Caring for My French Wave Extensions

Hello Lovelies!

I was bored with my hair (thus the lack of posts) so I decided to switch it up with extensions a couple of weeks ago. I figured it’d be a nice gesture from me to my tresses to give my hair a break for a few weeks.

I used 1 3/4 packs of Bobbi Boss Indi Remy French Wave 12in. I’m not a weave connoisseur by any means, but I knew I didn’t want a bad weave or to spend hundreds of dollars on hair. There was a sale at my local beauty supply store and I liked the feel of the Bobbi Boss Indi Remy French Wave so I got two packs for around $170. I left my hair out around the edges (as you’ll see in the pictures below). The Bobbi Boss site recommended washing the extensions every two weeks for maximum life so here are the pictures from my first wash with them in yesterday.

1. I shampooed once with Organix Strawberry Shampoo. Next I conditioned with Avon Damage Repair Conditioner. I love using damage repair conditioners even though my hair (or the extensions) doesn’t appear to be damaged. I like to think of it as preventative 🙂

2. I didn’t towel dry my hair, I just put a towel around my shoulders. Here are the pics from right after I washed it. You can see my hair is out on the top (and shorter) in the second picture.

3. I honestly wasn’t sure what to put on the extensions, so I used a half-dollar-sized amount of Cantu Shea Butter Leave in Conditioning Repair Cream and a quarter-sized amount of Curls Unleashed Curl Enhancing Gelly and rubbed it from “root” to tip with my fingers. I only finger combed the extensions to minimize shedding.

4. Next I turned to my tresses. I put the extensions in a bun so they wouldn’t be in my way. In order to stretch my curls, I did flat-twists (two-strand cornrows or whatever you want to call them) all the way around my head so my hair would be roughly the same texture as the extensions. I received a sample of Curls Cashmere Curl Jelly a few weeks ago so I decided to try it out. I used a quarter-sized amount of the Cantu Shea Butter Leave in Conditioning Repair Cream on my hair and a quarter-sized amount of the Curls Cashmere Curl Jelly.

5. I took the extensions out of the bun to let them air dry. I decided against blowdrying them because I didn’t want to put any heat on my hair. Here are the extensions after air drying for one and five hours respectively. You can see how the curls fluff up as it dries. It was about 85% dry when I went to sleep and I left my hair in the flat-twists overnight. I slept with a satin bonnet.

6. In the morning, I felt like the extensions had gotten a little flat from the bonnet so I rubbed a nickel-sized amount of Curls Unleashed Curl Enhancing Jelly through the extensions and scrunched the curls. Next, I rubbed a dime-sized amount of argan oil on my fingertips before I took out the flat twists to make sure my hair didn’t get frizzy. And voila! Here are the finished pictures!

Just like with my normal twist-outs, my hair holds the shape for around 5 days, so I plan to flat-twist the edges as needed. Do you use extensions as a protective style? How do you care for them?

Keep it curly!

-E

Two Strand Cornrow Twists with Bantu Knots

‘ello Loves!

Happy Saturday! Last week I did my normal two-strand cornrow twist-out but with bantu knots at the end of the twists…and I got this –> 

The first time I tried doing bantu knots was a complete fail, so I was hesitant to take “before” pictures because I didn’t think that my hair would come out well. Also, I started taking my hair out before I took pictures with the two-strand cornrow twists and bantu knots in. Don’t worry, I’ll have my act together for this blogging thing soon.

Here are the steps:

1. I co-washed my hair with Pantene Pro-V Curly Hair Series Moisture Renewal Conditioner. I used a wide tooth comb to detangle my hair with the conditioner in it. Then I left the conditioner in for an additional 15 minutes. I left about 10% of the conditioner still in my hair–I swear by this for keeping my hair strong!!! If you aren’t used to leaving some conditioner in your hair, rinse to the point where it still feels like there’s a little left in but not enough where you can still see conditioner in your hair.

2. As you can see in the finished picture below, I parted my hair in 7 sections for the two-strand cornrow twists. I wanted to try a new product so I used a quarter-sized amount of my newly acquired Curls Unleashed  in each section before I started the two-strand cornrow twists. I twisted my hair all the way to the end. (Sidenote: Sorry I don’t have pics of my entire head, I had taken a couple out before I took this one!)

3. Then I twisted the two side twists (left and right side respectively) together and wrapped them around the base to form the bantu knot and stuck a bobbi pin through to make sure it stayed. I made three bantu knots for the three twists in the back. I left the cornrow twists-bantu knots in my hair for 3 days, but they had dried in a day. My hair takes FOREVER to dry.

4. I rubbed a dime-sized amount of argan oil in my hair (to prevent frizzing) and began the take down process. I removed the bobbi pins from the bantu knots and gently separated them. Then I untwisted the cornrow twists.

5. Done!! I gently finger-combed through my hair to separate the sections and hide the parts. Here’s the finished style!

I was surprised because my hair stayed like this for 4 days without me having to re-cornrow twist it at night and I only slept with a satin bonnet on one of those nights. In the mornings, I rubbed a dime-sized amount of argan oil through my hands and re-fluffed if a section looked flat. I love Curls Unleashed because my hair didn’t feel like it had any product in it at all when I took my hair out. It was just soft and shiny 🙂 What’s your favorite product for twist-outs?

-E

Fun Winter Twists

‘ello Loves!

I hope the holiday season treated you well! I meant to post these pics of my friend J last Thursday to keep up with my weekly Thursday post goal, but I forgot. So forgive me and be happy that you’ll get two posts from me this week to make up for it! J wanted a low maintenance style that she could still have fun with AND that would last for a few weeks.

Here are the before pics:

Before I did J’s hair, she washed and conditioned it with the Shea Moisture line of shampoo and conditioner. Her hair was mostly dry by the time she got to my house, so I used argan oil and Mixed Silk by Silk Elements to detangle her hair.

I sectioned her hair into 10 parts to detangle it and then twisted each part so it would stay detangled. I parted the twists to coincide with the cornrows and the section of twists so I would have less hair to move pin to the side as I did her hair.

Here’s the finished style!

Fini!

I also used my new fav product of the moment–Curls Unleashed!–on the twists on the side.  

It’s really light, not sticky, and doesn’t leave my hair crunchy at all. J plans to try several different styles for the side twists: roller set, mini pin-curl buns, and bantu knots to switch it up a little.

Stay warm and keep those curls moisturized!