As an African girl, I've always had braids on my head. The braids that I'm talking about here are hair extensions or as we say it in Kenya, 'piece'. I am not talking about weaves. Weaves need their own blog as a whole, don't even get me started. And it's not cornrows (lines) but 'matuta', you know what I mean.
Over the years, the styles have changed A LOT. The amount of braids in the market are numerous and the things you can do with the braids...
My first memories of braid hair style is Da Brat. It was a really cute hair style with the braids done thick and short with coloured rubber bands all around. My mom called them question marks because after the rubber bands were in place, the braids kind of looked like question marks, so cute. When I did these braids, it signified the beginning of holidays, it was so festive and playful with all the colours and you know that they would send you home if you showed up with this style in a Kenyan school, trust me, and an ass whooping would accompany that, I kid you not.
For the teens, I remember my sister and older cousins would do these really long and thick braids, a la Brandy in the mid 90s. These braids were LONG. If yours grazed your butt, you were the shiznit! The braids were really low quality and were so tough but hey, they got the job done.
To this day, I love braids. It's not that I don't love my hair, I do. But it's African hair, man. It needs a lot of TLC. Like think of a needy boyfriend and multiply him by 10, that's African hair for you. Or maybe it's just my hair, I don't know, I digress. As I was saying I like my hair but I also like to swim and wake up later than I have to. I also live in Nairobi and the weather here is unpredictable so braids are the way to go.
I am long past my Da Brat days but the braids are still going strong. I'm in braids 75% of the time so let's just say I have PhD in Braidology.
So it goes without saying that I have tried all sorts of braids and that I have witnessed the braid evolution (braidolution?)
There are a lot of issues with braids like cleaning, preventing nasty smells, where to get them done, how long you should have them and so many other things.
This blog will attempt to answer all these questions so, welcome to the journey.
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