I need to figure out a new hair routine. As much as I love my mini/micro braids, I gotta figure out something else to do that doesn't take hours to do so often. Maybe I'll consider relaxing every 6 months instead of 1x a year. To be honest, I'm kinda tired of the long stretches only because I have to braid to combine the two textures. Like I'm a little nervous of having loose hair because I'll have to be more gentle, but it makes styling so much easier and quicker. However I'm tired of spending hours braiding although it has greatly increased my productivity once it's all done since I can get up and go AND my scalp is cooler since it's not being smothered by my new growth. I need to find a happy medium....
Cuz, we are HERE!!
Could you maybe try cornrows? They're fast and also very protective!
That's why I leaned hard on cornrows last year bc they're faster to install, refresh and take down. BUT I keep getting some bad tangling at take down. I've been thinking about this all weekend and revisiting my old hair photos. I believe that the culprit is the
straight back cornrows. I don't think cornrows in general are to blame, I think I need to revisit an old braid pattern. I used this pattern, or something similar, under my wigs all of the time. Instead of braiding straight back, I braided from the perimeters toward the center of my head. That meant that less of my hair was actually cornrowed and most of the length was plaited. My hair loves plaits. And then I cornrowed the plaited tails together straight down.
Don't judge my janky cornrows, they get the job done. Lol!
This pattern also works better for my crochet styles. I think this works best for me bc the coarsest and driest part of my head is my crown. And this means I'm not cornrowing that part of my head. So takedowns and refreshes were much easier bc less was cornrowed and it reduced tangling in the coarsest part of my head.
I started doing straight backs bc if I didn't cover them, I could bun the tails and look presentable. But I think they only work when my hair is SL or shorter.