Favorite (and Least Favorite) Hair Accessories

Danielle Vickers 3 Comments

Hey guys!

So accessories are a fun way to either jazz up you’re hairstyle or fix a bad hair day.  Over the years, I have found several hair accessories that I absolutely love and some that I seldom use. (Also, sorry that I didn’t include pictures this time but I’m really sick and can’t do much of anything right now.)

  1. Hair Sticks: These are the newest to my hair accessory arsenal.  I remember when I was a kid that I got one from the Renaissance Fair and had no clue how to use it so I would just put my hair in a bun and put the stick through it.  You are actually supposed to use the stick to put up your hair.  The reason I love them so much is that usually when I pull my hair up into a bun, the base of my hair is never flat; but when I use these sticks, I can pull parts that are too puffy back toward the bun with the sticks so they are flat.
  2. Scrunchies: I have definitely talked about it before but I love using scrunchies, mainly because they don’t get stuck in my hair, but also because they can add a pop of color to your hair to match your outfit.  I even have two the have pretty patterns on them so that a regular bun or ponytail can look more elegant.
  3. Silk Scarves: You all probably know how much I love these since I wear them as turbans all the time, but you can also use them to form headbands to give you that sort of chic classic look.  One of my favorite was to wear these is with a black and white outfit to emphasize the color in the headband.

Now for the ones I don’t like so much.

  1. Bow Cloth Headbands: These are way different from the silk headbands; these are usually solid colors with a bow to one side and an elastic band on part of the back so that it can stretch.  I don’t like these for several reasons: 1) they look like they are not well made; 2) they tend to look pretty childish; 3) the band is always too long so it won’t fit on my head right.  I’ve had two or three of these before and I never really wear them since I never like the way they look.
  2. Snap Hair Clips: I find these just floating around my house and I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever actually used them.  I think I must have used them back when I had straight hair because they do not work at all on my curly hair.  Most times they just snap open and fall out.
  3. Gem Bobby Pins: These always looks so pretty in the packaging but I to this day have no clue how to use them.  They always get lost in my hair and the rhinestones get caught in my hair so bad that I end up ripping like half my hair out trying to remove them.
  4. Embellished Clips: My friend from high school got me one of these from her trip to India and it is extremely beautiful; the only problem is that I can put it in my hair without tearing my hair out from all the gems on it.  Plus, clips like these tend to pop open because my hair is too thick, only this one won’t fall out because it is so tangled in my hair that it can’t.

Thanks for reading!

Wash N’ Go and the Banding Method

Danielle Vickers 2 Comments

I finally did it guys! I did a successful wash n’ go!??

After many failed attempts, I used my natural hair knowledge not to mess it up this time!  SO here’s a quick run down of what I did:

  1. First, I washed my hair with Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Moisture Retention Shampoo (which actually got that blue color out of my hair!).  It doesn’t dry out my hair like regular shampoos do, which is super important for wash n goes so that your hair doesn’t get overly frizzy.
  2. I conditioned with Shea Moisture Restorative Conditioner.
  3. I sectioned my hair into four sections and when split those sections into smaller sections as I worked on my hair so that I could make sure I got product throughout my hair.
  4.  I used coconut oil, Loreal’s Damage-Erasing Balm, and olive oil Eco Styler gel on all the sections and finger-detangled to distribute the products.
  5. I waited a bit for my hair to start drying and then used the banding method: a way to stretch your hair (which means keep your curls from curling as much) by tying hair bands or string around your hair to prevent it from curling so that it looks longer when it is dry. One of the main reasons that I never liked wash n goes was because my hair would shrink way too much, so I did this to prevent some of the shrinkage.

6. I let it dry all night and re-curled pieces that needed more definition with the gel in the morning.

I actually used to use the banding method on my twists to make my hair longer when it would dry, but I didn’t do it for very long because I it tended to take the volume out of my hair so it ended up looking kinda weird.  However, it came in handy with this style since it is beyond thick so it has volume to spare.  Plus, all the humidity will bring any lost volume back anyway, and then some!  My hair was so thick by the end of the first day that I could only pull it back into a ponytail with a headband because it wouldn’t fit into a scrunchie!  Luckily, my curls have started to relax by now so I can actually pull it back with a hair tie, although it does require an extreme amount of strength to do so.

