Turning Small Box Braids into Even Smaller Mini Twists

(Climbs out from under the rock I've been hiding under)

Hi there! I know it's been months since I've posted anything new. I would say I'm sorry, but....well...we've been having an absolutely amazing time just experiencing life and if I could do the last few months over again, I wouldn't change a thing! Opportunities presented themselves and we seem to always jump at the chance to step outside the box. If you've been following us for a while, you're probably aware of our recent missions trip to Guatemala. As expected, that was another life-changing trip for us. I'll make a separate post about that trip in the near future to tell you all about it!

Now....back to hair.

For the trip to Guatemala, Syd wore her hair in small box braids. I figured that was probably the easiest style for the rough conditions since there is no daily styling requirements. Just a bit of moisturizer every evening and she was done.

Syd's braids at the end of the trip

Those braids lasted a few weeks and survived some pretty harsh conditions. (If you want more details about how I do Syd's box braids, check out this post about small box braids.) The braids probably could have even lasted another week, but school was starting and every girl HAS to have a fresh style for that all-important first day of school. So we changed her box braids into mini twists. Here's how.

I wanted to do the new style on clean hair but didn't want to have a long detangling session, so Syd washed her hair while it was still in the braids. I tied most of it up out of the way, only working with a few braids at a time. I would unravel one braid, finger detangle that section to remove shed hair, added some Bee Mine Luscious Balanced Cream Moisturizer, and then turned the hair from that one braid into two new twists.

You could still see the part lines from the previous box braids style, but Syd's hair is so thick that those lines disappeared when we got further along in the style.

I did the back half of Syd's hair one afternoon, but we had somewhere to be that evening, so I stopped for the night. I pulled the top half of her hair back and she wore her hair half up for the night. The top half was in braids and the bottom half was in twists, but it really wasn't too noticeable.

We finished the twists the next day. It took just under 9 hours to complete the style. At first, I was shocked (and a little irritated) that it took so long, but then I remembered that I had removed over 100 braids, moisturized her hair, removed shed hair, AND created well over 200 new twists. So I suppose 9 hours isn't too bad, all things considered. (Patience, Rae....patience.) Regardless of how long it took to complete, her twists look great and she loves them.

Excuse the low photo quality here.

Syd is also back to running cross country this year, so the twists have spent a lot of time just being pulled back into a ponytail. But she did decide to style them for the first day of school. She french braided the front of one side along her hairline, and then pulled all of her hair into a low side ponytail. It's simple but cute...a perfect style for a 12 year old to do on herself!

I've missed you all.....it feels good to be back! Be blessed! =)