Yarn Braids, Goodbye!

We started with these braids in early December. Over the last week I've noticed that Kendi's roots were looking pretty raunchy, and some of the braids had pulled out a lot of the hair initially put in the section. Time for them to go.Kendi was NOT happy. We started by cutting the braids shorter.
These braids had really started to matte (sp?) into the yarn, so it took me 3 hours to get them out. NOT fun.This picture shows what was happening. A big chunk of hair detached and clumped together, with a small amount of hair actually left to hold the braid in.I never know how much hair is "normal" to lose. This is roughly what Kendi lost. A lot of it is the hair that would have naturally shed from her head but couldn't because of the yarn. But some of it is from the hair being pulled out (when I put it in pony tails or pulled it back in other ways). I put the kiddie scissors there for size perspective.

I had to really convince her to smile for this photo! It was almost midnight, she was tired, and she was still not happy to lose her braids!

In the end I don't think that we've lose much hair. It's a little thinner on the sides. It's weird seeing her today with her short hair again!

Faux-Hawk

We were watching a show where someone had a mo-hawk. Kendi told me SHE wanted a mo-hawk.Five little bands and five little bantu knots later, we have what I think passes as a pretty decent faux-hawk!Her yarn braids have been in for about a month now, and not a one has shown signs of falling out. It's SUCH a big difference from the first time I put them in. The only thing is that her hair (her real hair) is looking DIRTY! Not sure how to tackle that since it's only the first 1/2 inch from her scalp to the yarn braid. Thoughts for experienced mamas?

Yarn Braids--Reveal!

Yarn braids are now complete. 73 braids was our total this time. I left you last when we were here...Here is her proud smile when I had finished installing the braids but before I finished the ends.
Here is the final result. I decided to see if I liked bangs this time. I think it's sort of cute. What do you think? The cool thing is, if I get tired of them, I'll just cut them off and replace them with longer braids!Shot from the back. I never plan out the parting. I just grab what feels like the right amount of hair for each braid and go with it. When I saw this photo it surprised me that it looks like I actually planned out a grid or something!Just to add a bit more pizazz I added these cute little diddies I found at the dollar store. Not enough to do all 73 braids so just the 5 bang braids will have to do!

A few people asked for a tutorial on these. There's lots of info online if you don't want to wait for me, but I did have Taevy take pics of each step. [She's so good with the camera. The pics are pretty clear!] When I get a bit of time I plan to post the step by step on the blog. =-)

Love,

Anita

Braid Time

It's been over a year since I last put yarn braids in Kendi's hair. [For those of you who haven't heard of them, they are basically like putting extensions in her hair, except that you use plain 'ol acrylic yarn, which actually ends up looking more like real African hair than the regular extensions. Plus, they are super inexpensive!]

Kendi has asked for "long hair" many times this year. Honestly, I don't find that the yarn braids do any favors for her normal hair growth, so I put it off. But I promised for Christmas that I would give her long hair. We had a talk yesterday about hair time and if she was really willing to sit like a good girl. YES, she said, she would be patient. YES, she said, she would look down when I told her to. YES, she said, she would sit still on mommy's lap.

We started her hair last night and put in 3 hours. I got about 35 braids done in that time. [I am not very fast at this and her hair is thin and short.] She kept her end of the bargain and was a good girl the whole time!

When we finished for the night she RAN into the bathroom and said, "Mom, this is just TOO great!" Then she brought me a ponytail holder to put in a ponytail (something she can't normally do with her short hair)!

Today Kendi was expected next door for a Christmas lunch our neighbor has for the kids. What to do with a 1/3 braided head? Bandana is our best friend! [Note, I haven't braided to the end or decided what length to go with. Nobody notices that with it tied behind her back. ]

Last night I asked Kendi to talk about her new long hair on video. Silly girl! Uh-oh. Better go. She's crying upstairs because somehow "my hair is all messed up!"

Hair Evolution: 2+ years in

I haven't posted about Kendi's hair "evolution" in quite some time. To be quite honest, I haven't done much with her hair over the past 6-8 months. We condition. We de-tangle. We moisturize. We don't see much (if any) growth. She cries often because, "Mommy, I want long hair. When will God give me long hair?" [Ugh--break my heart!] She asked for long hair for her b-day. She is asking for long hair for Christmas. I tell her every single day how absolutely beautiful she is with her short spunky hair, and she is! =-) When we meet a black person with short hair I am always sure to point it out to her so that she can see she isn't alone, and some people CHOOSE to keep their hair short. Still, she's a little girl. She wants pigtails and braids and beads.

I guess somewhere along the line we just fell into the habit of wearing it free or free with a headband every day. It's quick and easy and she looks super cute that way.

The last week or so I have decided that I must get out of the Kendi hair funk and start trying to be more creative with it again. Well, I don't know if "creative" is the right word because I don't do anything creative with it even when I'm trying to style it!

