Monday 9 July 2012

Summer 'Protective' Challenge - Pajamas, Pinwheels and Snails

After a week of having my hair out, I decided to do the decent thing and put it up in some sort of protective style.

Braids! They kept my hair stretched and mildly tangle free. Of course! why did I ever abandon them?

Oh, because my fine hair means that I lose all bulk and volume.


Eh. Me no likey. 

After doing those 3 that you see above, I got fed up and took them out. And I didn't feel like putting twists in either - the prospect of putting them in only to have to take them down in a month or so did not appeal to me.

Surely, I thought to myself, surely there has to some way to do this....maybe avoiding the twist and braids method I usually employ.

So I wrote down some guidelines for myself for the next two months, until the end of August.

1) I will wear a 'protective style' for 2-3 days at a pop. Braided styles have to last at least three days.
2) By protective, I mean I don't [or shouldn't] have to touch it for that time.
3) On the take down day I'll moisturise - by doing a herb rinse or conditioning or just using moisturiser.
4) Styling shouldn't take more than 1 hour every time.
5) My ends should not be rubbing up on my clothes or scarved.

Easy, peasy, lemon squeeezy right?

                                                     We'll see what I'm saying at the end of August.

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I started off with my usual, lazy, pajama hairstyle, did a quick conditioner rinse in the shower but left it in the style to dry through the day and then put it into what I always called a Pinwheel bun - basically, a ponytail where the pony is cinnabunned/pin curled and pinned under.


It's weird how brown my bleached/dyed hair is in this picture! That colour is barely visible when you see me in real life.

Dimples does something similar in this video.



Maintence?:
Er....

I wore this from Sunday till Tuesday, then conditioned my hair with some cherry blossom scented conditioner, moisturised on both sides with different conditioners [left, hollands & barratts brand and right giovanni's direct leave in] before sealing with some oil and banded overnight [I'd gone to the gym and had to meet up with friends, so did not have time to do anything. 5 minutes banding then done!].



  The next morning it was so not dry but we'll pretend it was.


Then I decided on a big plait that wound around the back of my head. They call it the snail braid on thebeautydepartment, though I have to say I was definitely inspired by The Grecian Goddess Braid by Laila of fusionofcultures.


I separated my hair into a top section and a bottom section and tied away the bottom section while I got to work on the top section.




It was kinda difficult for me to do because I can't see what I'm doing and my arms got tired and I forgot what one strand was doing in comparison to another. Taking pictures really helped me see what I was doing.  When I wasn't happy with my work, I removed it and started again.


When I forgot what strands I'd been holding, it showed in the plait, because it stopped being a plait and ended up as a chunk of hair and where my arms tired, the plait dropped.:


Eventually, I ended up with something I was happy with.


Pinned the plait back on itself with plans to keep it in till after swimming on Saturday!



Maintenance?:
Patting on some coconut oil on the....third day, and then spritzing with a herbal tisane.

2 comments:

  1. Snail braid? I've not heard of that before, but I like it. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I thought it was a strange name too, but I'm definitely going to retry it at some point. It's a practical one but it can look really pretty too!

    ReplyDelete

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