It actually holds up a lot better than I expected.  Usually, my hair lasts about 3-5 days and then I have to start wearing it in a ponytail or bun or re-twisting it, but its been 5 days and it still looks pretty good!  I feel like part of the reason is because it has smaller curls, it is harder to identify what parts are frizzy compared to when I twist my hair and the sections are more uniform.  It is also really fun to style too; sometimes it is more out of necessity like the picture at the top, since my hair was so poofy that day that I put two buns on top to reduce some of the volume from the sides (and to keep my hair out of my face).  I definitely want to try this with another conditioner and see if it turns out better since my hair still feels pretty dry even after all the stuff I put on it, plus it would probably give it even more definition.

Thanks for reading!

The Concept of “Wash Day”

Danielle Vickers 3 Comments

Hey everyone!

So we have all heard the excuse “oh sorry, I would do that but I have to wash my hair.”  I have actually said this to someone before and they just thought I was trying to be rude; but in my (or any other natural’s) case, this is a legitimate excuse since washing your hair can range from a several hour to a several day process.

At this point, some of you are wondering “Wait, did she just say several days? How does it take days to wash your hair?” Well, allow me to explain: while it does only take a couple hours to physically wash your hair, one must also include time to set your hair, dry it, and take it out of whatever setting style you put it in.  A setting style (I don’t know if that’s an actual term but I’m using it anyway) is a essentially what it sounds like: a style to set your hair to give you a more unified curl pattern.  They can be anything from curlers to Flexi rods to twists.  Different styles take more or less time to dry depending on the size of them and the length, thickness, and healthiness of your hair.  Drying time is extremely important because if you take your hair out and it’s not dry, it will be extremely frizzy in a matter of hours and all of your hours of hard work will go down the drain.  In general, the smaller the style you choose, the faster it will dry (e.g. putting your hair in 12 braids will dry faster than putting your hair in 2 braids).  Your hair will also dry faster if it is healthy since it can function more effectively in absorbing water.

For example, bantu knots take a really long time to dry since they are essentially little buns all over your head; since the majority of your hair is wrapped on itself, the water in the center of the knot can’t evaporate as quickly, so it ends up taking a really long time to dry.  When I started going natural I did these all the time and 50% of the time they were never dry.  One way that people avoid this is by doing bantu knots on pre straightened or stretched hair and not using a lot of water so that it dries easier but still has the pattern.  This is actually why I don’t do these anymore; I don’t like straightening my hair often, particularly if I am just going to curl it back up.

Flexi rods also take forever to dry.  While the results look amazing, the thing I really don’t like about these is that you can’t put a hat on and go outside if you need to because they definitely won’t fit under there.  They are also profoundly uncomfortable to sleep on so you either spend the day trapped inside like Rapunzel or you sleep on your face all night.

Flat twists and braids are my favorite setting styles because they expose a lot of your hair to the air so the water can evaporate easier.  The main factor in drying time for these is how big they are.  When I got my hair dyed for the first time, my stylist made my twists too big and they didn’t dry when I took them out.  I used to put my hair into about 17 flat twist so that they would dry in a normal amount of time and if they didn’t, I could hide them in the rest of my hair (#bighairperks).

 

But setting styles have a bit of a slippery slope; if you do less of them, they take longer to dry and if you do more of them, they take less time to dry but more time to do.  Sometimes I’ll wash my hair and spend half the day styling it because I keep taking brakes because I get tired of doing my hair for that long.  But the good news is college gives you a way to cheat the system.  I think I’ve mentioned it before, but since college doesn’t have a dress code besides wear clothes, I can style my hair and put it in a turban or hat to cover my twists so they can dry and I don’t need to sit under a dryer.  The worst part of doing hair in high school was that not only did you have to sit under a hot dryer all night, but was having your hair not dry in time for school.  Now I don’t have to worry about my hair not being dry because I have a lot of back up options!  I usually give my hair 24 hours to dry unless I’m positive it’s ready to be taken out.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this post and thanks for reading!

New ECO Styler: Olive Oil

Danielle Vickers 3 Comments

Hey everyone!

So I have mentioned Eco Styler gels on my blog before; for a while, I had only used the protein gel and it had always worked pretty well.  However, I wanted to try another since Eco Styler sells a ton of different gels and they are all really cheap, so I can afford to experiment with them.  So I decided to try the Olive Oil gel!

For those who don’t know about Eco Styler, it is a styling gel that comes in massive jars and has a variety of different types that will each have a different effect on your hair depending on what is in it (e.g. protein, argon oil, olive oil, etc.) and the level number on the jar.  The number tells you on a scale from 1 to 10 how much of a hold the gel has, 10 being the strongest.  I decided to try the olive oil gel because I had seen a lot of people using it in videos and wanted to try a gel with a stronger hold than my current one; the olive oil gel is a level 10 hold while my current one had a level 8 hold.  So far, I’ve used the gel three times for three different things: twists, laying down edges, and slicking my hair back.

