My girls' CRAZY MIXED HAIR

 Let me confess. When I agreed to marry Percy, one of the things that scared me the most was the future of our children's hair. Sadly, it has been even worse than I could have imagined. HOWEVER, it is also more BEAUTIFUL than I could have ever imagined as well. In the case of mixed hair, I can truly say no pain no gain. And, there is a cost to be pretty! In this case, the cost is lots of conditioner and TONS of TEARS!!!

I thought for this blog entry, you might enjoy to see the journey of how to fix our daughters' hair, or in some cases I should say their "nests". We have SERIOUSLY lost small toys in their hair. One time I found a PEN lost in the afro! 

DISCLAIMER: Although I have been doing this now for 8 years, I am still in NO WAY any where near an expert in mixed hair. This is simply a picture entry of what we have to go through to fix our girls' hair.

We started with her hair being braided in large braids all over her head.

 Taking out the braids took about 1 hour. There have been times she has had smaller braids and it has taken about 4 hours with 3 people working to take them out!

Side view to really show the ENORMITY of her hair!

Now that all the braids are out, I moisten it with a spray bottle with water.

I then finger comb it with conditioner and olive oil to work out as many of the tangles as possible and give it a bit of a deep condition. I usually let this sit for about 15 min. If I have time, I put a plastic bag over it and leave it in this stage for a couple of hours to really DEEP condition.

I used to wash her hair with shampoo (like I do with mine), but I have since learned that her SUPER DUPER DRY hair only frizzes and kinks more with harsh shampoo and does better when I wash it with conditioner. It's unbelievable thickness soaks up the conditioner like a cactus in a desert, so each time I "wash" it, I usually use half a bottle of conditioner!!! INSANE!

One tip I have realized over the years is that brushing it when the conditioner is already in makes it MUCH MUCH easier to work the tangles out!!!!! The conditioner acts as a lubricant so the process is far less painful!!

The conditioner is washed out and we have a clean shiny thick head of hair to work with.

I add more olive oil and leave in conditioner and the process of TAMING THE FRO!! This is the WORST part ... for her and for me. I try to be gentle as possible, but trying to comb through a nest of kinky curls in next to impossible and sadly does inflict a lot of pain!! :(

With two of us working together, the job takes about 15-30 minutes and we have the hair divided and ready for pigtails.

Pigtail braids are in. Anna Catherine is excited with how cute she looks and her hair is done... only 3 hours this time!!! That is good for us!!! I will maintain this by daily spritzing it with a homemade mixture of leave in conditioner, coconut oil, olive oil, water, and two other oils that I forgot their names but are supposedly good for hair.

Now on to little Abi's hair experience. Again, the same steps but MUCH easier since her hair is shorter and her threshold for pain seems greater. She doesn't scream and cry as much as Anna Catherine does! :)




We have just taken out the braids and this is the "raw" fro that results!



The Afro has been combed out and now is ready to wash with conditioner.

TONS of conditioner really softens it. I don't show a picture but I also comb out her hair when the conditioner is still on.

Then we wash it out! :) By the way, this part has to be done with two people. One holding her while the other fingers through and washes it out.

All clean and ready to style!

Not near the tears with Abi. We just gave her a book to read and began combing through. Although, there ARE tears with her too during this section. 

Abi's hair isn't long enough yet to put it into pigtails like Anna Catherine, so we have to put it into 4 little puffs. I think it is cuter in puffs, but they quickly get super tangled and frizzy so it last longer and doesn't get as dry if I braid it.

I have now braided her hair while her older sister read her a book and empathetically comforted her.

The hair is done!! Only took about 2 hours! I will maintain daily with the same conditioner/oil spritz I spray on Anna Catherine's hair.

I DREAM of the day when the girls get excited about their beautiful locks of kinky mixed hair!! I hope on that day, they will say "MOM, let me do my own hair". I will joyfully put down the brush and pass this long suffering job over to them and let them take a turn at taming the infamous mixed FRO that God so gloriously gifted them with when my white self decided to marry a black man!!