J's Hair: Double-stranded Twists

I re-did Josephine's hair yesterday. It'd been three weeks and a day, so it was time. I forgot to take another photo of her box braids before I took them out, but her parts and hairline were getting pretty fuzzy, and even some of the braids were a little fuzzy. It took me about an hour to remove the beads and box-braids. There were 20 braids, but 7 of these were two-tier piggy-back braids, so it was 20 beads/rubberbands, but then more like 27 braids. I did that right after lunch, then the kids had a later-than-usual nap.

After nap, I got to work washing and parting. Josephine still does not like to have her hair washed. I do it in my laundry sink because it has a sprayer - and she is afraid of the sprayer. She is getting better though. She didn't bite me this time! :) I think maybe having her shower with me sometimes is helping that. She and Elijah also get to play with the water and the sprayer for a bit before I start, so that probably helps too.

Once washed and towel-dried a bit, it looked like this:
Then I started parting and twisting - which took me about two hours to completion. I popped in a movie, and put the booster on the living room floor. This made it a little more difficult, because all my supplies were not contained to the table to help keep Elijah from running off with them. The parting takes me the longest I would guess maybe about 1 1/4 to 1 1/3 hours - it's sometimes difficult with a wiggly 2-year-old - and I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted the parts, so I had to redo a little bit as I went. I have decided that I like to do the parting first and clip off the sections (I need more clips!) before I start braiding or twisting. This way, I won't have problems with the sizes when I get to the end - which happened the first time I did box-braids.

Below are a few photos of the finished product. There are 6 sections. I did an "X" across the top of her head, then parted the back into three section. After holding with the terry pony-holders, I split into two pieces, twisted each individual piece to the right, and then put right over left. Then I finished them off with a rubberband and a couple beads. I can't get more than a couple beads on twists because they're thicker than the tiny box braids I've done. They will hold without beads and bands, but I like the look of the beads on the ends. I'm told this kind of twist will hold as long as a braid. I'm not sure I believe it yet, but we'll see. I do know, though, that since the parts are bigger, I'll probably be touching them up a few times, as the parts get fuzzier faster.

Sorry there are none of her looking at me - she was being a stinker and wouldn't look at me - thought she was being cute (well, OK, she was!). Kaylen and Daddy were even trying to help, but she got this mischievous grin on her face and just wouldn't. :)