Melkam Addis Amet! (Happy New Year!)

Today is Ethiopian New Year's Eve. We're planning on celebrating with the Ethiopian Community Mutual Association in Seattle. Ethiopian New year is a really fun holiday to celebrate--much like our Independence Day.

In preparation, both kids got new hairdos. Melat is taking her five-year-old privilege of wearing beads in her hair very seriously. I don't allow beads before age 5 for fear of choking. She wanted special beads for the new year's celebration. This style includes about 750 beads.

Destiny got a new set of single-extension braids. I've come to the point where I do not buy extensions for her anymore--she has to buy them herself. I have found she takes much better care of them this way. The style I braided in this time took about $15 worth of burgundy and black extensions. No beads in this one--the burgundy is already bright enough.

For those of you wondering how to braid like this, the answers are practice and YouTube. I've watched many, many videos on Youtube about how to cornrow, braid and braid in extension hair (plastic hair). Also, the right products make a big difference. We use Belle Butter whipped shea in Destiny's hair (it's very dry and her scalp gets very dry) and olive oil in Melat's hair. To find Belle Butter, it is sold on Etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/mstashab?ref=top_trail

Before-And-After Hair

I put extensions in Destiny's hair this week by myself. One photo shows her hair natural, but uncombed--it's about twice as long as it looks in this picture. I used four and a half packs of Yaki synthetic hair to braid in these extensions. There are highlights of fuscia, bronze, and base colors of black and brown.

She's gonna sprain her neck the way she's flicking this around the house. I'm dying to even up the ends a bit but she goes running off every time I come near her with a pair of scissors. :)

If you're trying to do extensions and it's not going well, this is maybe the 12th time I've tried and I think the first time it's gone well.

I'm hoping to get three weeks out of this style. I finished the braids two days ago and they're still looking strong, so I'm optimistic.

The hardest parts are beginning the braid (there's no anchor on the plastic hair, you just have to freehand braid it into the natural hair) and the transitions, when the natural hair runs out you have to try to keep it looking really smooth by keeping a lot of tension on all three hair pieces as you brad otherwise the transition areas will get all frizzy over time and it will look like she's got two hairstyles going at once.

The most important keys to preserving the braids are to wrap hair every night and never get the natural hair wet while it's in this style. Wet hair will give the natural hair too much flex and elasticity and the synthetic braids will fall right out.

Happy braiding,
Jess

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I realized that perhaps I've been devoting too much of my time that way tonight while I was braiding Destiny's hair.

I asked her what event she'll be running in Thursday's track meet.

She told me she'll be running the 401k.

On a side note, I re-tried her same zig-zag braids today with extensions. Super cute! It was my first real attempt at the plastic hair that adds length to her locks. (She's worn them before, but I've always hired professionals to do it at the cost of $20-$40/week) I did it tonight in one and a half hours for $3.00.

Finally mastered cornrowing!

I've finally gotten the hair rhythm down. The kids get a shampoo and braiding on Sundays and Wednesdays. I did this cool style on Destiny last night (we didn't get to our regular Sunday time).

She LOVES these braids. She'd wanted "zig zags" but I was afraid of how long it might take me to do that. I still have to be pretty careful about parting everything in advance.

Instead, we set a zig-zag part and then braided cornrows from there.