For ladies who braid their own hair

[SweetTea]

Can you/have you ever braiding extensions into your hair by just adding the extension towards the bottom of your real hair? Like instead of fastening the extension at the top of the braid with that knot (which I hate) can you just start braiding in the fake hair towards the bottom of you real hair once it starts to naturally taper?

Braids really help my hair along, but I don't want to pay braiders anymore.

 

[luvbighair]

of course you can! it's relatively simple if you already know how to cornrow. There are several tutorials on YouTube that I recently found. (i was wondering how to do this also)

Just search "no knot cornrows" or something similar and you'll get a few goods ones.

 

[Nonie]

Can you/have you ever braiding extensions into your hair by just adding the extension towards the bottom of your real hair? Like instead of fastening the extension at the top of the braid with that knot (which I hate) can you just start braiding in the fake hair towards the bottom of you real hair once it starts to naturally taper?

Braids really help my hair along, but I don't want to pay braiders anymore.

I would advice against that because I have found that when extension hair is loose and not firmly against the scalp, it swings painfully and for some weird reason feels like it will pull the hair out. I am always careful to redo my braids when the extension hair moves away from scalp due to growth or just sliding.

You do not need to make a knot at the base of braids. I never do. If you place the extension hair behind your own hair and then divide your hair into three parts to match the extension hair, you can just braid the two w/o creating a knot.

I'll see if I can show this in any of my braid pics. BRB

(BTW, this is OT but before I logged in, I looked at this thread and OP your post was squashed to the left and two ads were taking the space of your post window. LOL Weird what non-logged in folks have to put up with. )

ETA: Not sure if these pics are clear enough but I never have knots at the base of my braids. I think someone once referred to this way of braiding as the African Method...but I'm not sure if all Africans braid like this. But it's how it was done in Kenya where I learned to do it:

 

[SweetTea]

Thanks, ladies! Nonie, your braids are almost the exact look I'm going for. I think I can do this no knot thing. Maybe now I can get out of APL purgatory!

 

[Nonie]

Thanks, ladies! Nonie, your braids are almost the exact look I'm going for. I think I can do this no knot thing. Maybe now I can get out of APL purgatory!

I found the thread that discussed this way of braiding, but I cannot find Loolah's tutorial. Maybe you can PM her for it: http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=269825

 

[davisbr88]

^^ OMG, Nonie!! This is exactly what I was looking for. You're a Godsend.

 

[LadyPaniolo]

Nonie, you saved the day, again! And your braids look so neat! Mine always loked frizzy relatively soon, as I was forever DCing etc in them.

 

[Nonie]

Nonie, you saved the day, again! And your braids look so neat! Mine always loked frizzy relatively soon, as I was forever DCing etc in them.

I wash my braids twice a week too and the unraveling seems to happen in the area beyond my own hair. Only a few braids will get frizzy from a wash as shown in these pics:

The secret is when braiding to hold the hair close to the cross over point so that you tuck in the hair and make the "rope" part of the braid firm enough to withstand washing. Also do not blowout your hair or straighten before you braid, but rather braid it in its shrunken state. That way when you wash, there's no accordion effect with your hair shrinking and pulling back on the straighter extension hair. If you braid shrunken hair, it behaves like prewashed jeans so that there's no more shrinkage with every wash. Picture #10 shows what I mean about holding the hair close to the crossover point when braiding. Avoid holding it as shown in #9:

ETA^^ This was my poor attempt at creating a tutorial on how to add extension hair when braiding Anyway, if it'll be any help to anyone, I will add a key explaining what's happening at each step.

 

[davisbr88]

^^ What kind of hair Nonie? And can you add that pictorial as an attachment so I can magnify it on my screen PLEASE?!
You're like the greatest ever.

 

[lilsparkle825]

OT: THE QUICK NAVIGATION IS BACK!!! THANK YOU JESUS!!....I mean, Nikos!!!

I don't make knots. Learning feed-in cornrows is on my to-do list.

