Cornrows (sort of), Pt. 2

After my cornrows up top were done, I twisted damp hair up with castor oil, left it in for the night and then did big twistouts during the day.

On the first day, I accessorized with some cute flowers between the cornrows and the twistout on both sides.

(You might notice some Ouchless hair ties at the end of cornrows, they are in there because I used them to band together some ends of the rows, so I could incorporate them into large twists/twistouts. My hair is kind of fine, thicker in the front but in the back parts can look sort of severe, so I try to blend where I can).

Here's a nice view of the cornrow part on Thursday:

I intended to wear the bottom half of my hair out most of the week but things got busy, so I left the bottom part of my hair in large twists for about half the week. My laziness paid off because the crazy weather switches (between crazy humidity/rain and arid heat) probably would have done a number on my strands.

Throughout the week I maintained by rinsing my hair daily and spraying a water/castor oil mixture. It was nice, almost I didn't need a comb the week and when I did it was just to start a part. I could gently comb through my naps with my fingers, castor oil helped me work through many of the rare, small knots.

Today, I finally co-washed and re-twisted the bottom half my hair (smaller)

I ended up taking the hair ties out for washing and then put in some medium sized chunky twists. I think I'll leave it like this into the weekend and then maybe I'll shampoo/condition and then put some styled cornrows...if I do that it will be a first.

Cornrows (or how I wore my hair the first week of school 2010)

After the twistout and its accompanying co-washing, I wasn't quite ready to go back to a bunch of little twists (it's time consuming) but I knew I wasn't going to have time to fool with my hair throughout the first week of school... so, I decided to do cornrows.

I didn't grow up with my hair in cornrows, I don't even think my mom knows how to do them (she stuck to braids) or if she does then she never did them on me. That said, I'm not an expert on doing cornrows and I don't care that much about clean parts but I feel like if I get the basic style down then everyone generally understand what's going on (on my head).

So, Sunday night I started in on my hair...

Halfway done:

Top view of finished cornrows:

Usually people cornrow their hair all the way down but I started these Sunday evening and I didn't have the energy/patience for that. So, I decided to do some chunky twists on the bottom half of my hair...PICS IN NEXT POST.

Scarves = Low maintenance, Pt. 2

I got tired of Blogger's crappy picture management at the end of the last post, so I'm going to share a little bonus in a separate post.

I actually started playing around with scarves back in July and I have some pics of some of my first stylings.

*Heads up, I took these pictures at 2:30 in the morning, so no I'm not 4:20 just tired.*

Scarves = Low maintenance

I was going to say scarves equal no maintenance but that's not really true, everyday I at least moisturize to avoid crunchy hair.

Anyway, scarves are fun if you want to look awesome but don't have time to fiddle with your hair or you wake up needing to run an errand immediately. So, I wanted to share some styles I've been trying out.

**Note: Some people may feel negatively a

bout scarves for various reasons (e.g.: Aunt Jemima), to that I have to things to say: 1) Keep it to yourself, 2) Look up all the many other beautiful ways that scarves have been used across cultures and realize how silly it is to stereotype a piece of headwear.

Onward...

I've been collecting scarves for a few months but rarely got the spirit to wear them out. On Sunday morning/afternoon, I needed to run by CVS really quick and I didn't want to delay things by contemplating what to with the groups of chunky twists that I slept in. So, I decided to debut my scarves.

First, I played around with a regal blue wrap:

(Excuse the sideways picture, Blogger doesn't want to show the pic in its vertical orientation.)

I made it a little more funky by adding in this material that can best be described as appropriate for a drum circle.

Finally, I decided wear this cute rag-scrap looking piece because it's lightweight was perfect for the ridiculous Florida heat.

After: Return from a night out

In these pics, my hair dried after a night outside in the warm, humid Florida night. To me it seems more together (looks more "intentional") than the wet style.

More Nappilicious when wet or dry?

On Saturday, which was "today" up until a few minutes ago, I followed through with my co-wash plans and rocked a twist out.

Generally, I tend to save doing my hair for last part of my getting ready routine but after comparing the results of this afternoon/night, I think maybe I should shake things up. I struggle to retain moisture but I think my hair does need some time after being set to in a particular style.

Consider the following pics the before, my hair was freshly co-washed and twisted out here:

An aerial view with an interesting find...RED (purplish) HAIR!

The twistout is definitely visible but it doesn't have that umph I love to see from napptastic hair. My hair can be very voluminous when the time is right. I think the water makes it look a little flat.

The Last Day of Two Strand Twists!

Yesterday, I knew I would be co-washing (losing the shampoo and just conditioning hair) on Sat, so I didn't really do anything but wet and spirtz with an oil (castor) and water combo.

These are terribly different from the first pic set because I basically did the same thing that day with maybe a little retwisting, so I guess the difference here is just that I didn't spend as much time taking pics and my hair is dry (whereas in the other set its damp/wetish).

Whatever, here we go!

I tend to make great "sour patch" faces. This is my default intense blank stare.

I feel like a hair model here. Profile!

As always, a nice view from above.

3 week olds

I've wanted to style my hair all summer and actually I aspire to growing out dreads. Yet, ever since a few summers ago when someone told me hair was too short for dreads (and honestly my hair not too much longer now), I have been convinced that I am not ready...for all styles short of cornrows (something i'm not great at doing). In late July, I decided "eff it" and styled it up anyway in two strand twists.

Now, my hair has been in these unions for 3 weeks. They've been through washings and co-washings as well as a few re-twists, so they are not the most polished/unfrizzy bits ever. Yet, for the most part the style has survived and I wanted to share.

*Note: I am not particularly good at taking pics of myself. I never really trained hard on the MySpace practice field.

Aerial view:

Front view:

Trying to stretch things out to show length...

In the front:

On the side:

Another side view:

Side of the back view: