Yarn Braids on Natural Hair

So I decided to braid my hair cos for a while, I’ll be somewhere where I won’t have the time to make my hair every two weeks.

If you know the texture of my hair, you will know that it’s not really the obedient type. Even when it was relaxed, it got rough very easily. And as for my natural hair, the rate at which it gets rough and frizzes is off the hinges. So as a natural haired lady, I found out that the only braids I could get away with was kinky braids. That was till i discovered yarn braids. The wool is dull enough to mask the frizziness of my hair. So i decided to try yarn braids this time.

I always dread a visit to the salon. The last time I visited the salon was last December, when I did kinky braids. So I had to mentally prepare myself and my physically prepare my hair for this event. You know braids has the tendency of drying out our natural hair, so I had to reduce the chance of this by properly taking of my hair before braiding

Before braiding

I loosed my twists and detangled my hair.

I did my preferred method of Deep conditioning on my hair. I left it in my hair for 5 hours.

I then washed and conditioned my hair. 

I then used ACV to get rid of any leftover build ups and smoothen my hair cuticles.

Finally I did the tea rinse to further condition and soften my hair.

After washing my hair, while still moist, not dripping wet, I applied a mixture of castor oil and olive oil and finally sealed it with my Africa Naturalista hair butter.

I then stretched my hair by braiding it in eight parts, put on my satin bonnet, and jumped on the bed, kissed my pillow, and said goodnight to God.

The next morning, i sprayed my hair with a mixture of water, olive oil and glycerin and proceeded to the salon

During Braiding

After the usual instructions to the stylists which went thus

Thou shall not pick my tiny, or 'arrange’ my in front hair

Thou shall not braid my hair tight

Thou shall not comb my hair

And some other important-to-me but petty-to-them instructions,

We finally started the braids. They constantly asked why I did not relax my hair, and I constantly educated them about natural hair. After a while, one of them said 'Aahh ,you really like this natural hair thing o'.  They could see the passion with which I talked about natural hair.

After three hours of my gruelling salon experience, this is what I ended up with.

After Braiding

I don’t plan to neglect my hair just because it’s braided, lest the protective styling now becomes my nemesis. So here is my regimen

I will do the daily spritz every morning and night. It’s a mixture of water, olive oil and glycerin

I will wash my hair every other week, as usual

I will use a mixture of castor oil and olive oil around my edges

Summary

The advantage of yarn braids for natural hair is that unlike extensions, wool is actually very light. So the weight doesn’t actually draw or burden your hair strands. This means very low risk of alopecia

The disadvantage is that yarn braids has a very dull looks compared to extensions. So you might want to spice your look up by adorning yourself with bright make up and accessories

For a similar post I did on Kinky Braids, click here.

In the meantime, please vote on the gadget on the right hand side, in order to let us know what your greatest natural hair challenge is. The poll ends next month. This will help us know what problems most naturalistas have and we will therefore be able to carry out more research and do posts on what we have found out.

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