I Whip My Hair Back And Forth DIY Braids

I recently decided to embark on braiding my own hair.  This may not sound like a big deal until you realize that this hairstyle took me a whole day to do, literally.  I am not some master hair braider, in fact I think this is only the third or forth time that I have braided my own hair.  However my desire to save money and not have to deal with doing my hair for a while is what drove me to master this technique.

If I would have went to the hair shop to get my hair done, I can guarantee you that I would have paid any where between $175 to $250 because of the length and time that it would take to do it.  But because of the wonderful world of Youtube, teaching me how to do this on my own, I am proud to say I spend under $30 to buy the hair.  Major difference.  My motto is why pay someone for something I can do for free.  Yes it may have been time consuming but it was free.  And that is my magic word.

My process of doing my hair consisted on watching Youtube video after Youtube video.  I knew exactly what type of braids I wanted so my main key words for these braids were Patra Braids, poetic justice braids, Solange braids, and box braids.  I recommend when looking for how to do your braids or hair for that matter.  Look at many videos by many different people.  Each person has their own style and some videos are better than others.  By watching many videos you can choose what style you want to use or even like I did, use a combination of techniques in order to do your own hair.

For this hairstyle it took me 13 packs of hair.  I did not know it would take this much at first and only bought six packs of hair.  After watching other videos that had the size and length of the braids I wanted I found that it took them in average 12 packs of hair and I had to make a trip back to the store (which is why it pays to watch the videos in advanced).  I personally decided to put highlighted braids in my hair based off something I wanted to do, I did not get it from a video, it was just my personal style.

The length of these braids are so long that I did not cut the pack in half like most people do, this is why I had to use so many packs of hair. In any case my hair inspiration for this style at first was seeing Solange Knowles with them some time ago.  I really love her style and the fact that she is not afraid to be unique.  When I was done, I underestimated how many braids I put on my head and how hard it would be to style it. I wanted to make my part smaller and wanted more braids than what I saw on the videos which is why it took me 13 packs.   Well 14 if you include the colored hair pack I used.  In fact, I may even say 15.  I know I keep changing it, but the colored hair pack I used was a double long braid which I got by accident. But it turned out to be a good accident. So I was able to cut that pack in half, unless I wanted to have my colored braids down to the back of my knees.

After first styling my hair I did this side braid or twist braid.  This is because I braided my hair a little tight and I did not want to put my edges out.  This is another reason why I stopped going to get my hair braided by professionals.  They had no edges on their head.  They pulled their own hair out with braids, and I know for a fact that if they were that careless with their own head they were certainly going to be careless with mine.  The last time I got my hair professional braided I had a headache for a few days because she braided my hair so tight.  I like my real hair and my edges which is another reason why I opt to braid my hair on my own. I got a little side tracked but a side braid can go well with a beanie or a hate, which can be a good style tip for the winter and fall.

This is why for the first day or so, I choose to not put strain on my hair and pull my hair up, until the braids had loosen a bit.  When they did, I chose to do the popular high bun, which was inspired by Beyonce.  I played with this high bun and did it different type of ways on different days.  I also sometimes chose to put a bun on top and the rest down which I felt kinda gave my style a different feel.  Which it what I like.

Since the style of these braids have been done since the “Poetic Justice” days, you know I had to take it old school and imitate the Janet Poetic Justice style.

I used a scarf that match my outfit for that day, but I was still feeling the style over all.  This took a longer time to do because of all the braids on my head and it not that easy to do as it looks but I am still happy about the results.