While it seems to never get longer than 2 inches, it definitely has gotten thicker over the past few years. And just in the past several weeks I've noticed these beautiful little ringlets popping up naturally. Are those not too cute?! Can you see them? I wonder, if her hair ever did get long, if it would break up into these beautiful little boings?!In preparation for OU-Texas weekend (football) we did some french twists with red and white snaps. I've done this style several times because the top and sides of her hair are longer than her back.By this evening her cute little twists were full of fuzz, and some of the snaps had fallen out. Re-style time! Actually, I intended just to sit and massage her little ringlets into a thing of beauty but ended up making little coils all over her head. People either love this style, or hate it. My mom hates it (says it looks like worms)! I like it. It only takes about an hour. It is an actual "style" rather than free hair. And I feel like it's more protective than just leaving her hair free.

I suppose a stylist might be able to do cornrows with her hair, but I can't. The hair is too fine and too short for me to work with. Ironically, I can rock out some cornrows on my (Asian) daughter Taevy's long sleek hair.

I have promised Kendi that for Christmastime we will put in another batch of yarn braid extensions. She just loves having "long hair" so much. Some people say that yarn braids are protective, but our results are a LOT of breakage and shedding. I feel like we go way backward with hair growth. We pay a price for putting them in, but as an extra special thing once or twice a year I will do it for her.

We are almost out of product for Kendi's hair. I spent quite a long time yesterday comparing brands and prices. It is so hard for me to drop 50 bucks on my 4 year old's hair when good 'ol Suave is sitting in my own shower! We have been using a mixture of Bee Mine, Organix, and Quenched Curls, along with good 'ol coconut oil and shea butter. I love these producs. But in the end I decided to try to save some money this time around. It came down to Organix, or "Africa's Best Organics" (which I realize is not fully organic). I *LOVE* the smell of the coconut Organix products! The particular items I wanted in the Organix line weren't in stock, so I went with "Africa's Best Organics." Anybody used them before? Good or bad results? For $25 (including shipping) I got these 5 items. [Actually, one is "Soft and Beautiful" line.]

1. Africa's Beat Organics (ABO) Mayo Leave-in Conditioner, 6 oz, $2.81

2. ABO Kids Olive and Soy Growth Lotion, 8 oz, $3.35

3. ABO Ultimate Organic Therapy Coconut Oil Stimulating Growth Oil, $3.49

4. ABO Kids Olive and Soy Moisturizing Lotion, 8 oz, $4.00

5. Soft and Beautiful Just for Me Hair Milk Styling Cream, $4.49

I figure if these totally stink I haven't broken the bank! We can always go back to the more expensive stuff.

Love,

Anita

Hair: Fro Height

Can you see the height she's getting with her little fro? We have seen some SERIOUS growth since we took her yarn braids out and trimmed her hair in January! I think we are finally over the hump with Kendi's hair!

Hair Evolution: Stacked Up Pigtails

Today we were getting ready for homeschool choir and I asked Kendi how she wanted her hair done. "Kai Lan hair Mommy! Kai Lan hair!" In Kendi's world this means pony tails. =-) Some day she will have enough hair to do a single or double puff, but we aren't there yet. It is HUGE progress that she only needs 8 puffs! Yea! Only 8 puffs!

For her "bangs" I flat twisted the front section and added dangly barrettes.

After I was done, Kendi was very excited to see her ponytails. When she looked into the mirror she promptly started letting go of crocodile tears. "This is NOT Kai Lan hair! Mommy, it's not long enough. I want LONG ponytails!" Poor baby. She gets so tired of being the short-haired girl. She doesn't see how far she's come; she only sees how far she has yet to go (in her mind)!

I, on the other hand, am so encouraged by the recent hair growth! She's definitely had a spurt since I wondered openly on the blog if we should get her a wig (LOL)! Her hair is long enough now that an experienced hand could definitely get some thin cornrows out of the length. And it's got to be 10 times thicker (literally) than it was 1.5 years ago when she came home. Grow hair, grow!

Hair Evolution: First Faux Hawk!

The other night when Kendi was super sick I was playing with her hair. I did two french twists on one side of her hair. We had just seen Willow Smith on TV and she had this cute little do where she had two braids on the side and a cute faux hawk thing with the rest of her hair. The next day I decided to see what could be accomplished with Kendi's hair.

I think the result is so cute! If you knew her personality you could see how this style suits it perfectly. It's just so sassy and spunky! We got lots of compliments today at Homeschool Choir and the library. =-) The best part is that the twists and puffs are actually staying in! Her hair is long enough to hold a style! Woot!

Wig for kids?

Is there anybody out there that has ever considered getting a wig for your hair-challenged child? I *NEVER* thought that this type of thing would even cross my mind, but the older Kendi gets without much hair growth, the more I think about alternatives.

