Nevaeh's Hair

I'm feeling a little proud of Nevah's hairstyle that I did today so I thought I would share it. I have always had trouble doing cornrows, so this was a pretty good accomplishment for me.

We do not live in a very diverse town, so we often get comments on both kids hairstyles when we are out and about such as at the grocery store, the park, Eli's school, etc. Eli's hair is about 1 inch long and very thick and kinky. He wears it in little twists all over his head. It takes about five minutes to style in the morning with hair lotion and a special brush called a Nudred and then he is set for the day. Nice and easy.

Nevaeh's hair is about halfway down her back when pulled straight and just above her shoulders when it is curly. She has very thin, fine, dry hair. Alot of curls, but not alot of hair. This makes it hard to style. The thicker and kinkier the hair, the longer the style will last. I am happy when Nevaeh's hairstyle lasts a week. This might sound strange to people that do not have AA children, but her hair cannot be washed everyday, or even every other day otherwise it gets too dried out. It normally gets washed about once a week. We do not use shampoo very often on her. I do what is called a co-wash (washing with conditioner only). Every morning I spritz her hair with a moisturizing spray or if the scalp seems drier than normal I spray with a water and oil mixture. This seems to work pretty well for us.

Anyway, today's style is two cornrows on the top of the head and sixteen boxbraids on the back of the head. This style took close to 2 hours (including a few 10 minute breaks). I probably could have fihished in about an hour and a half but I had some trouble with the cornrows and had to re-do them a couple of times. Most of the kids tv watching time is done on days when a long hairstyle is happening. She is pretty good about sitting as long as she gets to pick a movie (today was Harry Potter) and I give her a couple of small breaks. Obviously I cannot expect her to sit still like that everyday, so that is why the longer I can get a style to last the better.