A Natural Updo: Rolled , Twisted and Pinned

By Aisha of Braid with Me

We're back with yet another natural updo! I created this style with a mixture of cornrows and two-strand twists. 

 The Style

The Dashiki

This beautiful dashiki was made by Charmaine of Tambo Collection. Charmaine was very helpful and prompt in answering all of my questions about our order. Our items arrived on time and in excellent condition. 

The following description is found on her Etsy page: 

Welcome to our world of African fabrics by the yard, and unique handmade clothing. "Tambo Collection" is North America's largest supplier for Kente and wax print fabrics. We also sell fat quarters for small projects. We ship fast, and if our item is not in stock we will notify you by email immediately. See our selection of our handmade premade head wraps and crowns. **We also have a selection of hard to find African ribbon and trimmings**

The dashiki can be worn as a dress or as a top. We also had the option of wearing it with or without the sash. Anisa absolutely loves her dashiki and as you can tell from the pictures, it fits her perfectly! If you are interested in purchasing one, the direct link will be provided below. 

Direct Link: Girl's Dashiki Butterfly Top 

Mtoto Nubienne Earcuffs for Little Girls

Did you notice the gorgeous little jewels gracing Anisa's ears? They are Mtoto Nubienne Earcuffs that were handmade by Ayida Honor. I first became acquainted with her special gift of jewelry design on her Etsy page, Native Style Beadery. She has since launched her own page, which can be found here. 

Upon one look at her handmade creations it is obvious that these items were made with love. Although the earcuffs that Anisa has were made for little girls, they are very durable. 

Be sure to check out her page, www.ayidahonor.com, and fall in love with her gift of intricate beadweaving techniques. 

We would love to hear from you! Be sure to leave comment below! 

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Tambo Collection

Ayida Honor

Natural Flower Girl Updo with Cornrows and Twists

Another updo! I know you're probably sick of them at this point but we have been loving them! Miss A thinks she's Princess Tiana! (hmm, possible Halloween costume?) I know how hard it is to find natural flower girl hair styles or special occasion hairstyles done on curly hair so I'm going to try my best to showcase styles fit for the occasion. 

Let's begin with instructions, shall we?

Miss A's hair was already moisturized and stretched from her previous bantu knot-out. I parted a half moon shape on the top middle section of her hair and tied it off. I started by parting a curved section near her left ear for the first cornrow. I added a little Bee Mine Curly Butter to the section and braided. If you don't know how to cornrow you can do a simple two strand flat twist or check out our Cornrowing for Beginners post. I used a rubberband to secure the cornrow once I got to the end and left the remaining hair out. I only wrapped the rubberband about 3 times, just enough to secure the cornrow but not tight enough to cause breakage.

I continued beginning my parts at the nape of her neck, slightly curving each part and cornrowing until I reached the other side.

I banded all of the loose hair into three separate banded sections and had her sleep with a sleeping cap overnight. Not sure what banding is? No problem, check out our Banding F.A.Q. post.

The next morning I removed the banded and created three large two strand twists with the top section of loose hair. I played with the twists for a few minutes to see how I wanted the updo to look. I wrapped the left twist around to the right side and secured with a bobby pin then I wrapped the right twist to the left side and secured. I decided to do a twisted cinnabun with the last twist. As you can see I made it sit on her forehead a bit. A little bit of an old school feel.

To bring the entire flower girl look together I had her put on an old dress and placed a single flower clip bought from Claire's on the side of her updo. See below for more pictures!

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Natural Hair Updo: Cinnabuns & Flat Twists

She's back! Miss A's older cousin, Ky! You can check out some of Ky's previous styles done by me here (flat twists into afro), here (side swept two strand twists), here (cornrows and twist out) and here (side cornrows with two strand twists).

This style may look familiar to you because I did a very similar style on Miss A back in March. See this post for pictures and details. Ky saw a picture of Miss A with her hair like that and told me she wanted the same so I got to work.

