Let’s Talk! Haircare. How Much Are You Willing To Pay?

Crochet braids by The Kink and I. A few weeks old in picture, though .

On Saturday, after I posted that I was on my way to K.L’s Natural Beauty Bar, I got a DM asking me about the pricing there. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, my hair has been to this salon twice, so I told the person asking- that it cost me 4,000 to do twists with cornrows on the side, and 2000 to wash and dry. She responded “Hian”. Out of actual curiosity, I asked her what exactly the Hian was meant for- the 4k or the 2k- or both services. And, it is this same question I put to you today.

Today’s post is just to set the conversation going. I really want to know what you think.

Hair Lately

I’m at this point where I don’t really know what to do with my hair, but I’ll work it out.

Having long established that I like to deal with my hair dry and stretched, my greatest challenge now is to figure out how to keep it so for like 3 days at least. In other words, I REALLY need to learn how to cornrow and flat twist. Anyhoo… Here’s what I’ve been up to since I took out the Nazuri Curls.

I really can’t remember how I wore my hair on Monday morning lol. Maybe I wore the struggle flat twists I was given over the weekend? Can’t remember.

Tuesday, I tried to convince my hair into some kind of updo lol. Plenty tuck in here, tuck in there action at the back, with twists in front.

On Tuesday night, I braided and twisted my hair with a combo of the Curls Creme Brûlée Lotion and the Curls Blueberry Bliss Curl Control Paste. Fine, my hair was super dry so I applied a bit of product (like 2 oz for the whole head) because I thought my thirsty hair would drink it all in before morning. Nope. I loosened all the senrenren on Wednesday morning to damp hair with zero definition, shrinking right before my eyes. Plan B? A puff.

Thursday? I had a better updo, I think. Similar to Monday’s but it needed less bobby pins. It was more like fold and pin. 

On Friday, I went with le shrunken fro. I was so tired on Thursday that I slept off without twisting my hair at night. I woke up with serious bed head and I didn’t even bother trying to detangle. I spritzed the hair, rubbed a little conditioner, raised it with my Afro pik in many places and patted down for shape. This resulted in a lot of tanglesssss my days.

tears on tears on tears

Still, your girl had no time over the weekend. NO time. It wasn’t being lazy, I just had to make a mental list of all the things demanding my energy and hair had to have a few seats. This is one of the times I say it’s just hair. Sure, I’m going to take time out soon and treat my hair to a nice relaxing spa day, but when you have a lot to do, it’s totally okay to do less. Your hair won’t fall off, lol.

I simply got in the shower and after wetting my hair, I saturated it with Hello Hydration. I detangled with my fingers and a wide tooth comb, chunky twisting each section as I went. Then I rinsed with cold water, but not entirely, leaving some of the conditioner in. Standing in front of the mirror after this co-wash shower, I applied slight dabs of my Carol’s Daughter Mimosa Hair Honey pomade to each section to seal in the moisture. I untwisted the loose twists (loose because of the washing) smoothed the pomade in & loosely twisted back.

About an hour later, my mom helped me thread (I didn’t know she had such skills lol 🙂 ) For the sections that were too wet, I blotted them with paper towels. She’s a busy woman but I hope we can make this a regular thing ( ._.) I wore the thread till Monday morning.

See. The way Lagos traffic is set up, 10 minutes can make all the difference in the world. I wake up at 5am and I’m out the house most days, by 6. I refuse to wake up at 4:30 because of hair. And I can’t afford to stay till 6:30 either. So I do my best to leave the house early, and then I do my hair in the bathroom at work before 8 or before anyone else gets there. So. I’m not ashamed to be out in the morning with rods in my hair or a scarf tied in a funny way. Not sorry at all. No time.

My hair was dry, and super stretched. Loved it, loved it! Threading is nice o, but I don’t know how I feel about wrapping my head every weekend, because I’m rarely home. I don’t have that many scarves, and my head tying game is really not that strong.

You know, the next time I straighten my hair I think I’m just going to thread and give myself time to air dry in advance. I arranged it into my best style yet, and I really liked it.

This work or professional styling thing, I’ll figure it out. Yes I will. 🙂

In other news, my phone fell on Saturday and though there are no signs of breakage, my main camera has stopped working. The front one still works but what’s going on with the main? Where there is life, there is hope, abi? On the bright side of things, I’m getting my blogging mojo back!

I want to know what you’ve been up to lately with your hair, anything in particular you’re dealing with, talk to meeeeee. 

Love,

AB,

xx

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! 🙂