Chocolate Hair / Vanilla Care : Natural hair care for kids, adoption, and family life.

March 31, 2012

Twist-Out Instructions and How-To Video

Boo has been wearing two strand twists for about three weeks now, with the intention of wearing a twist-out right before we planned on restyling. I'm going to be really honest: Our twist-outs work best when we decide while originally twisting the hair that that is what our plans are going to be. It means I make an extra effort to smooth the hair while forming the original twists and applying a product that I know will hold the twist out once it has set. Taking them out, as I will outline in this post, will be easy and look great if the original twists were not too tangled and have had time to dry thoroughly.

Overcoming Difficulties While Doing Hair: My Personal Up-Hill Battle

(photo by fouro)

This post has been a long time in the making. Many of you have been asking for me to post more videos. The truth is, although I've filmed a few here and there, I'm a little ashamed to post them; however, probably not for the reasons you might be thinking. If you've seen any of our past videos, you might have noticed a little something about them: My hands shake. Really badly sometimes. Yeah, it's probably not really noticeable to the average person. But I know it's there, as well as knowing how many times I had to re-film just to get footage where it wasn't too obvious. The shaking isn't because I'm nervous about doing hair on camera (although speaking is another story, as I'm more of a typing sorta girl). But for a long time I didn't know what was happening. In fact, the only thing I did know was that the shaking was getting worse, and doing hair was been becoming increasingly more and more difficult.

Removing Small Braids How-To Video

I know some people do better with written posts and others would prefer to see it done in video. These are our favourite tips for taking out small braids, as outlined in the post "How We Remove Small Braids," but this time in video format. We filmed this segment while removing the same style as in the written post, so you can follow along with both if you're interested.

Our Styling Routine: Age 4 (and How To Wash Hair with a Style In)

Wow, looking back on all of our different routines it's amazing how much things have changed over time! These days our routine includes the hair care basics, but with one big difference: We very often (although not always) wash hair with the style in. This is usually the case for times when Boo has been wearing a protective hairstyle for several weeks. The majority of dirt and build-up is usually on the scalp, not on the hair itself (because the hair has been nicely tucked away in cornrows or flat rope twists). We have found that taking the style out and then trying to cleanse the scalp was getting too complicated, for no other reason that Boo's hair is so long and often gets in the way. Washing with the style in allows us the opportunity to more easily clean the parts of the scalp that were most exposed to dirt and conditioning sprays throughout the weeks.

Bantu Knot-Out Up-Do

This style is the last in a long string of ideas that I've based upon our initial Flat Rope Twists with Top Twists style. Since then we've reworked it to have a ponytail of twists on top, a Bantu knot flattop, and today we're finishing the series with a bantu knot-out pinned to the side for a nice up-do. So that's a total of four styles with just just one series of twists. Not too shabby for the little amount of time it took to put in the original style.

Basic Healthy Hair Steps for Beginners

For a lot of people, bringing a child home with natural hair can be a bit overwhelming. Where do you start? From baby to teenager, the basic steps are the same. If you're overwhelmed because your child has recently arrived home with little or no hair, please do not worry about growing hair right away. Bonding is key, and you want to form the best trust relationship that you can. But when you're ready, here are the basics of what you need to know to get you started on a good routine for growing healthy hair.

Fierce Bantu Knot Flattop

So apparently when you put in a "fierce" hairstyle, it automatically comes with an attitude all it's own. Same thing happened when we did Boo's Rockin' Summer Hair, Part 1 last year. I guess no matter what the age, you just know when you look fierce!

Our Sweet Leprechaun

Boo was all decked out and ready to delivery her "sweet treats" to her preschool class in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Yes, I'm a huge "Plastic Paddy," and along with us celebrating in Boo's culture, she celebrates in ours as well.

Flat Rope Twists and Top-Twist Ponytail

This update to our Flat Rope Twists with Top Twists is so easy that I almost feel guilty about devoting a whole post to it. But boy is it cute!

