Let me take a moment to explain what I mean and what my plans are. There are a lot of blogs out there devoted to natural black hair care, several of which I follow (Chocolate Hair Vanilla Care, Beads, Braids & Beyond, and Braid with Me come to mind). I do not intend to start a hair blog here at Notes From a Blessed Life or anywhere else. As I once said in a previous post, "Hope's hair care, however, is a big part of our lives. Properly caring for Hope's natural African hair is just one of the ways I show her my love for her, and I truly consider it a blessing to do this for her. The time we spend on hair care is time I consider very well spent, as it is, after all, time spent together." And so, in celebration of Hope, her fabulous hair, and our special time together, I plan to highlight her hairstyles whenever the mood strikes me.
And so, to begin, here are some highlights of Hope's hairstyles from this summer. Enjoy!
Hope had started out the summer already wearing mini box braids (which had started out beaded... that style I had featured back in May, here.) At the beginning of summer, then, those braids were getting a little weary. What I like to do then is to french braid the braids. I leave that in for at least a couple of days because it is so cute on its own. What is left after removing the french braids is lovely, curly braids (seen in the next two photos).
After removing Hope's box braids, it was time for a little haircut (just a trim of the ends). The best way for me to do that is to style here hair in two-stranded twists first, and then cut her hair. This actually was only the second time I have cut Hope's hair. Twists don't last as long in Hope's hair as braids do, so she didn't wear this style very long.
This was Hope's next style, late in June. I sectioned her hair into ponies and then added two-stranded rope twists with beads. This, again, is not a style that Hope can wear for a long time, but we only meant to keep it in a short time, because of our plans to participate in Fros on the Fourth.
That fabulous Afro!
So... here is the first set of box braids I put in during the summer. These were done in the early part of July, prior to our trip to Indianapolis. I used pink princess beads for Hope, and those of you who know her well, know that those beads are SO Hope!! She loved (and I mean LOVED) those beads! We kept the beads in maybe about two weeks, then took those out and the braids themselves lasted almost 5 weeks. (If you're counting, Hope had about 90 braids in this particular style.)
At the lake, as you can see the beads have been removed and Hope is wearing the braids in a high pony. Cute!
Here I have french braided the braids again, which gave us the curly result you see in the next four pictures.
While removing Hope's braids, I was careful to keep her hair in sections (this makes it much, much easier to wash, condition, and detangle). She wore these Afro puffs for a few days. I put in large braids each night to reduce drying and tangles. These adorable Afro puffs were even bigger in person than the picutres do justice to.
Before our August vacation, it was time to reset Hope's hair in a long-wearing protective style again. This time, I wanted to be kinder to Hope's ends and so we did not finish the braids off with beads. These braids were positively goregous on Hope! (And again, if you're counting... this style had almost 150 braids!)
Hope's braids were holding strong throughout our vacation, which included a number of dips in the various hotel pools. Since we want to keep chlorine away from Hope's hair, that meant wearing a swim cap. Putting a swim cap on and off can wear a lot on the hair, especially at her hairline. Even so, Hope's hair was still retaining its health and moisture, which is the most important thing!
Here is Hope the last week of August, still rocking her braids from before our vacation.
After nearly a month, Hope's braids still look beautiful. While in the past, I may have styled her braids into pigtails or side ponies, Hope has been telling me she wants to wear her hair "down," and so that has been what we've been doing for the most part. I just keep the braids moisturized, but we have really kept styling them to a minimum this time around. She'll probably wear these braids for the rest of this week, and maybe longer. Hope's first day of school is right around the corner, but I haven't quite decided what we'll be doing next. I may be trying out adding yarn to her hair since Hope has asked for pink hair. We'll see! :)
Such a beautiful girl~inside and out!
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