Step by Step Braidout Tutorial

This past Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attend Jill Scott's Summer Block Party featuring Anthony Hamilton, Mint Condition, DJ Jazzy Jeff & Dougie Fresh.  I'm a huge Jill Scott & Anthony Hamilton fan and this concert did not disappoint.  I would have liked to have seen a little more of Mint Condition, but what I saw was good!  Anthony tore the house down and took us to church!  Jill put on a great show as well.  This woman's vocals are sick! I loved the format of the concert with the old school hip hop music between sets.  They took us waaay back!  Grown folks music ya'll!

I wanted to wear BIG hair for the concert so I decided to do a braidout.  I knew we would be sitting outside in the evening so I decided to compare two products to see which would hold up to the humidity of the evening dew best.  I used Miss Jessie's Curly Pudding on 3 sections and my shea butter mixture & Curls Goddess Curls Gel on 2.  Though my hair was pretty much undefined when I got home (LOL), I would say that the shea butter & Curls Goddess Curls Gel held up better for the braid out.  Check out the slide show below to see how I achieved the look above.

Slideshow created with Smilebox Here are some additional photos of a braid out I did Labor Day Weekend.  I only used the shea butter & Curls Goddess Curls on this style & I rubbed a little Aveda Brilliant Anti-Humectant Pomade on it to keep the frizz causing humidity away.  I loved the results!!  Here are pictures of my first braidout from February of this year.  Just 6 months later, look at the growth! I remember being so frustrated at how I couldn't get definition all over.  It just goes to show that patience and care with you hair pays off!

Product Review & Hair Revelation

First, the product review.  I've been in search of two things in my hair regimen: a deep conditioner and a styler that defined my curls for braidouts and two strand twist outs but didn't leave it crunchy.  This week I found my deep conditioner.  I got it from Butters-N-Bars.  I bought the Hair Masque.  The product description states that it will condition and moisturize, leaving hair soft and manageable.  It contains Australian Pink Clay, Moroccan mud, raw honey, organic aloe vera juice, virgin hemp seed oil, organic virgin olive oil, and silk protein.   I applied the masque to freshly cleansed hair with a color applicator brush from root to tip & sat under a hooded dryer for 30 mins.




Clean hair with no product

 

Hair after masque applied.  Here you can really see the texture differences in my hair.  Look at the front middle (4a/b) in comparison to the temples (4c).

The conditioner did leave my hair soft and moisturized.  I will continue to use this conditioner every two weeks and let you know how my hair responds to it over time.

The second product new product that I used was Mizani's Butter Rich Deep Nourishing Hairdress.  I used this to set my braids for my  braid-out.  I first heard about this product on a fellow natural hair blogger's site, Robyn's Nest.  She, like myself, likes definition without stiffness, and moisturization. After using this product, I must say that it delivered these things.  My hair is soft, defined, and doesn't feel heavy.

THE HAIR REVELATION

As is evidenced in the picture of my hair above, I have several textures of hair.  Here are pictures of my braidout from last week and this week.



Free picture collage created with Smilebox

The first row of pictures show my very first braid out with the Curls Creme Brule mixed with aloe vera gel for a soft hold.  The 2nd row of pictures was the 2nd day with Design Essentials Defining Creme gel.  The last row of pictures is with the Mizani Butter Rich Deep Moisurizing Hairdress.  After looking at all of the results, there wasn't much difference in definition in the 3 braidouts.  I also noticed that there are certain areas of my hair, that just simply lack definition no matter what product I use.  So instead of investing time in creating newstyling my TWA right now (each time I braid my hair it takes about an hour), I will instead focus on moisturization and curl enhancement until it gets longer. I will return to the braidout or a twist out later.