Hits & Misses: Vixen Crochet Braids

Hello there,

After 5 weeks of having my last protective style in, I took them out and installed another set of crochet braids in - this time using a vixen crochet braid technique. I learned this style from Mary K on YouTube (click here for the technique), where the hair is parted in four sections and canerowed/cornrowed into a beehive style. The hair is then crocheted and can be worn in a series of styles and which makes it more natural looking when parted and styled. Here's a picture of how it looks:

(Source: Goog;e images)

In the link above, Mary K uses Kanekalon "braid" hair, crochets the hair in, blow dries and flat irons the hair, then flat irons her leave out (the section that meets in the middle in the diagram), and everything blends flawlessly. 

So anything nice and simple, mi inna it.

And I attempted it.

Didn't work out so well.

Gibbie wasn't going to flat iron her natural hair . She also cannot canerow/cornrow well. so she asked a friend to do the braid pattern and used a Kanekalon braid hair that has a more natural look to it called "Nappy Annie". 

The results? HORRIBLE.

The leave out was too much.

The hair had too much sheen, would not blend with my natural hair, barely curled and would not maintain that curl.

It was no bueno. It had to go.

I did the style that date mainly because I had an outing to go to and now it didn't turn out well. After panicking and trying every possible way to make the style work, I finally came up with this:

I'm grateful no one did a close up lol.

On Monday, I cut the hair out, bought regular kanekalon hair, crocheted it in, braided the hair into about 6 sections and dipped it in hot water.

By Monday evening, it looked something like this:

and on Friday:

I was unable to fix the middle how I wanted it, but it was fairly decent.

Call me the fixer lol.

I think I've figured out my mistake with this install (my natural hair is not long enough/shrinks too much for a vixen crochet style) so next time around I'll be doing a partial leave out (just the front). 

All in all, I'll be taking this style out shortly. It was originally installed last week but I doubt it will be in for long. It was still good to try something new and I'll be doing another (adjusted) crochet braid style soon.

UPDATE: Today I was feeling a little better about this style. This morning I wore the style out after hot-watering 4 braids and twisting the leave out (my natural hair). I took this picture 5 minutes ago:

Not looking too shabby and the blending of both hair types looks good to me! Lol. I'm redoing this style (with some tweaks here and there) soon and I'm adjusting my previous comment as to how long I'll keep this style in - it's going to be around a little longer than I initially thought. I don't mind it that much anymore! Cheers and have a good one! 

Be well,

Gibbie