The first thing I noticed when I used it for twists was the consistency of the gel is extremely thick; it felt like it was almost difficult to spread on my hair.  The protein gel I used was still thick, but it would just effortlessly glide onto my hair, so it might be better for styling my hair than the olive oil gel.  After taking out my twists, my hair did not look much different from when I used my other gel; although, my I did shampoo my hair so it was probably more dry than usual and I braided my hair in 6 sections instead of doing around eighteen flat twists like I usually do, so I feel liked I have to try it out more to see if it really is any different.  I have noticed my hair still has a decent amount of waves in it and it has been over a week since I’ve done my hair, so that is definitely a plus!

When I used it for laying down my edges, it didn’t work as well as I expected.  If you don’t know what “laying down your edges” means, is when you put gel on your baby hairs and comb them down so they look nice and not all frizzy like so:

My hair looked really unnatural because the gel was way too strong, so instead of making nice, elegant swoops, they looked like I tried to use Elmer’s glue to lay them down with my non-dominant hand; and then an hour later my hair frizzed up again!  Plus, it kept flaking in my hair, which never happened with my other gel.

Lastly, I tried slicking my hair back in a bun since my curls were getting frizzy and I had always seen people on YouTube using this gel to slick their hair back for buns.  This actually worked great!  My hair became really shiny and formed these pretty waves and it looked great!  Usually, I don’t bother slicking my hair back with gel or products because it either doesn’t make a difference or it makes my hair look worse, but this product actually make my hair look really nice.  Now I can finally have some decent looking buns!

Anyway, that’s all for this week! Thanks for reading!

 

My Big Hair Is Back And… Blue?

Danielle Vickers 2 Comments

Hey everyone!

So over spring break, I finally took out my box braids for three reasons: my roots had grown out a lot since I had the braids since December, I missed my big curly hair, and I was fed up with the blue dye that I found on everything.  I honestly have no idea what this was, but anytime I put my head on anything, this blue dye would get on it, which make no sense since my fake hair was mainly blonde; I assume it must of been from one type of hair that I used that was an ombre from black to blonde and the black must of had blue dye on it to make it dark.  Regardless, this dye has shown up on just about everything since I got my braids installed: pillowcases, sheets, shirts, my hands, and even textbooks (RIP my art history book).

Tired of finding blue dye on everything, I thought “well, at least when I take these braids out I won’t have to deal with that anymore!”.  But that was just the tip of the iceberg; it turns out that the blue dye that was get on everything had also gotten on to my blonde hair.  It is one thing if it were to get on dark hair because you would not see it very much, if at all, since your hair is dark to begin with; blue shows up a lot on blonde because it is so much lighter.  So I took some of my braids out and noticed my hair was various shades of green and blue from the blue dye mixing with my yellowish hair.  I didn’t realize it when I had the braids in, but I actually saw this before I took them out.  I noticed that parts of the braid were a weird pale yellowish color and I just thought that the hair must of just lost some of its color, but it was actually my natural hair dyed greenish-yellow!

“No problem.  I’ll just wash my hair and get the dye off and everything will be back to normal.” So I washed my hair on Sunday night and I didn’t realize how much blue was in my hair; when I would wring out my hair, all the water and shampoo was blue too!  I honestly thought that the majority of the dye was toward the front, but it was everywhere.  And to top it all off, the color barely changed, so I still have weird greenish colored hair, which looks particularly strange because parts are a warm gold or brownish color and others are green and blue, which don’t match at all!

The good news is that my hair is extremely soft and looks really long now! It also didn’t thin out, which I was worried about since box braids can pull your hair out if they are too heavy, particularly around your edges.  I’ll definitely need to get my hair re-dyed when I go home for summer, but I’d much rather have to dye my hair than have to regrow parts of it from it being pulled out.

