This video is long overdue, but here it is.  My daughter recently celebrated her 4th birthday and I wanted to come up with a cute style for this special occasion.  I decided to style her hair using Curlformers along with Kinky Pride’s Shea-Loe Butter and Twist and Loc gel, and the SNO Natural Herbal Hair & Scalp Therapy.  Here are the results (scroll down for video):

Even though I had 40 Curlformers to work with, it was not enough.  I decided to remedy the situation by styling the top of her hair into two pony tails and adding the Curlformers to the ends.

I borrowed this set of short and wide Curlformers from my sister Coco.  I ran into another problem, the Curlformers that I was using was designed for up to 9 inches of hair.  I quickly discovered that my daughter’s hair is way longer than that…

To solve that problem, I two stranded twisted the first few inches of hair (in some cases 3-4 inches) and added the Curlformers to the last 9 inches of her hair.

The Kinky Pride and SNO Naturals products gave my daughter’s hair a nice healthy sheen.  It’s hard to find products that do that because of her dry/cottony hair type.

Initially, I planned on untwisting the two strand twisted roots of her hair, but after removing the Curlformers, I decided not to.  I really liked the result.

All ready for her 4th birthday party!

Video Notes: This is my demonstration on using Curlformers on my 4-year-old daughter along with my review of Kinky Pride’s Shea-Loe Butter, Aloe Vera Lock & Twist Gel and SNO Herbal Hair & Scalp Therapy. These products were not purchased by me, but were sent to me after I contacted the co-owner and asked her if I could review her product. I fell in love with the Kinky Pride products after they were demonstrated on my hair at the Tennessee Natural Hair expo. You can see that video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iva8Wsy4NE

Kinky Pride products can be purchased here:http://snonatural.com/products/products.html

Be sure to check their site for a list of the product ingredients. I will also list the ingredients on our website: http://www.natural-ness.com

Music credits:

“The Natural Hair Song”, was written and performed by Anitra Jay (http://www.AnitraJay.com). You can download the song for free at: www.facebook.com/anitrajay

Instrumental “untitled” and created by Francis “mr. faia” Turner

Thanks Anitra & Francis for sharing your talents!

During our last hair styling session, I decided to save time by styling my daughter’s hair in large rope twists accessorized with beads.

I started on freshly shampooed hair  (I used Cara B Natural shampoo). Her hair was a little on the dry side, so I applied Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque and left it on for 20 minutes using a plastic cap.  As you can see in the picture, I parted her hair into large triangles, which gave her rope twists an interesting geometric look.

To aid with detangling, I used Kinky Curly Knot Today.  To begin the rope twists, and to keep the twists from unraveling at the roots, I started each twist by braiding.

She was a little restless, so I started twisting the front of her hair on day 1 and complete the back the next morning.  To secure the large beads, I used rubber bands dipped in coconut oil.  Olive Oil is also great for dipping rubber bands (a great tip I learned from the Beads, Braids, & Beyond website). I also applied extra coconut oil to the ends of her hair to further protect them from rubber band damage.

  I also used a little bit of ORS Lock & Twist gel at the roots and ends of each twist to help secure them.

Taking these extra steps resulted in a long lasting set of twists. In fact she wore these twists for almost 3 weeks.

As always, to maintain the style, I spritzed her hair lightly with a water and conditioner mix (when needed) and tied it up with a satin scarf each night.  If you’re looking for a fairly quick protective style, this might be a great one to try!

My daughter’s last set of box braids lasted 3 weeks!  I took them down a few days ago although they still looked decent.  Below are pictures from the first day.  I used curlformers to give them a nice spiral curl.

Here are my daughter’s curled box braids.  I went for a much smaller braid this time, much smaller than I’ve ever done before.  The small sized helped the style last a lot longer than usual.

Here are the braids with the curlformers in.  I started the top section of braids one day and finished them the next morning.  Then I added the curlformers, allowed them to dry for a few hours and took them out.

Since her box braids were a lot smaller, I ran out of curlformers after curling the back, so I decided to do bantu knots at the top/front of her hair.

I used two curlformers to curl the braids in the very front of her hair for bangs.

