ToyToy said:
Oh, then she IS lazy
!
And horrible!
OK, I disagree that you need to have straight hair to use straight hair for microbraids, or that you need to blow dry your hair before braiding it. Methinks blowdrying first will only make it frizz more when you wash coz it'll shrink to its normal state and thus make the braids try to bunch up - for lack of a better word.
I have worn braids for the most part of the last 5 years and I always wore them on natural, just-washed hair. I used human hair and have used both wet and wavy as well as straight. The only thing I never did was buy the very silky human hair. It was too slimy for my liking. I preferred the coarser human hair that looked more like my hair blowdried or pressed straight. (I prefer the more natural look.)
Excuse the quality of the picture, but here's a close-up of how my hair looks after a wash and how the braids looked:
I do my own braids so I had the advantage of touching up braids as needed. Whenever I was just sitting, like when watching TV, I'd start touching up my braids focussing more on the braids on the outsides - the ones that show on top when I style my hair, thus disguising the whole do.
It is true, when the hair is new, you get some fuzzing when you wash. But I wore my braids for maaaaany months
so after a while I hardly saw any fuzzing. This is a pic of my braids after a wash. They are French braided in preparation for a braid-out (wavy) do:
(This is not the same hair as in the previous pic, BTW.) Braid-outs were a great way to disguise braids that needed touching up. I could wear this do for a while then undo and sport a braid out. (If you have a lot of flyaways, those of you with very soft hair, a scarf at night on a do like this could keep hair looking neat when you sport this do).
Here's how the braidout would look, and it worked well in disguising braids in need of a touch up:
I always braid to the end of my hair. I think leaving the hair partly undone makes it look so obviously fake, not to mention makes it easier for the braids to slide out if your hair isn't long.
Human hair looks very silky when freshly done. Here are freshly done braids (same hair as in the first pics, just different lighting) w/ the ends of the hair curled. I wanted extensions this long so I could use all the heat I wanted on the ends w/o touching my own hair. Hair is braided to the end but as you can see, on freshly braided human hair, the ends unravel easily:
After many washes, the hair does get less shiny but the braids tend to stay neater longer (even after washes) due to less slipping against your hair. The coarser your hair, the better the hold. Below is the same hair 2 years later. (Yes you read that right.
If I'ma spend crazy money on human hair that long, then I'ma be sure to get all the use out of it that I can.
) The hair was so much easier to work w/ at this stage and braids stayed neater longer - which was just as well coz it took more time to touch up long braids.
I loved my braids at this stage since the hair stayed braided all the way to the ends.
And below, a braid-out on the same hair (Washed hair in square braids and allowed it to dry that way then undid the braids and voila! You could get the same effect by cornrowing the braids into about 5 or 6 cornrows going back while damp (towel-dried) and then allowing hair to dry before undoing.) I always air-dried.
One last thing and then I promise I'ma shut up: you can lessen the fuzzies after a wash if you would put your braids in sections like Robin of Crown and Glory and put rubberbands at the ends before washing.Then apply shampoo to the scalp and only rub/massage the scalp to clean. Next run water through allowing shampoo to run through extensions and use a squeezing motion to clean them letting them hang down...so you're squeezing along the length. Do this till all shampoo is out. Apply conditioner by smoothing it along the braids a few at a time. A squeezing motion allows it to soak into braids. After going under a dryer w/ cap on or just waiting for the recommended time, rinse the same way you did the shampoo squeezing gently. I'd always dunk my head in a solution of ACV and EO's to conclude my wash and massage my scalp to remove all residue of conditioner or shampoo while head was submerged and just allow my braids to soak in the goodness of the solution.
In other words, the less you manipulate the braids during the wash, the less messy they'll look after a wash. It's almost impossible for human hair not to slide down your hair when it's new, or for the braids not to slightly lose their neatness, but this method will minimize those effects.
OK, I'm done rambling.
