Whenever I want a really good braidout, I do cornrows...they just work better for me than single plaits. What I do is wash my hair, usually a condition wash. Then, I use a frizz serum, followed by braid spray, and then a mixture of oils (almond oil, EVOO, rose or lavender oil, and coconut oil). I mix this in and sometimes I may put a little IC hair polish. From there, I gently comb out my hair and section it in somewhat small sections. I then cornrow my hair. Now, depending on how I cornrow my hair, this will determine just how the braidout will look. I have found that if I do most going back, but 2 inches above the ears going down, this makes the end style have more a more lengthy look. If I want to give it a "sheen" once fully dried (which is the next day), I put on Elasta QP shine spray or another shine spray. What's important is trying not to frizz the hair too much once the braids are out. You should comb the hair at all. GENTLY loosen the hair once out of the braids. If you want it to look more full (which I prefer), only do the hair underneath don't do the hairs on top, they should maintain the formed wavy look. I have pics in my album if you want to see mine. I even, more recently, put in some comparison pics so you can see how it looked with the various lengths since I began going natural (16 months and counting). In the beginning pics, I did cut off a great deal of my relaxer but not all...just couldn't do the "big chop." One thing I haven't done but I may need to do in the future is roll the ends of my braids...I just can't stand sleeping in rollers.
HTH /images/graemlins/wave.gif
