Ladies Who Do Their Own Braid Extensions

[missjones]

How do you keep your braids from looking twisted? I'm in the process on do my own, but all of them (not exaggerating either) look twisted

If any of you use wet and wavy human hair, what do you do to the end of your braid? Do you knot it? I'm having trouble with that too

Any tips would be helpful

 

[kbragg]

What do you mean by twisted? Do you mean the braid itself or just the ends? I haven't had human hair braids in a loooooong time (like nearly a decade) but I remember the braider I went to in New Your would braid past my hair and then put a SMALL dollop of weave glue in the middle of the end (picture flipping the end upside down so that it opens up like a flower and put the glue in the center of the flower) She'd pinch and roll it between her fingers until it was dry. My braids never unraveled.

 

[Nonie]

How do you keep your braids from looking twisted? I'm in the process on do my own, but all of them (not exaggerating either) look twisted

Not sure I understand what you mean. Do you have pics? Twisted extensions look good so why would that be a problem?

If any of you use wet and wavy human hair, what do you do to the end of your braid?

Nothing. I just let them be. I braid to the ends, they unravel, and I just redo the ends as time allows. Since I re-use the hair over the year or so I wear the braids, the hair does stop unraveling much with time.

These are freshly done braids:

This is what they look like after a wash:

A few months later, after I braid them to the ends, they unravel less:

If I don't have time to redo enough of the ends to make the braids look neat, I cornrow them when damp and wear the do for a few days allowing the braids to dry fully:

And then I sport a braid-out which seems to hide the messy ends:

Do you knot it? I'm having trouble with that too

No I do not knot it. I try not to damage the hair in any way because I use it over many moons. I just let it be and redo the ends as needed.

Any tips would be helpful

Just make sure you braid to the ends so that they have a hard time trying to fall out, and rebraid them when you are watching TV, or just don't doing anything with your hands and are in an informal setting. In time, the hair will be "trained" to stay braided.

 

[missjones]

The braid itself looks crooked (maybe twisted wasn't the word) . I think it's from the strands not being even erplexed

And a lot of my braids are loose at the scalp . I might not be doing this myself again...

 

[Nonie]

The braid itself looks twisted...kind of deformed . I think it's from the strands not being even erplexed

And a lot of my braids are loose at the scalp . I might not be doing this myself again...

Do you mean it is sort of coiling instead of hanging straight? I remember a time my braids used to look like that. I actually liked it...even though it used to be on one side more than the other. l found it had to do with the way my hands sort of would turn as I braided, kinda directing the braid to curl. Also if I wasn't holding the braid taut as I braided, it tended to do that too. I think the hair itself also has a tendency to do what it wants to do.

I wouldn't worry about it. Human hair extensions are easy to control and get them to do what you want. You can even take advantage of that by working with it to create curls. I used to use heat on my extensions when my hair was short and I didn't have to apply heat to my own hair:

But now I get the same results with Curlformers and no heat, not even a dryer:

BTW, pics speak a thousand words. oke:

 

[missjones]

@Nonie, maybe some curls would help when I'm done, thanks

I think I'm making my sections too big erplexed

I didn't realize that color looked so light in my hair, oops

 

[kbragg]

Your sections and knots look good. You do NOT want them too tight at the scalp. The first thing I noticed when I started braiding my own hair is it didn't feel like torture against my scalp yet still stayed. It's better for the hair.

it looks like you are changing your tension as you braid. It'll improve with practice I notice it does this when I do my own but not others because I have to switch my hand position. It all blends and looks fine though once the whole head is complete. If anyone is up in your head like that, they need some help Shoot even with my WORST braids I had people asking me who did my hair and when I told them me they asked me to do theirs

 

[missjones]

Your sections and knots look good. You do NOT want them too tight at the scalp. The first thing I noticed when I started braiding my own hair is it didn't feel like torture against my scalp yet still stayed. It's better for the hair.

it looks like you are changing your tension as you braid. It'll improve with practice I notice it does this when I do my own but not others because I have to switch my hand position. It all blends and looks fine though once the whole head is complete. If anyone is up in your head like that, they need some help Shoot even with my WORST braids I had people asking me who did my hair and when I told them me they asked me to do theirs

Thanks, maybe I won't give up on braids after all

 

[NIN4eva]

Don't give up, it just takes practice.

 

[Lylddlebit]

The twisting in the pictures are the result of there not being even portions of hair in each of the three strands and braiding with too little tension...you seem to have slack in the braid as you braid down. Kind of like a knot that has been knotted but not pulled so that the knot itself is tight. Try not to braid as loose and braid with even sections of hair. Doing so will eliminate the problems you have mentioned.

 

[PPGbubbles]

The twisting in the pictures are the result of there not being even portions of hair in each of the three strands and braiding with tension...u seem to have slack in the braid as you braid down. Kind like a knot that has been knotted but no pulled so that the knot itself it tight. Try not to braid as loose and braid with even sections of hair and you will eliminate the problems you have mentioned.

What she said! you need the hair separated into three even section as you braid initially. If you borrow hair as you go this will also create twists and bends. Alos it looks as though you are not using enough hair for the size of the parts. Either you need to use more hair per braid or part smaller

HTH!

 

[Nonie]

What she said! you need the hair separated into three even section as you braid initially. If you borrow hair as you go this will also create twists and bends. Alos it looks as though you are not using enough hair for the size of the parts. Either you need to use more hair per braid or part smaller

HTH!

I don't think she needs to make the adjustment highlighted in bold. Doing that is what leads to braids breaking your hair because your scalp isn't used to carrying so much weight. Looking at the braids, it seems she's using sufficient hair per braid, so I wouldn't change that if I were OP. I agree with the other things you said.

Incidentally, OP, is your extension hair held in 3 parts before you put it against your own also divided in three to braid? I wonder if that might help with keeping the tension the same or keeping the braid straight. It seems use two section of the braid hair and one of you own. Is that correct?

 

[missjones]

I don't think she needs to make the adjustment highlighted in bold. Doing that is what leads to braids breaking your hair because your scalp isn't used to carrying so much weight. Looking at the braids, it seems she's using sufficient hair per braid, so I wouldn't change that if I were OP. I agree with the other things you said.

Incidentally, OP, is your extension hair held in 3 parts before you put it against your own also divided in three to braid? I wonder if that might help with keeping the tension the same or keeping the braid straight. It seems use two section of the braid hair and one of you own. Is that correct?

That was the easiest way for me to do them erplexed. I looped the extension hair around my natural hair and started to braid. When I felt one of the section get smaller, I tried to borrow from other sections.

@ppg0069, I was thinking I needed to do smaller sections. I'll do that next time. (I was trying to get done )

BTW, I finished my braids (pics in fotki if interested)