2 (Puffs) x 4 (Flat Twists)

 With the Ant Situation pretty much under control for now, I was able to turn my attention to making Little B's style more style-like. I rolled with the idea of a center part and flat twists going from the forehead to the nape of the neck, but I divided them up. Her recently washed hair had dried in long flat twists and when I restyled, I started with dry, lightly stretched hair.

With a neat center part complete, I divided each side in half, placing a rough part just behind her ears. I knew I didn't want that part to show in the finished style, so I made sure it was not well defined. I added a moisturizing styling cream to each section and worked it in. In the front right section of hair, I took a small section at her forehead and divided it in two. I twisted the sections together and began to flat twist. (Need a flat twist tutorial? Click here.) I flat twisted back to the part just behind her ear. I chose to twist toward the center of her head as I added hair. Either direction is fine, but I think it looks best if all the twist turn in or they all turn out. I loosely banded the end of the flat twist to hold it while I flat twisted the back right section.

I began the back flat twist at the nape of her neck and twisted up to the ear part. I removed the band from the front flat twist and twisted the ends of both front and back flat twists together for two turns. That helped hold everything, it helped cover the part behind the ear, and it made the puff I intended to create higher and more compact. I banded the combined twists and let the ends form a loose puff. I sprayed the puff with water and added leave in so the stretched hair would return to its natural curl pattern. I decorated with ballies over a regular ouchless band. I repeated the process on the other side, being careful to twist toward the center part for uniformity.

I didn't get any photos of the process because this was so simple it took only a few minutes. No TV, snacks, or other diversions were required. I think it took me far longer to type these instructions than it did to do the style. We've been swapping out the ballies to match her outfits and that makes it fresh and new for her each day. I love this because it's cute and easy way to vary two puffs, while also putting far less stress on the hair than a traditional two puff style. I'll be doing this one again.

Read. Watch. Enjoy! Beads, Braids and Beyond

I hope every Happy Girl reader is also familiar with another great hair blog, Beads, Braids & Beyond. I love long-standing blogs like Beads, Braids & Beyond because it's fun to see what new and interesting topics are covered and to watch the kids change and grow. I recently had the chance to ask Nikki, the creator and author of Beads, Braids & Beyond some questions about her blog, caring for her son's and daughter's hair, and what she does when she does when she's offline.

I think what makes Beads, Braids & Beyond unique is versatility. Before creating the blog I was a member of several forums and noticed there seemed to be limitations on children's hair styles so I try to cover everything, from au naturel to rollersets (no heat) to cornrows. My daughters hair has no limits. I mean, did you see the bird's nest style? 

                                    -Nikki of Beads, Braids & Beyond

What is your favorite Beads, Braids & Beyond post?
I think my favorite post is "I prefer the wet look"  and the spin-off poem "The Right Way". It all came straight from the heart, it was nice to share my personal experience and read about others going through the same thing. Sometimes family can be your toughest critics.

Tell us about the moment you decided to blog about caring for your kids' hair.
I posted a thread in one of my favorite hair groups asking if anyone knew of any hair blogs or websites. At that point, I had compiled a list of mostly hair salons with their style galleries and shared it with the group. Honestly, I was tired of seeing the same exact styles and knew the women in that small group felt the same (shout of to my bbc ladies!). The ladies thought I should take the plunge, I was hesitant at first because I was a little paranoid about posting my children's pictures on a public blog and I still considered myself a beginner, but I went ahead and created the blog at the end of October 2009 and I'm glad I did!

Where else can we find you online?
Yes! I am most active on Facebook but I am also on Twitter: @beadsbraidsblog and Youtube

What is the hair care routine like at your house?
It's really laid back these days. I just go with the flow. When I feel like washing, I wash. When I feel like styling, I style. I used to be like clockwork, style on Sunday, take down and wash Saturday and style again on Sunday. It's not like that at all anymore.

What has been the most challenging aspect of caring for both A's and Lil Man's hair?
Lil Man's hair is very basic so there's no challenge right now. I just wash and add a leave-in or styler. It was a challenge for me for a while to keep my hands out of A's hair. I love her hair! I used to take down a style just to do another style. It was really unnecessary. Now she's in her fourth week of mini twists, imagine that!

