Q.O.T.W: What are the kiddos going to be for Halloween?

Halloween is right around the corner! For those of you who celebrate..

What are the kiddos going to be for Halloween? How will they wear their hair?

A is going to be a witch and Lil Man is going to be a dinosaur. Last minute costumes, lol. As you know, A's hair is in box braids and Lil Man will rock his curls.

I hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween!

Small Box Braids Curled With Curlformers

As previously mentioned, we have been very busy lately. Why didn't anyone tell me Fall was such a busy season?! Although I have been dying to try new things, from products to styles, I just don't have the time right now. I chose box braids (a favorite!) because they are long lasting and oh so versatile. Don't believe me? Search box braids in the search box, you will find lots of ideas! I'm sure I will be trying a few things from Guest Blogger Aisha's getting creative with box braids post. These are the smallest box braids I have done in A's hair, she has (I'm guessing) about 80 total. I wanted to make these much smaller but I knew that would be very time consuming so I settled for these. I think (hope!) we will get at least 3 weeks out of them. Oh, I guess I should add, she LOVES it! :)



What her hair looked like when we started and what her hair looked like when we finished.


Shrinkage.


Curlformers in.



At this point, I don't think you will need another set of instructions on box braids so I will just leave you with this short bullet list of things you may want to know:

• This style took about 4 hours. I split it into two days, did a little more than half on the first day, then finished the rest the next day.
• After washing and detangling her hair, I banded it up for one night. This didn't stretch her hair out very much, but it worked out fine. (see picture above)
• I used Bee Mine Products for these box braids. I added a small amount of luscious moisturizer to each section, then a bit of curly butter on top.
• I wet her braids and added about 8 Long & Extra Wide Curlformers to her braids.
These gave her box braids a loose curl, next time I will use the extra long & wide Curlformers. Last time they gave her braids some gorgeous, long lasting curls.
• I previously mentioned this, but I'll say it again. I always braid in the direction I want the braids to go. So on top for example, when I had about half of the right side done, I started braiding the rest of the right side to the left because I wanted them to fall that way for her side ponytail. Plus, I always love a side part.

I hope that about covers it! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

The back. It was interesting because when I pushed her braids to the front, they curled up a lot more.

Cornrows and Sister Twists - Bat Girl Style

I'm a little late posting this, we've been so busy! This was the style I did last Halloween when she was Bat Girl. This style fits any occassion and the colorful elastics add a lot of flare. :)



Instructions:

• Start with completely properly detangled, well moisturized hair. I can't stress this enough. :)
• Begin by parting a square in the front middle section on the hair. Once you have this square parted off, start from the nape (back of the neck) and part a small/medium square. Tie this off with your choice of rubberband/elastics, split the section into two equal pieces, and begin doing a sister twist (otherwise known as rope twist). If you're unfamiliar with these twists, you simply twist one strand clockwise and the other counter clockwise, and begin twisting each strand around one another, continuing this motion all the way down.
• Using your beader, add your beads to the twist and tie the ends off with a rubberband/elastic or a hair snap so the beads stay in place.
• Continue parting your squares, tying them off, twisting and adding beads.
• Once that is done, untie your top section, part is straight down the middle and begin parting at a slant with the hair closest to the right (or left) ear. Once you cornrow that section, tie the end of the cornrow off with a rubberband/elastic then begin your sister twist.
• Continue parting at a slant and cornrowing until your right or left section is complete and move on to the other side.

Note: I believe this style took 1 1/2 hours. I know I used unrefined shea butter mixed with virin coconut oil, and I believe a little ORS lock and twist gel, but it's been so long so I'm not certain on the ORS. ;)





Happy Halloween!

Half Cornrows With Two Buns

Please excuse the sun rays in this photo.
A wore her hair in the half cornrows braid around sock bun style for her birthday weekend (birthday post soon!).

Today I decided to switch the style up a bit. I split the part of her hair straight down the middle, used a little Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer to smooth down the hair and placed each section in a ponytail. I then took each ponytail and did a simple two strand twist. I wrapped the two strand twisted ponytail around the ponytail holder and used 3 bobbypins to hold each bun in place. Although her cornrows were several days old I thought the style turned out super cute and it will definitely be a quick go to style from now on! :)

GirlsLoveYourCurls Shows How to Detangle Children's 4B 4C Hair

I came across GirlsLoveYourCurls youtube channel yesterday and fell in love! The videos are so well put together and mom is quite the comedian! lol

I asked for permission to post their Detangling 4B/4C Hair video so check it out below and enjoy! Make sure you stop by their youtube to check out their other videos and subscribe! I look forward to seeing more videos from them.

Twist Out Results Using HEHH

Here are A's twist out results using Herbal Essences Hello Hydration as a leave-in. Love the results! Her ends were just a little frizzed out but otherwise her twist out was very well defined and really soft. Unfortunately, she didn't get to wear the twist out for very long because I had to restyle her hair for her birthday weekend but I will definitely be doing this again soon, maybe with another product or conditioner? We'll see. I think the key to this look was making the twists fairly small. I usually make her twists medium sized, which results in a more wavy look. Doing them small resulted in a more curly look.

New Bee Mine Discount Code: BBBOCT2

I wanted to let you all know that we have yet another new Bee Mine Products discount code effective October 16th (A's birthday! Yay!) good until October 31st! :)

To receive 10% your Bee Mine Products purchase ($15 min.) use Beads, Braids & Beyond reader discount code:

BBBOCT2

October 16th was A's birthday. I now have a 5 year old! *tear* She had a great time at her party. I will have to post some pictures tomorrow.

