Maintaining Yarn Braids

D had yarn braids aka genie locs back in October / Early November, that was my first time ever doing them and they lasted about 3 weeks. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t get many great photo’s of her yarn braids and the styles we did with them during those 3 weeks (she wore them half up and half down the majority of the time anyways), but I wanted to share a little bit on maintaining yarn braids.

How To Maintain Yarn Braids

I made sure to keep her hair well moisturized when the yarn braids where in, moisture is, of course, a very important part of maintaining yarn braids
-I sprayed them daily with Bee Mine Juicy Spritz followed by water mixed with Bee Mine Hair and Scalp Moisturizing Oil
-Every other day or two I would add a little bit of Bee Mine Hair Milk for some extra hydration
-After 2 weeks I washed her scalp with the Bee Mine Cleansing Shampoo Bar (if your interested in Bee Mine Products, you can receive a 10% discount using the checkout code in our sidebar on the right of the page)
- At night I put her yarn braids in a loose ponytail and covered them with a satin bonnet

I did have to redo several braids in the front along her hair line…a few times actually, but the braids in back held up really well.

How To Style Yarn Braids

These are basically box braids and there are so many ways to style them. As I mentioned above she mainly wore them half up and half down and loved them that way, so I didn’t do a lot with them as far as styling. A couple French braids here and there, I split the top/front half into two ponytails and she rocked that for a few days, then I braided them to switch it up a little bit and that was pretty much it. For more style ideas for box braids and yarn braids you can check out our box braids post.
 

As I said before we had a little trouble with the front braids wanting to slip out, after about 2 1/2 weeks I decided to take them down. The take down process actually took longer than I thought it was going to and I ended up leaving the back braids in for a few more days. I did a couple buns in front and an updo style. Again, I apologize for not having great photos of the yarn braids and styles we did with them.

Have you done yarn braids on yourself or your kids? Do you plan to?

Yarn Braids aka Genie Locs

I’ve been wanting to try yarn braids aka genie locs on D’s hair for some time now and even more so since we had to cut so much of her hair off. While I would love to try something that looks more real, like hair extensions, I don’t have the skills for that just yet and since high end salons like Rush Reading are out of the questions, we had to settle for some DIY yarn braids. Yarn Braids aka Genie Locs can be a good protective style if the hair is well taken care of during the duration of the style. Since yarn can dry the hair our it is uber important to moisturize daily. I will talk about how we moisturize and what we use later on in the post but first I’m going talk a little bit about the yarn braid installation process.

Items Needed for Yarn Braids aka Genie Locs:

>>Acrylic yarn (I used the Red Heart Brand) **Do not use wool yarn, this can loc the hair

>>A thick moisturizing cream (I used Bee Mine Luscious)

>>A holding products/gel (I used Curls of the World Just the Flax gel)

>>Spray bottle of water for the yarn

>>Wide tooth comb

>>Pintail comb

>>Hair Clips

>>Lighter (for burning the ends of the yarn so it doesn’t fray)

>>Scissors for cutting the yarn (oops, left those out of the picture)

How to Put in Yarn Braids aka Genie Locs:

• See how post on How to Cut Yarn for Yarn Braids
• To prep for the yarn braids I washed D’s hair, deep conditioned and then moisturized and banded it in 4 sections (parted down the middle and again from ear to ear, making 4 sections, 2 in the front and 2 in the back).
• When it was time to start the process I did one section a time starting in the back at the nape of her neck. I applied a generous amount of Bee Mine Luscious moisturizer to EACH small section before I added the yarn and braided.
• I used 3 pieces of yarn per braid, which I sprayed with water prior to adding it to the hair (this helps keep it from drying the hair out).

There are several different techniques that can be used for putting in yarn braids. What I did and what I recommend is trying a few of the different techniques to see what is easiest and what works best for you. I learned by watching the following 3 yarn braids videos: BlackOnyx, AfrikanHairGod and MsChanda.

Tips for Yarn Braids aka Genie Locs

The entire process was trial and error for me, this was the first time ever doing yarn braids and it was a learning experience. Next time there are a few things I will do differently and they are:

>>Smaller Braids – the braids I did this time were kind of medium-ish sized box braids, I think smaller braids will work better.

>>No Parts – instead of parting I will just gather small, random  sections of hair for the each braid.

>>Tighter wrapping of the yarn – I was worried about wrapping the yarn too tight at the root so I kept it fairly loose, next time I won’t be so afraid to make them tighter because the yarn does loosen up.

>>Use a gel/holding product in addition to the moisturizer - When I first started the braids I wasn’t using a holding product, only moisturizer, then ends of her hair were poking out of the braids, so definitely use a holding product.

Overall I am happy with the yarn braids and D just loves them! Have you ever done yarn braids? Are you thinking about it? If you have D and I would love to see photo’s! Please share them on our fan page!