The Revolution of the Crochet Braids

Hello beauts!

It’s me again! Yes, the one is that hardly ever here. But you love me all the same… you know you do.

How many of you have tried crochet braids at least once? Now, how many of you have gone back to crochet braids again and again and again? How many of you, like me, are flaunting your crochet braids right now?!

Pretty much everyone, right? I mean, if you did not put your hands up, my question to you this fine morning is: whatchu waiting for?!

The first time I heard or learnt about crochet braids was from my friend, Ify, back when we were in undergrad. As a veteran in the natural hair movement, she was way ahead of me in knowing what innovative protective styles were out there and so she taught me how to hook her up with crochet braids. I remember thinking it was weird but I went with it anyway. Fast forward to summer of 2015. Every client that has booked to have me play with their hair between May and now have all come to get crochet braids done!

I currently have on Senegalese twists which was done with the pre-twisted twists and I fail to see why I should go back to getting my hair braided the traditional way.

Pros

1. Quick install. Seriously, those African women that braid hair in Harlem can have you in and out in an hour! It usually takes me anywhere from 2 – 2hrs 30mins to install crochet braids for a client, including styling time.
2. Edges Friendly. If you are like me and wake every morning wondering who battered your edges and what they could possibly have received in exchange, then crochet braids might just be your hero. With the way my edges are currently set up, I do not have to touch them at all with the crochet braids.
3. Weave Aesthetic. If it looks like a weave and moves like a weave, then it must be a weave. Wrong! Crochet braids, when done right, can be very deceptive. It can even look like your hair!
4. Versatility. Senegalese twists, marley twists, bob braids, short curls, ‘fro, long waves, synthetic, natural curls, straight, you name it. They can all be crocheted!

Cons

1. Price. For some reason, the association of commercial hair braiders met and decided that they would slap a heavy price on crochet braids. I don’t get it. Like this is one of the quickest and least labour intensive hairstyles in the market and somehow, it costs more than or the same as getting braids or twists installed? It really does irk me to hear how much people are charging for crochet braids.
2. It’s addictive. But hey! That doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
3. Compared with braids, it is harder to wash these. Just because you have to wash between cornrows, it might not be as easy as washing hair in regular braids. However, it is definitely doable.

Source: Pinterest

I am definitely a crusader for this uprising. What do you think about crochet braids? Yay or Nay? Here-to-stay or soon-to-be-old-news? Talk to me and let me know!

P.S.: My Nazuri curls wig just arrived!!! I already love her and cannot wait to have so much fun with her. I will definitely be letting you know all about my adventures with this wig.

Remember: Till October 12, you get 10% off your Nazuri Curls when you use our special code- KINKANDI. They ship worldwide!

Stay positive this week!

– MeeMee

xx

 

March Loves

Hey Beauts!

It’s election day in Nigeria! Will you/Did you plezz ya hand?

Today, AB and I are sharing with you a collective list of the things that we discovered and/or fell in love with in March.

In no particular order:

1. Ackee & Saltfish

I love this web series by Cecile Emeke. It follows the stories of two bestfriends Olivia & Rachel. Their exchanges are so funny (Olivia is a case!!) and episodes are 5 minutes long, very good for my limited 3rd world Internet. A new episode airs every Sunday at 5pm, GMT

2. Banana Bread

I would have said baking, but the only thing I can bake now is banana bread. I fell in love with this a few months ago, and I made mine with my two hands from scratch last month. It’s all I’ve baked ever since.

3. Big Sean’s Dark Sky Paradise

I think I like ‘IDFWU’ a weeeee bit more than I should. So after singing this for months, I finally decided to get the album, which happens to be Big Sean’s 3rd. So many times I’ve bumped this with no skips, from beginning to end. Listened to quite a few albums this month and Seanny boy did it for me. Love. 

4. To Pimp A Butterfly

I have never paid attention to Kendrick Lamar’s music until now. This album is genius, I think. I think I’ve listened to it everyday in the last two weeks.

