Bantu knots, how do I do them?

Bantu knots, they look very easy to do and they are but for a beginner it can turn into a very angry session trying to do them. This is a post specially dedicated to Nappy Headed Black Girl who requested a tutorial on how to do Bantu Knots. I hope you'll be able to do them after you read this.

What you need:
wet locks and your hands :D I prefer doing the knots on wet hair so that the curls come out "stronger", on dry hair the curls don't hold too well. The locks don't need to be dripping wet, just enough water to soften them up. You can use a spritz of choice to wet them. (Some homemade spritz recipes will be coming up soon, anyone interested can submit their ideas)

Step 1: Partition the locks and hold them perpendicular to the scalp then twist the group of locks along their length 

Step 2: Bend the twisted locks and this time wind them around the lower half, don't make it too tight cause when the locks dry they contract and the knot becomes tighter and this can be very uncomfortable and painful.

Step 3: Now tuck in the tips at the base of the knot and start with the next. The tucked tips should hold on their own but in case the come out, just tuck them back in it's normal for that to happen.

Head full of Bantu knots, can't wait to rock the curls

And this is what my babies looked like after the Bantu knots were out. Lots of volume, I'm now in love with the new found secret.

Dying locks, how to do it right

I have been contemplating coloring my locks for a while now, after seeing so many beautiful colored locks I thought maybe it's time I left my natural jet black hair. It takes time to make the final decision, I have never known any other hair color in my life (apart from my braids that were always a different color) so it was a BIG decision for me, now after about 2yrs...lol....yeah it took me over 2yrs to make the final decision. I tried last christmas to dye it but ended up with the wrong type of color, I wanted red but didn't lift the black first so there was practically no change in my hair color. I bought the dye last month and was ready to dye but I still had to think about it again, and finally today I woke up and decided to do it.

All the products I used

I had checked the internet for tips or instructions on how to do it, considering I did it the wrong way last time, but not many have documented any of it with pics atleast. So here are my steps of lifting the color from my babies from jet black to to blond. I'm aiming at Dark Chilli chocolate, so there'll be a part 2 cause I thought dying twice in one day might be a bit too much.

1. Talked to my loctician about it, I do that a lot just to be safe and to make sure I have professional advice as back up and talking to my loctician ensures I get advice from someone who has worked on my hair before. According to him, it's possible to dye my babies in one sitting from black to red but I have to bleach first.

2. More psychological preparation, had about a week between the talk with the loctician and my d-day. You can use this step to go buy the products you will need for the whole process. I bought my products before the talk with my loctician.....I needed a lot of psychological preparation but I guess you are prepared and ready for it right?

3. Search the net for info, now you have it on my blog so it won't be hard to get all the answers at one place.

4. Most companies advice to take an allergy test before using the products. This is not a problem, 48hrs before the d-day follow the instructions and dye a single lock at the back of your head and see how that works out. If it causes you to itch or get boils or stuff, DO NOT proceed to dying the whole head, this might turn out ugly.

On the d-day,
What you will need:
- Bleaching product, to lift the color out of your hair, you won't need this if your hair is blond only for black and dark brown hair
- Final hair color
- An old Tee and a towel,  you don't mind trashing
- A pair of gloves, some dyes don't come with them in the pack
- Neutralising shampoo ( or if you feel adventurous like myself, toothpaste :), I'l explain)

1. Pray that everything goes well

2. Lay all your products on the table, open the boxes and check if all you need is in there and read the instructions.(Incase you skipped the part on allergy test. I didn't do the test, cause I'm rarely allergic to stuff...I'm only allergic to protein (wierd but yeah that's my only worry))

3. Partition your locks into tiny pony tails and hold them with a rubber bands or tiny hairbands. You could tie them once at the top or twice, top and middle depending on how you like it.

4. Prepare the mixture according to the instructions in the box.

5. Spread the bleach at the tip of one tail and squeeze (till there's the ksh ksh sound)to ensure the bleach gets into the locks. Do this to each tail then leave them on for the instructed time on the box or till you like the color on your locks.

6. Wash the locks till the water is clear, this is where the toothpaste comes in.

The partition of the locks after a couple of minutes with the dye on 

I had a discussion on how dye affects your locks a couple of days back, and I almost decided not to dye my hair when one person complained that his locks thinned and became so weak after he dyed them and had to cut them. Then a professional stylist came up with the reason for the thinning, not neutralising the effect of the dye. Well, a short chemistry lesson for all of us. Dye contains hydrogen peroxide which is an acid (pH less than 7) when it is left in the hair it continues to break down the hair follicle that is made of protein (keratin), to stop the process you need a base (pH larger than 7) to neutralise the reaction and come back to neutral (pH =7). Depending on which city you live in, the water in your tap may range from pH 7,5 to about 8, thus it is possible to neutralize with the water from the tap alone but considering hydrogen peroxide is at pH between 1,0 to 2,0 depending on the mixture of solution, water from the tap may not be enough to neutralize it completely. To cut a long story short, with no neutralizing shampoo, I used toothpaste (it can be used in place of anti acids when you have a heartburn so why not to neutralize your dye?). You might not need this whole explanation or step anyway, I was just too paranoid thinking my locks would fall off if I didn't do it....lol.....I actually washed the locks for almost 2hrs, with plain water, with toothpaste, with normal shampoo then conditioner. Let's see how the babies look after a week to see if it was worth such a long wash.