What has come most easily?
Loving A's hair. It took me a while to finally realize what I was doing wrong, as soon as I started researching and learning I fell in love with her hair and never looked back.

Do you have a favorite, or signature, hair style?
I think my favorite hair style is box braids. They are versatile and last a long time. A loves "big, huge buns".

Tell us something about yourself that we couldn't learn from your blog.
Wellllllllll, if you insist. I'm hilarious.

There. I said it.

Ok, I'm halfway kidding, but I love being silly and making people laugh. If you have watched any of our youtube videos you will see how silly and talkative A is. She gets that from me. Together, we are unstoppable. If you add us on Facebook you will get a little taste of my personality but be warned, I am also a little sensitive so I am often posting things that will make you cry. :)

Finish this sentence. When I'm not doing hair or blogging about it, I'm usually....
Bustin' a move with the fam. We like having dance-offs. A is really into Michael Jackson so she puts me to shame. I tried to be cool and do the splits just last week and my knee popped. It was aching for a few days. We also free-style. Look out for our mixtape.

Hairstyling Versus... The Ants!

Lately, it seems like I always have some lame excuse for not doing something elaborate or creative with the girls' hair. This time I have a really good, if gross, excuse.

I spent Saturday afternoon washing the girls hair, conditioning and detangling. We just washed and went last time, skipping the detangling altogether. Little B hadn't been detangled in two full weeks and so I assumed detangling was going to take a prolonged effort. Using the Tangle Teezer and lots of KCKT, I was delighted to get it done in exactly 61 minutes. I had to snip out a few big old knots, but otherwise it was easy. There wasn't even much shed hair.

When her hair was completely detangled, I made a rough part down the middle and flat twisted each side from forehead to the nape of her neck. That wasn't supposed to be her style, I just wanted to stretch her hair a bit and get it going in the direction I planned to style. I put Little R's washed, conditioned and detangled hair into 3 simple braids. I let their hair air dry while we ate dinner, read books, and got ready for bed.

It's a little hard to see, but there is a rather large knot buried in the clump of hair.
I was able to get this out with the pointy end of my pin tail comb and lots of product.

Nearly done detangling.

Early the next morning, as we all slowly came out of our Sunday morning fog, we saw a couple of ants scurrying around. Then we saw more, and more, and still more. They were everywhere all at once. We were overrun.

I forgot about hair time plans and spent the next several hours spraying, vacuuming, considering the merits of different ant killing methods, and trying to determine where they were coming from. It made me think of my favorite 40s radio thriller, Escape, and the memorable episode, Leiningen and the Ants. As I failed to get even one little ant to crawl into a trap, I empathized with Leiningen, who defended his property against an army of ants smart enough to build rafts to reach their goal.



I guess I'll just neaten up the flat twists and braids I've already done and leave hair at that because even as I type this, despite the chemical-laden arsenal and mighty Dyson I've unleashed on them, the ants keeping marching forward.



PS Interested in reading Carl Stephenson's short story Leiningen and the Ants?  You can find it here. 

Freak Storm

I've been pretty lazy over the last week. Yesterday, I decided that I needed to get moving and get the girls' hair washed and styled as soon as possible. I planned to wash and detangle late on Saturday afternoon, braid or twist for bedtime, and style this morning. Even though I was exhausted from all my recent sitting on the couch, I didn't want to skimp on our process. I put lots of coconut oil in the girls' hair a few hours before I planned to wash. I worked it in and was rewarded with shiny, shiny hair. I should have added the coconut oil Friday night, but I, um, just didn't.

I took the girls and their shiny hair out to run a few errands early in the afternoon. We stood in line at the grocery store when the sky went very dark. Just as I contemplated the impending rain, the girls' down vests, and the distance to the car, a storm of near biblical proportions opened on us. Everyone in the store turned toward the front windows and stared wide-eyed and slack-jawed. Half hard hail and half huge rain drops fell furiously and were blown sideways by a sudden fierce wind.

We made a mad dash to the car that Joyful Dad had brought around for us. The girls and I were only out in rain for about 15 seconds but we were soaked by the shockingly cold rain. We drove on to our next errand, where it hadn't rained at all, and got out of the car. I looked at Little B' hair and saw thick clumps of white stuff in it. I touched it and found that the coconut oil I put in an hour earlier had re-solidified when it came in contact with that cold, hard rain.