She just loved the yarn braids we had in for a few months over the holiday season. But the yarn braids did not love her. Her hair continues to get thicker month by month, but we see very little growth. She's 3.5 years and has been home for 1.5 years. This isn't just a matter of her "catching up" anymore. Her doctors agree that this might be a real long-term issue for her.

Certainly hair is not considered a "big deal." That is, unless you don't have it. How much do we girls love to have hair options? How many of us love the option to go curly or straight, long or short? I do. My other daughter does. Kendi does too--but she doesn't have options. Yes, she totally rocks her little mini-fro, palm coils, and tiny twists. I figure her heard can handle yarn braids one or twice a year, tops. The child absolutely adores her play wigs. She wants to have pony tails and braids like most other little girls. And I can't give them to her.

Do they even make good natural looking African hair wigs? Would it be completely silly to consider this as an option for Kendi--for those days when she wishes she had longer hair? Just something I've been thinking about lately. I don't know of any other internationally adopted children who have had the issue of no/slow hair growth. =-(

Anita

P.S. To make it clear, *I* do not have a problem with my daughter's gorgeous short hair. But I can see her lack of hair is starting to make her feel self-conscious.

Hair Evolution: Back to Reality

Well, our 2nd experiment with yarn braids/Jenie Locs has come to an end. Back to life. Back to reality! These braids were a tremendous success compared to our last experiment with them 6 months prior. The first time they only stayed in a few days. This time they stayed in 8 weeks and 2 days--and we could have gone longer!

I have seen a ton of pictures of kids during the process of braiding, and tons of pics of the final product, but not many of what the hair is like upon taking the braids out.

Honestly, I was very fearful that we were going to end up with a bald Kendi. One braid fell out a few weeks ago and there was barely any hair left to replace the braid with. The kids said Bright pulled that braid, so it's possible he yanked her hair out. Still...

I was somewhat encouraged once I took all of the braids out. Easy process. Less than an hour. I cut the yarn to the point where I thought the hair was mixed in. Then I unbraided just the stub that was left.

Spiky!
Kendi wanted to leave her hair this way!

Next step was to detangle the mess, and give it a good "bath" in moisture! As I wetted her hair and started working oils in my hands were COVERED in her hair. It was pretty unsettling to see! I had heard that there would be a lot of this because the hair isn't able to shed what it would naturally lose when it's in the yarn braids. Still, I'm not sure if this amount is normal or if some of Kendi's hair was pulled out from the weight of the braids. [Her hair is way more fragile than most other kids' hair.]

I forgot to take a picture of the mound of hair that fell out. It was probably 3 inches round by 2 inches tall. A LOT of hair considering how little she has to being with!

Here she is after detangling, but before final styling.
At this point I relaxed because I could see that, at the least, we didn't appear to have less over all coverage than before the braids.

Here she is after I added Bee Mine Curly Butter to define her curls a bit more. Yea!
Do you notice anything missing in this picture? The bald spot is gone! That bald spot that has been with her her whole life, and a constant bother to us for the past 16 months!
All in all, the experiment was a success, and I feel it's a good styling choice for Kendi in the future. The amount of hair that came out was hard to see, but I think most of it was the hair that would have normally shed out over the course of 2 months. I don't think her hair grew much (if any) during the 2 months BUT it does seem that she has more hair per square inch of scalp. I will take thicker hair any day!

It's back to headbands, scarves, bows and cute hats for us. All of the kids say that now Kendi "looks Ghanaian again!" We were all sure to make a fuss over how beautiful she is with her natural curls and I think she went to bed feeling good about things even though she would probably choose to always have "long Dora hair" if I let her. =-)

Piggy-Tail Princess

I love the way pigtails look on little girls. It's so cool to be able to do them in Kendi's "hair" for a change! This time 'round with yarn braids is going SO MUCH BETTER. No braids have fallen out except at the bottom of the back, where I've decided to leave them out because she just doesn't have enough hair to keep them in back there. Someone asked how long these will stay in. My goal is to keep them in until the new year. Some people keep them in for months and months. I imagine that we will have some fall out or need to be redone. I'll just manage as that happens. So far, so good!

Satin Pillowcases to protect your African daughter's hair!

The other day I came across a listing for a monogrammed satin pillowcase on ETSY.com. Only $4 (plus $2 shipping)! I just think that's such a good price. Not only does the satin pillowcase protect Lil' Bit's hair, but she will also LOVE that her "K for Kendi" is right there on the case! The seller has been super responsive.

What a great and inexpensive Christmas gift for your princess!

[No, not getting anything out of this. Just excited about the find!]

Yarn Braids: Complete!

Braids braided down. Ends tied. Ends burnt. Total time for this round was about 6.5 hours, down from 15 the first time!

Happy mommy. Happy child. Done!