Love Your Girls Biracial Curls: 4 Strand Braids

When it comes to braiding, there are so many ways to do it! I've never really ventured far outside of the box when it comes to the varying styles of intricate braids until now. I decided to search on YouTube for some new ideas and some GOOD instructional videos and the one that stuck out to me most was the 4 strand braid. 

This would be considered an "above the norm" type of braid since it incorporates 4 strands instead of the traditional 3 strands. So i pulled out Miss Jenny and went to town. I found out immediately that the quality of the instructional video is a HUGE deal when it comes to attempting to learn online. So it took a hand full of videos before i found the right one, (Click here for the tutorial that i used) it begins at 25 seconds...

I'm going to highlight three different occasions of the 4 Strand Braids on 3 different days.

As i found the above video it all made perfect sense to me!!!

Day 1: On the Manikin

Day 2: Simple 4 strand braid pony tail

Day 3: 4 strand braid pig tails

So here is my first ever 4 strand braid on the manikin...

 Here is a frontal view as you can see the formed rope braid and the intertwining of the strands combined creating the 4 strand braid.

Close up view, the manikins hair is very weird and frayed, nothing i can put on it will smooth it out. Great example of a poor quality head! But the braid looks nice at least.

Super close up! It looks way harder than it is! It took me two times before my hands would coordinate with each other and i didn't have to watch the video again after that.

I was very proud of myself! I quickly began looking for other braid styles to try and i must warn you that the more strands you add the more intricate the braiding gets as well as finger placements. But these braids are amazing when done right and the next morning i had to try these on Diva R but i already pre-assumed that i would not be able to do one big long 4 strand braid on her hair due to its length. I did try though and here are the results...

I used our distilled water spritz for the initial coat of moisture that i intend on being locked in and sealed by the ending of the style. I then applied our Darcy's Botanical's Madagascar Hair Butter, separated my 4 equal sections and began braiding. 

Diva R's length isn't completely even yet, as it grows its evening out which explains the frays that poke out here and there. This was caused by a poor cutting job :( This was the first ever 4 strand braid that i did on Diva R making this my second time ever! As you can probably see the left beginning side of the braid is not where it should be LOL My coordination wasn't really on point yet but i learned what i did wrong and my advice is that as you are reaching under and grabbing the next strand to braid into the braid make sure the hand holding the middle two strands holds them separately and that you wrap the strand you just grabbed with your other hand over the right most middle strand and then cross it over it making those two strands now your middle section. The video i posted above explains it better and shows which ones to grab and when.

As i went the definition of the 4 strand braid POPPED and i just rubber banded it and it stayed until i took it down the next morning. As we went out that day i found that people would stare  at the 4 strand braid as if they were trying to figure it out following up with "wow that is an amazing braid how did you do that did you weave the hair in " and "Ive never seen a braid so cool, how did you learn that?" and "What kind of braid is that did you make it up" I was very proud as well as Diva R with all the compliments coming in and it was a sheer delight to tell everyone who asked that its so simple anyone can do it in 5-10 minutes! That sure got some shocked reactions :)

So day 3's style idea was created in thought of Picture Day for Little Bro Z's Birthday Bash coming up. I desired to do a ponytail design but couldn't find any that suited what i was aiming for so i just did the traditional pig tails with the center part and jazzed them up a bit.

I had on hand my trusty Distilled, Juicy and Bee Mine Curly Butter. I used those respectively as i prepared her hair for the style. I always apply the distilled and juicy from root to tips, the Curly Butter on the other hand i apply 3/4 the way up her hair.

Ive gotten better in just two attempts! I love how the smaller i do them the better and more defined they look! If i could only do a full head of these :D

After applying our choice products i parted her hair down the middle from front to back creating two sides for the pig tails. I then pony tailed them separately and detangled her pig tails with my fingers smoothing them out at the same time.  I braided 1 4 strand braid on each pig tailed side and rubber banded the ends.