Although it probably doesn’t sound like it, my overall experience with box braids wasn’t too bad.  I really liked not having to constantly maintain them since my natural hair takes up a lot of time that I don’t have.  Plus, it’s really fun to have waist length hair that you don’t have to brush out or anything.  Braids would probably be even more fun to have in the summer so that you don’t always zip your hair up in your jacket; but the also allow me to actually but my hood on my head in the winter (my natural hair is too big for my hood).  I also liked looking somewhat presentable all the time; even when I wear sweatpants and a t-shirt, I don’t look like I’m homeless like I do when my natural hair looks bad and I dress down.  I would definitely get box braids again, except I probably would get either a different brand of hair or a different color.  My sister just got her box braids when I got mine out so I guess I’ll see if that brand of hair get blue dye on everything or if it was just mine.  I would also try to maintain them a little more so they don’t get as frizzy as they did toward the end of me wearing them.

Thanks for reading and see you next week!

Products I Don’t Like

Danielle Vickers 2 Comments

Hi everyone!

So I was debating what my next blog would be about since I’ve already reviewed all the hair products I use and I can only do but so many styles on box braids when I realized that I have never actually made a post about hair products that I have used that I did not like.

Honestly, this is actually a super important topic.  For any of my readers who do not have black-girl hair, let me tell you how expensive hair products can be.  Just scrolling through the internet, I noticed that the prices for products range between $10 and $40 for a single product.  Now, the thing about natural hair products is you do not buy just one; you have to buy an entire arsenal of shampoos, conditioners, masks, treatments, and creams to tame the beast that is natural hair.  To further understand how annoying this can be, imagine that you were all hyped up to try out these new, expensive products that are supposed to make your hair shiny, beautiful, and defined and when you try them out, you end up with a frizzy mess that you ultimately need to pull into a bun.  Any natural can testify that this happens way too often.  Part of the reason is that everyone’s hair is different and what might work great for them might be terrible to use for other people.  So here are some of the products I have tried that did not quite work out.

 

1) Miss Jessie’s Jelly Soft Curls

When I think of products I didn’t like, this is one of the first ones that pop into my head.  I originally bought this because I heard that it was really good for wash n go styles (which if you read my last post, you know how this is going to turn out) and since I had never tried it before I begged my mom to get it for me.  It was about $14 and I was beyond excite to try it.  I washed my hair and spent hours caking this stuff on to make sure every bit was coated in product and by the next day my hair was a really short frizzball.  For a gel, this stuff had virtually zero hold to it, which I should have guessed when it claimed that it was for “curls without the crunch.”

2) ORS Olive Oil Conditioner

The only reason that I bought this was because I ran out of the conditioner I was using.  I had heard olive oil was super good for your hair so I figured I’d try this out.  Admittedly, it was a pretty good conditioner for $5, but for some reason it always left these yellow chunks in my hair; I have no idea what those were but they were really noticeable and looked terrible.

3) Suave Naturals Tropical Coconut Shampoo and Conditioner

These were actually the first products I used when I started transitioning to natural hair.  These products were just not good for natural hair.  They are really cheap (like $5 a bottle) the shampoo would strip my hair of all its oils and making it really frizzy and my styles would not hold up very well because my hair was too dry; and I would use a family-sized bottle of conditioner by myself because I needed so much of it to moisturize my hair.  Also, the conditioner was extremely watery, so I knew that it wouldn’t have been all that hydrating.  But on the bright side, they did smell pretty good.

Those were three (technically 4) products I’ve used in the past that I don’t use anymore.  I hope you guys liked it and see you next week!

Wash N’ Go’s Aren’t For Everyone

Danielle Vickers 3 Comments

Hey guys!

So for those who don’t know what a wash n go is, it’s essentially when you wash natural hair, put products on, and let it dry/curl with it’s own natural hair pattern.  I got this idea from a video I watched on Youtube earlier this week.  I saw the thumbnail for the video and was like “dang, how did she get her hair like that?!” and when I watched the video she essentially raked some products through her hair with her fingers, diffused it, and – vola – it transformed from flat, wet curls to a big, loosely curled afro…

What. The. HECK!!!

I have been styling my natural hair for years and I can say from personal experience that she must have skipped the part where she used magic to get her hair to look like that.  I swear that wash n go’s are the hardest thing to get right on natural hair.  I’ve done wash n go’s twice, and both times I’ve spend forever combing and coiling my hair and caking on unholy amounts of product only to have my hair explode into a completely frizzy, undefined afro.

One common thing I’ve noticed about people with really successful wash n go’s is that they usually have looser curls.  This is one of the many reasons knowing your hair type is super important.  There are 4 types (1,2,3,4) and then 3 categories within them (A,B,C).  1 is straight, 2 is wavy, 3 is curly, and 4 is coily.  My hair is around 4A, but the girl’s hair in the video was probably somewhere in the 3 range; since my curl pattern is so much tighter, my hair has a tendency to turn more into an afro than nice curls, particularly because my hair is so thick that when all of it starts to curl up and do it’s own thing, it just becomes an afro, which is why I have to twist my hair.

