Growing Mane

Hi Ladies!

I have been wearing braids as a protective style for a while now and I decided that I wanted to try something different. I decided that I wanted to try a wig that looks natural but I didn't want to spend too much money.

Around December I order some human hair online and then around January I got to actually make my own wig. At first it was a bit difficult to make because I wasn't sure how much space to leave between each row so I found myself having to redo my wig a couple times. I bought Brazilian wavy hair and then straightened it once the wig was done.

I was a bit hesitant about wearing it because I wasn't sure how it would look on me so I didn't wear it until the end of April and I actually liked it.

Here are the results!

Hi Ladies!

I realized that I have not made a post in a very long time so this post is long over due. I have been wearing braids for the past few months and sometimes I don't have the time to rebraid my hair when it starts looking really bad. That's when I start to get creative! I have really only used 3 methods to conceal my new growth.

1. The use of gel or some form of edge control

As a demonstrated in this post I tend to put some gel on my edges to make the front of my hair look like it was freshly done. Here are the results.

2. The scarf

3. The "swoop"

Hello Ladies!

So a few weeks ago I did kinky twists for the first time. I really like them and I'm gonna compare kinky twists to box braids in this post. Keep in mind that I braid my hair myself so some of my pros and cons are more beneficial for someone who braids their own hair.

Kinky Twists

Pros
Cons

Box Braids

Overall

Do you prefer box braids or kinky twists?

Hi Ladies,

If you read my post about Shine 'n Jam you would have seen that I wasn't wearing my usual box braids. I went home to Toronto (I go away for school) a couple weeks ago and I decided that I wanted to try kinky twists. I really love how kinky twists look and I just wanted to change it up a little bit. I think it turned out well and I really love it!

I like braiding my hair because braids are a great, low maintenance protective style. This is 4th time I braided my own hair and I definitely see an improvement. The saying "practice makes perfect" is definitely true, although mine is far from perfect you get the idea. This style didn't take very long to install at all. You can compare this to the first time I braided my hair myself here.

Have you ever worn kinky twists? Did you like it?

Hi Ladies!

I have been wearing my hair in braids for the past 5 weeks and my edges are really starting to grow out. Also, when I braid my hair, I try not to do the front very tight so sometimes I end up leaving some of my edges out.

I've tried doing the whole headband/scarf thing but sometimes it just doesn't look right and I don't have the perfect plain black scarf that would go with every outfit I choose to wear.

Here is a picture of what my edges look like at 5 weeks in braids, usually right after I wash my hair. Yea I know I have to take my braids out soon lol.

Do you have any tricks for extending how long you wear your braids for?

Hello Ladies!

I know I am a bit late but I hope you have a great new year! I especially hope that this will be a great year for your hair!

About 3 weeks ago I did my own box braids for the first time and really loved it! You can read that post here. I decided to take out my braids because I did it big and it was starting to look untidy. Once I was done taking out my braids, I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. To me, my hair looked like blow dried natural hair. It definitely had me thinking about going natural. It felt like natural hair and was very full like natural hair. It didn't feel or look like the traditional braid-out at all.

I was also happy that my hair still appeared to be even since my trim in October. That means that my hair hasn't really been breaking and I may be retaining length. When I took my braids out I had a lot of shed hair but my hair was relatively moisturized. When I took each braid out, I applied some shea butter and combed through each section to get out all the shed hair.

Here are some of the pictures I took after I took my braids out. Sorry about my messy mirror!

Merry Christmas! This year my Christmas gift to myself was being able to braid my own hair. I was definitely one of those people who thought people who braided their own hair were crazy, until I tried it for myself. Although I did my braids big, it took a lot of time and patience. It took me three days to do it all. I took lots of breaks of course. Realistically, I could have finished it in one day but I wasn't in any rush. I'm on vacation visiting my grandma and I couldn't get the brand of braiding hair I like and usually use, so I had to buy a different brand which was X-Pression. This brand is very smooth and doesn't hold each plait together at the ends so I had to knot it before I placed the hair in hot water. I usually use the Outre 100% kanekalon hair which is a bit rough, shown below.

Hello Ladies!

With the official start of winter fast approaching, protective styles are must. They ensure that your hair doesn't dry out due to change in climate. They also ensure that you don't get unnecessary breakage, like getting your hair caught in your favourite cotton scarf.

Conveniently, I have recently regained my love for buns. Before last week, I hadn't worn a bun for maybe 7 years (yeah, I know an extremely long time). I think my problem was that, to me, my hair was always too thin to put in a bun. There would always be those awkward spaces and sometimes I couldn't get my hair smooth enough for my liking. But I decided to try bunning my hair again and I love it!

These days I do messy buns. I wash my hair and when it is around 70% percent air dried, I put my hair up in a bun, allowing the ends of my hair to be textured. For me, this eliminates those awkward spaces. I also love to accessorize with headbands. I need to be more careful with my headband choices because the cotton ones that I love always break my hair. Because of this, I often try to wear my satin scarf as a headband (I don't think the material is actually satin, but I'm not sure what it is. A picture of it is below). These types of scarfs look cute, conceal new growth, keep my edges laid, and don't break my hair!

Here are some pictures and in these pictures I am about 2 months post relaxer:

Do you live the bun life? What other protective styles do you use?

Thanks for reading!

- Sarah

Hello Everyone!

This will be a short post on a protective style that I did last week. I decided that I didn't want to use any heat and I didn't want to do a twist out. I experimented with my hair for a bit and finally decided on a style that can be a protective style. A protective style basically hides the ends of your hair or "protects" them from drying out or breaking. Protective styles are perfect for the winter since the temperatures make our hair dry very easily. I did a cane row (braid) down the middle of my head and used a hair tie at the end to keep it from unraveling. To make this a true protective style, you can fold the ends of your hair into the hair tie. I found that this style was very easy to do and lasts effortlessly throughout the day. To add a little something to the look, I decided to wear a head band. Give it a try!