It stayed like that until I got her home and washed those coils.

A Repertoire

As our lives have gotten busier, sometimes I find myself wishing I had established a repertoire of just five or six styles back when I began styling the girls hair. While I appreciate the creative exercise of creating new styles and the experience that comes with trial and error, I can also imagine how lovely it would be to sit down every week knowing exactly what I would do, how long it would take, and how it was likely to turn out.

Do you have a repertoire of styles, do you try lots things all the time, or do you find a happy medium?


Are you satisfied with your style of styling, and was it a deliberate choice?

A Moratorium on New Hair Products

I've gone a little nuts buying and trying products in the last six months or so. I have a product graveyard in the bathroom with all the things that didn't work, didn't have a logical place in our routine, or were just so-so. The result of my product junkie mentality has been unhappy hair. When we started Little R's loose hair experiment, I decided to stick with my tried and true products. As long as I was doing that for Little R, I did it for Little B as well.

I'm really glad I did. Their hair now feels and looks as I expect it to - soft, pliable, and well-moisturized. Our hair stylist noticed immediately. I'm declaring a personal moratorium on buying anything but replacements for the products we know and love, at least for now. I'm also simplifying and scaling back on what we use. I still have a few products left over from my period of unchecked product purchasing to review for you, and I'll get to that as soon as I can. In the meantime, here is our scaled-back product line up, with links to my reviews so you can learn what we like about each of these.

From left to right: 

• Alaffia Kola & Ginger Shampoo -the whole family loves and uses this, so it's a cost-effective choice for us. 
• Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose Conditioner - What? I've never actually reviewed this?! I can't believe it, I'll have to fix that.
• The stuff in the green bottle is Oyin Frank Juice - I love it for giving braid and twists a little light moisture. It's also great a spritz to freshen up loose hair. Learn why it's in a spray bottle here.
• Darcy's Botanicals Deep Conditioning Mask - This is a new favorite for showing the hair a little extra love and/or detangling with conditioner in. Review coming soon.
• Darcy's Botanicals Madagascar Vanilla Styling Creme - My fav for twists and braids. Oops, looks like I neglected to review this too. How embarrassing. 
• Coconut Oil - for pre-poos and all kinds of happy hair goodness.
• Alaffia Coconut and Shea Hair Lotion - This is my go to, all purpose daily leave-in and sometime detangler.
• Absent on picture day: Kinky-Curly Knot Today - I love it for detangling.

Just for the record, I want to be very clear that I'm not suggesting anyone rush out and try these. My reviews reflect our experience, but every head of hair is different and what works for us may not work for you.

What's your current hair product line up?

Read. Watch. Enjoy! Tweeny Hair

I've had the pleasure of introducing you all to Rae and her blog Tweeny Hair once or twice before. As my daughters head toward those tween years, I know I'll be looking to Tweeny Hair to find inspiration for styles that are more mature, but not too grown, and advice for getting kids more involved in their own hair care.

Tweeny Hair focuses on older girls. The styles are all appropriate for kids of all ages, but we have moved past the bows and barrettes stage so you won't really be seeing those on the site. Another unique aspect of Tweeny Hair is that we discuss transferring the responsibility of hair care from mom to daughter. This is something we all have to face at some point, but there's just not a lot of information out there about how to go about it. I'm certainly not an expert on the subject, but maybe by sharing my experiences I can help another mom who's facing the same challenges.

                                                      -Rae, author of Tweeny Hair

What is your favorite Tweeny Hair post?
I think my favorite post was entitled "Don't Give Up." I've met many moms who just give up if they can't get their children's hair to do what they think it should. I think sometimes people just need a little encouragement. This post highlights a time when a style didn't go the way I wanted it to and what I did next time to try to make it work.

Tell us how you decided to blog about caring for Syd's hair.
I've been following many natural hair blogs for years. As Syd has grown, she became more worried about not making sure her styles didn't make her look like a little kid. I had to find something between the blogs for children and those for adults, and all I found was a lot of comments from teens asking for something for them. I tossed around the idea of a new blog for almost a year before finally deciding to go for it.