I am addicted to different types of braiding now!! YAY


Diva R's Mommy-Kim

How To Part for / Do Zig Zag Braids My Way...

First off i have to say that i am by no means a professional and i am not claiming to be :) Just learning as i go and this is how i do my Zig Zag corn rows. I received requests on how i part for Zig Zag C-rows so here we go :)

There are three types of zig zag cornrows

*First type is the S looking cornrows
*Second type is the Z looking cornrows
*Third type consists of cornrowing a zig zagged PARTED section of hair by parting the entire section in a lightening bolt looking fashion or closer together sharply slanted Z shaped partings going back or downwards and then braid a regular cornrow down the middle of the zig zag parted section of hair :).

I know how to efficiently do the S looking or staircase looking squared off cornrows and the zig zag parting :) I have done lightening bolt parted cornrows but i haven't fully grasped Sharp corner zig zag cornrow Z's going back someones head yet. Mind you, i wasn't trying to make my parts perfect in this demonstration, i was moving rather quick and the zig zag cornrow isn't exactly the best I've done but it shows what 5 minutes (at least) can get you rushing...

This being a manikin head its also challenging to get the hair parted perfectly since its not a real scalp :)  I first sectioned off my desired section that i want to be zig zagged and in this case i chose to do 2 /3 of a full length section from mid-head to nape...

Here is my section that i am going to be zig zagging, i chose to taper off the section of hair that i am going to cornrow at the bottom of the section so the cornrow gets smaller as i go down, tapering off as well :) This isn't mandated nor the only way to do these zig zag cornrows, its just my preference and you could make a completely even section if you wish with no tapering bottom, if you do that it will be more widely gapped.

 Ok here is the parting breakdown, ALL i did was section my chosen section into same sized RECTANGLES (where i have the rat tail of the comb in the below picture is the spot between my first section box i created and rubber banded off and the second rectangular box i parted off) going down repeating the sectioning off of rectangular boxes until i reach the end point of the hair, as i went i rubber banded them off individually to keep them separated from one another. I like to part out my sections before i braid, its just a peeve of mine and it makes it so much easier for me to cornrow more evenly so i can just snip the rubber bands out of her hair as i curve down into each new section. I begin at the top right box generally and create a regular cornrow going towards the left and end it when the hair runs out and then i snip the rubber band and grab a piece of the leftmost corner of the lower box i just removed the rubber band from and cornrow downward into that section while curving my wrists and I've tended to switch it up and make figure 8 shapes by criss crossing each rectangular corner across to the opposing lower box's corner...

 Here is a side shot of how the parting would look...(excuse imperfections) You can achieve any of the zig zag braids just from this sectioning of the hair, its all in the writs curving and finger manipulating as you go.

OK SO i didn't video this zig zagged cornrow because it is to just illustrate the comparison between the rectangular parting prior to being cornrowed and the S curved zig zag cornrow resulting from my chosen method of hair grasping and parting.

When i braided the zig zag cornrow i didn't really part as i went like i should have because it turned out slightly sloppy and looser in some points but if i were doing this on Diva R or someone else i would have taken my time and parted with the rat tail comb/my pinky as i went :) With coarser hair its easier for the hair to "hold its place" when parted through my experience rather than fine loosely curly hair than tangles like mad! Or even long hair that is curly :)
But this was to just illustrate parting mainly for zig zagging or "s-rowing". One could start cornrowing from the top corner of the uppermost rectangle SLANTING downward as you cornrow, moving OVER to the left or right (depending on which way you want your cornrows to be angled), and SHARPLY SLANTING the cornrow downward in the opposite direction you slanted previously...

