First Braid Out

Call it a hair funk, reality after the honeymoon, whatever. Since getting Sisterlocks in November 2008, I've been happy with wearing my hair as is: straight, no products, no styling. Now I am reaching a phase where I want to see more from my hair.

I shook off the old do' and am trying new things.

The day before yesterday I did a braid out. I washed my hair, shirt-dried it, applied diluted Sisterlocks moisture treatment, sectioned my Sisterlocks in two parts horizontally, and then braided each part into 6 or 7 cornrows going back. I sprayed each cornrow lightly with Lotta Body as I braided. I used rubber bands to secure some of the ends. I wore my hair in that style 2 days. I took the braids out this morning, and the pictures show the end result.

Front view of braid out

I think my hair turned out okay. Although it makes my locks look a little shorter, I like the "crinkled" look and the volume of the locks. The only thing that bothers me about this look is that some of the ends of my locks, especially in the back, did not curl right due to the bulbs growing at the end of the locks. When you look at my hair, there are stray bulbs sticking out everywhere. Next time I may use my perm rods on the ends of my hair so the bulbs are less obvious.

I hear that to maintain this look for a few days you just need to braid your hair in bigger sections each night and then undo them in the morning. I intend to do this and see how long I can wear this style.