|
|
Tweet |
This hairstyle has got to be one of my favourites, mostly because it appeals to both my creative and analytical sides. Couple that with the fact that this is an awesome protective style and I'm just as thrilled as can be. It might look a little complicated, but I promise you that it's not. And if you take a couple of days to get it done (as I did), no doubt you will be just as pleased with your results.
I started this style by making a template. Yes, that's right. I cut out a piece of paper the size and shape that I wanted, placing it on Boo's head and then parting around it. It's not a precise method, but it did give me the starting point that I needed. I only used the template to make the first pentagon, the one that's on the crown of her head. From that starting point, I parted the remaining pentagons. Nobody's head is perfect, so just eyeballing the parts rather than using a template all over allowed me to compensate for the differences.
We washed and detangled on Friday evening and then I did loose parts and put the hair in twists before bedtime. The following day, I spent a wee bit of time adjusting the part lines, and let her wear the style as simply two-strand twists.
A few days had passed before I tackled the flat rope twists and bantu knots. I started taking out one pentagon twist and sectioning into five equal areas. The part lines should form a star. You can see that I did all of my lines from the the flat sections of the pentagon, not from the points (see drawing above for more detail).
I then did flat rope twists from the point of each pentagon section toward the middle of the pentagon. These went very quickly, as the sections were fairly small. I stopped flat-twisting once I reached the middle. Then I took the hair that was left untwisted from all five sections and divided it into two equal portions. At that point, I just formed a rope twist out of those sections, and then fashioned that rope twist into a Bantu knot.
I repeated the process above, removing the twist, parting into five sections, and then flat rope twisting.
Forming the Bantu knots was not necessary (you can leave them as twists and they will look just as cute), but I wanted to keep her ends protected.
On each side you can see that only three sections of the pentagon were done, as the whole shape didn't fit. Instead of doing a Bantu knot on the sides, I just gathered and formed a flat rope twist, letting it hang straight down.
What I love most about this style is that it is a great protective hairstyle for natural hair and still can be done loosely and without the use of rubber bands.
It's also a great way to practice a few different techniques, especially your parting skills!
We could have just as easily done this style with cornrows, but flat rope twists hold better in my daughter's hair. If you don't know how to cornrow or flat rope twist, you always try using flat African hair threading and then finishing the middle with Ghana plaits. That would be super cute!
Since completing this style, Boo has been wearing it for a good week and it has not even started getting fuzzy. I expect we'll get a good month out of this style. That is, if she can keep dirt and sand out of it, which seems to be getting increasingly more difficult as summer fast approaches.
|
|
Tweet |
