still love the idea, I wanted a pink yarn heart on top with a ponytail of pink yarn and beads in back.  I just think with a few tweaks, it could have been even better.  Maybe next year...

So here is my step by step:

1) Make an ear to ear part to separate the top of the head from the back of the head.

2) Part off the outside line of the heart shape.

3) Make twist bangs in the front and put cornrows on the sides over the ears with the hair that was left after you made the heart parts. (I did this the night before after I washed her hair)

4) Part off the inside line of your heart so that you now have your section of hair that you will cornrow.

*** 5) This is how I did the heart, but I am not yet sure this was the best method - Starting on the right side of my center part I took a small section of hair to begin the cornrow.  But instead of splitting it into 3 pieces, I laid a piece of yarn (folded in half) under the hair and used the two sides of yarn as two of the strands and the section of hair as the third strand of my braid.  I began cornrowing as usual.  About half way through the cornrow I added another piece of yarn because I wanted more pink.  Too add in the yarn I just laid it across the braid and added one side to the hair on the right and one side to the hair on the left.***

6) Repeat on the left, braiding all the way to the ends of the hair - and beyond, as I made my yarn longer than her hair.

7) I decided to make a split cornrow in the middle of the heart, but I am not sure I like it.  I did not add yarn to these cornrows because I wanted the heart to really stand out.  But when I got to the end of the cornrowed hair, I added two pieces of yarn to the hanging part of the braid.

8) Then I added three more cornrows on either side of the middle one.  Also adding yarn to the hanging part of the braid.

9) Then I put 7 cornrows going up the back and meeting at the center for a ponytail.  Continuing to add yarn to the hanging parts of the braids.

10) I finished off all of the braids by adding a hodgepodge of pink beads to them and tying off the yarn in a knot.  Then I cut the extra yarn off below the knot.  This is such a fast and easy way to end braids!  (can we also talk about how un-characteristic it is for me to not have any kind of pattern or structure to my beads?  It nearly killed me, but I was trying to do something different and more free form.)

Overall, I am pleased with this style.  Miss V.  L-O-V-E-S it and that is all that really matters.  She said it was her favorite style EVER.  I didn't mention to her that I wasn't perfectly pleased with the outcome.  Why would I?!?!

Next weekend I plan to do something fun with the yarn for B's hair.  If you are doing any V day styles - PLEASE post pictures on the facebook page.  We LOVE to see your creativity too!

Katie