The thickness of your hair can also affect the success of your wash n go.  The girl’s hair from the video looked relatively thin when it was wet so it was easier for her to finger detangle it.  For extremely thick hair like mine, finger detangling usually hurts my hands if I don’t do it in really small sections.

Your hair type and thickness also factors into how much product you need on your hair.  The higher the number, the more product you need because your hair dries out more.  Fun fact: You know how the directions on the back of conditioner bottles say to use a quarter-sized amount of conditioner?  Well, that’s actually just for Type 1 hair!  Since my hair is around type 4, I use at least four fist-fulls of conditioner on my hair – a quarter size amount would literally cover like 1% of my hair.  And I put more products on after all that conditioner too!  Also, becuase my hair is so thick, it take a lot of product to cover all of it.

But yet, the second summer roles around, I’m still going to try to do a wash n’ go because I am determined to get it right.  So if you see me strolling around with a bone-fide afro, you’ll know what happened.

Thanks for reading!

 

Washing Box Braids

Danielle Vickers 3 Comments

Guys it is offical.  I absolutely love my box braids.  It was confirmed the second that I discovered how easy they are to wash.  I probably should have washed them a while ago because my scalp had a scary amount of dandruff but I was too scared I was going to mess them up or something; but hey, better late than never!

I know I have mentioned it a few times but I do not think that I have actually made a post/video about how I actually wash my natural hair; but long story short, it is extremely time consuming and ain’t no college student have time for that.  Admittedly, box braids also take a long time to wash, but it feels like a lot less work since you do not have to tediously twist your hair for hours.

The main difference between washing my box braids and washing my natural hair is that you have to essentially wash them before you get into the shower.  At first I thought you just wash them in the shower like usual, but anytime I would look up how to wash box braids on YouTube, everyone would wash them outside of the shower and then rinse them off in the shower.

However, it is still relatively similar to washing my natural hair because I only wash my scalp for both.  Generally, I do not really wash the length of my hair because when I wash my scalp, I get rid of all the dandruff and hair products that have built up over the past week (for those who are new to my blog I only wash my hair once a week) and then the rest of my hair gets clean when I rinse the rest of the soap out of my hair.  For my box braids, I just spray my scalp with water from my spray bottle then apply my co-wash directly to my scalp and wash the section in small circles.  The fun part of this is instead of having to do this in the shower, you can just sit at your desk or wherever you want and wash your hair – you can even watch tv while do it!  After that you just rinse it out and take a normal shower, so it saves a lot of water.

After showering, I just applied my conditioner to the roots and parts of my hair where my real hair is (since there is literally no reason to put conditioner on fake hair).  To oil my scalp, I used Jamaican Black Castor Oil because it is really good for the winter since it is super hydrating.  Last but not least, I sprayed all of my hair with my new Diamonds Oil Sheen Spray by Design Essentials to keep my braids from looking dull.  Word to the wise, if you use this stuff make sure to either spray it while standing on carpeting or just make sure you clean the floor afterwards because it ends up getting on the floor since it is sort of like a mist and it will make your floor crazy slippery!

That’s all for this week!  Thanks for reading!

 

Six Styles for Long Box Braids

Danielle Vickers 3 Comments

Hey everyone!

I finally got to make another video! It may have taken forever and a day but I did it!

Anyway, over the course of these past several weeks, I have discovered that styling long box braids is really, really hard.  I always saw other Youtube videos of people wearing all sorts of cool hairstyles and they made it look so easy, which it might be if my braids weren’t so long!  But I’ve found a few hairstyles that I can actually do that are super simple and they do not require me to actually pull my hair up; actually, I was going to include how to do a bun and a ponytail but the struggle is a little too real for me to pull my hair up so I decided against it.

