Category Archives: Hair Day

I Love Hair!

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Well, I love my girls’ hair…

Giselle

Giselle’s hair is so different from Amara’s. I’m still trying to figure out what works well for her and what doesn’t. She also has a different shaped head from Amara’s, so some styles that suite Amara, don’t suite Giselle at all. Her hair behaves so differently. It doesn’t really do a calm afro – her afro’s tend to just stick straight out. Her twist-out’s don’t work the same way either…

Afro skier?

This is Giselle’s “twist-out”. Yikes! On Amara, a twist out settles nicely and we use it as a style for a few days. I’m thinking I wouldn’t get too many kind comments in public about this twist-out… Although, that smile would charm even the worst critic, I’m sure.

It is a looser curl, and she has WAY less of it. I think all of Giselle’s hair could fit on a small section of Amara’s head and they would equal the same amount of hair. Also her hair has two completely different curl patterns – the top of the head is looser and longer, the back is tighter, dryer and much shorter (like 3 inches shorter). Throughout her head there are short patches, so styling it is difficult.  But I love that I can comb out Giselle’s hair easily and quickly – Amara’s massive amount of hair is much more time consuming and easily damaged on the ends.

Instagram Life

This has become our “go-to” style. Twists in the front and shingling* in the back.

 Amara

My less than perfect copy of the inspiration... But we are both happy with it. It took 3 Backyardigans and 1 1/2 Diego shows to complete ( not including the detangle and wash and Ghana plaits to stretch hair the day before) #curlyhairgirl

Amara’s hair for our local adoption Christmas party.

Amara has a more consistant curl. It is tighter, but holds a style very well (as long as she isn’t doing too many summersaults and dragging clothes/blankets over her hair… you know, normal 4 year old stuff). This style took about 2 hours to complete and looked pretty good for two weeks. It is one of my favourites now! I copied the style off of this blog post, although I did cornrows instead of flat twists.

I had been fantasizing about taking out Amara’s hair part way from the party style and leaving it in a faux hawk.  It was amazing! I would have made it look more complete in the front if we were actually leaving it that way for a few days, but she would have non of it. I showed her photos of other girls who had faux hawks, we oooh’d and awww’d over hers, but no way. She was NOT impressed. It was all I could get from her to take these photos before she begged me to take out the rest of her hair. Which is kind of funny because I always thought I would NEVER do a faux hawk on my girls – but it suites her personality so perfectly!

I've been dreaming of taking out Amaras hair part way but leaving it in a faux hawk for a few days. Unfortunately she hated it so I was barely able to snap these photos before taking the rest of the braids out.

I love the challenge of figuring out both girls’ hair. I can’t wait to see what Giselle’s hair will be like when it has had another 6 months or so to grow out. Hopefully I can find more creative styles that work with her hair as well.

*shingling explained here on Chocolate Hair, Vanilla Care

The ‘Fro for Paige

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This is for my friend Paige who said she never gets to see pictures of Amara’s hair out and free. Amara’s hair is actually in a messy ‘fro here, but I blame that partly on not having had it out for so long I actually forgot to spray it so it would sit nice.  Oops!

Stretched out, her hair reaches past her shoulder blades. By the third or fourth day being out, it is tightly curled up to her neck and you would never imagine how long it really is.

Remember when I could never get her to pose for me, no matter what type of bribery I tried? Ahem… that isn’t so much of a problem now.

Here her hair is sprayed, well moisturized with shea butter, and the front contained in cornrows. I loved this on her. Probably I loved it too much as I left her hair free for too long (about 10 days). The ends were becoming very knotted by the time I detangled last night.

And this, dear friends, is what happens when you do hair without a plan. Ugh! I spent all afternoon on her braids, then couldn’t figure out what to do with the back, so it looks very strange is a work in progress.

The flash makes her head look very bare in the front but reality it doesn't look anywhere that bare.

I love the front so hopefully I can figure out how to make it all blend in nicely.

So there you have it, Paige. More than you asked for, but done with you in mind non the less ;)

Spiral Hair

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I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, in case you were wondering. I have just been filling my life with too many appointments and kids who are going to bed WAY too late. Things have gotta change around here!

It’s time for a hair post, isn’t it? It has been a long time since I’ve posted one of these…

This is fast becoming one of my most favourite styles.

This is my first attempt at it, so I am expecting to get better at the style with time.

