Natural Updo Tuck

My oldest (14) is natural and had an 8th grade spring dance. Therefore, we decided on this tuck style for her updo.

 

Natural hair Tuck attempt on teen

We were so inspired by the tuck tutorials on you tube me and my 14 year old gave it a try. It was actually very easy and it last about 4 days. I thought it would become mush but it didn’t. So here is the tutorial and here is our result…don’t be too harsh on us it was out first try :). This was after about a week of  wearing her twist out.

 

baby hair lay down!

All my life girls were slapping gel on their hair to get that smooth hair on the sides of the head “baby hair”. Some of had to use more gel that others. Well, now that I have joined this wonderful community of natural hair ladies I am in search of that NO MORE.

All my life I had the “bad hair” the nappy, can’t do anything with, need a perm every 4 weeks stuff. When the Halle Berry cut was popular I kept a jar of relaxer at home just to keep the back smooth. Goodness forbid the “kitchen” get bad. But since I am 4 months after my Big Chop and I do mean big (#3 guard self shave). I have a small afro. One of my FB friends said she wished she could get an afro…YES somebody actually wants their hair to do something that mine does effortlessly!!! I have the GOOD HAIR!! LOL. I am looking forward to blow-outs and poufs etc. But I just assumed everyone could do a simple afro. Yes, I love this natural hair of mine. I hated it for years because everyone said it was SOOOO nappy..SOOOO thick and SOOOOO unruly. Well, 3 snaps in a circle…I don’t need that baby hair to lay down, it is standing proud and at attention. I’m a big girl now 🙂

 

4 months after Big Chop

 

 

 

Another batch of natural girls

 

 

 

Afro with a ribbon weaved headband

Well, we got behind last week on our natural hair update. But here are the styles the ladies wore to school for last few days. We kept it pretty simple. My 14 year old is really liking the fact she can wash her hair herself and 2-strand twist it whenever she feels the need.. We are going to work on crocheting some flowers for her hair.

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Mohawk with 2 strand twist

2 strand twist

We just pulled it in a ponytail this day.

Mohawk with 2 strand twist

Afro with a ribbon weaved headband

 

School House Rock….The Natural Hair for the week

Well, I know how much I love to see new pictures of kids hairstyles. I hate just reading about it. So I have decided that every Friday I will post pictures of my girls’ hair as they head out the door. Just to show what styles they wear on a weekly basis. I keep my camera by the door so my goal is to post their styles for the week. So stay tuned, there is alot of hair in this house. 🙂

Since we care about the safety of our children we will call this the Sorority house to protect the names of the innocent LOL and these are my

Diva-Phi-Divas and their line-names are in Bold. With 5 girls it is definitely and Sorority house.

This is “Against All Odds” She is the one who started the natural movement in the house. I put a relaxer in her hair 2 years ago as she began 6th grade and regretted it. I just cut out the rest of her relaxer last month. She has always been a Diva when it comes to her look. She LOVES accessories. She is 14.

This is a twist out after about 5 days. She put hot six oil on and put 4 knots in her hair and picked it out before school

“Mouth Almighty” is 9 and has a ton of hair and is very tender headed. This was her look for the week

Here is one braiding technique I tried on “Mouth Almighty”

The “Serious Diva” age 3 and “Baby Roughness” age 18 months had to be bribed with grapes for their hair styles. They really only get their hair done when we do storytime at the library but I HAD to detangle those heads. “Baby Roughness” has fine hair and it does not get braided too often, but she loves to have her hair combed.

Storytime look with Yo Gabba Gabba hair bow, handmade by me 🙂

 

18 months old. Loves getting her hair done

One of the D-Phi-D’s are missing, she is wearing  straight back cornrows. I will be sure to put her picture up next week.

These are the things I use on their hair. Homemade shea butter hair creme, Spray bottle of (water, glycerin and suave conditioner) and rubberbands soaked in Olive oil. I got that tip from http://beadsbraidsbeyond.blogspot.com/ I love her site, she has alot of great information.

rubberbands in olive oil

My plan is to do this series every week. This will hopefully encourage me to try new things. Let me know if you have any questions, Thanks

 

Avocado is our new best friend!

I had an overly ripe avocado and decided that my 7 and 9 year olds could use a nice conditioning treatment. I mixed a whole avocado, hot six oil and honey in a bowl and beat it with my mixer. I slathered it on their hair and let it sit without a cap for about and hour. When they took their showers I told them to rinse their hair (which they LOVE to do). The moisture retained was wonderful for my 9 year old. I 2 strand twisted her hair with my shea butter mix and let her sleep. We’ll do a more permanent style and I will be sure to post it. It was a bit heavy for the 7 year old since her hair is more fine. I will definitely do it again.

 

My Hairstory

I never really thought of myself as having a hair story. I just thought I had bad hair. My hair was very course and thick as a child. My mother could not do hair at all and the fact that it was course, short and thick really did not help. She would slap a green barette in my hair and she would even braid me those Goody barettes that we popular in the 80’s. But that hair was never cute. The only hope I had was if my aunt came down and braided it or if I went South Carolina for the summer to visit relatives. My grandmother would tell me I was too mean, that’s why my hair wouldn’t grow. I was so used to having “bad hair” it didn’t bother me.

I had a relaxer at around 3rd grade…It didn’t help because momma still had no ability to do hair. I am not being mean, she just could not do it. Then I had a bit of relief….The Jheri Curl…Someone was looking over me LOL. I do remember at that time I heard the first compliment about my hair but I though it was a curse. The hairstylist told my mom “I have never seen hair so thick?” I asked her to take the scissors and thin it out, hoping this would relieve my hair woes. I kept the curl for about 4 years until my junior year of high school. I had a few skills under my belt. I sprayed “sun in” for bootleg highlights. I did the color wands in blond and purple. My mom did not care because she did have to do my hair anymore. So, I did the transistion back to relaxer and of course it fell out. All my pretty, greasy curl was breaking off. This was a first, because before there was nothing to break, it was so short and strong.

After high school I decided to go to cosmetology school. I really don’t know why. I was never obsessesd with my hair but I went to my hairdresser one day and decided I wanted to know the “secrets”. So, I attended school. I learned all the chemicals, colors and cutting…..I learned to press on a client who watch me while holding mirror, never did THAT again. But, we never learned about natural hair. We always learned how to alter the hair. Well, I was a hair fool about then. I shaved all my hair off after seeing a girl in the mall and I loved it but I did not know what to do after the afro stage (no youtube in the 90’s). So, I relaxed it. A few years later I shaved it again and I had a barber fade it out and I loved it. But I never knew this was called “going natural”…No one did that???  There was no kind of support for that. But within a few months of growing it back I met my husband who loves Loooong hair but fell in love with a afro rocking chick.

After having 5 daughters and being a stay at home mom, I have kept all of them “natural”. However, I did not know that is what I was doing or even that it was so significant until I relaxed my oldest daughter’s hair upon entering middle school. Within a few months I regretted it and we began to transition back.  But I really did not know my options for her other than pressing it… until YOUTUBE!.  The ladies on there are awesome and inspired ME to go natural. Now we are all natural ladies from ages 35- 18 months.  That is my story. I’ll post pics soon.