Over her head

It seems as though I'm constantly hovering over Lila's head, adjusting curls, combing out knots, adding product after product after product, and now...cornrowing! Ok, some pics of my first attempt:

Ok, so I know the actual cornrows are pretty much crap. But, I am pretty proud of the parts (which I totally stole from another hair blog). I like the style: the cornrows keep the hair out of her face, she gets her pretty beads, and the rest of the hair you can put back into puffs, big braids, or twists...or whatever. I did this on Sunday and it was a frizzy mess by late Monday. Ah, well. I think it was mainly my suckiness at cornrowing, but also I think I need a product designed to really get those little hairs to stay. The only problem now? So many products! I don't know which to try first.

And onto my second attempt (this morning):

Better, I think. I like having the braid serve as a headband and Lila does love her ballies. Although, when I asked her to shake her curls (a daily thing for us) she whapped herself in the face with the ballies. Whoops. I felt horrible yet wanted to giggle a wee bit.

But back to the braid itself. Definitely better. I used some Carol's Daughter Hair Butter on the hair before braiding, and it definitely did help hold the hair initially. But as you can see, there are lots of hairs around her hairline that just didn't make it into the braid. And it just kept getting worse as the day progressed. Are those just baby hairs that should be loose? I am nervous to pull very hard...I certainly don't want her to have traction alopecia.

And isn't that last picture adorable! She was running towards me and the camera caught her curls mid-jump. I do love those curls. So, my quest to keep her hair as healthy as possible continues!