In case anyone is wondering how i get the practice head to stay in place while i braid and bend it all around like i do here is a picture of what it goes on :)

I just clamp it to anything "clampable" and start creating :) To get the manikin hair shiny manageable and to keep tangles away i used our new Juicy Spritz to moisturize it and it works wonders on real manikin hair even!!! This is the ONLY product i use on the practice head and a TINY bit goes a long way.... and the head is MIA and the current time getting the hair washed and conditioned and i have to blow dry it for 45 min and then let it air dry by consistently flowing air so mold doesn't accrue and the head completely dries It dries so wonderfully and health is restored!:)

I am going to post a video in the future just wanted to get this out there for anyone searching for new ideas :) Hope this helps...

Diva R's Mommy- Kim

God Bless.

Man-I-Kin MANIA! Part 1

I felt like showcasing our Man-I-Kin's ( Mostly mine for now).

I bought the Manikin head (on the right) in Sept 2011 from Sally Beauty Supply after calling around for over a month every where even a neighboring state looking for an ETHNIC Manikin head and most people chuckled at my asking for that when i called ALL the beauty supplies in my surrounding vicinity o_0. Almost all of the ones i did call said "We only have the white ones"... Hmmm So online i searched for EVER but i felt like i wouldn't be satisfied with buying one that i couldn't see in person first since i was particular on the type of hair i was looking for on the Manikin head.

Just when i was going to give in I called a local Sally's 1 more time and they seriously had got two in! So i rushed up there and luckily i did because when i got there there was only one (YAY) and it just so happened to be the ethnic one i was searching for hair type and all but i would have liked for them to have a better African American head with a more real fro. I bought that and the stand that you put the head onto to clip onto a table, chair or the like.

The Barbie head of course is Diva R's "Miss Jenny", she loves to do her hair :) I have done styles on that head also just didn't take pics :) Its all choppy and different lengths which makes it challenging.

Below are some random styles that i have done practicing on "Miss Jenny" the Manikin head.

The top left was the very first attempt at a faux hawk and the other three in this collage are first time ever attempt at freestyle cornrows :)

Here are some more semi recent styles Ive done and the one on the left below was just some idea i had got and i ran with it and ended up with that :) I learned a few things from doing that specific pattern that will make it better next time :) The one on the right is my very first ever heart :)

Here is my very first attempt at a star, and this was very hard to do i watched videos and looked and froze framed pictures just to try and dissect how the exact parting was done and came to the conclusion that i was too much of a beginner still to be trying all that LOL So an hour later it turned out looking like Patrick! The starfish from Spongebob Square pants instead

So over an hour later it turned out looking like Patrick! The starfish from Sponge bob Square pants instead

Below is just me messing around with these tiny pony beads i have on hand trying to figure out different ways of putting them throughout cornrows and such :) I was experimenting with different size cornrows in different ways and shapes :) getting better. I find that washing the Manikin head does help the hair stay in good condition i wash and condition the head and blow dry it right away so that mold doesn't ever build up in the head.  This one came with directions. Product act the same in a Manikin's hair as a humans hair. This one has REAL hair so it requires certain things to help manage it while styling..

I was really feeling creative when i experimented with letters for the first time. This is NOT easy at all and i jut don't get it as of yet. it is an art and alot of people use crochet hooks, tools to sew and other techniques to achieve letter braiding.  There are nearly NO videos out there to teach one how to do it. But cursive writing seems to be easier than regular letter braiding, still trying to experiment with ways to incorporate all the hair around and inside the lettering without it looking sloppy....

Above was a first time ever 3 leaf clover and i decided to put a big inverted french braid on the one bottom section versus another leaf or stem "look". This took about 20 minutes tops :) It was a sideways 3 leaf clover from the front and it sat so cute and with accessories it would be poppin :) This was easy compared to the four leaf clover that i did on Diva for the first time this past St Patty's day.

That's all for now (Hence part 1 mentioned above :)) I have many more and more to come. Diva's don't like to be experimented on for too long at a given sitting they tend to get prissy... *_* So Miss Jenny has saved many hours days and weeks of unnecessary rookie struggling and stressing Diva with experiments :)

Diva R's Mommy- Kim

loveyourgirlsbiracialcurls@yahoo.com

Who all has a practice head???