Are there additional places we can find you online?
Yes! We are on Facebook and Twitter, although I've got to admit you will see a lot more of me on Facebook. I'm not a big Twitter person.

What is the hair care routine like at your house?
Our hair care routine changes constantly, especially as Syd learns to take on more of the responsibility. Generally, we wash once every week or so and toss in a co-wash if her hair seems to need it. Washes and co-washes are always followed by a session of moisturizing, detangling, and styling. We usually try to do all these things on the same day, but sometimes time constraints force us to split it up. We just kind of go with the flow most of the time.

What has been the most challenging aspect of caring for Syd's hair?
I think the most challenging part is learning to let go and let Syd do some of it herself. I have always enjoyed hair time. We have had so many mommy-daughter conversations and funny moments that we might not have had if we weren't both sitting in the same place at the same time for so long.

What comes easily?
I think the styling itself has come easily. I've known how to braid, cornrow, and do other styles since I was about 14, so I had a bit of a head start compared to a lot of other moms who are learning as they go.

Do you have a favorite or signature hairstyle?
Oh, that has changed many times through the years! When Syd was about 7 or 8, there were several months where all she wanted was 2 french braids so she could look like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Then she spent a year or so regularly asking for 2-strand twists. For the last few months, she has been embracing big, loose hair so we've been doing a lot of wash-n-go's, twist outs, and braid outs.

Tell us something about yourself that we couldn't learn from your blog.
I am constantly surrounded by children. I have a home daycare, so even though Syd is gone all day at school, I have a herd of small children who invade my house and take over every morning.

When I'm not doing hair or blogging about it, I'm usually...
spending time with kids, doing something church-related, or finding new places to travel to with Syd.

Be sure to head over and visit Rae and Syd at Tweeny Hair. 

Spring Break!

Hey there everyone, the girls have Spring break this week and their grandparents are in town to visit, so posting here at HGH is going to be a bit light this week. The girls may be busy indulging in Spring break activities such as bumper bowling, Ferris wheel riding, and consuming huge quantities of sugary treats. I also suspect they will be showing off all the things they've learned since their last visit with Grandma and Grandpa.

What are the things you do with your kids over Spring break? Anyone traveling somewhere exciting?

Saturday Spotlight: Cornrow Faux Hawk

So many kids just adore mohawks and faux hawks. I really enjoy seeing them on little, little kids; they can look so incredibly cute. Today, Mama D is showing us a faux hawk style accomplished with cornrows. Her Little C sure looks pleased with her 'hawk.

This is a style my daughter, Little C, calls a mohawk. I wasnt really going for a mohawk style, but since Little C thinks it's a mohawk, that's what we'll call it! It was just a simple style that I started out with one big braid in the middle, and then I did several smaller braids on each side of it, using Bee Mine Curly Butter. I liked the Curl Butter for her braids, but I had to use a lot of the product and her hair soaked it all up by morning.

This style took me about an hour and a half, maybe two hours. The reason that it took me so long on this style was the fact that I didn't have a plan. I just sort of started braiding. Most of my styles are unplanned, so that makes it take that much longer to figure out what Im going to do next. I also like to take my time to make sure that I dont get carried away and forget that theres a little girl under all that hair. Little C has super curly 3C type hair and it gets tangled up in itself very easily, so I have to take it slow with her hair to keep it from knotting.

 This style lasted four days. In the second photo, I show how I switched it up after the second day. Usually with cornrows, there aren't many options in switching up the look. I liked this style because there were easy options with it to make it look a little different each day. I could have let it go one more day, but I just can't stand the frizzies and then I have two problems with cornrows. If I make them tight enough to last a week or more, it's too tight for Little C's scalp to handle. Her scalp gets sore, and you can see the hair being pulled. The other thing is if I make them just tight enough to hold, they lift away from the scalp and get super frizzy. I just can't win.

You can see more of this style, and others, on Mama D's blog. Thanks for sharing your cutie with us, Mama D!

Just for Fun Friday

There I sat, trying to answer some Happy Girl email when my sidekick reached out from behind my screen and took a few swipes at me.


Everyone's a critic.

After the Straw Set

Little B's straw set lasted all of three days, but they were days filled with serious play time, complete with several forts made out of blankets. Had she been in school for those three days, the straw set might have lasted the week.

