Sis, I do it without any problems. Of course I have the advantage of being able to redo any that unravel but if you're careful, they won't. For my 4B natural hair, if they do unravel, it's only up to where my hair ends. That stays braided.
After wetting my head, I basically apply shampoo to my scalp using fingers and massage well to clean. Then when I start to rinse under a shower head, I squeeze the length of the braids as suds run through them. If the suds aren't white/clean, I repeat the scalp shampoo again and then the squeeze through the braids as water runs through. I don't pile my hair up on my head but leave it hanging down. (If I were worried about them unraveling, I'd put my hair in about 8 big plaits and put rubber bands at the ends before shampooing.)
After rinsing the shampoo out, I apply conditioner to a few braids at a time in the careful way relaxer is applied to hair. I skip the inch or so closest to my scalp for a few reasons to be mentioned shortly, and I only apply until the tips of my hair, not the extensions. 1) The newest hair is fairly healthy and doesn't need as much TLC as the rest of the hair. 2) Getting conditioner inside the base of the braids can be hard to rinse out and that residue would lead to knotting that leads to breakage when you undo. 3) Conditioner on your scalp can lead to itches...and it's very likely that if it enters that base of the braid, it may not all rinse off coz it can be like a knot and that will mean itches that never go away. (I never apply conditioner to my scalp even when not in braids.) So after applying condish to a few braids, I squeeze them to allow the conditioner to penetrate the braids and then plait them to keep them out of the way while I concentrate on another set of braids. I always leave them hanging down so that conditioner doesn't drip to my scalp and so that it drips to the ends of my where it's most needed.
If DCing (which I do once a week), then I put on a cap still without piling them on my head and then go under a dryer. If just conditioning, I wait a while and rinse with the squeezing motion I used to wash them. Then comes my favorite part of the wash: ACV Rinse. For this, I put about 1/4 cup of ACV in a basin or bucket of about 2 gallons of water. Then add about 20 drops of EOs of rosemary and of lavender. I then dunk my head in the solution and massage my scalp to my heart's content while letting the hair just soak up the goodness of the solution. Next I wrap the braids in a towel turban style while hanging my head down so they are wrapped lengthwise. And voilà.
I wash my braids twice a week. Below is what they looked like after the first wash since I put them in. As you can see, the ends do unravel a bit, but that's an easy fix. The main part of the braid stays intact.
erplexederplexedEwww, um no
Washing obviously does not braids smell, that doesn't even make sense. It's that you have to make sure they are completely dry, THAT'S what causes a mildew smell. I just took out braids, had them 2 1/2 months and washed them every week. It would take 5 -6 hours for them to airdry completely and you have to leave them down, not in a ponytail or bound or tied up in any way.
Nonie, Imma need you to blow those pictures up so I have study them.
What were you thinking posting those small pictures, you know I wear glasses?
Those pics are from 2007 so I don't think I have blown up pics. I did try to get the uploaded pic on Fotki to see if they could be any bigger and I'm attaching them here. I hope they show up a touch bigger.
Bwahahah!
I'll work on doing a braid out with my current braids and take a large pic of the braids for you if those don't suffice. Let me know.
Thanks Sis.Is there an everything you need to know about braids thread around here somewhere? I can't find it.
Which is odd because my sis in Kenya will ask me to buy hair from here to send to her coz it's "better quality here". 
That's easy, Hun. I am not even discriminate when buying hair. I just walk into the BSS and ask for where they have their 100% human hair and then get the longest I can get (usually 24 inches). At HisandHer, I get longer lengths. I didn't even know (and still don't know) the difference between all the names you call out eg Yaki. What's funny is I even once bought a 100% human hair in a Sally's and is said "Made in Kenya".
The braid out pics I posted from 2007 were done with Beverly Johnson Wet N Wavy 20" in 1B.
I use kanekalon for all my other styles, but for wet and wavy (as well as micros) I have heard human hair is best.
Do you see what I mean about not really knowing the differences between brands? IF it says 100% Human Hair on the pack and is the length and color I want, then I'm happy.
the braids that Nonie has in her first post, the ones that are wavy-looking at the end. if you are gonna do just regular straight-to-the-end box braids, then kanekalon is good.
