Yarn Twists - I did Yarn twists and I don't think

I don't think ... I like them!!

So I folded and took out my yarn braids. My scalp hadn't been free of braids for 4 months and just really needed to breathe.

Now, I know ... and have posted about the arduous task that is removing yarn braids. But it took about 10 hours people!!! Ridiculous! I think it was partly because I'm so gentle and really take my time. So needless to say, by the time I was done ... that last thing I wanted to do was put in braids again. No ma'am. But I had to. I didn't want my hair out. It had to go back into a longterm protective style ASAP.

That is when I though of putting in twists instead. They don't take as long to put in and would be easy as pie to take out. I took it a step further and decided to do fat twists that would ... well, take even less time to put in and be even easier than pie to take out! How clever am I???? *hi^5*

NOT. They just don't look great : ( But not to worry, they look fine bunned. So that's how I'll wear them. It works out I suppose. I work in an environment where my hair needs to be out of the way anyway.

What is the problem? Well, I think

1) They're too thick and
2) I had never, ever done twists in my life and thought myself a pro after watching a few YouTube tutorials. I think I may not have twisted tight enough or I don't have that rolling-of-the-threads-as-you-twist thing down pat yet.



Either way, they took me about 7 hours to put in. Best believe, I'm keeping them in.

What do you think?

Freshening up Yarn Braids

I've had yarn braids in since March. I left them in as long as I could because I was so overwhelmed at the prospect of having to take out an entire head of them AND redoing them. Life has been getting in the way, so I just haven't felt like I had that amount to time on my hands.

But not to worry, I came up with a solution. You want in? Ok, I'll tell you. The secret is to redo the braids bit by bit! While watching a movie, YT vids, reading your favourite blogs ; ).

I've found I start redoing maybe after 1.5 months. Every few days, I take out a handful (on weekends I can usually do a lot more) and redo those. At the 3 month mark or there abouts, I undid the top half or so (during a weekend) and redid all that. In the next 1 or 2 weeks I'll do the back half.


The front half undone.

It's not as overwhelming for me because I only spent a few hours on the process and still had a lot of my weekend to do other stuff.

Some people may be reading this and thinking, "I couldn't be bothered, Urban, I'd rather do it all in one go and get it over and done with it." More power to you. But for some reason, I don't have it in me to sit for so many hours doing my hair at the moment.

My edges on the other hand, are still redone every 3 weeks or so, by the way.

The Past Year .... Work/ Coporate Wardrobe and Natural Hair

It's been a HUGE learning curve for me. I wasn't too impressed with my hair's progress. I suppose that's why we call this a "hair journey." You live and learn. I didn't have any set backs as such, but I didn't see as much progress as I had expected.

What do I think was the problem? Well, I was wearing a lot of plats and twists (without extensions), which I was redoing every 2 weeks or so. I gather that was too much manipulation for me. While I think they were better for my hair than having it out all the time, I think I would have seen more progress had I chosen a longer-term style.

I see other ladies being able to keep in their twists or plats for longer, but I couldn't do it. It would get too untidy to be presentable for work, so I redid mine often.

I also started working in June in the industry I studied for. I wanted to make a good impression and dressed really well (semi-coporate), even though no-one else did. It was an entry level position while I was on the homestretch to finishing my degree. You know, the whole dress-for your-next-position-type-thing. Before, I make my point, it may be good to add that there are not many black people where I live. So, I didn't want to wear extensions because I felt that if I took them out, I'd have to be answering too many questions that I didn't want to. It would cause people to focus on my hair rather than my work. So I wore my hair in a bun for the first 2 months or so .... which I redid everyday. Yes : (. As a natural 4b this is something I learnt I shouldn't do for 2 months straight. For a few weeks, it's absolutely fine, but by 2 months, it will have taken its toll.

After those two months I'd settled into the job well. So I started up again with the twists and plats which I tied back in a bun. Much better than the lose hair bunnning! But I redid them every 2 weeks or so ... which for me, is too much manipulation. This carried on into my next "real" job after graduating about 5 months later. Stictly coporate, so I went back to bunning for the first couple of months .... then into the bunned twists and plats ... until I unleashed the yarn braids on them!! LOL. This was after the 3 month probationary period was over.

You probably know how that went. How did you do it? How long did it take? Oh, is it painful? WHAT?? You do them yourself? How do you do the back?! People touching the braids with their dirty hands. One of my Eastern European coworkers who likes to think she knows everything 'black' said in an ebonics-type accent, "girl, you should get a weave!" While rolling her neck and bobbing her head from side to side. I just smiled and continued working. AND THEN, she came back to tell me my hair was "unbeweavable." LOL.

So yes, it did cause a bit of a shift of focus to my hair for a couple of weeks. But I suppose I felt that I had established myself in the new job for it not to matter too much. I didn't want my hair to define or influence too much while I was still starting. I wanted people to just focus on me being a good worker in those first 3 critical months while I started my career.

It's funny. Part of this work thing is really a game. You have to learn to play smart. Especially if you're Black and Natural.

So, I'm opening up the floor. I know natural hair in the workplace has been discussed on a lot of blogs. BUT I truly and genuinely want to know, if you're natural, how have YOU handled your hair in the workplace? Have you felt limited in your styling choices? Have you used the gradual, unleasing technique (LOL) like I did?

Yarn Braids - Yarn Braids/ Genie Locs Directory of Sorts

So in my last post, I promised to make a post that would serve as a type of yarn braids directory. Like a one stop shop of links, to save you from having to trawl through hundreds of websites for information. Some of these links I've used and revisited again and again. Some I think maybe to useful to others.

Please note that this is a work in progress and will be updated as I find more links. So bookmark this page and check back regularly. If you have links that you think may be helpful to others and want it added here, leave me a comment and I'd be happy to. Here goes!


Yarn Braids Videos

Vlog - Yarn on the Brain

My Yarn Braid Results

Yarn Braids

My Yarn Braids Experiences (Answers and Styles)

Yarn Braids

Yarn Braids - Results

My Genie Locs/ Yarn Braids



Yarn Braids - How To's

Yarn Braids - how to start and end a yarn braid (demonstration, not talking)

Yarn Braids Tutorial - how to start and end a yarn braid (talks you through)

Yarn Braids / Genie Locs - nice close up of how to start a yarn braid and how to end it, with great style pics at the end (demonstration, no talking).

Camouflaging Your Hair in the Braid or Yarn Braids - You know how you get those frizzies sticking out of the braid, especially if your hair is natural? Here's a potential solution. Haven't tried it. Let me know if it works for you! (talks you through).

Yarn Braid Tutorial - One of the best braiding tutorials I've ever seen. She does such a good job of explaining step by step. Not a fan of the color combination, but that's besides the point (talks you through).


A note for those who are new to braiding: A few of the tutorials will have a different way of starting the yarn braids, braiding and ending the braids. Watch a few of the videos and see which methods you're more comfortable with. You can combine techniques from different videos if that works. Don't get overwhelmed. There's no single way of doing this!


Yarn Braid Photo Albums

Yarn Braids/ Genie Locs - by Kellum (she has lots of styles here too!)

tjk25's album - tjk25 was my inspiration for yarn braids, he's made a lot of progress with the, lots more albums on his fotki.

My Yarn Braids - by Kaleela1


To be continued ...

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!