10 Months Post BC: DIY Crochet Braids

Hello World & Naturalistas !

 

Today I'll be giving my experience on doing my very own crochet braids. I will talk about the type of hair I used, what I did, show my braiding pattern, how I prepared my hair, styling, maintence, and my overall experience so far with them.

 Before attempting crochet braids I did plenty of research. I originally wanted to have a friend do them but I wanted to try to attempt the style on my own. Check out TheChicNatural on Youtube to see how to install the hair for the crochet braids. She is the one who I referred to after I tried about 5 times and couldn't get the hair to go under my braid.

Many years ago, when I was a little booger my mom used to get crochet braids. In the 90's it was in the thing to get. They would use pre braided hair that resemebled mirco braids and install them. Since then many people have become creative and started to use pre curled hair, marley hair, braiding hair,etc. Opting out of the original crochet for box braids and kinky twists styling.

Before I installed my conrows I had I taken out my shoulder length marley twists that I had in for a month. I then pre pooed with Shea Moisture Sea Kelp & Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque, Africa's Best Hair Mayonnaise, & Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I washed and conditioned with Tressemme Shampoo and matching conditioner. Then I did a DIY deep conditioner with honey, coconut oil, Giovanni's conditioner, aloe vera juice, and water. *Here's a quick FYI for new naturals: Honey and Aloe Vera Juice are known as humectants. Humectants are things that absorb moisture, which is exactly what I wanted with this deep conditioner for THREE reasons. One being, I used a protein treatment in my pre poo. Two being, I shampooed with sulfate shampoo. Three being, I planned on keeping the style for at least a month.*

After rinsing my hair looked like this:

I must give credit to the Bentinite Clay for bringing out my curl pattern, It does wonders at stripping all the product from your hair. *If you use Clay or decide to try it* Follow up with a moisturizer/moisturizing method afterward to avoid breakage from dry hair.

After washing out that deep conditioner I added Cantu Shea Butter Moisturizing Curl Enhancer, Coconut oil, Olive Oil, and Naptural85's Shea Butter Mix. After hair drying my hair for a bit, my hair felt nice and soft. My aunt conrowed my hair for me in a pattern I thought would be great to do for multiple styling opportunities.

Then I started to crochet. At first I could NOT get the hair to go under my braid. So I rushed to youtube to watch the tutorial again. If you have the urge to loop the hair in the needle before you push it under the braid; resist. Loop the hair after you put the needle under the braid. I repeated this process throughout my entire hair. It took 2.5 hours to complete. This is what I was left with.

I put wayyy too much hair. But I was paprnoid of having huge gaps and it looking bad quick because of others experiences I've seen on You tube. So I kept all the hair in. I put the moisturizing curl enchancer and eco styler olive gel with water on each section brushed them out and twisted and bantu knoted it. Afer taking them down in the morning, I realized it did not take the curl. So I took out all the bantu knots and wrapped all the twists aroung flexi rods. I boiled hot water and dipped them and undid the twist. This is what I got

It was WAY too much hair, for me. And the hair wouldn't stay curled it kept poofing up as the day progressed. So I went home and took out some of the hair, cut it shorter, attempted to shape it and decided to just do two strand twists sections and dip them in hot water  that night and take them out in the morning. I hoped that I was giving the hair a real opportunity to curl. It worked better than the day before. Here are the results:

That lasted for two days and I gave up trying to get the curls to stay tight like I'd seen many other youtubers achieve. So I twsited the back and braided the sides and made a bun. I've been rocking that for a week now. My original goal was to keep this for a month but it's only been 1 week so I don't know if I can, but I will definitely try. My goal is to keep my hands out of my hair for at least 6 months. This is the start of month 2.

I would recommend this style to anyone. It's simple and easy to do and very versatile. Most people only keep it for a month. some have kept it to 6 weeks to 2 months. It just depends on each individual.

THANK YOU FOR READING, BE BLESSED