Braided Updo for Natural Hair

Happy Friday!

Source | Refinery29

Source | Refinery29

I am one of the laziest people in the Natural Hair World: I’ve gone through the various phases of a newbie natural (style experimentation, obssesive hair forum/blog reading and YouTube video watching, product-junkieism) and settled into a natural-haired version of my formerly relaxed-hair self: i.e. I’m very low maintenance. I’ve tried roller sets and twist outs and braid outs and, beautiful though they may look, I do not have the energy to do anything more complicated than pulling my hair into a bun/pony tail. Frankly, work circumstances permitting, I would rock a Kilo Kish on a daily basis. I will even admit that my laziness (and inability to locate a heated cap 0r carve out time to sit under my hooded dryer) means I have only deep-conditioned once in 2012 (oh the shame!).

Kilo Kish – My Even More Low Maintenance Alter Ego (Click for Source)

I love buns and they are not just a style staple, they are essential to how I wear my natural hair on a daily basis. Recently, I’ve been pulling my hair into a single braid, which I “tuck into itself” (pinning back my “bangs” which haven’t grown into my bun) to minimize the stress of constantly pulling my fine hair into a bun with a hair grip. Sometimes I wear a chignon/Southern Tease, sometimes french braids, switching my part across every possible angle to introduce some variation to the style. But at the end of it all, it’s still a bun in one form or another!

I’m always on the lookout for a simple bun-style that I can incorporate into my repertoire, and browsing around Refinery 29 I came across the video below and was able to pretty much replicate the style (on my much shorter, finer hair) on the first try, following along as I watched the video (Look Ma, no mirrors!). My hair is obviously a different texture to the video’s narrator (I skipped the bit about adding “powder to my hair for texture”). My hair was already stretched out from wearing a bun earlier in the day – this style looks like it works best with stretched out hair. I randomly pulled a section of my hair in the front out and to the side and split the back of my hair into two sections. I braided each section as in the video (but with much less care). I skipped the bit about loosening the braid and folded my two braids over each other as in the video’s narrator did on her first wrap around (my hair wasn’t long enough for the next two “folds”!). I secured the ends with a pin, got up from my laptop and went to the mirror and realized my hair looked rather decent!

Thanks Refinery29