May was going to be the month of the headscarf.
I just didn’t want to deal with my hair.
I had grown very tired and frustrated with weekly washing and styling. And I was struggling to find the 3-4 hours it often took to undo, wash and style my hair.
The time expenditure seemed ridiculous considering I did nothing more adventurous with my hair than granny plaits and a braid out on wash day.
The plan was to wear a headscarf all day, every day, in May and thus extend the time between wash days.
I did my homework on YouTube. I practised and produced some shit, some mediocre and some fabulous results; I was ready-ish for the challenge.
But as always the best laid plans …
Instead of head scarfing I’ve ended up with mini-braids:
I was binge watching Spooks one Sunday evening (5 days before May), and I was gradually overcome by a whim to plait my hair.
It was 5pm when I started and 11pm when I finished.
I was very pleased with the results. And 3.5 weeks later I’m still pleased with the results. I can wash my hair in 10 mins!
These plaits are probably medium sized by other standards, but mini-braids for me, as they are as small as I’m willing to go – thoughts of the undoing process are never far from my mind. And they are not entirely regular and symmetrical because I gave up trying to do the grid method. I couldn’t get the angles to see well enough in the mirror and my hair wasn’t stretched and detangled enough to do intricate parting, following a wash the day before. So for the top half of my head I just let the hair part where it wanted to. I keep it in a bun during the day, head scarfing at night and moisturising every two days. I’ve washed my hair three times since I put the braids in – [The frequency was primarily led by the need to relieve my itching scalp (long standing issue), which I now realise was caused by oiling my scalp with tree oil which wasn’t diluted enough] – and they are still holding up. I’m planning to ride this mini-braid wave as long as I can.
