Sharing the Spotlight: French Braid Out on Rae

Yep, you read that right. I'm putting myself in the spotlight today. Forgive the poor quality of the pictures. I discovered that it's really hard to take a picture of myself from behind and, of course, Syd wasn't home to help. Go figure. So it was just me, my mirror, and my camera phone.

After wearing my hair in a ponytail every day for almost 2 weeks, I decided it was time to do something different. My natural hair is very thick, coarse, frizzy, and has enough body to almost be called wavy. You can't quite call it wavy, but you can't quite call it straight, either. It's really hard to wear it down without doing something to either straighten it out or make more defined waves/curls. I didn't want to grab the flat iron, so I decided to give myself a braid out instead.

I started in the evening with clean, damp hair. I didn't add any styling product, mostly because I'm running low on almost everything and wanted to save the product for Syd's hair. :)  I used my finger to part my hair into two sections. I didn't even try to make the part straight because I knew the braids were coming down in the morning. I french braided each side and secured the ends with rubber bands.

In the morning, my hair still wasn't completely dry. I left the braids in for about an hour after I woke up, but knowing I had that crazy crooked part on my head was driving me nuts so I went ahead and removed the braids. It was almost completely dry by the time the braids came out. The top was laying funny, so I pulled the front back with a clip and this was the result.

That picture was taken a couple of hours after the braids were removed. The wave pattern was a little tighter right after the braids came down, but it fell a little since I hadn't used any products with hold and my hair wasn't dry when the braids were taken out. Regardless of all that, I liked the results a lot. 

Do you have a style you'd like to share? If so, click on Contribute at the top of the page to learn how you and your style can be in the spotlight.

Quick Update: 2 Cornrows

Hi everyone! I apologize for my absence lately. We always have a lot going on and it's been even busier than usual around here: moving, sports, homework, etc. As a result, Syd hasn't been on the receiving end of very creative hairstyles. For the last week or so, she's just been rocking a couple of thick cornrows.

Not sure what's up with the lighting in this one

This is a great go-to style for us. Syd participates in cross country and has meets 3 days per week with practice on her off days. This means lots of sweat. We can take down the cornrows every other day, give her hair a quick wash or co-wash, and put them right back in. Quick, easy, and her hair is out of her face and off her neck, which are both important at this point.

The regular cross country season ends after next week. I promise to have some more creative styles after that! :)

Your Thoughts: Are Women More Judgmental Than Tween Girls?

I always thought tween/teen girls would be much more judgmental of each other than adult women would ever dream of being toward a child. Agreed? Recent events have actually led me to believe otherwise, at least where natural hair is concerned.

The majority of girls at Syd's school with tight curls are already using chemicals to straighten their coils. That doesn't stop Syd from showing off her love of big curly hair, though. And nobody at school has ever had a single negative thing to say about it. But when an unexpected rain storm popped up and wreaked havoc on Syd's style, she and I were both nervous.

Here's what happened. Do you remember this twist out style from a couple weeks ago? Well, what I didn't tell you in that post is that it rained that morning. The weather man didn't say it was going to rain. The forecast didn't say it was going to rain. But it rained. And Syd didn't have an umbrella.

When she left the house, she looked like this:

When she came home, she looked like this:

The rain had completely ruined her twist out. And there was still some definition left over, but only in random places. Her hair was stuck somewhere between a style with defined curls and an undefined afro type of style.  Either of those styles are loved at our house, but this whole in between look? Not so beloved.

To top this off, Syd's first middle school dance was held that day after school. She said she had pulled it into a low ponytail just for an hour to get it off her neck while she danced.

When she got home, I asked her if anyone at school had said anything about her hair. Surprisingly, she said the only comments she got were POSITIVE ones. (I guess Syd isn't the only one at her school who loves big hair!) But when we went to the store later that night, her frizzy hair received more than one disapproving look from adult women. When we were walking away from the hair products aisle, I even heard one woman tell her daughter (who looked to be around Syd's age and had relaxed hair), "THAT is why you need a relaxer."

It took everything in me to keep walking instead of going back to tell that woman exactly how I felt about her attitude, Syd's hair, and people thinking they HAVE to use chemicals to make their hair look good. But I was the bigger person. Syd hadn't heard her, so even though it stung, I pretended I hadn't heard her either. 