The products used were the same as usual; Cara B Naturally Shampoo & Leave-in conditioner and Coconut Oil (I use Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, 15-Ounce Tubs (Pack of 2) from Amazon.com – see disclaimer in right side bar).

To maintain these braids, I lightly sprayed them with either the Cara B Naturally Mist, or plain water mixed with conditioner, at night as part of her night-time hair routine.  I also tied her hair up with a satin scarf at night.  I did not re-curl her hair with the curlformers after the first day, but I kept a curly/crinkly look by braiding the braids together in large sections each night after I spritzed them. I was pleased at how long the style lasted.

Here is a how-to video of a style that I completed on my daughter several weeks ago.  A while ago, someone requested a video on how to do rope twists.  This video will either help or utterly confuse you   (I pray for the former). Also included is my technique for adding beads (nothing fancy, just straight forward and simple).  Anyway, I am also including pictures of the style.  Enjoy and I hope this video helps!

Here is the completed look once again.  Each section of hair is about a square inch, creating fairly large twists.

To make the style somewhat unique…I guess it’s unique…I gently pushed one bead up toward her scalp.

In the video, I attempt to show the difference between “rope” or “sister” twists and regular two strand twists.  Rope twists are tighter and tend to last a lot longer.  They also show more length.  Regular two-strand twists tend to draw up and appear a lot shorter than they actually are.

In my experience, two-strand twists work well on long or short hair, while rope twists tend to work a lot better on long hair.

Here’s a close up view of a rope twist.  I love rope twists!

I completed another set of box braids on my daughter last week.  Rather than adding beads or leaving them plain, I decided to curl her braids using Curlformers. First off, I’d like to say, this was my first time using the Curlformers and I found them extremely easy to use.  In fact, I was able to distract my daughter as I braided her hair, by allowing her to put the Curlformers on the styling hook for me- they are that easy to use!  Here are a few pictures of her braids with the Curlformers:

I used the short and wide Curlformers for her braids.  I find that her hair is almost too long for them, so I may look into purchasing the long and thin set.  This set came with orange curlers and pink curlers.  The pink curls the hair in one direction, while the orange curls them in another direction.

The Curlformers are light and did not seem to bother her, but I cannot imagine her trying to sleep in them.  I also loved that they stayed in her hair well.  I mentioned before that my daughter tends to be rough and tumble, jumping and flipping all over the place, so for these to stay in her hair is really impressive.

Anyway, I did not intend for this to be a Curlformers review, so this is one last look at the Curlformers in her hair.

I left the Curlformers in her hair for most of the day.  I forgot to mention that I braided her hair right after washing it, so it was moist.  I applied coconut oil to each section prior to braiding. Pictured here are the resulting curls. One braid in the front had a mind of it’s own and refused to curl.

The back came out in nice loose ringlets.

Here is the right side of her hair.

Here is the left side, with the braid in the front that refused to curl.

Here’s the top.  Overall, I was pleased with the results.

I just wanted to quickly share pictures of some hair accessories that a friend of mine sent for my daughter.  She purchased them from Claire’s.  Now I’ve always known Claire’s to be big on jewelry, purses and other accessories, but I had not thought to go there to find hair accessories for my daughter.

The two sets of hair accessories pictured on the left are attached to bands, so they go on like a regular rubber band would.  The 2nd from the left look like hard candy.

The other two sets of accessories are attached to clips.  The last pair of clips on the right are made to look like bunny ears – very cute.  If you look back on some of my daughter’s recent braid pictures here, http://cbpublish.com/myhairjourney_files/?cat=19, you’ll see a few of these accessories in action (although the pictures did not come out as clear as I would have liked).

I’ll definitely be going to Claire’s soon to see what other cute hair accessories  I can find.

I was at Walmart recently when I came across a great set of combs.  Priced at around $4, I quickly grabbed a set.  The set includes 10 combs that can be used for all sorts of purposes.  I’ labeled my two favorite combs below. I now own two sets of these combs; one for me and one for my daughter. These combs have a smooth finish and they don’t snag the hair.  I highly recommend this set.