Mini Braids Styles

Back before Christmas 2011, I put mini braids in Des' hair. Prior to putting her hair in mini braids I washed Des' hair with Kinky Curly Come Clean. Once she was out of the shower I squeezed her hair in a t-shirt to remove some of the excess water. I then began parting her hair and adding a mixture of Kinky Curly Knot Today and some oils mixed together to detangle and moisturize her hair. Once I detangled each section. I then began parting her hair and applying Kinky Curly Curling Custard to braid her hair up. I parted her hair in a subway tile pattern. I did this to her whole head until we were done. We ended up with over 150 braids. 

Subway Tile Pattern

I have done mini braids on Des back in Feb and they only lasted about 2 weeks before they were a mess. So when I decided to do them this time I sought help from a fellow blogger and friend, Shay from Mainly Braids, for tips. I truly feel like her input played a huge role in how successful and long these mini braids lasted. In addition to her help, I also feel like the products I used helped tremendously. For the majority of the time after Des rinsed or co-washed her braids, we applied It's Perfectly Natural Root Food and spritz the braids with It's Perfectly Natural Turn Me Loose for daily moisture. There was one week were we used Bee Mine Hair and Scalp Moisturizer and Juicy Spritz for moisture. While she was in her mini braids we received a Curls Like Us Curl Cloth which we used to help dry her hair after showers.

Des wore her mini braids in various styles. I am going to share a few with you here.

One side up in a bow with the rest down.

Curlformers applied on mini braids after a little bit of water was spritzed on them and KCCC was applied for hold.

Mini braids were in a goddess style braid, see pic below.

Goddess style braid with the mini braids. 

Curlformers left in over night on damp mini braids with KCCC for hold.  (week 1 of KLK PSC)

Just down with a headband, a couple of days after mini braids were done. 

Inverted French braid this is towards end of the time her mini braids were in. (week 2 of KLK PSC) 

As of January 19, 2012, Des has been taking part in KandyLand Kurls' Protective Style Challenge. There are two weeks worth of styles in the pic above before we took her hair down out of her mini braids. These mini braids lasted us 6 weeks and we saw a lot of growth. 

Growth varied on different areas of head, approximately 1 inch or more. 

I will be doing updates on the other protective styles we have done in this KLK PSC in the near future. Hope you enjoyed, would love to hear your thoughts. Till the next time... Stay Blessed.

Kinky Curly Products on JoJo and Des (Picture Heavy)

This post is going to show how JoJo and Des' hair looked when I used Kinky Curly products as well as a narrative of how I applied them.

Well this post was a treat for me since JoJo and her family have moved I have really not seen her as often as I would like. JoJo, her baby sis and mom came down a few weeks ago shortly after I had bought the Kinky Curly Product line. I had bought the KC Come Clean Shampoo, Knot Today Leave In/ Detangler, and the Curling Custard and had only used the Knot Today on Des at the point that JoJo's visit happened.

After JoJo and her mom agreed to let me wash and style her hair with the Kinky Curly products. We set out to wash her hair, her mom had said JoJo's hair hadn't been shampooed in a couple of weeks so I took this opportunity to shampoo her with the Come Clean shampoo. JoJo's hair had a lot of product on it and the Come Clean worked wonderfully at getting it out. JoJo said she loved how it smelled and that her hair felt good when I was shampooing her hair. Once her hair was completely rinsed I put a T-shirt over JoJo's hair to get some of the excess water out. I must say JoJo's hair definitely felt clean.

Right after washing with KC Come Clean, still wet.

With Knot Today and Macadamia Nut Oil in it.

Shrinkage.

I then sat her down and we began the process of detangling which can take a while just due to how much hair she has. I used Knot today mixed with some Macadamia Nut Oil for added moisture, since she has 4b/c hair it tends to get dry. The Knot Today worked like a charm at assisting with the detangling. The whole process was a lot shorter than it usually is. I love how defined her curls looked as well. 

New Growth, still wet with KC Curling Custard.

Defined Curls.

Once I finished detangling her hair I took small sections and put Kinky Curly Curling Custard from root to tip. I made sure that I raked my fingers from the root to tip to evenly distribute it through her damp hair. I continued this process through her whole head. I was really loving how the Curling Custard was making her curls pop and defining them. 

Almost Dry, shrunk up so more. 

Now as long as I have known JoJo and her mom any time her hair is worn "out" it immediately starts to grow bigger, so this particular day was definitely an experiment to see how well these products worked. I instructed JoJo to keep her hands out of her hair till it was dry to keep it from frizzing cause I read that somewhere, not sure where off the top of my head. I will say that for JoJo's hair this product did just what it said it would do, it reduced the frizz, gave her hair shine, defined her curls, and provided hold. 

JoJo loving her hair "out."

Day 3 and Day 5.

I am now going to show you how these products worked on Des' 3c/4a hair. Just recently the weather started to get cooler so Des decided she wanted to wear her hair down to school something she had not done yet. Well we decided to do this really quickly cause we had to get to church. Des co-washed her hair with Suave Almond and Shea Butter conditioner and detangled with a wide tooth comb. When Des got out we bloated her hair with a T-shirt and I sectioned her hair and finger detangled her hair again with Knot Today. While it was still sectioned, I put Curling Custard in from root to tip using a raking motion with my fingers, in the same way that you finger detangle. Once I did a section, I would pick up the tip and lift it up a little and kind of shake it so that it would allow the curl to reform. I did the shaking motion as opposed to scrunching her hair to keep her natural curl pattern intact. We literally ran out of the door once her whole head was done. It only took about 25 minutes from the time she got out of the shower to the time we were out of the door with a headband in her hair. Her hair air dried while we were at Church, that night to preserve her curls we put her hair up in a pineapple with a satin bonnet for her to sleep. 

After Church. 

The next morning we took her hair out of the bonnet and pineapple. I took my fingers with a little water on them to work with a couple of curly areas and she was set to go. She wore her hair like this for three days and had no frizz. We just put her hair in a  pineapple at night. 

Day 2

Day3

So for me I can say that Kinky Curly products do what they say they will. They were easy for me to use. I think I still need to work on how much product I use at a time to get it exactly how I would like for Des' hair but like with any hair product it is trial and error. I think for both girls and it being the first time I used it on both hair types the results were amazingly good. I hope that this post is helpful in some way to you. 

Until the next time...Stay Blessed.