Okay, yesterday I put some yarn braids in my hair for the first time. I’ve been wanting to do it for a while now but I’ve been putting it off for two reasons; it is time consuming and I know I’m not going to feel like taking them down. It took me 9 hours non-stop to complete them…that’s a job, I could have been to work and back in the time it took to finish. I don’t even want to think about taking them down. The thing that finally made me do them is that I’m tired of doing my hair and I want something that is going to last a while so I won’t have to worry about it for a while. I don’t know if I will ever do them again but I really like the results. Check out the video I put together below. It can also be viewed on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L8nJn8cTKw.

I am pleased to present yet another how-to styling video.  This one was requested by one of our facebook followers. This is a fairly easy style that I like to do when I want a protective style, but do not want to two strand twist all of my hair because of time restraints  (ok, ok you can call it laziness ).  First, here are a few pictures of the style, then you can check out the video below:

While I was finishing up my twists, my husband received his new Arch by CCB sweatshirts in the mail.  I just had to show mine off.

I'm wearing an Arch by CCB sweatshirt

Arch by CCB sweatshirt & running shoes

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 pictures from the third year of my first BC.  These were originally posted in August & September of 2007. Please click continue reading below to see all of the pictures and styles.

August 2007

This is a picture of a twist out that I wore the day of my babyshower.  Twistouts are still my favorite style!

Here’s the side view of the twistout.

Here’s the back view of the twistout.

These are the week old twists that I had in right before I took them out for the twistout above.  These were also taken on the day of my babyshower.

This is the side view of my two strand twists.

This is the back view of my two strands.  It took me two days to finish these twists. They take a lot longer to do for two reasons: 1. My hair is longer now and 2. Being pregnant drains my energy a lot faster!

September 2007

In anticipation for the birth of the new baby, I had my hair braided so that I’d have one less thing to worry about.

I wish I could say that I did these by myself, but once again these were done by my mother.  Here’s the right side view.

This is the left side view

This is what the back looks like.

Here is a view of the top of my braids.

Here’s a quick belly view.  This is me, in my 9th month, about three weeks away from becoming mommy for the second time

Here are pictures from the second year of my first BC.  These were originally posted in April of 2007. Please click continue reading below to see all of the pictures and styles.

After wearing my cornrows and two-strands for a few few weeks, I untwisted the two-strands for a cornrow twistout combination

Here’s another view of the same style, taken the next day.

Here’s the back view.

I love experimenting with different ways to wear twistouts.

After a few days of wearing the cornrows with loose twisout in the back, I pulled the twisout back into a puff for a slightly different look.

This is the front view of my low puff/cornrow combo.

This is the back view.  It’s funny how much fuller the puff looks when viewed from the back.

This is the other side of the hairstyle.  I think I like this view of it the best.

My family decided to get together for family pictures.  After the initial panic and cries from my mom & sisters of ‘I need to press my hair!’ I convinced everyone to take the picture with their natural, unstraightened hair.  Here’s the picture of my mom, sisters and I, all ‘keepin it nappy’!

Here are pictures from the second year of my first BC.  These were originally posted in March of 2007. Please click continue reading below to see all of the pictures and styles.

Here’s a picture of the back of my lastest afro.  The front of my hair is cornrowed.

After unsuccessfully attempting to flattwist the front of my hair, I opted to cornrow it instead.  Here’s the result.

Here’s another view.  I just love that nappy, chunky afro look.

Here’s my contemplative look. LOL!

Here’s a front view, showing both sides of the cornrows.

This is what the top looked like.

Here’s a side view of the cornrow/afro combination.

One last view of this look.

After enjoying my afro/cornrow combo for a day, I decided to two-strand twist the back of my hair.

Here’s what the back looked like.  After wearing a puff for over two solid weeks, my hair longed for this much needed daily styling break.

Here’s a top view once again.  My attempt was to get a better picture of the top of the twists, but after several tries, I gave up.

Another back view.  My twists are finally getting out of that scalpy phase (where you see more scalp than twists, LOL).

Another attempt at showing off the twists with not much luck.

Here’s a view of both the cornrows & twists.

Here are pictures from the second year of my first BC.  These were originally posted in November of 2006. Please click continue reading below to see all of the pictures and styles.

Here’s a picture of my first attempt at box braiding.  I have to admit that I was intimidated by this style, because I knew that it would involve parting my hair, which is something that I was never good at.

Here’s the side view.  To begin this style, I parted my hair into six smaller sections.  This made parting my hair into individual plaits a little less frightening

Braiding the back was the most intimidating, but I realized that it did not really matter if the parts in the back were straight because the hair at the top would cover it up. The key to this is to make sure that you do not line your parts up.  Instead do sort of a brick pattern.

Here’s the top view.  Notice that my parts are not perfect, but the style still works.

This is not the most flattering picture, but there’s a method to my madness.  I am attempting to show how bouncy the braids were.  They shook and moved whenever I turned my head.  I really enjoyed this style and believe it or not, it actually took me less time than two-strand twisting.  Go figure!

This is just another puff update showing how big my puff is getting.

Another view of the puff.

Side view of the puff.

Closer view of the flower broach accessory.

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.