My inspiration for this style came from a mix of Happy Girl Hair, and Chocolate Hair/Vanilla Care blogs. I like the idea of all the hair going in circles around her head – it is a very protective style, which is great for these dry winter months. I really like that it also gives some height on top of her head as it compliments her head shape. Rorie from Chocolate Hair has posted about doing flat rope twists and how they tend to work better on her daughter’s hair than the braided cornrows. I have definitely found this to be true for Amara’s hair as well. I recently did this style again, but with braids and it looked terrible right from day one (which I will admit does have some to do with my braiding, but lots of it is just her hair). The twists lasted WAY longer and looked fresher for a long time.
The BEST thing about this style though, is the take down.
no judging on the paci ok? someday I will put my foot down… someday…

Isn’t that hair amazing?! Taking out the twists leads to beautiful, soft, stretched out hair that still has lots of texture and waves. Her hair “moves” in this style. She just laughed and laughed when she saw herself in the mirror (then was annoyed with the bangs in her eyes). It is a little bit strange to see her with her hair so long as it looks like she should be a lot older than she is.

This is the actual length of her hair – well past her shoulder blades! I am so pleased with her length and the health of her hair.

The next time I do this style, it will be with the intent of leaving her hair free in the long spirally waves after take down. I still haven’t quite figured out how to do the end, or “top” of the style to match the rest of her head so that all the curls coming out are the same texture. I’ll figure it out though – and it will be so much fun to figure out what styles we can do with it so long and soft.

And since the cat is out of the bag about her STILL having a soother (paci – whatever you call it), you might as well enjoy this one as well…

African Hair Threading

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I found this tutorial for African Threading (also called Ghana Plaits) here. It is a protective way of styling tightly curly hair.

 I had tried threading small sections of Amara’s hair as a trial run before tackling an actual style.  I was impressed with how long the trial runs lasted, so it was with much excitement that I set to work styling her whole head with this technique.

My goal for this style was to do box “braids” (threading) back to a pony tail or puff. I was curious to see if it would last longer than cornrowing the hair into a puff at the back.

Threading is actually amazingly quick… I can do this much faster than cornrowing, and I’m happy to say – it is holding up much better than her cornrows did!

We are now 5 days into the style. She has been playing “blanket monster” (whereby you place a blanket over your head and walk around the house hoping not to bump into anything) repeatedly since I finished the threading and there is really very little damage done to the style.

It will take some more practice to get the tension and spacing right, but I can see this technique as being something I will use often. I also felt at a loss as to what I should do with the ends of the hair. I knotted it all up in this type of bun, but it isn’t really the look I was going for. I think next time I will end the thread closer to her scalp then leave a puff at the back.

Threading also stretches out the hair, so I’m interested to see what it will look like when I take the thread out. She might have a very crazy ‘fro that could be a lot of fun.

My friend asked me tonight what I am doing for Amara’s hair for Easter. I shamefully admitted I hadn’t even thought of it! I’m pretty sure my blanket monster will have done enough damage by the weekend that this style won’t exactly pass for Easter.

*Sigh… it’s back to the drawing board.

Hair Day

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A little girl at our adoption playgroup has had her hair styled like this a few times, and I just love it! I haven’t been good enough at cornrowing to even dare try it until now.

(Yes she’s almost three and still takes a soother. I’m pretty sure that soother is going to college with her! Along with her special blanket…)


I am still very slow at cornrowing, so this style took me a total of 3 hours from start to finish. As you can see, it still looks a little bit fuzzy along the tops of the rows – and this picture was taken only a few hours after finishing the style. I’m not sure if I need more practice, or if it is just the way her hair is and I need to not worry about it.
The puff ball in the back is how I have left it. The braids in the first few photos were only to help me center the puff properly. I like this picture (above) as it is taken without a flash, and is a more accurate photo of what her hair really looks. With a flash, it looks too shiny and bright.
But getting her to stay still enough to take a picture without a flash is a rare treat. This 2 year old rarely stays still!
About a week later, I was taking out some of the rows and redoing them (you can see one row loose on the far side of her head), while talking on the phone to a friend. I briefly turned around to do something, and turned back to THIS!
She had grabbed big scoops of the shea butter mix I use for her hair and smeared it into her hair. At first glance I thought it was oatmeal and felt a brief moment of sheer panic as I had just redone those rows, so when I realized it was shea butter I couldn’t be too upset. Let me tell you – those braids are very well moisturized right now!
I love this style on her and it is definitely one I will do more often.