IMO, it's a bad idea not to braid the whole hair. Not only do you risk it getting tangled and knotted, but I think it defeats the whole idea of "protecting your hair in braids". I know when you braid curly extension hair it gets straight in the braided part which defeats the whole purpose of getting wavy hair, but there are ways around that which I'll explain below.
I too got wavy extensions and I braid all the way to the end. Not just to the end of my hair but the end of the extensions. There are two benefits to doing that:
- The braids don't unravel and fall out
- My hair and the extension hair doesn't get matted/tangled so I am able to keep the hair and reuse it if I want to for a long time.
This is what they looked like:
Notice the main part that contains my hair is not wavy. The ends that don't have my hair are wavy.
So suppose I want the wavy look all through the length, what can I do?
I can cornrow them while wet and then air dry in the cornrows:
And when my hair is dry, I can sport wavy braids:
Or as I recently discovered, I can use Curlformers, again on wet hair and air dry:
And the result is a curly do:
Keeping your hair braided keeps it from tangling and knotting which can be a major setback so if I were you, I'd either braid to the ends myself, or ask someone to help you do it. You don't even have to do it all in one sitting. If you started from the back and wore your hair as you have it, you could still give the illusion that all your hair looks the same until you get to the top ones.