Afro Puffs & Ponytails!

I was thrilled to receive an email from Afro Puffs & Ponytails to share our story. You can check it out here. I found Afro Puffs and Ponytails around the same time I created the blog last year and fell in love with it. I love all of the inspiring stories!

New Winner of I LOVE My Cotton Candy Hair!

Unfortunately, I still haven't heard back from one of the winners so I had to choose a new one.

The winner is...

Congrats! Please sent me your mailing address as soon as possible to beadsbraidsbeyond@yahoo.com Thank you!

Sesame Street I Love My Hair (Original Version!)

Sesame Street posted the original version of the adorable I Love My Hair Video, check it out and share it! A has constantly been asking me for her "favorite I love my hair song". :)

Two Strand Twists Using Herbal Essences Hello Hydration Conditioner

A had a field trip today so you can probably imagine how I felt last night when her hair was in 6 ponytails on top and a puff in the back, previously from her bird's nest style. I washed her hair with Bee Mine Shampoo, rinsed, then added a huge handful (and then some) of Herbal Essences Hello Hydration conditioner. I used our modified Denman D3 brush to detangle. I decided to leave all of the Hello Hydration conditioner in her hair and do two strand twists. Each twist each about half an inch. I wanted something that could last her at least until the end of the week. This could last longer but her birthday is on Saturday so I'll have to think of something for that. Now I'm rambling...back to Herbal Essences Hello Hydration conditioner, I really loved it for her twists! I wasn't able to take pictures until a day later but aside from the twsits being a little flat from sleeping on them and from her hat I think they came out really nice. Her hair was left feeling very soft. I've used Hello Hydration as a leave-in before and always had nice results but this was the first time on her twists. I wonder what a twist out will look like? Hmmm...stay tuned?

By the way, there was no parting. I just grabbed a little hair with my fingers and twisted it.

Halloween Hair: Pumpkin Head

This style was done in October 2009. See my sad attempt at carving a pumpkin? lol And yes, the pumpkin has matching ballies.





I have gotten a few requests for some Halloween Hair 'Do's so I thought I would share one that was done last year for Halloween! :)

Instructions:

• As always, start with detangled, well moisturized hair.
• I started by parting her hair right in the middle about 3 inches back. From there, I kind of got the feel to where the center of the pumpkin would be so I started on the left side near the center of her head and started parting a circle.
• I parted one big circle in the back of her head then went up and parted a stem for the pumpkin.
• I know parts like this are a little intimidating but trust me, once you get started it gets pretty easy. It's just like drawing on paper with a pencil, only you're using a comb and it takes much longer.
• Once I had the pumpkin parted, I placed the hair in a ponytail and did about 4-5 two strand twists. I then moved on to the rest of the hair that was left out of the pumpkin- I put the top in two ponytails (added two strand twists) and the back in two ponytails. I added accessories (was going for a candy corn theme) and ended up with this:

• The next day I decided to switch it up a bit. I removed the pumpkin section completely, and out of that section I parted a little bit of hair out going all around the pumpkin. I started at the top left side of the stem and cornrowed all the way down the left side of the pumpkin. I then went to the right side of the stem and cornrowed that section all the way down the right side of the pumpkin.
• I took the two strand twisted pigtails out on top and made a slanted part on each side. So I now had two ponytails on top on each side. I accessorized, this time using some traditional pumpkin colors and she was all done!

Crazy Hair Day: A Bird's Nest

As some of you know, A had crazy hair day at school today for spirit week. I got some great suggestions from here and on our Facebook page. I ultimately decided to go with a bird's nest! A absolutely LOVED it! She picked out the flowers and the red birds.

I'm guessing no one would really want instructions on this style, lol but if you do let me know and I'd be happy to add them.

Stretched out from banding.

Q.O.T.W: Do you have any ideas for crazy hair day at school?

A has "crazy hair day" tomorrow at school for spirit week. So...

Do you have any sugggestions/ideas for crazy hair day at school?

I probably should have asked this a few days ago. Now I'm on a time limit to come up with something!

Sesame Street: I Love My Hair!

Someone posted about this episode of Sesame Street on our Facebook wall and I also saw a thread about it on BBC where someone posted the link to this adorable video. We love it!



I love how they touch on the fact that her hair is so versatile. Very true!

Enjoy!

Band Out Waves

A's hair was in a simple banded style with two cornrows in the front for about 3 days. I used Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer to band her hair. On the 4th day I removed all of the ponytail holders and the bands created a really cool wavy look. Sort of something like you would get from one of those hair crimpers. So, instead of banding her hair back up I decided to just let her wear it down. Don't you love accidental styles?

This is what her hair looked like before removing the ponytail holders:


What's going on with your child's hair lately?

New Bee Mine Reader Discount Code: BBBOCT1

Hey everyone! I know I've been a little MIA but I am hoping to get back on a regular posting schedule in October. I have lots of reviews, hair shares, and diva spotlight's coming so stay tuned!

I wanted to let you all know that we have a new Bee Mine Products discount code good until October 15th! :)

To receive 10% your Bee Mine Products purchase ($15 min.) use Beads, Braids & Beyond reader discount code:

BBBOCT1

I hope are all enjoying Fall. We went from hot to freezing quick! I hate when the weather changes so quickly. Yesterday it was nice out though.

Oh, and guess who has a birthday in October? :) Yep, A!