My Do: Braid Out Turned Updo

This past weekend I had a lot going on; I attended a wedding and celebrated my birthday. Of course I couldn't decide on what to do with my hair. By Saturday my wash n go was on day three. My hair was looking dry (tangled) and not too happy so I decided to do something I don't usually do: a braid out.

For my braid out I used: Darcy's Botanicals Daily Leave-In Condotioner, a water spray bottle, Kinky Curly Curling Custard, a wide tooth comb and some hair clips to section the hair with.

I started out by wetting the hair and adding leave in since my hair was feeling and looking very dry. Then I dentangled and combed it through in sections, and worked with one section at a time. I used the gel for more definition of the braids out, since I knew that Kinky Curly works well on my hair for that I used that gel. I put it into section and ended up doing 10 braids (five on each side). I just did regular braids as you can see in the picture. I pinned the braids up as I'd seen summer0892 do (blogger won't let me add the embedded version to this post so just click on the link to see the YT clip). And then I put on my satin bonnet and went to bed.

Before separating

After separating

When I woke up in the morning my hair was dry and I took the braids out. Then I wasn't sure what to do. The braid out had added length to my hair (less shrinkage), but it didn't really look like I had hoped. So I considered wetting my hair in the shower and getting my curls back, but I knew my hair would never dry in time. I decided to just wing it and pray for the best.

So I separated the front (the bangs) and clipped it away while I worked on the rest of my hair. I used to combs (not sure what they are called, but you can buy them at accesory stores, they are like combs that stay in your hair.) for the sides of my hair. Then for the back I just twisted it and pinned it up with bobby pins. I did add some more gel for hold. And then I just used bobby pins to tuck away the hair that was sticking out here and there.

For the bangs I tried to maintain the braid out and just did a loose swoop. At the end of the swoop I did a two strand twist and made a twirl of it before I pinned it down with two mini bobby pins. It's hard to see in this picture though, sorry about that. So when I felt the house and headed for the wedding I felt like a 50's house wife (it didn't help that I'd seen the movie the Help the evening prior, lol). 

Earrings from Beautella's Boutique