No braiding skills, no problem!

For mothers of mixed children who do not know how to braid managing ethic hair can be a challenge. I recently saw a post from a Caucasian mother who was struggling to figure out a solution.  Her husband an African American father was persisting that she put their mixed daughter’s hair in braids.  She did not feel that she had the skills to create this type of style and was asking if it was worth paying for it to be done in a salon? Would the cost be worthy of the length of style?

What impressed me by this thread was the amount of support she got from other mothers of mixed children.  All these mothers of varying backgrounds provided her with useful tips and support.  They encouraged her to learn and try techniques to manage her own daughter’s hair.

Why we use protective styling for mixed kids hair.

At the end of the day if it works to leave your child’s hair free, that is a personal choice and a personal preference.  We tend to keep our girl’s hair in some form of protective styling during the school week.  Braids in pigtails, or quad, buns, cornrows, French braids and/or Misha’s new favorite style banding.  We find that protective styles keeps our hair well moisturized and helps retain length.

Our typical wash day is either Saturday or Sunday.  The initial style can last us 4-5 days.  We may morph the style if necessary.  For example, if we start off with pigtails and they get too frizzy on day 3 we unbraid them, smooth the edges and apply some moisture, now they are princess Leia buns for the rest of the school week.

If we have a special occasion, lazy day or gathering with family and friends we may let those curls hang.  We take down our protective style, we add some moisture (leave in conditioner or curl definer) layer oil on top of that and just make sure to put a bun in before sleep.

Banding:  a solution for moms of mixed kids who can’t braid!

If you’re a mom that doesn’t feel confident about braiding your child’s hair, try banding.  Focus on gently detangling the hair.  Parting hair is doable if you can draw a li

ne (mine are usually croaked) but it doesn’t matter.   For the front hairline, I like tighter, smaller sections because they last longer and the hairline especially on Giana is an area that tends to get dry and frizz.

After the 4^th request from Misha to band her hair, it dawned on me that this is a great option for moms who cannot braid well.  It provides the same protection as braided styles.  It lasts the same amount of time at least on Misha’s 3a/2c hair.  Therefore, banding is a style worth trying here are the steps:

Banding:  protective style for moms that cannot braid:

1. Wash or co-wash hair
2. Detangle damp hair from tips to roots with leave-in conditioner and wide tooth comb/fingers or wet brush.
3. Divide the hair into two halves
4. Apply your setting products
   1. Leave-in
   2. Coconut oil
   3. Smooth curl definer
5. Part 1 inch section at the front hairline, or part in a bang style.
   1. Add small ouchless band or rubber band
   2. Feed the hair from each 1-inch section into the next 1-inch section
   3. Repeat until you reach the back of the hairline.