Ever since that day, I've thought about how much more judgmental the grown women in the store were than the middle school girls that Syd was around. It was surprising that the adults seem to have more of a "mean girls" attitude than the tweens and teenagers.

What do you think? Have you ever experienced anything like this, either from kids or other adults?

Laced Cornrows and Box Braids

Syd had a big (40 schools!) cross country meet last weekend. She wanted something unique for her hair, and since she liked the way our last lacing style looked like laced up running shoes, I decided to go ahead and create another laced style.

I started by parting her hair from ear to ear and putting the front part of her hair into 8 cornrows.

I put the hair in the back into about a dozen big box braids. The parts weren't perfect or even, but Syd's hair is thick enough that the braids hid the imperfections.

I then used a plastic craft needle to weave some green and white ribbon (school colors) between two of the cornrows on each side of her head, much the same way that you would lace up a pair of sneakers.

The picture below shows which cornrows I used for the lacing. Each side had four cornrows, and I did the lacing between the second and third cornrows on each side.

Hair was laced up, time to do the same for the shoes.

When it drew closer to race time, we pulled all the braids back into a low ponytail to keep her hair off her neck.

And of course....I couldn't end this post without allowing Syd to show off her 3rd place medal. :)

Sharing the Spotlight: Elizabeth and Ally

Today's spotlight is shining on Elizabeth and her daughter Ally. Elizabeth has a brand new blog that features Ally and her other 2 daughters, who she calls The Princess and Li'l Bit. That blog is called Different Kinds of Curls and I highly recommend checking it out! Her girls all have different hair types, so she gets the chance to share styles on different types of curls. I love it!

For her time in the spotlight, Elizabeth sent in a box braid style she did on her oldest daughter, Ally. I love it!

....but wait, there's more!

This style was changed up and got a whole new look! Check out what she did next:

To see what she did and how she did it, check out this post. And while you're there, be sure to check out everything else this amazing new blog has to offer. Big thanks to Elizabeth for sharing!

If you would like one of your styles to be featured on Sharing the Spotlight, find out how by clicking on Contribute at the top of the page.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Goldilocks*n*Me

I am participating in this month's Hair Carnival with several other bloggers. The theme this month is to copy a style that we've seen on someone else's blog. This makes it the perfect time to introduce a new feature on Tweeny Hair called The Sincerest Form of Flattery. This feature will pop up from time to time whenever I find a style on someone else's blog that I want to try to imitate.

For the September Hair Carnival, I have decided to recreate the lacing style I saw on the blog Goldilocks*n*Me. I did have to alter the style a bit by using a twist out where Goldilocks had worn a wash and go style.

I kind of cheated to start this style because Syd had previously worn her hair in basic two strand twists. When I sat down in the evening to style Syd's hair, I kept those twists and just parted out a section on one side of the front of her hair. I put that section of hair into 2 cornrows going toward her crown. I secured the 2 cornrows together with a green rubber band.

I twisted the hair coming out of the rubber band in about three 2 strand twists.

Then I removed a few twists in the front of her hair on the other side and changed them into a couple of chunky flat twists, simply because twist outs from flat twists lay closer to the scalp.

The rest of her hair was still in the 2 strand twists she had worn for a a few days before.

In the morning, I used a craft needle and a green and white ribbon to do the lacing part of the style. I literally just laced her two cornrows as though I was lacing up a pair of shoes.When I reached the green rubber band, I tied the two ends of the ribbon in a bow.

I removed all the twists so the majority of Syd's hair was worn in a twist out.

Ignore the allergy eyes in this pic. Poor kid. :(

By the time Syd got home from school and cross country practice, the twist out had gained a lot of volume. She loved it.

Syd loves the lacing style. She wants to start doing them on the days she has cross country meets because the style looks so much like a laced up pair of running shoes. I think that's definitely doable.


Thanks so much to Goldilocks*n*Me for inspiring this style!

"X" Veil Twist Out

We have been doing a lot of twists and twist outs lately, and this style is another example of that. But we try not to do a plain old twist out very often. There are always new ways to change it up.

