Hair Diary || Braid-Out to Stretched Bun

Chunky braid-out using eight braids on wet hair.

After some time wearing wash-n-gos, I decided to wear a braid-out for a few days and then a stretched bun for a day.  To go into the braid-out, I finger-combed on wet, conditioner-soaked hair and made eight braids.  Then I let my hair air-dry and undid the braids for the braid-out.

And now for more hair photos:

Bun on hair stretched from the braid-out.  No combs.  No brush.

Bun on hair stretched from the braid-out.  No combs.  No brush.

Bun on hair stretched from the braid-out.  No combs.  No brush.

Hair Diary || Ombre Color for the Summer

The resulting hair color.

My red highlights from about 2.5 years ago had grown out and faded gradually and so I've been back to my natural beautiful black color (with a few faded sections) for some time.  With summer approaching and my itch for a change intensifying, I decided to dye my ends brown for an ombre effect.  The brown did not come out as light as I thought it would but it is growing on me.  I may or may not decide to go lighter in a few months.  We will see.

Circa January 2011.  My red highlights months were done circa November 2010.

Clairol Textures & Tones is a popular brand among naturals, largely because it does not dry out and damage our strands as other dyes can.  I don't know whether I like the product yet.  We'll see how the color fairs over the next few months.  (I let the color set for 35 minutes before rinsing.) 

This is how I achieved the ombre.
I figured it would be easiest to work from  eight big braids and apply the color to the ends (which I left unbraided).

The result.  It looks more subtle in person.

The result.  The flash enhances the color.  It looks more subtle and less red in person.

It looks more subtle in person.

It looks more subtle in person.

Hair Diary || From Copper-Blonde to Purple Haze

After my fun with copper-blonde highlights (see this previous post), I have gone to purple haze.  All I did was apply a color (from Manic Panic) on top of my previous highlights, and voila!  As for my hair routine?  It has basically consisted of weekly washes with twist outs and braid outs over the past month.  For now, I've returned to big twists.

And now for more hair pics:

After depositing the color.

After depositing the color. (Before twisting.)

After depositing the color.

Chunky twist out.

I believe this was a braid out.

Hair Diary || Back to Protective Styling ... But With Heat and Jumbo Twists?

So, after another summer of going wild (hair-wise, that is), it is time to get back into protective style mode.  However, there will be some changes from my usual small/medium twists on air dried hair.  Why?

1. I want to see my length more.  My twists shrink a lot, if you haven't noticed already.
2. I want to be able to switch from a protective style to a loose style and back in one day.  After spending hours to twist my hair, undo-ing those babies prior to 3-4 weeks is seemingly wasteful.
3. I want shorter detangling sessions.  Long-term protective styles equate to hours of detangling while short-term protective styles can mean 45 minutes or less.  However, the trade-off is more manipulation (re-styling) per month.

More details on these changes will be posted once I finalize them.  In the mean time, here are some hair pics:

From "purple haze" back to ...

Copper.  Semi-flat ironed hair.

Old braid out.

Twist out and pinkish (accidentally via "purple haze"
mixed with conditioner as a toner) hair.

Hair Diary || Working on a Non-Protective Style Regimen

If you've been following my hair diary, then you probably already saw this coming.  After years of protective styling in twists and a couple summers of experimenting with loose hair styles, the day has come.  I'm ready for a drastic regimen change.  The details are still being worked out, but for the last couple of months I've successfully been doing the following:

WEEKLY:

- Wash (As I Am Cleansing Conditioner or homemade honey shampoo) and condition (Tresemme Naturals followed by Aphogee 2-Minute Keratin Reconstructor or ORS Replenishing Conditioner) hair

- Finger detangle conditioner-soaked hair (~30-40 minutes)

- Rinse then seal 

- Plop hair for 20-45 minutes

- Braid hair into 8-10 sections for a braid-out the following day

DAILY:

- Wear satin bonnet or loose satin scarf to protect braid-out

- Fluff the next morning

MONTHLY:

- Switch finger detangling for comb detangling

- Deep cleanse my hair (Shea Moisture African Purification Masque or Dessert Essence Shampoo)

Stay tuned ... 

Hair Diary || Braids and 6-Month Protective Style Challenge

So I found a protective style (a second old faithful from the past).  It is not twists, but it does meet my needs in an interesting way.  The protective style is braid extensions, which I self installed ten days ago.  In the mean time, I can give my hair a serious break from manipulation and get it back to the length I had.  (My hair is now BSB.  My goal is to get it back to WSL.) I hope to keep this set of braids for 3-4 months.  Until next time, here are more hair pics (from the past few months):

Old braid out.

Twists (only wore them for a few days).

Fresh wash-n-go.

Old wash-n-go.

Hair Diary || Braids, Break, and Braids

Braids, a short break, then back to braids.

In my last post, I mentioned that I would do a 6-month protective style challenge.  At the time, I installed a set of dark brown, braid extensions, which I wore through November and December.  Those braids were then taken down, and I wore my real hair in flat twists for about week.  (At some point during that week, I decided to color my hair black for the winter.  Summer was loooong over as well as my intrigue with my highlights.)  Then, with January here, I trimmed my hair and installed a second set of braid extensions -- this time, black.  I'm officially in my third month of this 6-month challenge.

Hair before color.

Color in "natural blue black".
(There are better dyes out there; i just picked this because it was only $2.99.)

Rinsed and now conditioning.

Tailbone length braid extensions.

Aiming to keep this in through the end of March.