Double Twisted Braids

LB’s twist were looking really fuzzy after our Sunday styling session so I had to do something. At this point I usually take them out and he wears a twistout for the weekend.

But after the detangling nightmare after THIS 6 day old wash and go, I didn’t want to put him through any more trauma. So I thought, “what could I do to spruce up this style without taking down the twists?”

And then it hit me! Braid the twists! Look how cool this looks. Looks a bit like braided dreds.

Definitely adding this into styling rotation. I spritzed his fuzzy twists with distilled water and smoothed with a pea sized amount of Kinky Curly Gloss Pomade. I got the idea to braid the twist from THIS posting over at Baby Big Hair.

 

The Octopus

Hi guys! Its been a while since we have done a styling post so here is the first of a couple we have lined up. The Octopus is a little more difficult than the double stack in my opinion. You have to get the parts just right and the braids are a little more exposed. Which means your cornrowing skills “betta be up ta par”. And we all know that mine aren’t sooooo…..lol.

But anyway. I call this the octopus because it has eight braids coming from a center part, like octopus legs. I do love this style, especially the take down. LB gets the most perfect stretched fro that frames his face.

To do this style I washed with Suave 2-in-1 and conditioned with Suave Almond and Shea Butter. I detangled and used Kinky Curly Knot Today for my leave in and Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie to braid.

When I do cornrows on LB, I two strand twist the very end so that its a bit easier to unbraid. Like so:

 

I began with a part straight down the middle and created parts extending from that one. It took about 20 minutes to complete which is an eternity in toddler land. But I really liked how it turned out and have added it to my repertoire.

Wash and Go Update

I did a wash and go on LB in THIS post with the Queen Helene Royal Curl-Curl Shaping Creme. I don’t do wash and gos to often on him because, A. he is a toddler and B. He is a boy (LOL). Which means he is constantly rolling around on the floor, jumping off things, swinging around, etc. All of this activity leads to a mass of tangles and knots.

I’m experimenting with different curl cremes and gels to obtain the look of a super defined wash and go that holds up through all of that “boy stuff”.

Here is the picture of LB with the freshly done wash and go:

Read on to see what his hair looked like after 6 days.

Shrinky Dink

Shrinkage is really something. My hair probably shrinks to about 50-60% its true length. I think LB’s is about the same. This is his hair freshly washed and conditioned. You can check out a completely dry wash and go HERE to see how compact his hair is once dry.

 

And here is his hair stretched…

Double Trouble

In an attempt to try out more styles for LB, I decided to try double French braids. I’ve seen it done several times, but only on girls.  You all know that my quest is to try different styles that don’t look girly so I was a little iffy about this one. I did these braids on freshly washed and conditioned hair. I must admit that this was done out of pure laziness but I actually liked the result. It looked super cute on him! Check it out!

 

This style took all of 10 minutes to complete. For more pictures and to see the products that were used, follow the jump.

Double Stack Please!

Seeing as I am still challenged in the cornrowing department, I find it much easier to braid LB’s hair in “broken up” rows, as I  like to call them. Instead of braiding straight back, I parted the hair from ear to ear and did rows of braids below  and above the line, like so:

It also gives him a little hang time. His hair is so curly that when braiding in “single file”, there isn’t much of a hang by the time you get to the end of the braid. It just curls up on itself.

For these braids, I shampooed LB’s hair with Shea Moisture Moisture Retention Shampoo (Review to come) and conditioned/detangled with Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose Conditioner. I moisturized with Bee Mine Deja’s Hair Milk and braided with Bee Mine Curly Butter.

Coils

I was on Facebook the other day and noticed that Goldilocks n’ Me had posted an image of coils on her son on their fan page. They were gorgeous. So I decided to attempt it on LB. First off Beads Braids and Beyond and Baby Big Hair unknowingly caused me to go out and purchase the Queen Helene Royal Curl Curl Shaping Creme. I used this for twisting the coils.

I washed with Suave 2-in-1 and Conditioned with Lustrasilk Organic Cholesterol (this stuff has ridiculous slip!). I moisturized with Ouidad 2-in-1 and sealed with the Queen Helene Royal Curl Curl Smoothing Oil. I kept a spray bottle filled with Distilled water on hand to keep the hair pliable.  It didn’t take long at all, maybe about 20 minutes for his whole head. Below is  LB’s hair still wet.

Keep reading for the results.

Adventures in Braiding

I know you guys are probably wondering what is happening with by braiding skills (or lack there of) and I have come to ease your minds.

I have started to use smaller sections of hair, which produces smaller braids of course. Using this method allows me to pick up hair easier. I’m still braiding over hand (or french braiding as one lovely reader pointed out) and I think they are starting to look pretty darn good.

Check out LB’s braids for this week. This time I used Suave for Kids Shampoo and conditioned/detangled with Little Penguins Organic Honey and Vanilla Bean Smoothie. I moisturized with Little Penguins Fresh Cream and braided with Little Penguins Ella Jelly (Review coming soon). I’m pretty proud of my progress. Yay me!

RIP Tangle Teezer

Source

Nik over at beads braids and beyond recently published a post describing what the tangle Teezer was doing to her daughter’s hair. I have been using the Tangle Teezer for about 3 months on both myself and LB. I noticed that since using the Tangle Teezer, my hair had a lot split ends and single strand knots. I stopped using it but continued to use it for LB because it didn’t seem to have that same effect on his hair. Boy was I wrong.

Since I wasnt using it anymore, I had a better visual of what it was doing to his hair. And let me tell you, it was causing a real mess on his head. There were short little curls all in the brush signifying breakage. On closer inspection of his strands, he had a ton of knots at the end as well.

For the time being, I have stopped using the Tangle Teezer all together. I have gone back to using the Denman for myself and the Denman Toddler Junior D for LB.

I’ll keep you all posted.

Wild Child

After seeing that LB’s head was looking a little rough this morning from these old twist. I took them out with  a little Coconut Chai Hair Nectar. I picked the parts and let it go. It actually turned out pretty nice.