Corn Roll Twists

This style was another one of my loves! I was inspired by all the styles I was seeing online with the braid and twist combo. I decided to give it a try. I started off with freshly washed and moisturized hair. I then banded her hair overnight with leave in and oil. Banding the hair stretches out the natural curl pattern without using any kind of heat. I then made a part towards the top of her head that went ear to ear. After tying off the top I made another part going side to side towards the bottom of her head. I then corn rolled the bottom layer. As soon as the hair lifted off her head I began a two strand twist. I repeated these steps for the top layer of braids. Working with the top section of hair I made a slanted part and french braided each side going towards the ear. At the point the hair lifted off the head I began my two strand twist. I then gathered each side into a ponytail loosely with a black rubber band.

Each day we moisturized with a home made daily spray. I am still playing around the ingredients and will share as soon as I find one I am satisfied with. Has anyone ever made a home made daily spray? Were you happy with the results? What did you use?

Around day 5 we started having tons of frizz so I decided to attempt a twist out with this style. It was not as moisturized and defined as I would have liked it to be but, it pushed us through two more days until wash day!

Braided Mohawk Twists

This by far was one of my favorite styles doing on her! Well, this and the heart braids. See that post here. This was our style for week 3 of the protective style challenge. I had been seeing so many BEAUTIFUL pictures of these babies with mo-hawks! I loved them and knew I wanted to try one.

After doing our regular wash and condition routine I banded her hair overnight with leave in conditioner and olive oil to seal. This is what her hair looks like after banding. It stretches out her natural curl pattern and for us makes it easier to manage.

For this style I parted off a front section to create a bang. I then made an off center part straight down the middle of her head because I wanted it to be a side mo-hawk. I braided each side towards the part and then two strand twisted her hair to the tip. I used no rubber bands. The product we used to achieve this was a oil/Shea butter mixture.

Again, with this style we got lots of frizz by mid week. I took all the twists and braided them into one french braid. It always looks cute when you decorate their hair! In this picture she has a flower clipped in the back.

Box Braids w Corn Roll Bang

We began by washing Baby KD with a sulfate free shampoo. Right now the one we are using is the Aveeno brand. I then conditioned with Hello Hydration by Herbal Essence. I usually like the way her styles come out when I band. But, because we were going into a simple corn roll/box braid, I skipped the banding process.

After her hair was washed and conditioned I used Knot Today as a leave in. In the past I raved of Knot Today but this time around it seemed a bit thin for her hair. I go back and forth on leave in conditioners so, I will give this one a few more chances. What is your favorite leave in conditioner?

I started off by sectioning a front bang and a portion of the side to go back. After tying off those pieces I began to part squares and do medium size box braids. To do this style I used a Shea butter mixture. I bought 100% Shea butter at my local beauty supply.  To that I added Knot Today leave in and argon oil. I then used my kitchen hand mixture to blend it up. It came out a nice consistency that was able to glide onto her hair. I will in the near future create a post on how I do our Shea butter mixes.

After finishing all of the box braids I corn rolled the front into a bang and the side straight back to keep it out her face. This was a very quick style and it lasted a week.

I am learning to enjoy bows and headbands. I have always been a huge fan of beads! The protective style challenge got me used to skipping the rubber bands and beads which in return her hair is thanking me.

Mini Twist Experience

Wow! It has been awhile since I posted anything. I have luckily been keeping up with our hair care and taking pictures. I am going to re-cap some of the styles I have been doing since the protective style challenge we participated in for 5 weeks.

I have to say...I am in love with protective styling! I learned so much threw the challenge from all the other participants. It was a great way to share ideas and gain some knowledge!  Just when you think you've researched it all, you learn something new.  Our first style stayed in for two weeks because, we actually put the mini twists in a week before the challenge started.

These twists held up pretty good. If you would like to see the steps I took to achieve this style please see here.  Each day I moisturized with Bee Mine daily spray. We got frizz really quick which is not uncommon for her hair.  Please share what you do to combat frizz!

Each night she slept on a satin pillow case. Some nights I would pull in a bun to stretch and some nights I just let the twists be free. Her hair seemed to like the freedom of the twists.

In the end we did have a problem. Her hair was stuck together at the roots when I tried to take the twists down. I heard other people talk about the hair locking up. I think this is what happened. So, in the end we had more shredding than I was comfortable with and it seemed like it took a long time to completely de-tangle her hair.

Has anyone ever had this problem? What did you do to overcome it?

Stretched twists

Last night I pulled all of the twists into a bun before KD went to sleep. This morning I took the bun down and used Bee Mine juicy spray throughout her hair.  That is a really great method! This morning when she woke up her twists were stretched pretty good compared to yesterday. You can check out her twists before being stretched here.   We will be doing this as our night routine the next few nights.  At the end of the first week I will be sharing our day/night routine for the mini twists.

Mini Twists

We have officially started the challenge for BBB! So excited. There are so many participants. It is beautiful to see all these parents striving to take good care of their children's hair. I have already learned a few things over the last few days just reading the Facebook posts.

This is our third day with the twists. Baby KD has tons of shrinkage. They do seem to be frizzing up a little already. I think I will just try to work around the frizz for once and leave them in for an entire two weeks!

