Protective Style for Natural Hair: Braided bantu knots with uneven parts

Happy Monday everyone! I wanted to share the hairstyle The Princess is wearing to school today. I like this because it is super easy, it hides her ends, requires little maintenance, and should last 3-4 days. (In her thin, wavy hair, that is pretty good!)

To achieve this style, I started with clean, moisturized hair. Yesterday was 'hair day' in my house, though I wish I had've planned better. No way should we have been stuck in the house doing hair on a sunny, 80 degree day. But the kids were on break last week, and unfortunately, we sort of neglected hair last week, so they were all in need of hot oil treatments and detangling and LOTS of moisturizing. But I digress....

I gave The Princess a hot oil treatment. I used roughly half and half coconut oil and Extra Virgin Olive Oil and heated them together in the microwave until warm. Then I poured the oils into one of those applicators that you use for hair color. I find it much easier, and neater, to apply oil treatments this way. Once the oil was in her hair, I plastic bagged her hair and put a warm towel on top. She stayed like this for about 30 minutes, (well, that was the plan. But we got sidetracked with other heads of hair and baking banana nut muffins. So it ended up being more like 2 hours...but who's counting?) Then we washed her hair with Head and Shoulders 2 in 1, and conditioned with Herbal Essense's Hello Hydration conditioner. I used Shea Moisture's Curl Enhancing Smoothie for moisture, and put a few loose braids in her hair for bed.

This morning, I parted her hair into 3 uneven parts, and put an ouchless elastic band on each part:



yep...couldn't find a third pink band...but they will be hidden anyway.



 Then I braided each part:



Then wrapped each braid around itself and tucked the ends in. If you were going to do this style, you may or may not need an additional band to hold that in place, depending on the length and texture of your child's hair. The Princess did need additional hold:

Then, of course, we had to fancy it up. The Princess chose a Bowsnappers flower that we recently won in a Facebook giveaway, and she chose some of the interchangeable bows to go underneath it:

This style only took about 10 us about 10 minutes this morning, on detangled and premoisturized hair. Not too bad for a style that will last for the next 3 or 4 days. :)

Heatless styles: 3 Strand Twist into Bantu Knot-outs.

If you want curls or waves without heat, twist outs, braid outs, and bantu knot-outs are all great ways to  get there. One of our favorite ways to curl The Princess's wavy-straight hair is with three strand twist into bantu knot-outs.

This is a style you can do on wet or dry hair. On this occasion, we were working with dry hair. Hair was washed the previous day and conditioned with Shea Moisture's Curl and Style Milk.

Then part the hair, and apply a hold product. (I used It's Perfectly Natural's Basil Lemongrass Coil Glaze.) 3 strand twist the section you are working with down to the end.

       Then twist the  3 strand twist into a bantu knot. Just twist around and around and tuck it under until there is no hair left. Tuck the remaining hair under, if it doesn't stay use an ouchless band to keep it there. 

                   

Then part another section of hair, and do it again. I make diagonal parts, so the parts don't show when you take it all down.

When you are done, you have something similar to this:

To take it out, just untwirl the bantu knots and CAREFULLY untwist the twists. I don't separate the twists too much, because The Princess's hair frizzes easily. The less you manipulate this style, the better it will look. Here is the finished product:

Look at those curls!

Some things to keep in mind with this style:

• If it is raining or super humid, expect frizz. Just like any other 'down' style, this one is at the mercy of the elements.
• If you do this style on wet hair, give it sufficient time to dry. If the hair is even slightly wet when you remove the knots and twists, there will probably be frizz. And lots of poof by the end of the day.
• Part the hair diagonally to avoid the 'scalpy' look.
• Experiment with different products for hold. Some will add more shine, some will hold better than others.

I hope you found this post helpful. Comments are always appreciated.