Box Braid Style Update

It has now been seven weeks since I put in Hope's box braids, originally done with cornrows in the front and about 75 box braids in the back.  (You can see the original style here.)  I intended for the box braids to last a good, long time (and they are!), but planned to restyle the cornrows sooner than I ended up doing it.  I wrote a bit about that a few weeks ago.  Two Saturdays ago (yes, I know... almost six weeks into the style and probably about 4 weeks later than I planned!) I finally sat Hope down to redo those cornrows.

I started by co-washing and deep conditioning Hope's hair with all of her braids and the cornrows still in.  (I used Shea Moisture Coconut & Hibiscus Co-Wash Conditioning Cleanser and Oyin Handmade Honey Hemp Conditioner, which I left on for a nice, long time.) I removed only one cornrow at a time, using a pin tail comb (I followed the same basic method of braid removal that I detailed here).  After the cornrow was removed, I added some product (Oyin Handmade Hair Dew) and removed any shed hair by gently finger combing the hair.  I further sectioned the hair to form at least two mini box braids in each row.  Before braiding, I added pomade (Oyin Handmade Sugar Berries Pomade).  In the original style, Hope had 8 cornrows.  The 4 cornrows on each side were replaced with 10 box braids, adding 20 box braids to her original approximately 75, bringing her total to about 100.

Here we are when we are halfway finished restyling.  You can see that the cornrows on the right side of Hope's head have been removed and redone as box braids (product is still very fresh so it shows up most obviously, but fades shortly).  And, yes, on the left side you can see just how fuzzy and loose the cornrows had become...although it bears mentioning that the cornrows puffed up quite a bit after co-washing and conditioning.

And the view from the top after restyling was completed:

You can't really see it much to notice it from this view, but Hope had already added a headband to the look:

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Hope has been wearing her box braids for 7 weeks now.  Her last box braided style lasted between 9 and 10 weeks, so I know we likely have another couple of weeks left with these braids at least.  She has been asking for a haircut (she wants her hair shorter, but Mommy is still hoping for just a trim), so when I remove these braids I will reset in two-strand twists, which is how I prefer to trim (...or cut) Hope's hair.  More on that when that time comes...

Blessings,

Nikki