 

[Nonie]

^^ What kind of hair Nonie? And can you add that pictorial as an attachment so I can magnify it on my screen PLEASE?!
You're like the greatest ever.

I always use human hair. The pics you see were all of the same extensions which were done with BSS Beverly Johnson Wet N Wavy Hair in 1B and 20 inches. I always buy two packs and used one whole pack and 1/8 of the other when I did these braids. I fold the hair in half (as per the lousy tutorial) so I ended up with 10-inch braids.

Unfortunately the pics you want magnified were saved in Fotki in that size so there's no way to make them bigger. They were on my old PC so I don't even have the originals to be able to post them separately.

I'll be back later to explain what's happening in each (gotta take care of some bidness) and then maybe you will be able to decipher them in that size.

 

[Nonie]

For anyone interested:

1) Shows how I section out the hair. Two sections, one about twice the thickness of the other. You'll soon see why.

2) I cross them over at the middle.

3) Then I fold them over in halves so they are looped at the middle.

4) Then I take the two narrow halve and combine the so I end up with three sections.

5) Keeping a firm hold over the middle where the sections are looped over each other and also taking care to keep the three sections I just created separated, I hold up my hair and...

6) ...place that looped over section against the base of my hair. My thumb holds it against the back of my hair while my fingers grip the front of my hair to ensure that the hair is firmly placed at the base.

7) Without loosening the hold of the extension hair at the base of my own hair, I use my fingers to divide my hair into three sections to match the extension hair. Basically the hand that was free pulls out the outer section, then that hand grips the hair and extension hair as in 6 and the other hands sections out the outer section of my own hair on the other side so you end up with three. Making sure the thumb and fingers of one hand are holding the hair firmly at the base at all times is important in being able to start the braid at the base. Then you start braiding holding extension hair sections and braids sections together.

8) Not sure what this was for. Maybe just to show the three sections of my hair but really not relevant to the procedure.

9) This was just to demonstrate how not to hold the hair. If your fingers are too far from the point of crossing over when braiding, you'll have hair sticking out and won't be able to tuck all the hair into the braid.

10) This is a better way to hold and ensure you're getting all hairs caught inside the braid, especially as you get to the end of your own hair.

My advice is to always braid beyond your own hair. I always braid to the end of the extension hair. I think it gives a neater look:

9)

 

[davisbr88]

^^ THANK YOU!!!! SOOO helpful. I may be bugging you later when I try this later in the month. I hope that's okay!

 

[Nonie]

^^ THANK YOU!!!! SOOO helpful. I may be bugging you later when I try this later in the month. I hope that's okay!

Be my guest.

 

[B3e]

here i am trying to figure out what this knot at the base is....I don't know how to make a knot at the base apparently :/

What I do:

Divide what i'm braiding with into three strands
Divide the section of hair that I'm braiding into two equal sections
Place the biggest of the 3 strands between the two sections of hair
Grab the remaining strands along with my hair and just braid as though all three sections are my own

The result...braids like Nonies. That's the only way I know how to braid. I don't know if it's because it's the way we braid in Kenya or not but it's the way I've learned to braid. I've always been kind of jealous of american cornrows...overhanded cornrows come more naturally to me lol.

I find that the braid is more secure than in the loop the extension around one section of your hair method (as seen on growafrohairlong) especially because I wash my hair often.

HTH, I think Nonie just covered it all though so I may not have added much of anything. lol

ETA: I need to redo my edges but when I redo them I will try and snap pictures of my procedure, there definitely more than one way to get to the same result. I think the aim at the root is to have your hair and the extension hair blend into 3 equally sized sections that can be braided at the same time as though they are all growing from your scalp.

OT: that kfc commercial song...."so S-O G-Double-O-D goood" is stuck in my head. I don't think I would ever eat that sandwich they are advertising but that line is awkwardly catchy.

 

[ycj1]

OT: THE QUICK NAVIGATION IS BACK!!! THANK YOU JESUS!!....I mean, Nikos!!!

I don't make knots. Learning feed-in cornrows is on my to-do list.

You are my exact hair twin! But my hair is much shorter! I will post pics soon....