All I did was take the loose twists on the top of the head and put them in a loose ponytail (using a terry cloth pony O), positioning it toward the front left.

Boutique Dress Giveaway Winner Announced!

Remember this awesome dress ensemble? Yes, I mean the dress, broach, bolero jacket, and headpiece that we were giving away. Well we finally chose a winner! Was it you?

Flat Rope Twist, Twists, and Did I Mention Twists?

As much as I love this post, I'm going to preface it with my personal preference: I'm not a huge fan of rows or flat twists that go away from the hairline. I rather prefer to have the rows going down, toward the hairline, because I think they pull less and I can twist/braid them along the hairline to better protect it. However, I do make exceptions to my own preferences and this is one of them.

I had been planning on doing this style for a while. I really just needed to work it out when I knew Boo was going to be in a good mood, because doing the back requires her to be in her least-favourite hair position. So I prepped her earlier in the week, letting her know what was coming so that by the time hair day arrived she was ready to go!

Family Friday: When Boo's Kitty Has Surgery, Everyone's In Pain

No doubt if you've been a long-time reader of this blog then you know that Boo was blessed with her very own kitten back in September 2011. It was love at first sight. Don't believe me? Check out the original photos or, better yet, watch the video that still brings a tear to my eye every time I watch it.

Elphaba (Boo's kitty) has since made herself at home with our family and is more loving (needy?) than most cats I've known. It was a little overdue, but Elphaba needed to get spayed. Having never had a cat that needed this surgery, I had no idea what to expect. Honestly, I didn't expect it to be nearly as big of a surgery as it was. My ignorance, of course, meant that Boo was ill-prepared because I had no idea what to prepare her for. My bad!

Not Having a "Plan B;" or Failure Is Not an Option

I think if this last weekend’s hairstyle has taught me anything it’s that I don’t really approach hairstyles with a “Plan B” in mind. I think that’s probably reflective of how I do a lot of things in life: I don’t ever plan for failure, I make it work. Period. Which can produce some amazing things, but can also lead to horrible self-criticism, not to mention my share of catastrophes.

Giveaway: Size 4T Boutique Dress Ensemble

Sorry, this giveaway has ended...

I know I've been hinting at giving away this dress since the day that we won it from Nicole Benitez Photography last year. The dress was a size 3-4T and, although Boo is only 4, she's never been one to err on the "small" side for her age. So I wasn't sure it was going to fit when it arrived. Thankfully it did....Barely! We didn't really get a chance to use it all that much, mostly because she was sick when it first arrived, and most recently because, well, she didn't want to wear it! Yep, that's my girl, tomboy through-and-through! However, after muddling through a short photo session of complaining that "there were too many feathers," "it's scratchy," and "where are my pants!" we did manage to obtain a nice selection of photos for us to keep, and a few to post here on the blog for you to see the dress and accompanying accessories.

Above is a photo of the headpiece. It's a full headband, which I actually found a little small, especially trying to get it over Boo's awesome afro, but we made it work!

Trying a New Style: Twisted Spirals

So I saw these twists in the hair movie preview that I posted a few weeks back and wanted to give them a try. Turns out that Boo just does not have thick enough hair to pull them off. Although they didn't turn out horribly, they were still nowhere near as good as I wanted (or expected) them to be. *sigh* However, I'm glad that I tried them. And a learned a few things from doing so.

$50 Visa Gift Card Winner Announced!

A big congratulations going out to Christi B., our verified winner of the $50 Visa gift card from this Head & Shoulders review and giveaway, sponsored by BlogHer and Head and Shoulders. Many thanks to all of you who entered.

(Guest post by Karen Dresser)

I Love You So… How could you go wrong with a title like that? I was in a hurry because I had a cranky two year old in the book store, but I was determined to find her a book to celebrate her adoption day. The picture on the front captivated me; the title sounded just perfect for an adoption day book; I bought it. Since then, I’ve been a Marianne Richmond junkie.