The work of art of my blogger friend Silvana, inspired me to try to do the same with my daughter’s hair. It’s not so easy to comb a baby’s hair, she gets pretty cranky even when I’m just putting a simple hair band on, so I’ve only been able to do piggy tails, 1, 2, 3 and that’s it… by the time I got to the third one she was so mad that I had to let her go.
I’ve been trying to get her used to the fact that she needs to get her hair combed everyday and create some kind of “mom and daughter” ritual because her hair keeps growing and needs more and more care and attention.
So, I said to myself, let’s try the comb coils, see if she lets me do them in short sessions, one section of hair at a time. Her hair has the perfect length for them, about 3 inches, not too short, not too long.
You just need hairstyling gel, a rat tail comb and lots of patience! Oh, and good muscles in arms and hands…
So I started dividing the hair symmetrically and then coiling one small strand of hair at a time. The trick is first to apply gel and then to roll the hair around the handle of the comb and slowly rotate comb and hair clockwise while taking out the comb.
Well, it didn’t turn out as I expected mostly because she didn’t stop moving, so after a few coils I gave up and left the rest of her head in “freedom hair” style. She looks cute though…
I tried to keep her entertained with some stuff while doing it but she’s still a baby, maybe when she gets older it will be easier to do.
I will keep trying… If I can get to finish all her hair I will post a photo.
Here are some photos of my attempt (click to see larger versions):

If you want to see a tutorial on how to comb coil African hair, there is this one in YouTube.  As you can see, the process is quite simple but tiring:

AliciA