Protective styles-Part 3: braid out

Good morning lovely people,

So I'm sitting at home waiting for some of the ice on the roads to melt so that these crazy Columbia drivers won't give me a heart attack out there.  While waiting, I decided to post a pic or two of my hair.  So as mentioned before (I think somewhere) I am trying to wear more protective styles for the winter to not only protect my hair from the cold, but also to avoid as much as possible going outside in the cold with wet hair.  My favorite protective styles include twists and style-outs.  My favorite style-outs to do on my hair are flat twist twist outs and braid outs.  So I wore a braid out on Sunday, and am wearing a fresh braid out today, and probably tomorrow.  The braid outs were slightly different-Sunday the braid out was from dry hair, and today from wet hair-so I'll let you know what I did for both. 

Dry hair braid out:
Friday night I put Amla oil (I bought it from an Indian grocery store) on my hair, placed my hair in two side buns, tied with my satin scarf and called it a night.  On Saturday morning I rinsed the oil out well, put some HE Color Me Happy on my hair, shook and left.  I decided to do a wash and go since the weather was sunny and lovely Saturday.  Saturday night I braided my dry hair in about 7 single braids and put Raw Shea Butter on the ends.  Sunday morning I loosed the braids with a little Jojoba oil in my hands, fluffed a bit, and that was that.

Is it just me or do I look scary in this picture?  Anhoo, it's a good shot of my hair.

So overall I liked the dry braid out all right.  My hair wasn't quite as shiny as I would have liked it to be, and it didn't last super long, it was getting frizzy by the end of the day, but it was good church day hair. 

Wet hair braid out:
So Monday after I realized that I was not going into lab, I decided to deep condition and braid my hair.  I put Amla oil on my scalp and Jojoba oil on my hair and let it sit for about 30mins.  After like 15mins I realized that it may help if I put a warm towel around my head :-) and then the last 5-10mins I was in the shower with a shower cap on allowing the shower steam to work its magic.  I then rinsed the oil out well and got out of the shower.  I put HE Color Me Happy conditioner on my hair (my hair was divided into 4 sections so I worked section by section) topped with some extra virgin olive oil.  I detangled with my Denman and twisted each section as I finished.  I sat under my conditioning dryer for about 40 minutes with the conditioner/oil mix on (wearing a shower cap, high heat), then rinsed while my hair was still twisted.  I put Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie on each section that I was about to cornrow and then braided.  I put Raw Shea Butter and Jojoba oil on the ends of each braid.  I ended up with 5 braids.  This morning I put some Vatika oil on my braids (about a nickel size per braid) and then loosed the braids.  After all braids were out I put about a quarter sized amount of Vatika oil throughout my hair with a little scalp massage as I fluffed the hair, and that was it.  I really liked the braid out results (except one braid ended being a little puffy, I'm sure because it wasn't completely dry), my hair is soft, shiny and movable.  I decided to put it up into a bun to protect the ends against the wet day, but it still looks perty :-)

So, there you go, a few options for a braid out.  You can do a braid out on dry hair or wet hair.  You can also do cornrows or single/box braids.  the smaller the braids the more definition you'll have.  Personally I like 5-8 braids max.  Do be certain that if you are doing any style to take extra care of those ends since they are the oldest and most delicate part of your hair. 

Have a wonderful day,
Love, peace, and happiness