First, I washed Ky's hair with Cara B Naturally Shampoo and conditioned with V05. I detangled her wet hair with a Denman brush while the conditioner was still in. After rinsing I immediately applied a generous amount of Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer to her wet hair and banded her hair into 4 sections. Click here for our banding F.A.Q. post. 

The next day, when her hair was completely dry, I gently removed the bands and began by parting her hair from ear to ear, I tied the back section off to get it out of my way then parted the top section straight down the middle tying one side off. I began the style by parting up towards the middle, I stopped about an inch or so away from the middle part. I wanted to have a nice gap between the flat twists to create the cinnabuns in the middle. After flat twisting that section with Bee Mine Curly Butter I moved on to the next section, parting straight up towards the middle again. I secured the end of each flat twist with a rubberband dipped in extra virgin coconut oil. I created 5 flat twists on each side making sure I stopped about an inch or so away from that middle part. If you don't know how to flat twist, it's very simple. You are simply parting a small bit of hair off from your section and splitting it into two, begin twisting the right over the left while grabbing a little hair evenly across and adding it to each section.

Once I finished the flat twists I moved on to the fun part- cinnabuns! To create these super cute buns I parted a medium sized section of hair and very loosely tied it off with an ouchless ponytail holder. I then began taking the entire section and rolling/twisting it all to the left, holding it straight down infront of her face. Place your finger on top of the section and begin twisting the hair (make sure you have a firm grip so it doesn't come undone) flat on to the scalp around the ouchless ponytail holder, tuck the ends under the bun. Take one bobby pin and place it flat, right through the cinnabun and you're all done! Continue this process until you have lots of little cinnabuns on top. I wanted her cinnabuns to be thick with a little texture so I only added a little curly butter and loosened them a bit once they were all in. You can make your cinnabuns bigger or smaller, whatever floats your boat.

Now, for the hair in the back I had her sit in a high chair and bend her head down. I added a generous amount of Bee Mine Curly Butter and began doing one large flat twist up into the area where the cinnabuns are. I loosely tied the flat twist off with a rubberband and created another cinnabun with the left over hair.

She loved this style and said she felt so fancy! She was worried that her hair may not have been long enough for the style but I assured her we would make it work and it turned out fabulous!

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Little Girls Hairstyle: Side Swept Two Strand Twists into Puff

Click photos to enlarge

I have a feeling you will be seeing a lot of Miss A's older cousin so let's go ahead and give her an alias. We'll call her Ky. Ky spent the night again this weekend and asked me if I could do her hair like her little cousins so of course I said yes.

I washed her hair with Cara B Naturally products (shampoo and conditioner). After washing I applied a generous amount of Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer and banded her hair for the night (see picture below).

Check out our Banding Frequently Asked Question post.

Banded hair

Stretched hair after banding

Ky's hair was ready for styling the next morning so I parted a square in the top middle section of her head. I cornrowed medium sections straight down and ended them in basic two strand twists.  I used Bee Mine Curly Butter for styling. I pulled her hair into a side puff with an ouchless ponytail holder and pinned her twists to the side near the puff. I added a headband and she was all done! She absolutely loves it. See more pictures below.

Here's Miss A's version in case you missed it. Check out the post here.

Miss A's version of this style.

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Side Swept Two Strand Twists into Bun

Click photos to enlarge

 Such a simple but elegant style and perfect for all ages!

The pictures are pretty much self explanatory so this post will be short and sweet. I cornrowed the top middle section of her hair straight down, as mentioned in our previous post and twisted the remaining hair. After finishing the top I grabbed medium size sections of wet hair, added a little products and finished the rest of the hair off by doing basic two strand twists. The next day, I gathered her twists into a side ponytail, leaving the "bangs" out. I rolled the twists around the ponytail holder to create the side bun. I then gathered the twisted bangs and pinned them so the side, near the bun with a couple of bobby pins. I twisted the remaining hair back around the bun and added a cute headband.

