Following Where He Leads...: Stepping It Up

Totally not related to the subject of this post, but I'm so excited I had to share: all the while I have worked on finishing this post today (that I started during rest-time yesterday, and am finishing during rest-time today) there has been raining and now a THUNDERSTORM going on outside.

This is **HUGE** because our internet has kept on ticking away just fine. WOOHOO! Our first-world problem is solved, finally! After two years of yucky Satellite internet, we now have REAL INTERNET!

Back to the real post...

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Abigail's hair growth has seemed to stagnate the past few months. Which means....that it is breaking off at the same rate that it is growing in. Not good.

I've been knowing that it was time for me to step up my game. Meaning: It was time for me to begin doing whole-head "protective styles" on Abigail.

"Protective" means that the hair is styled in a way that the ends (which is the oldest part of the hair shaft) are tucked away from exposure and not at risk of losing moisture at the same rate as if left "free". If the hair isn't protected and kept moisturized, it will break off faster than new growth is coming in, and you won't have the all-coveted "length retention."

So when we got home from Colorado, it was TIME!

Easter 2015

I did a flat twist in the "bangs" area...and "box braids" on the rest of her head.

I used four different colors of barrettes this first day...and discovered that is just TOO many different colors for this mama.

Was Abigail a little overwhelmed by all the color-craziness on her head also?

Noah asked me to take these pics of just him and his sis. He loves her SOOOO much!

I am now restricting myself to just 2 or (maybe) 3 different colors at one time.

The fun thing about protective styles like these that last longer is that I can just switch out the bling and accessorize A's hair in different ways every day, to match her current outfit.

This style lasted for about a week and a half...with me "refreshing" the sections one time. That means I took out the braids (and rubber band at the base of each little pony using a seam ripper, carefully!) and reapplying water, leave-in conditioner and jojoba oil before reinserting the rubber band and braids.

When I read that people sometimes just take the sections out and re-do them, I didn't initially understand why you would want to do that. But now I do.

The hairstyle starts getting fuzzy (in the case of a baby, it may only be after 2 or 3 days), but it is much quicker to just re-do the style (since the parts are already done) than to start ALL over from scratch with a totally different hairstyle that would require different parts.

What a sweet, sweet doll baby.

You can see that Abigail's "edges" are fuzzy. This is a no-no for African American women/girls. Products known as "Edge Control" are sold in stores. (But I've read on my FB Group from WOC (Women of Color) that you can just use gel.) Either way, the edges are supposed to be "laid", meaning slicked down flat.

This is such a balancing act: if you pull the edges (or any hair) too tight you'll get stress bumps and traction alopecia and the hair may pull out...permanently. And I've read if you are constantly "laying" your edges that is not good for them.

But babies get a little pass - and it is ok for them to have cute, little curlies around the edges - for a while.

After a few days I did something different with A's bang area - took out the flat twist and the pony/braid right behind it and did three flat braids toward the front:

I'd seen this somewhere, and wasn't sure about it. Didn't like it...won't do that again.

Here is how we're able to keep a style in A's hair for more than a day:

A wig cap.

She sleeps on satin sheets to protect her hair (cotton would just wick moisture away, and break her hair), but we've been searching for something to put on her head to protect her styles. (Later she'll have a satin pillowcase when she uses pillows)

I've watched several helpful YouTube videos by Inez Moore (like this one), doing her cute baby girl's hair, and she recommended a wig cap.

It is working fine, but I hate the line it leaves on A's forehead for a while...so I'll keep looking...

In addition to barettes, I sometimes use "snaps" on the ends of Abigail's braids.

Yes, I'm having fun buying and using accessories for Sissy's hair!
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Almost as much fun as Abigail.

After having that style in for about a week and a half, I left her hair "free" for a while. To let the hair and parts rest.

And then when we were headed on "our" business trip with Daddy, I put in the style again....

...with the only difference being that I did a box braid in the front section, instead of a flat twist.

And then a few days later I switched out the barrettes for "ballies"...A's first official time wearing ballies! (Some people call them "knockers.")

A has a pretty good bald spot in the middle of the back of her head. It isn't really "bald", but the hair is very, very short in this section...much shorter than the rest of her head. So I need to be careful what styles I do so that it isn't really obvious (or funny looking) that the hair is much shorter there.

The "bald spot" is right in the back center of her head, where the middle bottom section and the section above it meet. You can't really tell in this picture...and that is because with this hairstyle and these parts it isn't obvious. And that is by design.

Again, after I took this style out, I let A's hair and parts rest for a few days.