I’m often the one who washes and styles my niece’s hair. Since I only see her (for more than a few hours) about once a month, it’s important that her styles last. She’s four now and will be 5 in August. As she’s gotten older, her braids have gotten smaller and smaller but it’s still difficult to get her to sit down in one place for more than 20 mins, lol. I did her hair yesterday and boy was she restless. She fell asleep and I was able to do the left side of her head but I waited until she woke up to do the right side. She screamed bloody murder for a good portion of it…drama queen. I gave her a barbie and that appeased her for the rest- she was quiet as a mouse.

She’s a 4B in hair texture and her hair is doing very well using my method. She has mini braids in the back only and cornrows up top today because she was in a mood. The smallest her braids have ever been are about 1/2 the size they are now and she kept those in for about 6 weeks. Toward the end of those 6 weeks the front braids were twisted into a headband to make look neater.

I think the trick to 4B hair and mini braids is keeping the hair adequately moisturized- especially the ends. Dry ends lead to knots.

Here are some pics of her hair today:

texture shot (damp hair)

shrinkage

all done! they’re still damp so they’ll shrink more than this

pulling on a few, hoping she won’t notice

her braids are longer than mine!