Art of Boxed Braids

Boxed braids are a protective hair style that I can’t stop rocking. Mainly because I shaved my head when I was 18 due to being under pressure and on the brink of a serious meltdown so it was bye bye hair instead of bye bye life. I have my regrets over that because my hair is legit my life and the things that caused that breakdown are now suppressed. But I am happy because this hair style on my mulatto head helps make me feel stunning in ways that are humble but a tiny bit a way of exclaiming self love and appreciation for my beauty.

The beginning or “first step” is getting the hair. There is this store called Dino’s in my city which is an ethnic store that sells well ethnic things like food and hair extensions for people like me that don’t like their natural hair or feel that extensions help make them look better then on to feel better. For my situation about three to four packs will get the job done with even some hair leftover in case any slip out. They don’t usually but as I’m a newbie still I don’t want to be too cautious or too careless if it were to happen. (Only one pack is shown in the picture below because two packs did my hair this time and I only captured the picture of the last pack for this challenge.)

The second step is opening the hair pack and cutting the hair as the hair is 82” when I can usually just pull off half of that length making mine into just 41” and I seriously still enjoy the length as it is as it is still way longer than my natural hair. *nervous face*. My fault for that because not only did I shave my head through the cause of a breakdown but by dying and bleaching my hair to dye it hot pink, flat ironing and killing my curls daily for about 7 years then to also have been self hair dressing myself and cutting my precious hair every time some little minor bad experience happened to me was an excuse, a very sad excuse to do that to myself.

The third step is brushing through the hair and making sure that there aren’t any knots for when the time comes to start braiding into my hair. I’m still new at this so I’m usually either caught not cutting it evenly or getting tangles in the extensions when I’m half way through braiding a single braid.

I couldn’t take a picture of me brushing through it so this picture is as close as I can get to showing my technique of taking care and for the preparation of the hair and my task of braiding it.

The third step is getting my natural hair ready for its protective hairstyle by washing and conditioning it then drying my hair and conditioning the scalp with coconut oil to make the braiding process easier and more manageable to my attempts of doing my own hair.

The fourth step is parting my natural hair to section it off and use tiny elastics to help make the braids look neat and even. Typically around 40 sections or a little less with single elastics get parted and once that is completed the braiding process may begin. (No picture for this one.) but for the elastics process it’s possible to either make triangle parts or square parts. Both are pretty when it comes down to it but I do prefer the triangles for myself yet do have a hard time doing them when it’s me doing my own hair that way.

The fifth step is simple and the most fun part about the art of boxed braids. It’s the beginning of a cute hairstyle I’m always happy to be rocking. The locking in process of the braiding is sometimes hard especially when the back centre of my head needs attention and for their braids to be braided in.

The finished product:

1. Side view:

2. Up close:

3. Selfie:

Usually the braiding process will take up to five more or less hours and the elastics parting process takes nearly a full hour. For the most part I love and enjoy doing my hair like this. It’s time consuming and helps distract me from my daily troublesome worries. Only problem I have with doing my hair like this is keeping track of how many I have completed. That’s an attack on my end of not being so skilled with daily functions but regardless besides that I have no issues on doing my hair. Especially when the hair do can last up to a month or two. I’m usually caught taking them out sooner though because of them looking rough or they start slipping out and although I hate the process of undoing them I’d much rather take the time to do that then to have to wear my short natural hair in my day.

Other styles I’d like to share:

1. Twists OR “screwbraids”:

2. Ombré boxed braids:

3. Ombré twists OR “screwbraids”:

4. Blue boxed braids:

5. Red boxed braids:

Hairstyling is tons of fun! Yet besides from doing my own hair I have quite the trouble doing others hair. Cornrow-braids are tricky for me on others especially ones with sleek hair which is all I ever mainly get but the practice is good and I enjoy trying to try to be a hairstylist. I’m no way close to being professional or even all that great at it but that’s the fun part. Trying new things on new people and them still liking my mess of a job makes me a bit proud of myself.