When the straw set curls started to lose their shape, I spritzed them with water and unrolled them in a process that only took a few minutes. As I was adding a moisturizer to the hair just over her ears, I happened to hold her hair in a faux hawk shape. We loved it with the pattern the loosened curls created. I grabbed my trusty loop of old, black stocking, and used it to gather her hair in a big puff. To make the faux hawk shape, I used bobby pins over the stocking and the hair, to hold the hair high on the sides. I then added some daisy barrettes for extra support and decoration.

We put a daisy barrette in front too. These photos really don't do this justice.
In person, this was cute and a little out there, but not too wild and not too grown up.

The next day, I did a standard large puff, again using the stocking to hold it. I tied the stocking a little tighter to create a smaller band for this style. I love the versatility of that little piece of stocking and I love that it isn't at all hard on her hair. I added a flower to the front of the puff and she was ready for school. I love that I can still see some of the straw set pattern tucked in her coils.

Left over from the straw set, these little curls are scattered throughout her hair.

My beloved and cheap hair holder, a piece of black stocking, cut and tied to make a loop.

I think the my final opinion of the straw set is that it was fun for a little change but it's a lot of work for a short term style. It looked interesting, Little B enjoyed seeing her hair in a new way, and I appreciated learning something new, but the style itself didn't have much movement or variation, which made it feel kind of lifeless to me. Her afro doesn't move either, but it changes constantly and has tremendous depth, liveliness, and playfulness. The straw set didn't. I'm glad I tried it though.

Read. Watch. Enjoy! Cherish My Daughter

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Natacha, blogger, vlogger, and creator of Cherish My Daughter. Natacha is mom to four beautiful kids and still finds the time to blog about natural hair and to make videos. One of the things I love about Cherish My Daughter is Natacha's Hot Topic feature. She routinely asks the hard questions and invites viewer replies. I've been reading Cherish My Daughter and was delighted to be able ask Natacha about her blog and her hair routines.

I think there are many places on the internet where you can go and learn cute styles and excellent grooming tips. I think Cherish My Daughter is one place where we celebrate the frizz and fuzz and keep things in balance. Every Mocha Princess should enjoy the beauty process. She should be having fun with her hair. Once we lose track of that, it's time to make some changes.

                                               - Natacha, of Cherish My Daughter

What is your favorite Cherish My Daughter post? 
My favorite post is Her Mother Needs Her to Do Her Hair because it gives an honest glimpse into my heart for my girls. Pregnancy has been challenging for me and tends to bring out all my issues--particularly about hair. True growth happened to me when I decided to embrace the fuzzy nature of our hair. It revolutionized our grooming sessions. If I could give my readers only one thing, it would be the opportunity to share a portion of my epiphany in that season.

We'd love to know about the moment you decided to blog about caring for your children's hair. Tell us about it!
I was constantly finding myself in hair rap sessions with moms struggling to cope with their girl's nappy hair. When I noticed it was happening in the most unusual places (kid's sports practices), and with complete strangers, I wondered if I could use the internet to reach a larger audience. I was shaking the day I wrote my first post.

Are there additional places we can find you online?
I'm on Facebook and Youtube as CherishMyDaughter. I've noticed that some of my viewers are also interested in my hair, and have started their own process of returning to their natural texture. I have a Fotki (picture journal) tracking my personal hair journey from a chemical relaxer to present day. My name on Fotki is Nevergiveup.

Four girls?! What's the hair care routine like at your house?
It's an organized chaos. I tend to put in styles I can wash the girls' hair easily in. I'm always inspecting and sniffing to make sure their scalp is clean. Ideally, I stagger our sessions so that I'm only doing two girls at a time and usually not on the same day. We usually have a Princess Day so the girls can flip their loose hair all over the place and enjoy their moment of freedom. Next we get down to business. I share all my tips and tricks in the blog and am so relieved by how much easier the process has gotten.

What has been the most challenging aspect of caring for your children's hair?
I don't do well when I'm tired and distracted by the stresses of life. I'm committed to avoiding intense grooming sessions when I'm just not emotionally prepared. You can imagine what a challenge it is to find the right moment with a large family and everything that goes along with making a house a home. I also homeschool my children and contract my services (though rarely) as a social worker. It's a constant balancing act.

