Yarn Braids - Yarn Braids/ Genie Locs Photos Finally

Drum roll please!! I know I promised to post pictures of my yarn braids forever and a day ago. Better late than never. Here they are:

This set of yarn braids has been in for about 6 weeks. I re-did my edges after about 3 weeks, so they are due to be re-done again soon.

I'm really enjoying these braids. But I'm still yet to improve on the styling front.

This has been my only attempt at a real style. I'm going to go through BlackOnyx's Youtube channel again and look for quick yarn braid styles. Another trick I found is to also looked at styling videos from ladies with proper locs. The end result with yarn braids is very similar. Clearly, I haven't really been putting effort into trying all the beautiful styles I've found. lol. That's about to change the! In one of my next posts, I'll make a yarn braid video directory of sorts so that you won't have to dig around too much.

Anyway, so far here are the pros and cons of yarn braids:

Pros

• Easy to maitain
• Light
• Gentle on my edges
• My hair was soft and moisturized when I look out my edges

Cons

• Take ages to dry when washed
• Laborious to take down

Clearly the pros are outweighing the cons. I'm really happy with the way my hair is coming along. I've also had good growth:

The red line is at about 1.5 cm (around 0.6 inches). So give or take, I'd say I'm hair has been consistently growing at the normal average hair growth rate of 0.5 inches per month.

A maintainance/ washing/ conditioning/ regimen post will be coming up soon. Stay tuned!

Yarn Braids - I Did yarn braids/ genie locs!

These yarn braids took forever and a day to do but I'm so happy I did them. It's been about 2 weeks since I put them in. I know, I need a smack for not updating sooner. Better late than never, right?

Ok, I'll go straight to the point as to why I'm absolutely loving these yarn braids/ genie locs:

• They are extremely light. So they don't pull on my hair at all, especially my edges. This was the whole reason I'd given up on extensions ever since April 2009. But these babies are extra gentle on my hair. There are quite a lot of them, but they're not heavy at all.
  

• The yarn is soft and I'm guessing this limits breakage as it doesn't cut into my hair.

• I've just undone my hairline today (since it's been two weeks) and my hair is well moisturized, as opposed to being dry and breaking when I use normal extensions.

• I'm loving the 'locs' look!
  

What I don't like?

• They take FOREVER to dry when they are washed. Well what did I expect, really? It's like trying to dry a thick cardigan on the washing line. Of course it's going to take a while. Duh, Urban! lol. But I haven't been going anywhere special lately so it doesn't bother me too much. Even then, once they've dried out for a 2-3 hours, you can pretty much leave the house, without dripping water everywhere.

• That I had to burn the ends. I hate burning braid ends because they stick to and pull on clothes. I tried the knotting the end method, but that started unraveling after a couple of days. Maybe I should've sealed them in hot water?

• If you have xray vision like I do, and look very very closely ... umm... i think the yarn is kinda turning blue??? : o But it's a very dark blue which I don't think you can notice unless you're very... very close to my head ... and well, I don't plan on having anyone that close to my head so I think I'm good.

Yeh, I see you tapping your foot impatiently, "Urban, you're not posting about a new hair do without pictures are you?" Well yes and no. I am, but only till the next post (in a couple of days), I promise I'll have pictures of my yarn braids in that. I'll also be doing posts on:

How to do yarn braids
How to maintain yarn braids (moisturizing, a few styles, products, tips, etc)

For now have a look at my yarn braid inspirations:

TJK25's fotki
Blackonyx's YouTube

Talk to you soon ladies (and gents?!).

Hair Growth Progress Pics

So I've had these braids in for about 3 weeks. Thought it was hair growth progress pics time! I can see a teeny weeny bit of growth. Can you see it? I haven't measured it yet, I think I'll wait a bit.

My edges have to be re-done this weekend. A few braids have come out during the week, especially while washing, so I need to put those back in too. My edges look like they're doing well (I'll try and do comparison photos of those too sometime).

Had a wash day yesterday. I shampooed for the first time in about a month. Then deep conditioned. The hair where the braids have come out looks so shiney and feels really strong. I'm stoked! : )