Friday, November 6, 2009

Beautiful African Hair

I have promised to put up a post of my "how to" routine with the girls hair. Of course, since Joeliana's horrible surprise, I only have one little darlin' to work on. By the way, thank you to those who have offered suggestions on how to help Joeliana look cute while it grows out, especially thank you Cul-Ture-Queen mom and Beads, Braids and Beyond! for your help and suggestions!
The most often asked question is where did I learn to do the girls hair. I learned from three primary places....
two books - It's All Good Hair by Michele N-K Collison; Kids Talk Hair by Pamela Ferrell
and
I learned so much from the video's at Shuruba. From those videos I have also clicked over to YouTube and looked around for kids hair styles. I don't spend a lot of time on this, but occasionally it gives me motivation and ideas.
A few things I have learned is
-keep practicing, you will get better
-look for others to learn from...I love Beads, Braids, and Beyond! and Happy Girl Hair: Natural haircare for kids.
-have fun with it...learning to take care of my girls hair ended up being a wonderful bonding and attachment time for us. And I always tell them how beautiful they are. I really enjoy the time we spend on their hair.
So, yes...it does take a long time to do, however, a good style will last two to three weeks.
Here goes...
First, a bath...wash and condition hair. A friend gave us some
Barry Fletcher products that I love (you could look this up on line), but normally I use Infusium 23 Moisturologie that I buy at Walmart. I use the Kakakiki Komb to carefully comb the conditioner through with. This is worth your money!

aliawethair

Now comes the blow drying. Not everyone does this step, however, my girls curls are so tight that this step helps me to braid later.
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I lather tons of leave-in conditioner and sometime even Shea Butter Oil to add even more moisture into the hair. On high heat, low blow I CAREFULLY begin to "straighten" her hair with the above comb brush. I am VERY careful here...never pull. This takes time, but it helps me later, and I feel that the heat helps to condition the oils into her hair really well here.

BEFORE
IMG_4346

AFTER
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Now, I'm tired...(kidding, sort of)
Ohh, my new love...I have tried ALOT of styling products, but I think I have finally found my favorite...Happy Nappy Styles. This is my first time to use this when I braid the girls hair and I really like it.
IMG_4756
This is where watching the video's at Shuruba will help you learn to braid, so I wont reteach what she did so well.
IMG_4747
I got this style idea from Beads, Braids, and Beyond! I think is looks really cute on Alia.
IMG_4748

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I hope this is helpful!
Have fun!

16 comments:

  1. She is beautiful!!! She has some amazing shrinkage as well! I loooove this style on her! Love her cute beads. Do you find that the Happy Nappy Styles holds down the little frizzies? I would love to hear. I haven't heard about that product. Also, the pictures are just gorgeous, I have to ask you what camera you use?? Thank you! :)

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  2. Her hair looks beautiful!!

    And yes, it is lots of practice!!!

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  3. You really do a GREAT job on the girls' hair!!! Honestly, friend...you could make some mega-bucks doing that! Hmmmm, an adoption fundraiser, perhaps!? But I guess you would need that pesky cosmetology license. :)

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  4. FYI, when I click the sharuba link it takes me to a news website that doesn't have anything to do with hair as far as I can see. :)

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  5. Thank you for letting me know Mountain Family...I have fixed that and appreciate you letting me know!

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  6. Maybe you should just move to Kansas City Missouri! :)

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  7. I forgot to ask... Does that brush work for picking out your boys hair too?

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  8. What a beautiful little princess she is, my friend. I still thinks it's amazing how you do their hair.

    Love you!

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  9. What beautiful girls! And their hair is gorgeous!

    Blessings,
    Sarah

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  10. Seriously Shonni...you are amazing. Thank you for sharing all the how to's with us (me.)

    I have so much to learn. I am praying that our newest daughter coming home from Ethiopia can teach me about braiding. I just got the metal rats tail comb, which makes parting so much easier than the fatter tailed plastic one I started with.

    My baby still pulls the elastics out during nap time, so I am not sure WHEN we would get 2-3 weeks out of a hairstyle. (she is 18 months old).

    I need to find a place to buy the tiny little snap beads for the ends of her twists. They are not very common where we live.

    thanks so much ...want to come to Ct and teach me? I'd love that.

    Hug
    Kimmie
    mama to 7
    one homemade and 6 adopted

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  11. Great post, like always but I have been focusing on this topic lately as our court date is on the 12th (YEAH!!!) and so hopefully our 2 kids will be home soon. I need to know how to care for their hair. Our son will be 7 and our daughter 18 mons. Any advice for boys' hair? Do you use that same brush?
    www.bethe7percent.blogspot.com

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  12. now that is talent!! WOW - it looks wonderful!!:)

    Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving me some encouragement on Friday ... we're super excited!! :)

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  13. Her hair is so cute!! You do put a lot of work into it but how nice it can be in for 2-3 weeks!! Love it! Great job!!

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  14. That does look beautiful & your girls do well to sit through all that patiently.
    Well done!

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