African Threading & My Busy Life

After wearing my Fro my hair needs TLC so I planned my next two styles to be the least damaging, moisture retaining and with as minimal manipulation I can get away with.

In all that planning I didn't include the time and energy it takes to help two feral kitties adapt to house cat living.

Their antics left me needing to take my hubby to the airport while my stretched hair is drying. After pinning up the front I decided that I really like the look and will be utilizing African Threading to create additional eclectic styles.

Being Thankful

I spent a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends and tried out new techniques with my hair.
Here is my Thanksgiving look:

I tried Flat African Threading as shown on the YT channel Chocolate Hair/Vanilla Care. I enjoyed trying it out although the next time I do it I'll make sure to use a curved needle. My fingers and brain didn't always want to agree on what we were doing and a straight needle made it more painful than necessary.

Here is a close up of the front:

The back was styled using Curl Formers and although it took me a moment to get the handle of it I have to say that I enjoy wearing them more than Flexi-rods. However, I'm tender headed so I won't sleep in them again. The next time I want a "until I go to bed" curly style I'll just do my hair early in the morning and sit under the dryer.

The style lasted all day even though I didn't remove all the Curl Formers correctly or go back and make them all lie down neatly. I knew I'd have to do something different with the back the next day so I wasn't super worried about it.

The little white sparkles you see are beads that I threaded in as I was doing the flat threading. I've never attempted something like this but I will be doing it again because I like the look.

With the versatility and moisture retention of African Threading, I'm fairly sure that I'll be rocking threaded looks for all of 2014.

If you've ever mixed techniques or styling options I'd love to see what you've done. Feel free to post your creations here.

My Lastest Creation and My Love for Learning

If you follow me on Instagram (if you don't you should *Smile*) there is a post that shows my newest style from various angles. I consider them my glamour shots and for those who are interested I'll take "after" photo's when I take the style down.

The sides were parted into eight sections, four rectangular and four triangular, that I threaded before twisting two together to make the swirls. I knew that I would be twisting and pinning them up so although the thread is attached firmly at the root it isn't too tight.

Learning how to hold my hands and complete the movements to keep the thread taut against my hair was a bit frustrating, but I was really happy when I finally figured it out. I love that this is a traditional African technique that I can incorporate into my life.

I did have some concern about the thread cutting into or tearing my hair, so I made sure to coat each section in beeswax before wrapping to help with slippage. The additional beeswax on my hands made moving the thread around my hand fairly simple as well.

My husband and I went out for a late lunch today, and I was amazed by the number of people who stared and stopped to talk to me about my hair. I'm glad that my styles can encourage conversation and that most of the time I have the time to stop and share.

My plan is to leave this up until Thanksgiving or so and then try out another style that I'm dreaming up.

If you've ever worn a style that incorporated African Threading/Ghana Braids, I'd love to hear about it!

This Weekend's Hair Adventures

I have been making my own deep conditioner for the last few months and while I love the fact that I'm not putting anything on my hair that I couldn't eat, it can be a bit of a pain because for the best blend all the ingredients should be at the same temperature.

Finding a deep conditioner that contains no soy is so difficult that I'd given up even looking until I came by a Shea Moisture product that doesn't have any in it along with no parabens etc. I'm pretty excited to try it out on my hair before I move on to exploring products by Morrocco Method. I love the fact that they are proudly non-gmo no soy and other things that I try to avoid like the plague.

The second new thing that I will be trying this weekend is African Threading. Unlike a lot of naturals I don't want to use it to stretch my hair, I want to create a style that will last for a few weeks without the shrinkage I experience with regular two-strand twists.

I'll be sure to post pictures and my thoughts on everything I try this weekend.

Have a groovy weekend!

P.S. Please feel free to post anything new that you'll be trying.