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. :)

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!