I’ve been on a protective styling craze in the past couple of months. I’ve been caught between the urge to protective style while simultaniously searching for the easiest, least boring way of wearing my hair while still being able to play in it.
Contradiction you say? Well yes but I have learned plenty. For instance I have learned that I no longer like how weaves feel on my head and as such I am unlikely to install one again in the near future. However, I’ve also discovered a love for u-part wigs!
I have not detangled my hair in the traditional sense (comb/brush) in the past couple of months, instead between styles I just finger detangled with oil and leave in conditioner before braiding, washing and DC-ing.
Without further ado, here are the styles that I wore.
Unlike the last time I wore this hair, this time round I absolutely hated wearing the weave and I only lasted a week and a half in it.
The weave felt tight and uncomfortable particularly after the wonderful comfort of wearing crotchet braids not too long ago. Having little access to my hair to my hair was also quite annoying so I think my days of weaves in the traditional sense are truly numbered.
Straight after taking down the weave, I installed some individual tree braids.
Despite appearances I actually only did the ‘trees’ at the top and sides of my head otherwise the rest of the braids were just standard braids. I’m glad I didn’t waste my time doing them all because the tangling with these things was outrageous.
I used to really enjoy tree braids in the past when I wore shorter braids because the tangling was minimal. But because of the length of my hair now, I have to use long extensions which makes the tangling worse. Tree braids are definitely not in my future styling repertoire from now on. If I feel the urge to braid, I will stick with normal individual braids.
After taking out these braids I made a u-part wig with some very cheap 14 inch premium too weaving hair. I installed the wig at the beginning of September.
I don’t remember the exact curl type but any super curly hair like bohemian or jerry curl hair would work for this look.
I left out about half an inch at the top and sides to blend. I find wig clips very uncomfortable to wear so I did a perimeter braid and I sewed the wig all around my head instead. The rest of my hair was in large braids which were tied in a low bun.
I love this style, it’s so easy to take care of. I just pineapple my leave out every night and sleep with the rest of the hair loose. In the morning I fluff and go!
At the weekend I take the wig down and wash and DC my hair WITHOUT taking the braids down. This style is the perfect blend of looking good while having reasonable access to my own hair for washing purposes.
After a couple of weeks of this wig, I decided to eliminate tangling altogether so I cut the wig ultra short at the back.
It’s odd to see my reflection with such short hair but I am loving the style all the same. It’s so easy to take care of.
There is literally less than two inches of hair at the nape so absolutely no tangling to deal with. All I plan to do is co-wash and detangle the wig at the weekend, wash and DC my own hair and sew the wig back down.
Incidentally, it takes about 7-8 minutes to sew it in every weekend so it’s not taking up much of my time at all!
I will do a full tutorial on the main site soon of how to hide long hair under a short wig/weave.
