I decided to hide my hair until I reach waist length…I have less than 2 inches to go. I chose to wear a weave at least until the summer. I went with a Mongolian kinky curly from a Chinese vendor. I purchased 2- 16″ bundles for a layered look. The hair is technically shorter than mine, but since it doesn’t shrink as much, it looks longer.

[Pictured Below: Hair out the pack. Cleansed and cowashed hair.]

Braiding 

I’m not good at cornrowing in an upwards direction so I couldn’t manage a beehive braid pattern. Instead, I blew out my hair, split it in two and braided back in a U sort of shape. I didn’t take pictures because it looks quite rough. I wrapped the ends of my cornrows into a circle and put a weaving net over it to keep them as flat as possible.

[Pictured Below: My hair blown out before braiding down.]

Design

I left out the perimeter of my hair and a wide horseshoe. The weave doesn’t exactly match because my edges are kinkier (4b) than the rest of my hair. The 2 bundles were enough to cover my whole head. I wanted the density to be less than my real hair because I’m looking for something that takes less work.

Blending

I two strand twisted all but the horseshoe area of my leave out. I took out only 3 of the twist and left the nape and my temples twisted and pinned out of the way. I used Super Wet and Eco Styler gel on my horseshoe leave-out. I used some Curls Passion Pomade (which I LOVE- stay tuned for a full review) to slick down my sides. I secured each side with a bobby pin.

[Pictured Below: Hair texure before fluffing it out and twisted edges. Blending with a few twists unraveled, the rest were pinned up. Blending with gelled hair on top.]

Thoughts

I think this is 4th time I’ve had a sewn-in weave. I got one done for my college graduation because I had just big chopped for the 1st time and had no clue what to do with my hair. I think I had that one in for 1 week. I did 1 myself and took it out the next day because everyone said short hair didn’t suit me, lol. The 3rd time I went to a home based stylist. It didn’t feel tight when I got it done but my head was throbbing the next day, so I took it down. That time I used beauty supply store synthetic hair and it quickly lost its curls. This time around I spent a lot on human hair so I decided to do everything else myself. It went rather smoothly. The area around my leave out does feel kinda tight, but it doesn’t hurt so I’m leaving it alone.

It’s been a day and so far, so good. The hair is very soft. It does tangle on the ends when I touch it too much, just like my own hair. I’m trying to leave it alone because I want it to last several installs. I’m very happy with the hair and the look so far. I can’t wait to try some heated styles- blowouts, wand curls, flat ironing…all guilt free. I bought some bleach as well so I’ll eventually put some highlights in it. I got a number 2 although I think my real hair is a bit lighter in places.