5. Chris Messina

Chris Messina. Chris Messina. My new celebrity crush. I met him at the beginning of the month, when I saw his Indie movie 28 Hotel Rooms. It’s based on an unrealistic premise (aren’t half of them?) but I liked it. Very interesting stuff. These 2 people hooked up one time at a hotel they were both staying at, and they made it a habit to meet everytime they were out of their cities, for work. She was married, he later got married. It got really complicated of course- and ended neither here nor there. But the story and the elements in it are a full discussion for another day. Last week, I saw season 1 of The Mindy Project which is heeeelarious by the way! To my great delight, he’s a regular on the show. Whoop!

6. Stacey Kent

AB said that if I made music, I’d probably sound like her. That’s probably why I love her so much! There’s something about her voice that makes me feel things… and then the music she creates with it? jadhburvheiualrbfubwhafh.

7. Yummly (+WP update)

I’ve had the Yummly app on my phone for a long time, but I only truly appreciated it this month. Yummly is an amazing app for recipes & beautiful food inspiration. It’s super easy to use. You can search recipe names or search by ingredients. I like to try new things with food, but I don’t always have the patience to troll the Internet for the inspo. Yummly makes it so much easier. If you’re looking for healthy recipes on the go, you can even use the Nutrition filter. And, after using the app for a while, it starts to customise suggestions for you.

(Also. The new WordPress upgrade for iOS is pretty dope. I’ve been using this app for two years, so I’m happy that FINALLY, we have an upgrade that’s worth the mb. If you’re a WP blogger, you want to have this!)

8. Crochet braids

I am currently wearing crochet braids that I made for myself. Love, love, love them. This month I have had a bunch of clients book to make crochet braids and boy, do I love doing them! For about a year and many many months, I have only protective styled with marley twists, now I have found the perfect switch up.

9. Brown Sugar

No more shall I use white sugar for anything but drinking gari. Brown sugar is so much better with everything- so nice & so moist. I encourage you to try it. Brown sugar pancakes anyone? Noms.

10. MAC Frost Lipstick in Fabby

I take it as a sign of maturity that I’m comfortable with nude lippie now. This shade, MAC Fabby is pretty nice. I like it a lot.

What did you fall in love with this month? Can you guess which of us loves what? Have a happy, safe weekend, beauts!

– MeeMee

xx.

Crochet Braids & More- The Kink and I Salon Is Open For Business!!

Hey guys!

How’s it going on this beautiful Tuesday? *resists the urge to make that joke about the club going up* AB here! 🙂

My experience with crochet braids was just with kinky braiding hair. I say “was” because the ministry is moving forward. Crochet braids are a painless, very convenient way to put in extensions and this month, I got the chance to style curly extensions with the crochet braiding method, twice.

Here in Nigeria, we can flex with braids and twists as often as we want (God sparing our edges) because it’s like what, 3k to get your hair done. 3k is not money to be thrown away, but when you think about our sisters in the diaspora paying $120 to do Havana twists, you’d admit that we have it really good. One of the perks of living at home. 🙂 $120 at the present street rate is 25,200 naira! *clutches chest*

During the break, my cousin in the obodos wanted to go get crochet braids done. I had never tried crochet braiding with curly extensions, and I didn’t ask but I knew it would cost my cousin some amount I wouldn’t like to get her hair done… so I  just felt yo, I can do this. So I offered to make her hair, and she accepted.

I’m not sure I mentioned that it was my first time going curly lol oh wait, I did. I can’t cornrow, so my aunt did the cornrows, and I crocheted the extensions with a bobby pin, as I normally would. See my Picture Tutorial here, I’ve been told it is helpful 🙂

The results were good, not perfect (to my eyes, say 8/10) but apparently nice enough because my sister (who is very particular about detail) really liked my cousin’s hair so she took out her weave so I could do hers before I went back to Lagos. By this time I had moved base to MeeMee’s, so we both did my sister’s hair. MeeMee braided her hair into cornrows, and then we installed the curly extensions, at the same time.

LOL see her very serious face

Cornrow pattern: basically all back, with two horizontal braids at the nape. No extensions were used for these cornrows 🙂

Left Side

MeeMee used a latch hook, and I used a bobby pin. Crochet braiding curly hair is a little different from kinky braiding hair because when you secure the loop or knot with kinky hair, it stays. So with the curly hair, we just did the loop twice and moved on. It wasn’t a tight knot but it was definitely well anchored.