So far we have been using Bee Mine juicy spray daily and on her ends the Bee Mine moisturizer.  I do plan on getting some coconut oil and adding that into the routine.

Tonight we are trying out an idea I read on BBB facebook page. The person had shared that she pulls her daughters hair in a bun before bed to give her twists stretch. I thought hmmm...that is a wonderful idea! So tonight I used an ouch less band and we shall see.  (Pic is in right hand corner) I will do a short post tomorrow to share how it turned out. 

Mini Twists

For the next month we will be doing a protective styling challenge from beads braids and beyond . A protective style is a style that will allow low manipulation and without beads, barrettes or rubber bands on the ends. I chose our protective style to be mini twists.  I am so excited for this to be our first one! I usually don't expect a style to last more than one week on Baby KD. She gets a ton of frizz quick and frizz is my enemy. I know some people are able to keep pushing threw and learn to embrace the frizz. For some reason I have not reached that point. When I see frizz I am ready to take the style down. I will try to work on this issue in my mind..lol.

Also for the next month I am going to primarily focus this blog on Baby KD and the maintenance of her twists. I will also take this time to do some product reviews. Teen K is so opposed to taking pictures (for me anyway, she snaps a thousand of herself with her phone). I have to hunt her down just to get a shot of her TWA growing out. So, I will give her updates of growth and products once a month. I will also be doing the same with my hair. I am at a standstill and still searching for what works for my hair and will give monthly updates. 

So, for the challenge I put in mini twists. I went as small as my patience would allow me to go! This is how we achieved this style:

MINI TWISTS

1. we washed hair with a sulfate free shampoo (Aveeno brand)

2. conditioned with Garnier Fructis

3. leave in was applied also Garnier Fructis

4. hair was banded in six sections using Bee Mine luscious moisturizer

5. I let her hair dry banded overnight

6. The next day I took down one section and parted it in four square sections

7. I worked on 1 squares grabbing a small section, adding Bee Mine curly butter and twisting

This style took about four hours. Of course we had many breaks in between. For us this was one of the styles that you have to be prepared to dedicate a whole day to. I do love the finished product. It is a bunch of small soft twists that can be styled in a number of ways.

I will be coming up with a maintenance routine and will share what worked for us. Stay tuned! Also, don't forget to check back for product reviews!

Two Strand Twist

OK, I love the twist again! So happy to have a hold on her hair. I have been feeling like her hair was a bit dryer than usual. This is the routine and product I used to achieve this look:

Two Strand Twist:
1.  ran extra virgin olive oil threw hair and massaged it in
2.  washed hair with Aveeno sulfate free shampoo
3. conditioned with hello hydation by Herbal Essence
4. I ring hair out instead of towel drying, finger De-tangled
5. Banded hair in 4 sections

This style was left in overnight to dry. She sleeps on a satin pillow case because I still have not found a sleep scarf or cap that will stay on her head. I band because it stretches her hair without the heat and stops her styles from rolling up. Her hair is so tightly coiled that when not banded twists and braids tend to curl up. So, it just depends on the look I am going for.

6. The next morning I took down her hair, parted in four sections and began doing two strand twists with a pure Shea butter/jojoba oil mixture and a dab of Eco Styler olive oil gel.

I expect this style to stay up for one week. Daily I will moisturize. I am still trying to find a good daily spray. I will be trying a new one this week so, stay tuned to see what I come up with.

Small Twist Update

This is day four for Baby KD's two strand twist. I have been using Knot Today and Shea Moisture Curl Style Milk. The top is a bit more frizzy than I would like it to be but, top up styles seem to be working really well.




The two styles in purple are from day five.  The frizz does not look terrible at this point. I am though considering if it should stay in another week.

Love these bows that match her dress. They were found in a pack of four for only one dollar at my local flea market.

A Good Hair Day

It was time to style and wash Baby KD's hair.  I went with my usual wash routine that I have established works for her hair.

ROUTINE:

1. detangle hair with fingers
2. wash hair with sulfate free shampoo (current Aveeno sulfate free)
3. condition with Herbal Essence Hello Hydration
4. Ring out hair with hands
5. go to a comfortable sitting place
6. finger detangle with coconut oil and begin to part for banding style with leave in (current Knot Today)              

fresh washed no product

banded

bands taken out

This is how the entire process looks after the wash routine.
Usually when I take her bands out her hair is dry. This time around I used Knot Today as a twisting agent. The next time around I will use it during the banding process with the coconut oil. Hopefully this combination will do well with keeping it moisturized.

My newest purchase is the Kinky Curly Knot Today. I used it on KD's hair when I twisted. The reason I am choosing to band with it and not style with it is because it seems to be a wet product. Putting it on each section caused the hair to curl up and defeated the banding purpose. BUT, her twists are sooo soft. I did make a daily spray mixture with this, coconut oil and water.   I used it on her this morning and her hair stayed moisturized all day. 

I set out to do mini twists....so, I parted in four and did one square at a time.  These are definitely not mini twists.  They are however more twists than I ever did on her.

I have found my new love in this style.  They are so soft. I am hoping they will stay in and looking fresh for two weeks. I don't know how likely that is, but we sure are going to try.  I am still struggling with a night routine. I still haven't found an item that will stay on her head the whole night. I also have not purchased a silk pillowcase.