My Crochet Braids with Fingercomber Hair | KlassyKinks.com

My Crochet Braids with Fingercomber Hair

So I know you the majority of you guys said that you wanted me to cut my hair when I asked you what hairstyle I should do next, but I’m just still not ready! But don’t fret, I definitely will be cutting it before September because it’s on my 25 Before 25 Bucket List. In the meantime, I decided to try out crochet braids and I’m here to tell y’all all about it!

My Crochet Braids with Fingercomber Hair | KlassyKinks.com

The Hair Prep

When I decided to get crochet braids, I knew I’d use some Havana hair from Fingercomber that was stuffed away in a bag in my closet from my two havana twist sets in 2013. I also knew the hair was smelly and visibly dirty so I’d have to wash it. On Saturday, I brought the hair out of the bag, and still in its sections from the twist takedown, immersed it in my bathtub with a glob of Coco Curls Shampoo and just a drop of conditioner. After swishing the hair around vigorously, I rinsed it out and laid it out to dry overnight.

I also knew that I wanted to pre-dip my hair to make it less complicated to bend my head full of rods over a coffee mug. I didn’t event realize it was a thing until I was browsing YouTube for crochet braid videos. So on Sunday, I rolled up a whole bunch of hair and dipped it in hot water and allowed it to dry overnight.

The Install

On Monday morning, I headed to Brooklyn to see my friend Saniyyah (you might remember her from my Carol’s Daughter event last year) who just achieved her dream of becoming a licensed cosmetologist! Saniyyah detangled my hair (and bless her heart because I haven’t paid it much mind since I wore the Fingercomber wig), shampooed and conditioned it with Aveda products, and sat me under the steamer for a nice treatment. After rinsing me all out, she blew out my hair and trimmed my ends for my seasonal trim. My hair was looking kinda sparse before the trim but I don’t even care anymore since I’m cutting it soon anyway.

Saniyyah then braided my hair in about 12-15 cornrows straight back, and used the latch hook to secure the ends of the cornrows underneath one another, rather than sewing them up or bobby pinning. Finally, it was time to crochet the hair pieces in, but I had to separate them because they were too large – leaving me with some intact curls but a lot of frizzy pieces. Watch the video below for the final look.

Final Thoughts

I made quite a few mistakes in this process of getting crochet braids. First, I had no idea how much hair I was supposed to use, and ended up prepping roughly 3 packs of Havana hair (which is the equivalent of 6 or so packs of marley hair), when in reality, I needed only 1/3 that amount. Because I prepped so much hair, I rolled and dipped sections that were entirely too large, without first brushing them out, meaning that I had to pull them apart 2-3 times during the install to get smaller sections. This left me with a batch of mostly frizzy hair that had to be cut much shorter than the look I was going for to look presentable. I definitely commend Saniyyah for being able to shape my hair though, because otherwise I would be wearing a turban every day. I plan to wear my hair as is until Christmas, when I’ll go ahead and brush it out and curl it again – hopefully, correctly this time. I might try to add a few more pieces in the back because I’d also like to twist the hair up in havana twists close to the middle of January. Of course I’ll let you guys know when I change something and if you have any suggestions feel free to share!

My Crochet Braids with Fingercomber Hair | KlassyKinks.com

What are your tips and tricks for crochet braids? If you haven’t gotten them yet, does my experience make you more or less interested in the style?

Amma and Joanna, I know you two have had em so y’all better leave comments to help educate the rest of us! 😀

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Comments

  1. hi i installed my marley braids but they are so tangled i didnt curl them first i just installed so how do i detangle them and maintain them because i dont have perm rods to curl them

    1. Hi! Your best bet is to take a brush and brush the hair out. It may take some time but that’s the easiest way to detangle Marley hair. Then to maintain, loosely braid, twist, or bun your hair at night

  2. Ijeoma, I had no clue this post existed! I have to thank you immensely for the opportunity to do your hair for you. I really appreciate the shout out here as well and look forward to giving you a really good treatment when you’re ready to take the crochet braids down!

  3. The shape looks really good on you and so do the curls, frizz and all! When I installed mine, it went through a lot of changes (which I may or may not discuss on my blog because it’s a LONG story! LOL!) but it ended up looking a lot like yours. The slight frizz actually adds to the natural look, in my opinion. I fooled just about everyone!

    I curled my Cuban Twist hair after I installing it. Contorting to dip the hair (I used my Huetiful Hair Steamer cup) in the back and top was both funny and annoying! So tip #1- Do yourself a favor and pre-curl! At the start of my install (beginning in the back), I wasn’t even halfway through before I had what already looked like a full head of hair on my head! I realized I didn’t need as much hair in the back as the top/front which would cover any spaces. <<Tip #2 🙂 I ended up taking out some pieces from the back to use elsewhere.

    Tip #3- Fully detangle the hair before dipping. I only started doing this about a quarter of the way through but it makes total sense to do so. Before setting our real hair, we (usually) detangle first for a smooth look. This should keep the hair looking good for the duration of the style.

    Saniyyah did a good job shaping the hair. One thing I would have done differently is to begin in the back. I did that with mine for the very reason you stated. The thing with pre-curling the hair is that you have to have an idea of how much hair you need which isn't always easy. Given the circumstances, yours came out really nice! I would never have known that you didn't have hair all the way to your nape.

  4. Great post! I love how she shaped your hair as well!

    I didn’t do crochet braids but I did a crochet wig (http://bit.ly/1yMUGmT) and I noticed that it was easier to pre wrap the rods for a more defined curl but the hair has to be fully detangled which is kind of annoying with this hair.

    I think that maybe it would have been a little easier for you to use fresh hair for less frizz. The frizz I did have when I finished my style, I cut off with some scissors lol.

    Thanks for sharing!

    Victoria Sallie
    http://www.talktresses.com

  5. I installed Crochet Braids this past summer (check here for my experience! http://youtu.be/urJe8xoc824) and some tips I have are: 1) Curl the hair after it is installed so you’ll know how much hair to wrap around each individual perm rod 2) Use the pink and grey perm rods which are smaller to curl the hair. I initially used the purple perm rods and the curl was way to loose, so by the end of like day 2 the curls were no longer tight and were much looser/frizzier. 3) You’ll have to re-curl 1x a week. I mistakenly thought the Crochet Braids would be a quick easy to maintain style, but it actually involved quite a bit of maintenance so definitely try to brush it out and re-curl. 4) Use fresh hair….maybe the curls were frizzy because you already used the hair in a previous style? 5) When curling the hair, dip into hot water for 10-15 seconds. When you remove the perm rod, wrap a towel around it and allow to cool down for 30 seconds. Don’t undo the rod until the hair has cooled down and “set”.

    All things considering Saniyyah did a fab job shaping your hair and it looks pretty!

  6. We forgive you because hw comes first. *patiently waits for the video to finish uploading*…lol
    My only tip/suggestion is that if you use Marley hair for crochet braids, make sure to put the hair into pigtails at night. That has really helped me maintain my curls especially since Marley hair gets easily tangled and matted together. My first set looked liked bed head {ROUGH} and there was literally a matted section in the back. I learned my lesson this time…lol
    I love how Saniyyah shaped it for you, she did a great job.