I wrote about going to the Corinne Bailey Rae concert a few days ago (see that post here: Beautiful Voice, Great Performer, Gorgeous Hair). Well, I wanted to add a post about my look for the Corinne Bailey Rae concert. I was very excited to get a chance to see Corinne sing live, so I started thinking about what I wanted to do to my hair a few days ahead of time. I decided to try a new experiment. In August I posted about trying a Bantu Knot-out on my hair (see that post here: Bantu Knot-out). Well, I’ve always liked how my hair looks when I do a twist-out, so I decided to see what would happen to my hair if I combined two-strands twists with bantu-knots.

This is what I did: I grabbed a large section of hair, applied ORS Lock & Twist Gel to the section, combed the hair out to make sure that it was thoroughly detangled and began two-strand twisting it. After the hair was twisted, I then began to take the twisted hair and twist it upon itself until it was in a bantu knot (I have a feeling that I may have to put together a how-to video to show this process – if you want me to put together a video, please let me know in the comments below). I then secured the knot with an elastic band (just as I did in this post: Bantu Knots – sorry about all the post references). I let these dry for a day and a half, then took them down and fluffed them up.  Here are my results:

Was the extra step worth the end result? I think so.  The first time I did a bantu knot-out, I liked it, but I did not get the dramatic results that I wanted.  By two-strand twisting the hair first, then twisting it into bantu knots, my hair had more of a defined texture.

Here is the back.  I think if you compare these pictures to the pictures I took after my first bantu knot-out, you will see that my hair is more defined this time around.

Here is the side view

Here is the top view.  Can you see the clumps of coils & curls?

Here’s another view of the side & back of my hair

The front of my hair really held the two-strand twisted texture well.

Here’s my overall look!

OK, so I woke up the next morning and began to untwist my knots (see yesterday’s Bantu-Knot post). I really liked the look of the knots and could see them lasting for a while – something to think about for the future.  They were hard to sleep on though.

Anyway, I started taking them down.  Now, I didn’t not get the exact results that I was looking for, but I really loved what I did get.  I wore the same bantu knot-out for two days.  On the third day, I washed my hair and reknotted my hair for a new bantu knot-out  (I’m wearing these knots now as I type this).

My bantu knot-out resulted in a cute curly afro.

The texture was very different than a twist-out (and much quicker to accomplish).  It was also not as big as a stretched afro would be.

Here’s the back. The knots created clumps of twists and curves.

Here’s another texture shot.  I think the bantu knot-out will be one of my quick go-to styles when I don’t know what I want to do with my hair.

Here’s my overall look for the day.

I am very glad that my sister, Coco, is now a writer for this website, because I am not nearly as experimental with my hair as she is.  I tend to stick with a few proven, easy styles (partly due to lack of time, I’m a home school mom – enough said ), while she practically has a new style every week.  Well, I decided to break the mold and try something new with my hair.  I was looking through Curly Nikki’s website, when I saw a post about Bantu Knot-outs.  The ladies on the post had some gorgeous results, but they all had longer hair.  I decided that I wanted to see what a Bantu Knot-out would look on shorter hair.  So I washed my hair and proceeded to twist my hair into knots.  Here is what Bantu Knots ended up looking like:

Here’s the front of my Bantu Knots.  Check out my website in the background.

Here the side/back.  I never intended on wearing these out, so I didn’t brother trying to part my hair.  I just grabbed and twisted.

My hair is too short for the knots to stay on their own, so I used cloth bands to hold them.  I wish I could have parted my hair (I’m not very good at making straight parts on my own head), because I wouldn’t mind wearing this style out (without the multi-colored bands though).

I’ll post the results of my Bantu Knot-out tomorrow, so be sure to check back!

Excuse me while I do a happy dance for a moment *dance, dance, dance* …OK, I just had to celebrate briefly.  What am I celebrating? Two things actually: 1) I am one post away from finally moving all of my old archived information over to this new blog format (except Val & Nadine), and 2) It has been 1 year since I BCed for the 2nd time! Now it’s not really a nappiversary, because I first BCed five years ago, but another year of healthy hair growth is always cause for celebration.  Just to recap, here’s my hair a year ago when I BCed for the 2nd time:

And here are my updates from just a few days ago (click to enlarge):

I’m looking forward to another year of healthy happy hair!  Have you BCed this past year?  If you are a new natural, who has been natural for less than a year, please click the New Naturals showcase link in the green bar above. Not a new natural, but would still like to be showcased?  Click the “Natural-ness in the States” link in the green bar above to “rep your state”!

I discovered an interesting picture effect while visiting a local aquarium. Sitting next to the large aquarium and angling the camera just right, you get a cool reflection effect.  Check it out:

Here’s my picture next to the aquarium.

Here’s my sister, Co’s picture

Here’s my dear daughter’s picture. You can actually see one of the fish in her picture.

I also took pictures like this of my mom and son.  They all came out pretty cool.

Here are various pictures of a cornrow/one strand twist combination.  One-strand twists were created by untwisting the two-strands of my two-strand twists.  I mentioned before in some of my old archived pictures that one strand twists create a slightly different texture, which is a little more defined than a twist-out.

I later used a scarf to cover up the cornrows to create yet another variation of the look. Two-strand twists are a versatile styling option that can be used to create various looks.

The last picture is of my dear daughter and I showing off of braid/twist outs.  (click pictures to view larger)

Here are a few pictures of my daughter and I with our braids/twists. My hair is cornrowed in the front and two-strand twisted in the back.  My DD’s (dear daughter’s) hair is cornrowed and beaded, with one row of box braids in the back.  I just appreciated getting a break from doing any hair for the next two weeks or so.  Yay! Click the pictures to see full sized.

After growing tired of wearing the cornrows with the afro (I wasn’t satisfied with it, because it wasn’t a stretched afro), I decided to go ahead and do two-strand twists in the back.  I re-braided the front, with two braids on one side and three on the other,   then began to grab and twist.  Below are the results, be sure to click the pictures to see the full picture.

Here’s a style that I had not done since my 2nd BC.  I cornrowed the front of my hair and left the back in an afro.  A stretched afro would have really made this style stand out, but I decided not to stretch it.  Another variation (not pictured) is the cornrow front/puff back combination. Be sure to click the pictures to see them full size.

If I say it once, I’ll say it a million times – the twist out is my all time favorite style!  Once again, this style is achieved by twisting my hair into two strand twists, allowing the hair to remain twisted for a week or two, then simply untwisting and separating all of the twists.  Here are my lasted twist out pictures:

continue reading …