J's First Mommy-Made Hair-do!

Last Wednesday when we had the kids down for their nap, I took off to get some products for Josephine's hair and Josephine & Elijah's skin. It had been in a couple box braids in the top middle, and the rest was in cornrows. They were getting really fuzzy and didn't seem very clean anymore, so I decided it was time for a new 'do. (You can click on the photo at right to enlarge it and see the fuzz in between the rows I'm talking about.)

In addition to some lotion/body butter/oil that E&J were desperately in need of for their skin, I picked up shampoo, conditioner/detangler, and lotion for J's hair. [For skin products, I got some Vaseline-brand cocoa butter gel (really greasy - I don't like it much), a tub of cocoa butter - really like this stuff, and a container of coconut oil from the health food mart at our local grocery store. I like the coconut oil too, but don't like having to melt it (by soaking the jar it in hot water) - and it is pretty greasy and runny to put on their skin. More on skin stuff another time when I've got it more figured out.] For hair products, I got Motions shampoo, and Just for Me products - which smell really good too! I like all three so far.

After naptime, I took the cornrows out - with the comb pictured above that has the metal tail on the end of it. It worked really well for taking them out. Then I hauled her upstairs to the laundry room to wash her hair in the laundry sink - since that one has a sprayer on it - and since it's not in the bathroom that she is already afraid to go in because of the previous day's bathtub experience.

Jock and Elijah had gone to pick up Kaylen from after-school daycare, and I was glad, because Josephine SCREAMED!!!! She was so frightened of the water and/or the sprayer - and I was soaked by the time I was done wetting her head - she was grabbing for me, and not really leaning back as I'd tried - except that I was leaning back with her attached to me - quite the balancing act! Then I sat her on the counter with the water off to scrub with the shampoo, before we started all over again to rinse. Poor girl was traumatized.

Once the shampooing was done and I'd blotted her hair dry, off we went downstairs - I sat her down in Elijah's booster chair, pushed up close to the table (for less wiggle room), complete with sit-still-bribery-snacks: a sucker, fruit snacks, juice, and cheerios. The first job was to comb through her hair, using the conditioner/detangler and lotion. Her hair really combed through surprisingly well.

Then the parting began. I started with a part from hear to ear over the top of her head. Then in the front half, I parted to the left of center from her forehead back to the ear-to-ear part, then started "box-braids" with triangle-shaped pieces (instead of boxes). I put three beads on the end of each braid. I tried to use some snaps at the end, but that didn't work well, so instead I wrapped the end of the braid around the last bead, then put a rubberband above it and pulled the top two beads down over the rubberband to cover it up.

It took me about 3 hours to do the old 'do removal, shampoo, and the front-half braids. That was enough for Josephine's sitting time - and it was time for supper. She did AWESOME sitting still for that long - more than I expected for a 2-1/2-year-old - but I can tell she's used to having her hair done - and that helped tremendously. I could tell she really liked having beads on her braids - and likely has never had them before. Once I got the first couple braids in, she kept shaking her head to make them flop around. She still does it, and it's so cute!

Because we had a busy day on Thursday (dr. appt, Jock working in the afternoon, Bible Study party in the evening), and Jock was planning to work all day Friday, I decided to leave the back half of Josephine's hair free for a couple days, until I could finish the braids on Saturday. It really looked cute that way too! I just combed it out each morning, to make sure it wasn't going to be too unruly for me Saturday. It combed out fairly well again with the conditioner/ detangler and lotion - and I had to pick the pieces of lint out of it. :) The back braids (I did in actual boxes) probably took about 3 hours as well - I need to work on doing this more quickly!

I'm curious to see how long the style lasts. So far it's been 10 days since I did the front and a week since I did the back. The front is just starting to get a little ratty in between the braids, but the back is still looking good. I've been putting the conditioning lotion on the braids and on her scalp in between the braids every day or two, and I think that is helping. I'm going to try to leave it in until next weekend - although it sounds as though we'll have family visiting next weekend, so we'll see how it goes.

I will say that I've had to put the beads back in on several braids. I think with the fairly rough play of a 2-year-old, and tops that have been tight to pull over head have been rough on the beads - and the rubberbands I used to secure them on weren't really rubber but plastic and broke. They were the only clear ones I had, but I switched over to pink actual rubber-bands to secure them and they're working better. I'll figure this out yet...

Any suggestions for what kind of style I should try next? It should be something fairly easy still... I may try the box braids again, with just a different pattern - or maybe twists. Don't think I'm up for cornrows. Hmmmm... My sister will likely be visiting. She's a super-awesome hair stylist so maybe she'll have some easy ideas for me.

Several people have asked me how I learned to do it so fast. Trust me, I've done some research - even before E&J came home. I was looking forward to the challenge. Here are a couple websites that have video tutorials: www.snapaholics.com (this is where I got my beads) and www.shuruba.com. There are a couple blogs I read that post hair tips and styles periodically: Cate's blog and BraidsBeadsTruth. Ooh - I just noticed Cate is doing raffles next week - check it out!