Crochet Braid FAIL, Finding a Good Grid for Thick Hair Matters

Hey Mocha Family,

I need a hug. My wrists and hands are throbbing right now, from me getting a little too carried away with this styling session. I honestly looked up and more than 5 hours had passed without me stopping. I was determined to make it work, but my mission was to create a natural looking set of crochet braid (twists), not too bulky, on a super thick head of natural hair.

I should have known that I was expecting a little too much.

To reiterate, so you can feel my pain, I was adding lots of hair to a head full of hair, trying to avoid big hair. No wonder we had problems!

I over estimated my years of experience with this style and underestimated what a difference it would make to choose a grid for braiding Head Mocha Girl's thick hair from people who had much shorter and finer hair.

Do I sound whiny? I'm really sorry to be feeling a little whiny.

I'd like to be able to offer positive hair experiences to the girls, but perhaps one of the greatest lessons they can learn is how to gracefully navigate difficulty. Reality dishes out lots of struggle.

We threw in the towel for today. I was very proud of how well HmG handled her disappointment. If I actually cried the way I wanted to after getting through about 8 hours of styling, she would have been the one handing me the tissues.

Be blessed!

Comments

Please leave that baby's hair alone!

I'll never forget the first time I saw Mocha Girl One (HmG) . She was an emergency c-section, and had to spend several days in NICU. She was born four days past her estimated due date and looked huge in her incubator. I imagined her to be especially delicate and feminine. I couldn't wait to frill her up, and more importantly to do her hair ! The only reason she wasn't sporting a barrette the day we took her home from the hospital, was because the one I brought to match her lacey outfit, slid right out. Mocha Girl One's baby hair was silky straight and fine. As the weeks rolled by, it became wavier until she had a lovely curly fro. I washed it all the time . I brushed it several times a day . I tried snap clips, and moved to velcro barrets when the clips slid out. I bought a different head band for every outfit. Meanwhile her curls continued to wind tighter and tighter. I kept everything in a pretty box, dubbed the hair bin . I was really frustrated at not b

Trader Joe's Castille Soap Discontinued!

There's some controversy about the use of castille soap as a shampoo. For example, popular YouTuber Kim , of KimmayTube tested the ph of Bronner's Castille Soap and found it to be much higher than the recommended range for hair (between 4 and 5). You can watch her explain her findings. She also did an informative series fraught with good visuals on understanding the effects of ph on hair. That said, I've been using diluted castille soap successfully for YEARS, but I've never tried Bronner's Castille Soap. I had a bottle of Trader Joe's Castille Soap . Turns out Trader Joe's formula includes Aloe Vera --which has an acidic ph---probably bringing down the overall ph of the product--perhaps balancing it for hair. The manufacturer recommends it's use as a shampoo right on the bottle's label. I did not get a chance to personally test the ph of my bottle, because by the time I noticed Aloe as an ingredient of my castille soap, the bottle was empty

Cherish My Daughter

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