What has come most easily?
Loving the hair. When my hands are in it, I know why God has given me my four treasures. I'd happily include my son if he was interested in growing out his hair.

Do you have a favorite, or signature, hair style?
I love puffs! They can be fun and casual, or dressed up and dramatic--to me, they always make a statement. I love the fact that nappy hair floats.

Tell us something about yourself that we couldn't learn just by reading Cherish My Daughter.
I asked God for one daughter only--not because I was afraid to do hair, but because I didn't think I would know how to do the "girly girl" thing well. I imagined myself surrounded by sons.

Natacha, finish this sentence. When I'm not doing hair or blogging about it, I'm usually....
...on someone's blog or forum or watching YouTube videos about nappy hair. It's truly my passion! That's is....when I'm not chasing around five kids, homeschooling, managing our home, and waiting at the door like I just stepped out of a spa when Mocha Dad gets home---LOL! I'm kidding...sort of.

Head on over to Cherish My Daughter and read, watch and enjoy! While your there, you may want to subscribe too.

Straw Set for 4b Hair

There are so many fancy tools for forming long curls available now. There are Strawllers, and Curlformers, and those cool bendable foam rod curlers that come in all different diameters. I have none of those things, but I do have a two year old, 99 cent box of unused drinking straws. A box of straws, wet or damp hair, a bit of holding product, and some bobby pins happen to be all that's required for a traditional straw set. And a little patience doesn't hurt either.

To begin, I washed and conditioned Little B's hair. With it still pretty damp, we sat down to begin. In very small sections, I added hair lotion and detangled. After the hair was detangled, I added some styling cream and worked it in a bit. I then took my straw, and starting at the end of the hair, wrapped it around the straw. I allowed the hair to overlap on at the very bottom to create a tucked-in end. The rest of the way up the straw, the hair did not overlap. When I got close to the scalp, I used the bobby pin to secure the straw.

As I worked, I needed to spray some areas with water because the hair was drying. A straw set needs to be be done on wet or very damp hair. Detangling and putting these in took two hours, that includes time for my learning curve. If I do this again, I'd expect it to take a little less time.

We let this air dry for a couple of hours. We needed to leave the house, so I had to take some of these out before they were fully dry and ready. When we came home, I took those curls that had puffed out and re-rolled them.

Here are the important things I learned along the way:

• Smaller sections are much better. Larger sections can mean tighter curls at the end and puffy curls near the scalp. A smaller amount of hair keeps the curl more uniform. I went back and divided many of my sections in half. 
• These need a long time to dry. If you don't use heat, that can be many, many hours. Plan accordingly.
• As the hair is wrapped around the straw, keep things a little looser as the wrapping begins. If the first few turns on the straw are too tight, the angle created makes it impossible to get the straw near the scalp as more hair is wrapped around. Here's an example:

See how tightly wrapped the hair looks just below the circle and then how loose it is
in the circle? Wrap too tightly at the beginning and it puffs out at the near the scalp.

Re-rolled looser near the ends to get closer to the scalp.

Other tips to remember:

• Keep the wrapping direction consistent with each straw in a particular section of hair.
• Remember to set the straws in the direction you want to curls to fall.
• If you are buying new straws to do this, avoid the flexible kind. If you have to use flexible straws, either point that part down and keep the hair off it or cut the straws first to remove it (unless the hair is extremely long, the entire length of the straw isn't needed.)

Removing the straws went very quickly. Careful removal is important though, otherwise the curl can come apart. The remove these, take the bobby pin out, gently grip the bottom of the curl, and slowly pull the straw straight down.

Overall, we like the result. It's nice for a little change. Little B likes it because it reminds her of the characters in her favorite book series, Sugar Plum Ballerinas.

The straw set curls seem a bit fragile. Before doing this, I was reading up on straw sets and many people said they lasted 1-3 days, while for others they lasted a week or more. It will be interesting to see how long this straw set lasts. I'll be sure to let you know!

Have you done a straw set? How did it go? Have you tried both regular straws and curlers? Which did you like better?

Saturday Spotlight: Softball Hair

I know that some of our Happy Girls are softball players. Styling for sports can be a challenge, especially when the sport involves a helmet. Mama J has it down though. She is going to share a softball style that works for her nine year old Miss. M, and she's going to share the story of her younger daughter's natural hair rebound after a case of ringworm. As a little bonus, we also get to see a photo of Miss M and Miss D with their baby brother.

