Not a Hair Blog: Celebrating Hope's (Big) Hair

Since Hope is out of school for a couple of weeks, I wanted to really let her hair down... literally.  See, she takes swimming lessons at her preschool once a week, and swimming lessons in the pool mean a swim cap on her head to protect her hair.  Swim caps and big hair just do not get along very easily.  So we tend toward more protective styles that can be easily managed and maintained, that will also fit under her swim cap.

No swimming lessons=no swim cap=bring on the big hair!

And when your hair looks and feels this fabulous, 

you have just got to put your (own) hands in there!

So, if you're interested in knowing what I did (& how), here it is... pretty simple really.

You may have already seen from our Christmas pictures that in her previous style, Hope was already showing off her big and fabulous curls.  She was wearing two "Afro puffs" with two beaded braids in the front.  In case you missed it...

I had been maintaining this style by putting in two rope twists in each puff every night (4 twists total).  In the morning I would undo those twists and add product as needed (curl cream or moisturizing spray).  Actually her hair has felt so good all week that I have added very little product. Just fluffed the puffs (cute, I know) and that was basically it.

So this morning, I removed the twists and one puff first and started (from the bottom up) to rake through (with my fingers only) some good products: (1) Oyin Handmade Juices & Berries, (2) Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie, and (3) Shea Moisture Curling Souffle (but just a little, mostly on the ends).  I used a method called "shingling," where I layered in the product, as I already said, from the bottom up.  This ensures that product is evenly distributed through all the curls, and not just those on the surface.  After I finished the left side, I just repeated on the right.  I did pay attention to trying to sort of 'merge' those two sections, as they had been separated with that down the middle part.  I didn't want her hair to continue parting down the middle.  It was simple enough... I just took a little from the left of the center part, and a little from the right, and raked it with my fingers... part line disappeared!  Then I removed the two beaded braids and applied the same products to those strands.

Maintaining this style will require some attention each evening and morning, but that's no big deal.  I'll simply put some rope twists (random, no exact parting) at night, and then undo those in the morning, again applying any needed product to keep Hope's hair moisturized and healthy.

The best part of this style (and every style we do, really) for me is Hope's own reaction.  She loves this!  She is currently dressed up in her princess dress, and has informed us that she is going to a princess party with her big hair!

merry and bright

What could be better than this?

Our Christmas celebration actually started a few days before Christmas, with the arrival of my parents.

With my responsibilities at church, we decided to open a few gifts with the kids on Christmas Eve.

The kids woke up to their gifts from Santa... an iPod Touch for Geoffrey...

In Geoffrey's stocking, there was even a Lego Mini Figure of Santa!

... Hope got the Princess bike she was wishing for!  

By the way, the hair was fabulous, wasn't it?  

This blue folder Steve is holding doesn't look too exciting, but inside was the real gift... a year of dates planned by me, one for each month of the coming year.  It was so much fun to watch him read (twice!) all the things I had planned for us to do.

Since we didn't have any snow on the ground on Christmas Day, Hope was excited to get to go outside and ride her new bike.  It was V-E-R-Y cold, though, so we didn't stay out long...

She did great the bike (her first!).  And you just have to love the doll carriage mounted on the handle bars!

six weeks in the life of a braid (well, more like one hundred braids)

Last month, I shared Hope's hair style for her school picture day.  She looked gorgeous in her beaded mini box braids, and they lasted (happily) even longer than I thought they would... six whole weeks!  Even though I intended to take the beads out after only a couple of weeks, Hope had other plans.  She did not want to part with those beads!  As I always say... it's Hope's hair, so I respected her wishes and kept them in.  Until... she got sick and... yuck... threw up in her hair (she was laying down on her side at the time... enough said).  So, that certainly brought the beads out, but the braids themselves held on strong through a good washing.

Some of Hope's favorite things to do with her braids were to wear them in pigtails, either regular or braided, and most definitely to wear them with a headband.  Specifically, the same hot pink headband (which, I do believe, she wore every day last week and again today, in fact).  Once the beads were out, I was able to curl Hope's braids by using a simple 'braiding the braids' technique (braids before bed come out in the morning and the mini box braids are cute and curly).

With Christmas around the corner, it was time to think about a new style, so today I washed and conditioned Hope's hair with the braids still in.  We then started the (long) process of braid removal.  There is just no rushing this process.  I use the end of a pin-tail comb to separate the stands and pull out one stitch at a time, being careful not to break the hair.  After each braid was removed, I applied a curl moisturizing cream to that strand of hair.  I worked in small sections, and once I had a decent amount of loose hair I simply braided that hair (a much larger, chunky braid made up of about 10-15 of the smaller ones).  I did this to help retain length as the hair dries and to keep the section detangled.  This is to help with the new style, which should go in Saturday morning.  We'll be finishing this un-braiding process tomorrow.

So, here are some photos of some of the cute ways Hope wore her braids throughout this six weeks (I still can't believe we got six weeks out of them!  This is the proof of how the time invested in proper protective styling pays off).  Come back in a few days to see Hope's Christmas style.