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.

It's Fro Time Again!!!

One of the best things about returning to my natural hair texture is the people I've met. I get a lot of compliments and asked a lot of questions when I'm out and about and the style that is sure to get a lot of talk time is my Fro.

Here is a picture of my Fro last year right before I attended the Nzuri Hair Festival here in Houston. In this picture I had been natural for a year and 4 months or thereabouts. I had such a blast when people stopped to ask for pictures and to ask questions and give out the kindest compliments. I especially enjoyed people telling me that I was encouraging them.

I'm sitting here now in my pre-Fro twists smiling at both the memories and the anticipation of going BIG with the hair at this year's festival.

Because this style makes me hot when I wear it and has the potential to incur more damage than I want to deal with I save it for the fall/winter which is the only time of year I can tolerate the heat it generates and cuts down on having to manipulate it every night to keep it relatively tangle free, stretched and moisturized.

To prep for Fro time I wash and deep condition my hair and then wear it in a stretched style of some sort. Here is my latest creation which I've taken down for the last bit of prep. Because the African threading stretches my hair out quite a bit, if I'm going to have the rounded Fro look that I like I have to get my hair to shrink up a bit without reaching maximum shrinkage. To accomplish that I mist my hair with distilled water, slather it with Shea Butter and then put it in chunky twists that are much looser at the root than the end. If I wear a Fro immediately I mist lightly, add oil and retwist every night that the hair is out. If I'm not going to rock my Fro for a few days then I'll just pin the chunky twists up and/or wear a head wrap until Fro-day. =)

Once I've rocked the Fro I always pamper my hair a lot. My main hair goal is healthy long hair so I choose styles that make that goal attainable more quickly.

I'll be posting pictures from the festival as well of my hair so make sure to check back this weekend.


I made this post because I decided to participate in a Tendril Tuesday Link Up at www.okdani.com. My first thought was to do a side-by-side comparison post during my festival feedback posts this weekend. This way has a bit more of a teaser factor which works just as well.

If you're going to the festival this weekend I'd love to hear from you. Who knows we may be able to meet up and talk hair!

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!

Regimen Changes, Cultural Appreciation and the Happy Dance

After my experiences last night I have come to fall in love with two new techniques one of which will become a part of my hair maintenance routine.

Although I finger detangle, my hair is so coily that as soon as there is nothing to make it hold it's stretch it begins to twist upon itself so even when I'm taking down a style I have to re-twist each section after I finger detangle.

I used to comb my hair while in the shower usually under running water to ease the discomfort but I found that it was too easy to exert too much force and I would still have to comb through my hair when I got out of the shower in order to style it.

One of my she-ro's, Mahogany Knots, featured oil rinsing in a YT video and I put it on my to-try list. So after I rinsed out my DC I went back over each section with a generous amount of coconut oil. Once I had the oil on I ran my fingers through the section and then re-twisted it. I immediately noticed that there wasn't much hair coming away in-between my fingers but the real proof of it being the bee's knees was the fact that by adding just a bit of my Shea Butter mix I was easily able to comb through each section before stretching.

I decided to attempt African Threading to stretch my hair because I see an endless possibility for future styles if I can master the technique. I was inspired again by Kiki, but the actual tutorial came from Girls Love Your Curls YT channel.

You can see from the picture that I need to practice a bit to work out the tension needed but I have to say that it was almost as fast as banding and was less frustrating for me. I'll be attempting an actual style tomorrow so we'll see how it works out.

I appreciate seeing the examples of African artistry available for those of us of the Diaspora who haven't previously been exposed to it.

Have you tried African Threading and if so what was your experience like?

My Two Year Hairversary and Why I didn't do a Straightened Hair Length Check

I  had plans to straighten my hair for my two-year "hairversary" but as the day drew closer I was less and less inclined to do it.

I had a variety of reasons but the ones the ultimately kept me from doing it are these:

• I rarely, if ever, wear my hair down so why would I step outside of my normal because of hair growth?

• Where I live the temperature and humidity are incredible in August. It just didn't make sense to invest the time and energy when I knew that reversion would be almost instantaneous.

• In sharing my story in a public venue I have vowed to be authentic and true which for me includes showing the parts of my life that I choose to share as they really are. I want people to meet me on the street and recognize me and what I stand for.  

None of my reasons mean that I don't care about my hair growth/retention but rather I don't want to show myself wearing my hair in ways that don't fit in with my lifestyle choices. I did take a picture of me taking my hair down for my next style right around my anniversary and it does show how long my hair had up until that point.








How about you? Do you feel that your on-line and/or public persona is a reflection of the real you?

What's Inside Matters

I would be lying if I said that I didn't go through a short period of "productjunkyism." I believe that most people who transition back to their natural hair patterns do.

Mine was short-lived because I started really reading labels when I made purchases. Because of my health concerns I had been told by my doctor's to avoid soy so I stopped eating tofu and thought that was the end of the matter.

When I started researching more about soy and it's potential side-effects I began to search through all of my beauty products and was astounded at how many things it can be found in. Combine that with its commonplace use in processed foods and I realized that I hadn't been avoiding soy at all which I believe contributed to a health crisis a year or so ago.

Now that I am equipped with more knowledge I make sure that I take my time researching products, ingredients, suppliers and all the rest. My money matters, my health matters and what's inside of everything I purchase matters.

 

Has returning to natural inspired other changes in your life? If so what have they been? Feel free to share!