Criss Cross Cornrowed Headband & Box Braids

Guest post by Aisha of Braid With Me

Let me start by saying that I apologize for our absence. Education is very important to us and that has been our main focus. I hope that you can understand.

Now back to this style!!! For the September Hair Carnival, I was paired with the very talented onceuponacurl.blogspot.com. According to her blog, "Once Upon a Curl strives to provide affordable and Quality hair care products to children and parents of all colors. Our main goal is to reach those who otherwise have no access to products they like and need to take care of and maintain curly types of hair." In addition to offering products, she loves to style natural hair! Please visit her blog and Facebook fan page for more info on this wonderful blogger.

For this style, I decided to combine her love for freestyle cornrows and my love for protective styles such as box braids. I also decided to copy fellow blogger charlottesavenue.blogspot.com love for braided headbands. If you haven't checked out her blog, you are missing out!! She covers natural hair, parenting and everything in between!

I started with clean, detangled, moisturized hair that had been banded for a couple of days.

Next, I began adding medium box braids starting at the nape area and working my way up. I was unable to finish the style on this particular day, so I added two twisted ponytails in the front section and secured them with ouchless bands.

The following day, I began adding freestyle cornrows in the front section in preparation for the braided headband. Although it is not visible in this photo due to the bow, the two overlapping cornrows lead into three cornrows.

The Results!!!

Do you find inspiration from others? Please share your thoughts!!

Stayed tuned for the update!!

Janelle Monae Inspired Updo

A wore her faux hawk again today so I was putting it up for bed and started playing around with it a little bit. We ended up with this cute Janelle Monae inspired updo within 5 minutes. I simply gathered her loose hair and loosely twisted the entire section to the left. I pinned the hair down in the front using bobbypins. This isn't very practical for a 5-year-old but I still wanted to share it with you all!

Woven & Criss Cross Cornrows

I asked Rae of Tweeny Hair if she'd like to submit Syd's new 'do as a guest post, she agreed so here you go. Enjoy!

Ok, this post is going to have a lot of pictures because I'm just not too good at explaining what I'm doing. It's easier for me to just show you...and hopefully that will be more helpful for you, as well. :)

To start this style, I parted Syd's hair from ear to ear and cornrowed the back half of her hair straight down.

After this, I parted out a large square on the top of her head. I put a cornrow straight across the front and tied both sides out of the way for now.

I parted out a triangle in the front left corner of this square. I didn't do anything with this triangle yet - I just tied it out of the way until later.

Then I made a cornrow next to that triangle. After that cornrow, I parted out another strip of hair and tied it out of the way until later.

I continued this pattern as I moved diagonally from the front left to the back right corner of the square. You are basically making parallel parts but only cornrowing every other section of hair. I had 4 cornrows and 5 strips of loose hair when I finished.

Next I moved to the front right corner of the square. I parted the hair (moving over the previously made cornrows) to make a cornrow that crosses over the cornrows that were already there.

I did the same thing next to the cornrow I just made. You will have a strip of hair that has a few cornrows running through it. Cornrow the strip of hair you just parted out. When you move over the earlier cornrows, you'll have to do a couple stitches where you don't add any hair.

When you've moved all the way to the back of the square, you should have a pattern that looks like this:

Now it's time to move over to those side sections. This is the shape of the section of hair I was left with after I made the square.

I wanted to do two criss cross cornrows on each side, so I split this section in fourths, parting in half horizontally and then vertically.

Then I cornrowed the section on the top left, and when I got to the center I moved to the section of hair on the lower right. Repeat, this time moving from the section on the bottom left up to the top right.

Repeat that with the hair on the other side and you're done!

Thanks Rae and Syd! Make sure you stop by and check out their blog, Tweeny Hair.

Cornrowed & Twisted Updo

I actually did this the night we did the faux hawk for bed. I didn't want to leave her hair all out because I knew it would lead to tangles so I sat a pillow on my lap, had her sit face down and started twisting the hair upward. Once I reaced the top, I continued twisting only I wrapped the twist around in a circle and secured the bun with a few bobbypins. I still wanted to post it even though it was done just for bed. I love surprise styles!

So that's 5 styles in 1 already! Here's a recap:

• We started with Criss-cross Cornrows & Three Strand Twists
• Which turned into a Three Strand Twist-out
• Which turned into Criss-cross Cornrow Style Remix
• Which turned into a Cornrowed Braid-out Faux Hawk
• Which turned into this!

Who says natural hair is boring?

Criss-cross Cornrow Style Remix

This is a style remix of the Criss-cross Cornrows & Three Strand Twists style. Unfortunately, I didn't take a lot of pictures but I finished up the top in the same pattern it was originally parted in mixing in straight cornrows and more criss-cross cornrows. I started using Little Penguin products again but realized they were not giving me as much hold as I get with Bee Mine Curly Butter so I proceeded to use the Curly Butter on the rest of her cornrows. I completely freestyled through this style. I went with the flow and braided each side to the middle of her head rotating straight cornrows and criss-cross cornrows. I didn't get a chance to bead her hair so she wore it just like this for a few days before I moved on to the next "style remix". Stay tuned! ;)

Criss Cross Cornrows Update

A has had her Criss Cross Cornrow Layers in for 9 days now. She swam a few times last week and each time we cowashed with Herbal Essence Hello Hydration conditioner after she was done swimming. After 9 days, her cornrows are quite frizzy so I decided to split her hair into two sections and put them in pigtails. I gathered the braids in three sections and braided them. I used Gymboree accessories to match her outfits and ended each braid with a cute little frog clip. I applied a little Bee Mine Curly Butter to the ends of both braids and twirled them around my finger a bit. Although her hair is very frizzy, she received a ton of compliments on her hair today.

Next time your child's hair style becomes frizzy, try switching up the look a bit. I don't find it necessary to take a style down as soon as it becomes frizzy.

Criss Cross Cornrow Headband on Stretched Hair

 

I first tried to criss cross cornrow headband last Summer on A. I thought the look was adorable for little girls. This time I did it a little different by working with stretched hair. As you can see, it kind of looks like she had a blow out without the blow dryer. This is great for little girls who want to show off their length every now and then, and for moms who don't like using heat on their childs hair.

 

You can also leave the back out and natural, do a braid out, twist out, or box braids behind the headband.

Get the look:

• Band the hair for a few days. Do this on completely detangled hair, wet or dry. Moisturize each section before banding. For A, 6 banded ponytails work best. Braid the ends.
• Re-band the hair each night. Moisturize (focus on the ends), finger detangle, then use wide tooth comb. (I also used our Modified Denman)
• After a few days of banding, take down each section, moisturize (we used Little Penguins Mocha Bean Pom. Review coming soon!) Finger detangle, then use your wide tooth comb. We used our Modified Denman for this part as well.
• After the hair is completely band free, moisturized, and detangled part the hair from ear to ear to prepare for your criss cross cornrow headband.
• Tie the back of the hair off, then part your top section horizontally in two sections.
• You will now vertically part both sections of hair into three pieces. Be careful not to mix the sections up.
• You will first start with the hair in your front section near the right ear. Cornrow that small section, then cross over to your back middle section, cornrow that small section, then cross over to your front last section by the left ear, braid down a little and you're done.
• You will repeat the same steps, only this time you will start with the hair by the left ear in your second section, cornrow and cross over until you're done!

To maintain this style: Moisturize the hair each night and put it in a loosely banded ponytail. Braid or twist the ends.