Hair, Protective Styles

How I Got My Braids (Pt. 2)


So if you haven’t caught Part 1 there is no excuse to not catch up now!

My hair

Up until now, all of the attention has been on the fake hair. But more importantly, I need to now concentrate on me. Because, that’s what it’s all about. Me, me, me!!!! Oh sorry, this is a public blog not my personal diary. I apologise, it’s a little bit about you too…but mainly about me! So pictured here is me a few weeks before I actually started the braiding process. This is what my freshly washed and mositurised hair looks like. I washed my hair a few days before I started but forgot to take a pic!

However, if you’ve read this blog before you’ll realise the process of prepping your natural hair starts before even washing. I like to pre-poo my hair and I like to do it with coconut oil. I used to do this overnight but started noticing that my hair was feeling straw like if it was left in too long. So no more overnight pre-pooing for me.

And then I cleansed my hair with a mix of Palmer’s Coconut Shampoo and Apple Cider Vinegar to remove any buildup. This gives me a cleansed base for all the work to come.

I’m currently making my way through the beautiful smelling Eden Bodyworks CoWash and Deep Conditioner (review to come!) on my hair on a weekly basis. The days leading up to my installation were no different. I need that coconutty goodness!

I would like to add, that trimming your hair before a long protective style is probably a good idea. You want to go into the style with your hair being in the best condition possible. I didn’t trim my hair this time as I had been on a seek and destroy mission only a few weeks earlier so it didn’t feel necessary but will definitely have a little look-see if I need to trim afterward.

Twisting it up

I am not a snob about  using heat on my hair but at the moment, I am a bit of a snob about using heat on my hair! I don’t want to ruin all my hard work with heat damage, just all the other types of damage! Kidding, this is a #healthyhairjourney

I would normally use my trusty afro pick hair attachment on the hairdryer to get my hair into a stretched state. Direct heat is now the enemy I needed a different way to stretch my hair. So I chose the ridiculously simple, two strand twist. This was a great opportunity to pre-section my hair. So every twist will turn into the individual plaits that will make up my finished style. It also means I can prepare all my synthetic hair, every last braid. Look at me being all organised!

I worked out that I had about 200 twists in my hair. Took me about 5 hours to do them. I put this down partially to doing a thorough detangling as I went. But it’s probably because I am really slow. And 200 twists is A LOT! This should have been a sign of things to come but it’s been a while since I’ve braided my hair and I’ve never done it like this before.

The twisting was supposed to make my life easier but as you can see in the third picture on the bottom row, my centre parting was way off, so I had to re-do the whole middle section again. This has never been a problem before but as I was going for drama, with one side of my hair one colour and the other side another, this centre parting needed to be on point, or at least more on point than that! I was told it was because I used my nose as a guide and I have a wonky nose, not very helpful but we got there in the end!

There was a thought in my mind that the twists were a hairstyle. I had my mind set to the goal at the end but of course it is. It is one of the simplest, yet most effective protective styles. I even got some compliments on it. I wasn’t expecting that at all, well after I sorted that messed up middle part. It was a means to an end, not a hairstyle in my eyes but after a couple of days I actually started to like it. I spent quite a lot of time running my hands through my hair because I could do that now.

Still haven’t really got to the installation of the hair yet but all parts are available now (part 1, part 3, part 4).

Let’s keep growing together!

xx Lee xx

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