My oldest, Miss M, is nine and my second daughter, Miss D, was three when she came home. We also have a thirteen month old son. Miss M is really into softball, so styles that keep her hair out of her way and fit under the softball helmet are our goals this time of year.  Also, matching the team colors (maroon) is a must!  I couldn’t find maroon beads so “cranberry” was a close match.  Also, as she is getting older she requests styles that look less “little girlish.”

Miss D's foster mom had done a good job keeping her hair healthy, but at some point along the way she had acquired scalp ring worm and her head was shaved in the back. When she came to live with us right after her third birthday her hair was about four inches on top and VERY short in the back. Over her ears her hair was so short it was almost bald. At that point I had already been caring for my older daughter’s hair for four years and thought I knew a thing or two. The first time I sat behind that little head after washing I remember feeling completely lost as to how to start styling it. After a good trim and some patience I found a couple of styles that worked well for her. I felt pressure to band her hair even though I knew that free hair and more protective styles where healthier. Thank you for the inspiration to put social pressure aside and let her hair be.

How sweet are these three? The cuteness just goes on and on. Many thanks to Mama J for sharing her sweeties with us and for sharing her strategy for styling during softball season. 

If you'd like to join us for a Saturday Spotlight, click here to learn how. 

Loving Your Hair Workshop in Seattle

Hello everyone! I know many of you are in the pacific Northwest region of the US and I wanted to pass along some information on a natural hair event that's happening in Seattle on April 3, 2011. Felicia Leatherwood will be presenting her Loving Your Hair Workshop, brought to you by The New Naturalista. You can get all the details of the April 3rd event here. While the workshop focuses mainly on adult hair care, parents and caregivers of curly boys and girls are certainly welcome to come and bring their questions. Tickets are $45 in advance and $50 at the door. The workshop is four hours (!) long.

I'm in the Pacific Northwest, and would love to go to this, but I'm running in my first 5k that day. Am I nervous, you ask? Considering the current state of my shins, I'm pretty much terrified. If you go to the workshop, please say hello to Tonya from The New Naturalista for me!

Inspiration From Odd Places - Woven Braids

This is a Title Nine* catalog. I was thumbing through, considering whether or not I should buy a sports bra called The Last Resort, when I came across this tank top. I thought the straps were kind of interesting and then I thought what a cool braid pattern that could be. 

As with a lot of my ideas, things went better in my head than they did in practice. I started off with a center part and then a part across the crown of her head, making two sections. On the right, I cornrowed diagonally up to the crown of her head, continuing the braid with the hair that was left. On the left, I made one big cornrow, banding it when it got near the crown of her head. 

The big cornrow is going to be banded at the point where the clip is holding it.

I then took the big cornrow and split the unbraided tail into two sections, one thin, one thick. I braided each of these.

Pardon the lack of smoothness in my braids. The hair wasn't cooperating
very well. Or maybe my fingers weren't working well. Or both.

With all the braids done. I wove them together and used bobby pins to hold them. I added beads to the ends and let the braids fall over the rest of her loose hair. 

It looks kind of cute in the photo, but the reality was hard to manage. The braids kept getting lost in her loose hair and it just wasn't practical. The next day, I took the beads out and unbraided the cornrow tails. Instead of letting the braids hang, I continued the cornrow after weaving in the thin and thick braids. My cornrows stretched from the front right of her head to the bottom left, with the thin and thick braids coming in diagonally across them. It sounds harder than it was; it was really simple to do.

I realize this is hard to see. Apologies!

I gathered all my braids ends and my loose hair into a single pony tail. It may not be as dramatic as the original style, but it's certainly more practical. I like the look of three braids on one side, and one of the other. The style is centered, because of the center part and the ponytail, but all the interesting stuff happens off center and on the diagonal,  kind of like Little R herself.

* Title Nine is a clothing company that makes sports clothes for women. They have some of the best sports bras around. Tittle IX is a law that stipulates,"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance...". The impact of Title IX on high school and college athletics is enormous; since 1972, schools receiving Federal money have had to provide equal opportunities for both sexes. Yay!