Not a Hair Blog: Bantu Knots and Finger Coils

Following Hope's beautiful and very fabulous pigtails of a few weeks ago, I styled her hair into another very cool look... in fact, when she wears this style, I tell her she looks like a rock star! 

Bantu Knots are a really fun (and fast & easy) way to style Hope's hair.  Since she does have swimming lessons once a week and wears a swim cap for that, though, this style is not really the best for long wearing.  Since the Bantu Knots are actually formed with two-stranded rope twists, I was able to extend the time in between stylings by having Hope wear her hair in a sort of transitional style using those twists.  That looked cute, too!

So, yesterday, we set to work on removing this style and setting a new one. I used a time-saving technique by washing and conditioning Hope's hair with these twists still in.  (This saves a lot of time on detangling.)  I then removed just one at a time, detangled, and set the section in finger coils.  Finger coils are just basically a one-stranded twist.  I've actually never done them on Hope before, and I am so glad that I gave them a try because they look just adorable on her! 

You can see how these finger coils really show off Hope's natural curl pattern.  What you can't easily see in this style is just how long her hair is getting!  That is because as each curl dries, it shrinks up significantly.  But as the person who did each of these finger coils, I can assure you, the girl's hair is really long!  We probably won't keep this style in any more than the next two weeks for a couple of reasons.  This style could result in the hair actually locking, which is not something we are interested in doing at Hope's young age.  I do think Hope would look really nice in locs, but since they are permanent once set, she would need to be older to be a part of that decision (in my opinion).  The other reason is that she will be having her very first set of school pictures taken the first week of November (that's right... school pictures!), and so I'll be putting in something special for that.

As always, Hope looks beautiful and fabulous!!  And I do feel so blessed to be able to take care of her gorgeous hair.  I am glad she is learning from such a young age to love and appreciate her curls!