The six styles I came up with are:

  1. Bangs Back – essentially all you have to do is take your bangs and pull them into a low ponytail behind your head.  I got this style from a really good friend of mine who always wears her hair like this.
  2. Half Up – This one is a half-up-half-down kind of style.  You just have to pull the front of your hair into a ponytail.  It is pretty convenient for long box braids because if you take a lot of hair from the front, you get the look of a high ponytail without feeling like the weight of your ponytail is about to tear your hair out of your hairline.
  3. Baseball Cap – With this one, you just have to wear your hair down and put a baseball cap on top.  One thing I really appreciate about this style is that it you can keep the hairs that are close to the center of your hairline from falling into your face (because that gets super annoying).  You’ll also look hecka swag at the same time; I wore this around my house when I first got my hair done and my sister swore I looked like I was fresh out of a rap music video.
  4. Ponytail and Cap – This one is essentially the same but you pull your bangs back into a ponytail that goes through the back of the cap.  This would be better than the previous one in the summer cuz it will keep your hair off your forehead.
  5. Top Bun – I actually wore this on Christmas.  You gather the hair on the top of your head that is close to the front, put it in a ponytail, and make a bun while letting the rest of your hair loose.  You have to make sure to tuck the end of your hair into the hairband or the bun will come out if you move too much.
  6. Braid – It’s the same as a regular braid except you have to use your entire hand for each section instead of just holding the strands between your fingers.  I’m pretty sure you need upper body flexibility (aka the only form of flexibility I have) to braid it the way I do, but if push comes to shove you can just braid it in front of you.  This is SUPER convenient if you are trying to do something that requires you to keep your hair out of the way because the braid is so stiff that it won’t swing in front of you.  A low ponytail could work too but it still swings quite a bit if you turn around fast.  For example, I have to work in the woodshop a lot for studio this semester and I was really concerned that if I put my hair into a ponytail it would swing over my shoulder and into one of the machines.  But if I braid it, I don’t have to worry about it because it literally can’t swing anywhere!

Well, those are the hairstyles that I like to use for long box braids, other than just wearing them out of course.  Thanks for reading and if you have any suggestions on what you would want be to blog about next, feel free to comment about it!

See you all next week!

 

Braids For Days

Danielle Vickers 2 Comments

Hey guys! Welcome back to Crowned in Curls!

So over the break, I finally got a new hairstyle that I’ve wanted to try for a while: Box braids!  It’s like all the joy of natural hair without actually having to do anything to it!  What more could you ask for?  Speaking of natural hair, braids are a great way of protecting your hair since it protects the ends of your hair from splitting, allowing your hair to grow longer. This is particularly in the winter since cold air will dry out your hair.

(me, my cousin, and my sister)

From start to finish, it took 8 hours to get my hair done, so if you’re not someone who can sit in one spot while some does your hair for an extended period of time, I would not recommend getting braids.  But the time I takes to install them varies on how big they are.  I think I have 77 braids (my mom was determined to count them) so mine are kind of small, but I would assume that they would take a less time than mine took if there were less of them.

If you plan on getting them done, make sure you bring the fake hair to the hair salon.  I was under the impression that the stylist would have the hair in the back or something but they actually don’t because they don’t know exactly what colors you would want and there are literally tons of choices.  My mom had to run to the beauty store (which was luckily right around the corner) to buy fake hair while I was getting my hair washed!  I ended up getting brown to rose gold ombre hair and regular gold hair.  I honestly wanted them all to be the gold color, but the store didn’t have ombre in gold, so I just used the gold as a highlight.  Plus, the stylist mixes the hair together anyway so it ends up being throughout your hair.

I originally bought five bags of hair but ended up needing seven.  The amount you have to buy depends on how long you want your braids to be.  Mine are long enough to sit on, so it takes a lot more hair because you have to use the entire strand.  In terms of what hair to buy, I would ask your stylist.  I was honesty kind of nervous about using synthetic hair because I’ve heard horror stories about people being allergic to the hair.  I was fine, but I was pretty paranoid for a couple days that I was going to be allergic to it!

When I first got them done, they felt really heavy, which makes sense considering I’m supporting 7 bags of fake hair with my scalp.  I could not really wear them in any style except down, in a low ponytail, or a low braid because the braids were so close to my scalp the it hurt to move them in any direction.  This was particularly annoying when I was trying to sleep since laying on them hurt so I ended up sleeping on my face for a couple days to avoid putting my hair on the pillow.

At this point, I’ve had my braids in for four weeks.  Now that my hair has grown out a little bit, I can wear my braids in a couple different styles (hint hint that’s what my next post is going to be about).  They are way more comfortable than they used to be too.  And the best part is that I don’t have to do anything to them, unlike my natural hair where I had to spend hours washing it or it would look horrid.  So it’s great if you’re a busy college kid who doesn’t have time to breathe let alone wash hair for hours like me!  Overall, I really love them and would definitely get these redone!

Anyway, I hope if any of you guys are thinking about box braids that this gave you a little more info on what it is like to get/have them.

See you guys next week and thanks for reading!