I wanted to try something new so I used Blended Beauty Butter Me Up and Curl Styling Butter for this style.

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Little Girls Natural Hairstyle: Cornrows & Twisted Bangs with Pigtails

Click pictures to enlarge

First of all, how adorable is she? This is another one of Miss A's cousins. We will call her Lil Bit. She saw  her sister get her hair done earlier in the day so she asked me if I could style her hair as well. How could I say no to this face? 

As always, I started off by washing her hair. I used Kinky Curly Come Clean Shampoo and Herbal Essences Hello Hydration conditioner (old ingredients). I applied moisturizer immediately after rinsing her hair (Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer). After moisturizing, I began styling (on wet hair). First, I parted a square shape on the top, middle section of her head. I tied the rest of the hair back. This style is very simple and quick. I parted small sections coming straight down toward her face and cornrowed them, at the end of each cornrow I started doing a basic two strand twist. I used Bee Mine Curly Butter on each section. The plan was to give her some cute twisted bangs. After I finished up with the top, I parted the remaining hair straight down the middle and placed them in pigtails. I twisted the hair in the pigtails as well (4 twists in each ponytail) and added a couple of bows. I used Kinky Curly Curling Custard to slick the ponytails down and to smooth her edges down in the front.

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Natural Hair Styles for Little Girls: Cornrows & Twist Out - Flat Twists & Twist Out

Click pictures to enlarge

Miss A had some of her cousins over this past weekend and I was pleasantly surprised when they asked me to do their hair! Even the little 3-year-old! I mean, what 3 year old do you know who actually wants to sit still to have their hair styled? I know my soon-to-be 3 year old son wants no part of hair time. 

I styled Miss A's older cousin first. She is 9 years old and really wanted to wear her hair out and curly. I washed her hair with Kinky Curly Come Clean Shampoo and conditioned with Bee Mine Daily Moisturizing Conditioner. After I rinsed the conditioner I applied a generous amount of Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer to her hair, focusing on her edges and ends. I began by parting the first section of hair to cornrow near her right temple. Using a metal rat tail comb, I parted at a slight angle. I applied a small amount of Bee Mine Curly Butter to each section before cornrowing for a little hold. I loosely tied off the end of each cornrow with a black rubberband. I cornrowed a total of 6 sections. Every 2 cornrows, I applied a small amount of Bee Mine Curly Butter and twisted the loose hair together. After I finished the top I just used my fingers to grab a medium amount of hair and twist them together, once again, using Bee Mine Curly Butter. 

The next morning I removed the two strand twists and these are the results (below). I love how it turned out! This was her first time ever wearing her hair out like this so she was very excited.

Below is Miss A's 3 year old cousin. She wanted me to do her hair like her "sissy". I decided to keep it quick and simple. I parted small section of her hair and decided to do flat twists instead of cornrows because her hair is on the fine, thin side. I used Bee Mine Curly Butter on her hair as well. I twisted the rest of her hair and removed the twists in the A.M. Below are the results. :-) 

Miss A was also wearing a twist out. I used Bee Mine Curly Butter on about 8 large twists. 

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I hope you enjoyed this post! :-)

xoxo, Nik

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Large Two Strand Twists

I let A wear her big stretched out hair for a couple of days. Her hair was starting to get quite tangled so I decided to do a simple two strand twist style.

To acheive this look, I grabbed large sections of hair with my fingers and dampened each section (one at a time) with a spray bottle. I then added some new Little Penguins products (review soon!) to each section of hair, detangled with our modified denman d3 brush and twisted each section. I held each section down/out to make sure it didn't shrink up as much. Her twists are definitely hanging a little more than usual so it worked out. I continued grabbing large sections, adding product, and twisting until I was finished. There are no rubberbands at the base or ends. To get the twists to stay, I simply rolled the ends between my fingers several times. She loves the results but she told me she'd like to wear a twist out tomorrow. We'll see! :)