To make the X shape in the front of Syd's hair, I made 2 rows of 4 boxes across the front. I used those boxes to make an X shape on each side of her hair.

Before connecting the front row to the second, I twisted each section to give it more of a clean look. And we used purple rubber bands simply because Syd wanted to. :)

I then put the rest of her hair into 2 strand twists.

The next day was Syd's first middle school dance. We took her twists out so she could have a fresh looking twist out for the dance.

Twist outs will probably remain a style that is used a lot at our house. They are simple enough for Syd to help with, they don't take as long to do as more intricate styles, and there are countless ways to change them up.

Do you have a style that you tend to fall back on more than any others?

Sharing the Spotlight: You Can Do It Too

Today's spotlight is shining on Kim and her brand new blog, You Can Do It Too.

Kim says:
"My name is Kim and my hair model (my niece) is ms. Diva A. I started taking more interest in her
hair when she moved in with us. I got tired of doing the same pony tails and pigs tails, so I taught myself how to french braid and cornroll. I'm still not 100% good at it but I do try. I believe anyone can do hair if they want to!"

Here are some pictures and styles that you can find on Kim's blog.

Everyone be sure to head over to You Can Do It Too and show Kim some love! Thanks for sharing, Kim!

If you would like your styles to have their turn in the spotlight, click on Contribute at the top of the page to find out how!

One Mohawk; Two Looks

I was going through some old pictures earlier and found some shots of a mohawk style I did on Syd last year, so I thought I would share.

For this mohawk, I made a part down the center of Syd's head and cornrowed her hair from the sides up to the center. Once I reached the part, I stopped braiding. If I remember correctly, I used a rubber band to secure the hair where I ended each cornrow, although I can't be sure. I then used the Tightly Curly method to define the curls on the rest of her hair, but I honestly don't remember what product I used that time.

Here's what it looked like as soon as I finished.

 
This is what it looked like after it dried and shrinkage did its thing.

 

After a few days, her curls didn't look fresh anymore but the cornrows still looked ok, so I gathered the hair into 4 or 5 ponytails along the center part. I then put all the loose hair into two strand twists. This gave it a completely different look.

Be sure to go "like" our facebook page to see more of Syd's styles!

Two French Braids

Syd wore her hair in various french braid styles for over a week. Here's the last one we did before washing her hair and changing to something completely different.

She still had that single cornrow along the front of her hairline (that one cornrow stayed like that for over a week and a half!). I left that alone and made a part down the center of her head. Then all I did was french braid each side and secure the ends with an ouchless band. Easy peasy!

After about two days, we removed the french braids. The braid out wasn't very defined, although these pictures seem to show more definition than there actually was (how does that happen?). The lack of definition was probably because I had only used moisturizer before braiding instead of using something with hold. Regardless, we threw her hair up into ponytail and went on our way for the day.

After this style, it was time for that front cornrow to finally come down and for her hair to get washed. Stay tuned for what came next!

Sharing the Spotlight: Janie and Angel

This week's spotlight is shining brightly on Janie and her Angel.

Janie writes:
"Hello! I am Janie and this is my Angel. She’s eight years old and has a definite opinion about how her hair should look! She has pretty tight curls (smaller than a pen spring), and some looser ringlets on her crown. I think we have not retained length due to my rough detangling in the past and too much rubber band usage. She has very fine hair (thin strands), but a lot of it, and that makes for major work when I detangle. I am learning, and we are trying to keep our styles simple now."

She goes on to say, "I am trying to keep her styles in for a week at a time, which is a struggle since I love playing in her hair (it's my hobby!)."

 

"This was our longest-lasting faux-hawk summer style. It still looked good when I took it down after 2 weeks! I guess because the cornrows & flat twists were so small."

"This was our 3-layer cornrows back-to-school style last Sunday, and it is horribly fuzzy Thursday night,
even with a satin pillow case!"

Thank you so much for sharing these wonderful styles with us, Janie! She is adorable and I love the creativity in your styles. I'm sure with the extra care you're putting into her hair, you'll be retaining more length than ever!

If you would like to see your styles on Sharing the Spotlight, click on Contribute at the top of the page to find out how!