The day before hair day this week, I got the impulse to do something different with her bangs which had been worn loose for a few days. Without making parts, I divided the bangs into a few small sections and twisted each section into a double strand twist. I then clipped the bangs to the side. Very cute.
The twisted bangs inspired the style we put in yesterday. It's the first time I have done a whole head of double strand twists. We washed and conditioned her hair with the cornrows in. Then, I took out one cornrow, combed out the shed hair, sealed with oil, added a leave-in conditioner, sectioned and twisted. Then on to the next cornrow. I thought it would be faster to do the twists than it would have been to re-braid all the cornrows, but I was wrong. I spent just about another 3 hours on this style. Geez, I am so slow! This gets better with practice, right? Here's a pic right after I finished.
The rest of the pics are from today. Lots of shrinkage. I don't think these will last all week, so look for a new style in a few days. I'm debating a loose-hair day or two about mid-week, we'll see.
I have been doing something new lately that seems to be working really well to leave the girl's hair shiny, smooth and moisturized. I've been using an oil to seal in the moisture. I would normally use coconut oil, but being winter, my oil is solidified and it's a pain to thoroughly melt it in my hands before applying. It's just not THAT warm in my home. Instead I've been using almond oil which I just happened to have. And I've been using it in this order: Spritz with water, apply oil smoothing through the hair, apply a water based moisturizer over the oil. I always thought the oil should come last, to seal in the moisturizer, but I recently read otherwise on
here on the Black Girl with Long Hair blog. I still don't understand why that particular order, but I've been doing it. It works. I particularly appreciate how smooth the ends are. They've been staying nicely curled and smooth instead of getting dry and frizzy as they used to do. It makes the style look neater and cleaner.
If you don't already read
Black Girl with Long Hair, check it out. You can also sign up for their newsletter which is where I get a lot of great tips.
Ciao everyone!
Jenny
