Cornrows, twist-outs, free hair, oh my!

I've been thinking on L's hair quite a bit lately. I mean, I already think on it a whole lot, but her gorgeous curls have been taking up slightly more valuable real estate in my brain as of late.

One, I am in a rut. Style-wise, that is. You would think that the most challenging times would be in the colder months: mixing it up for school, dealing with the dry and cold winter months...etc. I find summer to be much more of a challenge, especially as L grows into an ever-increasing ACTIVE child. She swims, she plays, she bikes, she pretends to be a Kung Fu master and all of these activities wreak havoc on her fragile curls. Cornrows? I did L's whole head in July and it was glorious:

Loved that I didn't have to "do" her hair every day. True, her 3c curls don't hold cornrows for terribly long, requiring me to re-braid a row or two every couple of days, but it still gave L (and yours truly) so much more freedom and flexibility. The big BUT in this is that it takes some patience and time to get her whole head braided. Between washing, detangling, stretching and braiding, I think it took me three days to complete her head. Add to that the fact that my once easy-going-and-easy-to-style toddler has turned into little miss contrary, and you can start to understand while I'm not gagging to do a whole head of cornrows. She'll sit for me, but it's not pretty. There is LOTS of whining, fidgeting, yelling, bribing (who, me?), bargaining, begging, pleading (seriously, I stoop pretty low sometimes) and the occasional crocodile tear involved in a major style session. I'm thinking of doing some Ghana threading this week. It doesn't look terribly hard (if you can do twists, you can do this) and appears to be a great protective style (no rubber bands required!). I found it on this amazing Youtube channel, Girls Love Your Curls. Box braids is another option, but one that has never really wow'd me in L's hair. Her curls are too fine to have an unbanded braid (meaning, no band at the base of the braid), and thus the idea of a protective style is kinda lost, as there are tons of tiny rubber bands in her hair. One of my favorite styles on L is a braid- or twist-out. I wash/condition/detangle one night, banding her hair with cloth bands to stretch the hair. The next night I do small flat twists all over her head and take out in the morning. The result: a head of shiny, soft, BIG, beautiful curls:

The only drawback of this style is that it not only takes some TLC to maintain those curls over the course of a couple of days, but one afternoon at the pool at you're back where you started: wet hair and no style.

The option I've chose for the past week as I slowly gather my courage make up my mind about her next style is a semi-free style that requires only a medium amount of maintenance (about 30-45 minutes each morning). I did 4 cornrows which serve to protect her hairline but also function as a headband of sorts. The rest of her head is completely au natural. By that I don't mean there is no product in there (let's not get crazy, people), but her curls are not manipulated in any way at all. Each morning I simply spray some water on the curls that were smooshed at night and over the course of the previous day (generally the back of her head is the worst...thanks, car seats), add some diluted conditioner (currently using Deva Curl's One Condition) and detangle with my fingers. Lately I've been finishing with Ouidad's Climate Control Heat & Humidity Gel. Lordy, I love this stuff (they have it at my local Sephora). Her hair is a tiny bit crunchy at first, but is soft and bouncy all day long, and her curls stay defined even in this ridiculous humidity we've had. The result is pretty awesome and very much matches L's personality. This is how her hair IS:

Um, don't mind the cherry juice. My girl LOVES cherries.

Sulking because I'm making her stand still.

I love this picture. She is sooooo annoyed with me at this point.

Again, the only problem is that this style is not pool-friendly (and we're set to hit the pool today, darnit).

So, we'll try the Ghana threading over the next couple of days and see how that goes. I love the idea of it, here's hoping the execution is as relatively straight-forward as it seems!

If anyone has thoughts on other protective styles, let me know! My goal is to find a style that will last perhaps a week and doesn't require lots of banding (I am trying to keep her hairline as stress-free as possible).

Happy Hair, everyone!