Braids

È passato il più lungo che sia mai andata senza scrivere un post. Ma, Ciao. Come state.

17:11:46 10 ott 2024

My favourite retreat has come back around. Usually runs 5-8 days. This time, we're aiming for 6. I have engagements beginning Monday evening so it will have to happen in six one way or another. I have my tricks if I need them. But, going a bit back in time.

Morning of 8 ott 2024

My braids are amongst my greatest realisations and I have my greatest realisations in them. Not all, but many. I have some of my grandest realisations through, by, and around my braids. Through, by, and around my time of braiding, which is fitting, given the thoughts and occurrences of last week. It would not be true to suggest nothing has been realised in this week without crochet or music. Something has been. So I thought I would document a bit here.

So, on braids. As I write now, I'm preparing to begin the first, but I thought I'd begin this here as the next week has a lot already in motion and I don't want too much time to pass without me remembering to document what I wanted to document.

7 oct 2024, Evening

The beginning. The evening on which we [I] began take-down. First, scissors to the ends — I braid to the end of my hair, and just past it by a centimeter or so, so it's easy to cut — and then unbraiding. I undid one braid before remembering something very important— at which point I trimmed and smoothed my nails.

I'm not exactly sure how much I took down before night, but I worked into the morning.

8 oct 2024

By around 6 am I seem to have done a third of my hair, given this screenshot. This is a braiding pattern, of sorts.

Often, I draw a kind of chart, with circles. If I can acquire a picture of a previous pattern, I'll update below. I don't need a chart so long as I have the numbers, so for speed, I just wrote braids per part this time around.

The numbers up the side, 2 3 3 2, were not yet undone. As I unbraided the bulk at the back, I also started noting numbers in rows I was passing at the front. By this point, I'd probably undone 64 braids (the first 5 rows on the left, counting bottom-up). I note the count before I undo the row, so I don't think I'd done the 6.1.6 just yet.

9 oct 2024

While I finished documenting on the 8th, I don't think I finished unbraiding until the 9th, in the morning. There was some sleep, cleaning, and general care somewhere in there.

Yesterday evening, on the 9th, is when I finished separating, combing, and detangling my hair (probably when I remembered to take this screenshot of the final count). Oh, also note, the count is mirrored, ie. the numbers up the right also go on the left. I counted up the right front of my hair. The same numbers sit on the left front. 160 braids in total.

By 11:46 pm, I had washed, cleansed, and conditioned my hair. After midnight is when I began preparing to oil and straighten.

10 oct 2024

I love these oils, these pomades, these cures, whatever you'll call them. Nature's Blessings has been in my household my entire life. I grew up on the pomade, the green, which I'm tempted to believe was their first, but I don't know. About a year ago, I realised they had other products and began using Hair Food, in yellow. When I went to the hair supply this past week, I noticed the Castor Oil and picked that up too.

Castor oil is on my scalp, which— I usually do not put castor oil on my scalp in any capacity, but I figured this is a pomade, there are other ingredients, it's not pure oil it'll be balanced— so yeah, castor oil is on my scalp. Oiling and massaging finished around 2:47 am. I let some of it sit for a bit before moving forward. The only other thing I applied is heat protectant before blow-drying.

I haven't actually straightened my hair. I more precisely stretched. I can't remember the last time it's been properly straightened. I've considered it, but I don't think I have a real desire for it, so it's stretched as needed.

I finished stretching [blow-drying] circa 5 am this morning. Maybe 5:30. I remember wanting to go out for hair gel but finding out the store opened at 7, so I laid down for rest instead. That was around 6.

I did not wake up at 7:15 as intended, which is good. I like rest. Around 3 pm, I acquired hair gel and began processing my hair.

There is a specific braiding hair I used to use, not specific in brand, specific in fiber, material, and the actual hair used. Specific in texture. Over the years, different brands would begin carrying this specific hair for a short time before it would move, and I'd find it in another. They don't name it, because, I presume, they expect the hair textures will be received the same. They are not. This "right" texture can often be found in "non-naturally" coloured hair, but it's availability in darker tones is inconsistent.

About a year ago, when I was no longer able to find this texture in any straight brand, I had an inkling there was a marley hair that would give me the same texture. I was right. So, for a bit over a year, a new step has been incorporated into my process: processing this hair by blow-drying it straight.

I process a set at a time (usually), braid, then process the next set. Each set has 7 parts, so that's about 21 braids. This time around, I'm braiding with two colours, to be blended for dimension, so I processed two sets, one of each colour, giving me about 42 braids. I'll be about a quarter of the way done before processing again.

It's 7:33 [circa 19:33:47]. There's one more thing I need to tend to, so I'm not quite ready to begin, but the first braid will probably be around 8.

16 oct 2024

I’ve passed day 8 of braiding — the 15th — and the braids are not yet complete. My tricks were called on after all. As I mentioned, engagements began two evenings ago and continue through the week, so they will likely not be done in their entirety with full execution of my ideas until the coming weekend, up to 13 days after beginning them. This is contingent on me braiding at the same speed I was braiding at by Monday afternoon, but typically, once I’ve broken isolation and begun going out, my speed dips drastically. So, we’ll see.

The increase in time is partially due to incorporation of a certain technique on every braid when I’ve always only used it in isolated areas. I have a practice of forming what I call supported braids. I mentioned them in my principles of braiding. Supporting my braids involves forming three mini twists in each section of hair and then braiding the twists as opposed to braiding my hair outright. I began doing this around the edges of my hair and on tender spots years ago to strengthen any areas that needed it. At some point around the 11th I believe, about a third of the way through, I realised I had been forming supported braids for every single braid and decided to continue.

Despite the time adjustment and incompletion, the current state is wearable.

This hair has not been cut and styled fully (just a few touches to hold over) which usually takes a few hours in itself. I unfortunately didn’t get a picture of the hair pre-straightening, but perhaps another time. I quite like it in that state and I’m still deciding if I’ll wear it out that way someday.

Almost forgot, the braid count has also slightly (very slightly) increased. I believe by 4-6, but I’ll double check once I’m done.

I will continue braiding as and when I can. Updated documentation here of previous days will likely happen once braiding is complete.

[Circa 03:09]

To be updated as progress is made.