She is the mother of Mariah, 6, and Renee, 8, and she is going to tell us all about their hair journey!
My hair story began in 2002 with my daughter Renee and again in 2004 with my daughter Mariah. I am of English backround and their father is Guyanese.
Renee was born almost bald and only grew about another inch for the next 2 years. It started to get thick , course and frizzy around age 2.. but she also had beautiful ringlets that I could never seem to maintain. Through the ages of 3 and 5 I usually just put her hair in an afro puff pony or puff piggy tails, because I didn’t know what else to do with it. It did look really cute, but I loved her hair and wanted her to be able to wear it down.
Mariah was also born almost bald, and again only grew about an inch longer till age 2. At age 2 it was a bit thick at the scalp but had softer curls near the ends, but once she reached age 3, it got very course and kinky, and she now has thicker kinkier hair than Renee. This is Mariah at age 2:
So I started inquiring about hair products, I have spent a lot of time trying to find the right product for their hair, and have never really found the right one…they have either been too heavy or too oily…but I think I have finally found the perfect ingredient to my search for healthy natural looking hair. My sister in law (who is also mixed) came over to my house one day, and her hair was soft, shiny, curly and bouncy, and I HAD to ask her what she put in her hair to make it look like that. She told me she did an at home Olive Oil Treatment, and she told me what to do and how healthy it was for your hair, and for those who would also like to know how to do it these are the instructions I followed:
1. Pour 1-2 cups of Olive oil (I used extra virgin olive oil) into a large bowl
2. Heat up the bowl of Olive oil in the microwave for about 30 seconds
3. Once heated, apply oil into hair until all hair is covered (I suggest you wear old clothes, I got oil on my good pair of jeans)
4. Put a shower cap on and let it sit for ½ hour
5. Then put your child (or yourself) into the shower, continue to let it sit while you bathe..the heat and humidity will help the olive oil do its work
6. take the shower cap off and rinse oil out of your hair
7. I then shampooed and conditioned and voila
This is a picture of the results I got after the first treatment. Mariah’s hair went from being dry looking and frizzy to shiny healthy looking with soft curly hair..I absolutely love it. I have continued to do this olive oil treatment to the girls hair about once a month.
But seeing as I don't always have time to maintain their hair, and wear it down, I taught myself how to braid, twist and cornrow and am always looking for new hairstyles to give them. I enjoy cornrowing the best, rend my girls love getting them done too! I usully give them a shower or bath before braiding their hair, because their hair is going to be unwashed for a week so I want it to be clean. Sometimes I will use a braid spray if their hair is knotting up while braiding, but dnt really like using it because there are so many horrible braid sprays out there that leave a filmy coating over the braids. Here are some braiding styles I have done on my girls. I am learning new styles and new techniques on how to maintain my girls hair everyday and enjoying the process of doing so. Hopefully by the time my girls are older, I will have found all the little secrets on how to keep their hair healthy and maintained, and they will learn how to maintain it themselves.
Freestyle Cornrows:
Mariah's braid up with a little bit of burgandy extensions:
Triangle drop braids:
Renee's faux hawk with twists
Amazing styles! Kerry has some serious talent! I would like to thank her for sharing their hair story and photos with us! To see more of her styles check out Cornrows & Braids!
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