Getting In on the Action (A Little)

I recently did "box braids" in Abigail's hair for the first time:

There were (if I counted correctly) 21 boxes.

And then I did four flat twists across the front of A's head.

I tried to cornrow those four sections, but I am still having trouble, so I reverted (again) to just doing flat twists.  But I am not giving up on my cornrowing efforts...I need to get this down!

This style set a record for us: It stayed in her hair for 6 days. SIX DAYS!  That is simply huge.  Besides cutting down on styling time during the (hectic) week, it is healthier for A's hair to be handled and manipulated less.

I did need to re-do the flat twist section once (or twice?) during the week...but that doesn't take very long.

I could wax eloquent about all the problems I saw with my execution of this style (like the boxes on the right side of her head were quite a bit smaller than the ones on the left side), but I am trying to not be a perfectionist about this.  It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.  That is what I keep telling myself anyway.  And, I know that no one else is scrutinizing her hair as closely as I am. 

As I was working on the braids, Jas came over to check out our progress...and he ended up jumping in and helping on some of the braids. 

It is not important how many (or how few...3(cough)) he helped with, it just means a lot to me that he wants to be involved.  

Totally swallowing my pride and posting this pic of me still in jammies, and Jas in his cow feeding/milking clothes!

It took about 3 hours total for this style, between parting (the most tedious part for me!) and banding her hair on Saturday night...and then braiding/twisting on Sunday morning before church.

That is "product" still showing in A's braids - our homemade mix of coconut oil, cocoa butter and shea butter - to seal in moisture.  The "C" in the LOC method.

Abigail's ability to cooperate for hair sessions has grown by leaps and bounds recently...I am so impressed with her!  It doesn't hurt that she watches music videos while she is sitting (she is watching "Let it Doe (Go)" in the pic above).  But in the past, even the ability to watch something couldn't always persuade her to be very cooperative.

And finally, someone else became inspired to start doing hair besides Jas:

So cute!!