Winter Weave 2015

Winter is officially here and I couldn’t wait any longer to put Fro in hibernation. The last time I had a protective style in was in March for my honeymoon, so it’s been awhile. My initial plan was to give it a month’s break before putting in another style but I was having fun with Fro and trying out products so it stretched to almost 3 months. Not good, considering I’m usually on point with my protective styling schedule. But last weekend I finally got my hair sorted:

As you know, it’s always a loooong conversation I have with myself when I decide to do a protective style. I never usually know until a few days before what I want to do. I even contemplated asking you all for your opinion on what to do next but didn’t because I wasn’t even sure on the options. At that point I just knew I wanted a weave. You know me, the time it takes to braid always deters me to actually do it. And I wanted to enjoy my weekend so wasn’t willing to give up more than 3 hours for hair installation. Well this time, I broke my own record and only decided when my stylist arrived and she helped me choose. Let me explain: I’m sure I’m not the only woman who re-uses her weaves. But I may be one of few who has a whole hair “bucket” that’s filled with extensions – braid hair, weave hair, phony ponies. It’s the extension equivalent of my products container. (For those who missed it, it’s on my Instagram and Facebook).

So I booked my appointment with my stylist about ten days before. And didn’t bother going to the shops to spend more money on new hair when I knew I already had something in the bucket. Then Friday hit me and I thought – I actually don’t think I have anything in the bucket. By then it was kinda too late. I went to Dischem to try find a wavvy weave (that’s what I had decided on) only to not find anything I liked amongst the few options that were there.

Saturday morning is when I finally had a thorough look in my bucket and chose a questionable set of Afro Kinky extensions that I got from TZ which I thought would do the job. Only for my dear stylist to arrive and tell me they wouldn’t be enough for a weave. Sigh. So I brought down my entire bucket and we spent about half an hour going through my options. And at that point the most viable was my straight weave which she was reluctant to use because my natural hair would poke out of the single braids in front and wouldn’t blend in nicely with the straight weave (unless I straightened it which can get damaged). I’m also picky about weave closures, that’s why I always have single braids plaited in the front instead of a cover up type of closure. I needed her to cover up my own hair completely but without the funny closure. I reminded her of how she did my Marley Weave last year and begged her to make a plan. And so she did…

She did my weave as usual – with horizontal tracks all the way through so I can easily access my scalp for maintenance. Then in the front T-section she braided small cornrows using braid hair and tucked their ends under. Then she sewed on single braids she made from the weave hair onto the cornrows. So almost like crochet braids…but not exactly.

I love it. Love the difference, and love how she made the straight hair work. It’s definitely a technique I’ll be asking her to stick to. I’m still on the hunt for the real afro kinky in South Africa though…

What are you rocking for winter?