When we finished, my sister didn’t like the spacing, she thought the parting too wide. To fix this, we crocheted hair to the “brush”. By “brush, I mean the sides, or base of the cornrows. We had enough “brush” to work with because the cornrows were fat & not too tight. We were very careful here, because one of the points of crochet braiding is to give your hair a break from pulling like with weaves and I was worried that crocheting onto the “brush” would be damaging, but it wasn’t. So far so good. 🙂

She loved her hair, and so did we! Here was the outcome:

Well blended 🙂

I posted this picture on Instagram & Facebook and got questions about the extensions. For my cousin and my sister, the extensions used were: Freetress Bohemian Curl (or was it Freetress Bohemian Braid), about $5-6 a pack, 4 packs per head.The hair came in singles, not wefted.

You could use less if full hair is not your speed. There’s a listing for this hair on OLX Lagos here– I cannot verify, you transact at your own risk. O.O

I have to say this though:

This hair is prone to tangling anyhow, so the wearer has to take care to detangle well. I love the curls and would love to try them on myself, but I did not buy the hair to bring back home with me because though pretty, it’s just easily tangled synthetic curly hair. My sister has worn it for two weeks now, it still looks great but she’s already dealing with matting & tangling.

Two weeks in, you can see she has already started fighting detangling. Still on fleek though!

I don’t know for sure, but I have a good feeling that I will find a nice cheap synthetic weave with similar curls if I enter the market. When you find one, cut the hair off from the weft, and install as you please with the crochet braiding method. Simple as that. No need to stress yourself searching. 🙂

An extra tip: See Nekisha’s helpful guide for maintaining synthetic curly crochet braids over at Black Zulu!

We’re Open!

That’s not all. The Kink and I salon really is open for business, just not in Lagos.

Our MeeMee is a salon trained braider and stylist. After doing hair for free for many years, she has finally set up shop, over at Style Seat. If you’re in the NYC Area and are willing to go to Harlem to get your braids, kinky twists, Havana twists and even crochet braids, just go over to styleseat.com/thekinkandi to set up an appointment. When you get there, you’ll see that she’s charging a lot lower than the typical braiding appointment in the city. Take advantage of her good conscience while you can! On a good day, jollof rice may be included because she’s nice like that! Don’t say I said so sha ( ._.)

Okay guys. What do you think of the look? Have you ever tried going curly with crochet braids? What’s your favourite cheapey curly synthetic weave? How do you manage easily tangled curls? Let’s talk about it!

Love,

AB,

xx

P.S. More About Crochet Braids, over here

A Picture Tutorial- Crochet Braids with Kinky Extensions

Hey guys!

Twice on the blog, I have said that crochet braiding is super easy. To prove it, here’s this picture tutorial showing you how.

It was a bit of a battle making this sha so I hope you get it 🙂 Camera quality, lighting and the fact that I was trying to capture working with black extensions and a black bobby pin on dark hair but I think I succeeded. I did 3 different shoots for this on 3 different days, and this was the best day, so I hope it’s a good enough illustration.

These photos were taken by my brother.  🙂

ALL I USED:

Extensions- 2 packs of Noble Afro Kinky (or was it Afro Twist?) Braid. Same ones you can use to do kinky twists.

Big bobby pin. <- you can use a small pin, but it’s stressful.

PREPARATION

On clean well conditioned hair, do your cornrows. I got just 5 or 6 cornrows. If you’re wondering why, it’s because kinky extensions are bulky, and for this reason, making 12, 13 cornrows is a waste of time.

2 packs of hair got me this fullness and the hair came already separated in strands, and I worked with about 50 something in total. I was able to crochet 10 strands onto each cornrow.

Get your hair braided in the pattern that you think would best interpret the look you’re going for. Do you want a leave-out? Closed side parting? Centre parting? Let that be your guide. You can also flat twist if you like.

Ready? Let’s Go! 🙂