I Finished Braiding My Hair Today!!!

[Chichi]

Well, it was like two days in the making but I finally finished braiding my hair today! (It actually took maybe 8 hours or so ...but I took many breaks). Knowing how to braid is a good skill to have as a transitioner, I think. I may just transition in braids. I used synthetic hair with my own hair to form medium-sized plaits. I am still in shock and awe over this

as this was my first time brading on this scale... I can't believe how professional it turned out. I would like to especially thank dontspeakdefeat and Faith for their posts on braiding and everyone else on LHCF for helping me to believe that I could DO THIS.

My only issue is parting: making the lines come out straight and making them show up as neat little boxes on my scalp (I know that I have thick hair with lots of new growth but there's got to be a way

). I have three questions for the braiders out there:

1) Is there a "trick" to parting your hair while braiding and getting all of them to show?

2) Do you do three-strand plaits or four-strand box braid? Which do you feel is easier for a self-braider?

if you have any other tips or suggestions, please post them here. I would love to save them up for the next time...

.

Chichi

 

[Isis]

I've never done it before so I don't have any tips to offer but congratulations on your braids - what an accomplishment!

 

[aprilbiz]

I'd love to know the answers to your questions as well!

 

[Nonie]

Congrats Chichi. Takes me 8 hours too if I do it in one sitting. I will only answer your questions if you send me a picture of your do.

(J/K)

I'll answer the second one first coz it's easier. I do 3-strand and find that easier. With 4-strands, I'd have to concentrate too hard

and I'd rather be relaxed with the distraction of a movie while doing braids; so 3 it is.

Partings...

Now this is hard to explain without demonstrating but I'll give it my best shot. First of all, I don't worry too much about the back being extra straight coz my braids do a good job of covering that up or giving a good illusion of straightness. So I never use a mirror until I get to the front where I plan on wearing partings in my styling. But you can still achieve fairly straight partings even without looking.

For explanation purposes, let's make a parting at the center of your head going back ending at the crown. We'll do this without looking in the mirror. Hold all the hair together in one hand as if getting ready to do a pony-tail. With the other hand, hold a comb lying on its side with end tooth against your scalp teeth point back and slide that tooth against your scalp toward your crown as straight as possible the way you make partings, still holding all your hair together with your other hand. The comb should be perpendicular to your head, end tooth lying against your scalp. (Notice I didn't say part all the way to the back of your head. The reason is, you want to make a parting about the length or a little more than the length of the teeth of the comb. Any more than that and the hair behind the comb will "seal" up again as the comb handle and your hand gets swallowed by the hair.) So now you've got the comb against your scalp with a parting as long as possible with the base of the comb still showing at the start ie not buried inside the hair. Now start to slice through the hair upward using the comb (which is still held perpendicular to your head) and as the comb approaches the ends of your hair your fingers of the hand not holding the comb should help separate the two parts. In other words, you let go the part of the pony that is on one side of the comb and slip the fingers through the "path" created by the comb and follow it upward preparing to pull apart the section that lies on that side of the parting while the comb smooths away the other (imagine opening up a book). Usually, I achieve a fairly straight part this way. Put another way, as your comb reaches the end of the part even before you start raising it slicing through the hair, the fingers of your hand can follow behind and as you start to slice through your hair with the comb, those your fingers sort of follow behind it and as soon as the comb starts rising, the fingers rise with it and then just before your get to the tips, while the comb smooths one side, your fingers smooth the other side.

I hope I'm making some sense with all that verbosity?

 

[Ipanema]

Congratulations Chichi! I braided my own hair for the first time not too long ago, and I just used a rat-tail comb to make the parts. Actually, I "pre-boxed" my hair by doing two-strand twists on my own hair & then adding the extensions to the twists (making a three-stranded braid). This made it go pretty fast because I didn't have to part & separate as I went along. I used one of those big claw-type things (I forget what they're called) to hold my other twists out of the way.

My hair is pretty thick, too, and it puffs up when damp, so the boxes aren't that noticable. I think the knot at the beginning of the braid needs to be firm/tight to get the boxes to show on thick hair, but I'd rather not braid it too tight. (It defeats the purpose of doing your own hair).

 

[Chichi]

Thanks Isis! It feels great and kind of liberating to be able to do this.

Chichi

 

[Chichi]

Thanks nonie! Your tips are very helpful. The part about not parting longer than the length of the comb made a lot of sense

. That I did not definitely do

. Most of my braids are medium to medium large and I noticed that the smaller ones show the parts better. Maybe I should invest more time the next time and make "smaller boxes."

Chichi

 

[Chichi]

Thanks Ipanema. You know, I thought of pre-parting (boxing) my hair and then holding it with those metal magnetic roller clips but I thought that I would mix all the hair together and mess up my parts

. But I will try this suggestion for next time...

Also, you are right, braiding too tight would defeat the purpose of doing it yourself. I braided somewhat loosely and it doen't even feel like I have braids. Whereas if someone else would have done, it would take about a week for that tight feeling to ebb away.

Chichi