My Bantu knots after retwisting

When all is done and you're sure the locks are clean and no more dye is left in the locks, you can do a DC (deep conditioning), retwist and finally style your locks to whichever style you please......I decided to try out Bantu knots, lets see if my babies will have curled by Monday when I remove the knots.

PS: I used some organic oil on my babies, meeenn it smells like some herbal medicine.....even tried to drown its smell with Olive oil and it's still smelling arrrggghhh hope it doesn't smell like this the whole week. :)

Last but definitely not least, my favourite the Skintolo aka Gélé

This is a famous Headwrap from Nigeria the names range from Satellite dish, Unicycle, Amina Aminu, Kite, Parachute, Kintele, The London Eye, Eiffel Tower, Gbenuesoun, Hollywood, Fan, Global Warning etc. so the next time you hear a Nigerian speak about one of the above you will know exactly what they are talking about. The naterial used is either Aso-oke, paper gele, abada, Damask or kente.
Here is a video on how to tie it. You will need some practice before you are a "Gélé Master". From the length of the post I guess you might have figured it is one of my best kind of headwraps...Hope you enjoy it.



You could also read these instructions:

1st Type

1.Start by folding the head gear piece to a width of about six inches. This can be achieved by folding the piece in half lengthwise twice or so.

2. Rap the piece around your head with the right extending about one and half of the left side.

3.Push in the left side but keep the ends out while crossing the right side over (on top of the left end); also keep the right-side ends out.

4.Pull both ends as tight as desired. Push the left side while pulling the right side to get the desired comfort.

5.Push in the right side only from where it touches the left side but without pulling it all the way through. This forms a bow.

6.You may now move this bow to the front, side or leave it on the back; the choice is yours.

7.Spread out the two ends to obtain a rose petal look, or pin the two ends to obtain yet another look. The different styles and looks are endless. You'll be surprised what you can achieve by experimenting.


2nd Type

• Fold your headtie into two equal halves, triangular or rectangular, depending on how big or small you want it to look.

• Place the headtie on the forehead, ends of the headtie being equal; take the longest end of the headtie, turn it around to meet the other end. Remember to fold your headtie into two equal halves, then the two wings.

• Take one of the wings at the right end and one of it wings at the left edge, join. And when trying them, make sure it is tight and well- laid in front. Knot twice.

• Straighten the edges of your headtie, starting from behind till you get to the front.
• Then push the headtie backward a bit to fit.


3rd Type

• Fold the headtie into two equal halves, making a rectangular shape, depending on how big or small you want your headtie to look.

• Bring it from behind, use your right hand to take the right wing of the headtie to the left and left wing of the headtie to the right. Then, let the two ends of the wings meet to make a beautiful style and make sure your headtie is properly laid in front and firmly balanced.

• Make a knot out of the two wings, making it tight enough, so that your headtie doesn’t fall off. Then knot the second time.

• Straighten out the edges of the layers of the headtie starting from behind till you get to the front.

• With this style, you are supposed to get a ‘V’ in front of your headtie. If not, it is still all right and it will look gorgeous on you. Then push the headtie backward a bit to fit.

Always keep your head gear piece crisp with a spray starch for better results.

You could also visit the Gélé Masters site it has great music about the Skintolo...hope you enjoy it. Here is a pic of the Master

This marks the end of the Headwrap Series, hope you learnt new ways to tie your wraps. I will definitely continue to research on how Erykah Badu ties hers. Enjoy your weekend.

I hope you ain't tired yet....

Hope you have enjoyed learning how to tie different headwraps, I'm yet to figure out how Erykah Badu does hers, but I promise to share immediately I do. Here are a few other ways to tie the headwraps.

Another Lockwrap (Turban)

You can do this on your "bad" Hair days, you will still look good without having to trouble yourself with the that much. You can get creative and change a few steps to make it look better.









Instead of wrapping the extra fabrik around your head, you could wrap it around the held back hair. to get something like this

Goddess Wrap

For this you could either wrap your locks or even your Afro.







Here are other looks of the same wrapstyle

Another kind of Headwrap

The "Back to Front" Tying Method:
1. Fold the material depending on its width to make sure if covers the entire hair {how much you fold this material depends on its width}
2. Stand in front of a mirror
3. Hold the material with the folded part away from your face.
4. Place the material over your hair.
5. Adjust the material so its middle is at the base of your neck. In doing so you will have two ends of material. Holding your head up, and looking straight ahead, grab the right end of the material midway to
the end with your right hand and hold on to while grabbing the left end of the material with your left hand.
6. Hold the ends close together with your thumbs, allowing the rest of your fingers to be free.
7. Keep holding the material with your thumbs, but use the two
fingers next to your thumbs to switch the right end of the material to your left hand and the left end to your right hand. {I always find that I bend my head down when doing this}
8. Tighten the gele by pulling the ends. Your right hand holding the formerly left end of the material will be up above your right ear.
9. Let go of the left side of the material, but keep a hold of the right.
10. This step is for those who wear their Headwraps over their ears. Some women don't] Raise the material or otherwise manipulate the material around your ears so that your ear lobes are showing and are comfortable.
11. I usually hold my head titled a bit for this neck step. Take the right end around your head with your right hand until it gets to the left ear.
12. With your left hand, move the left end away from piece you are working with

{Now here's where you're creativity comes in. You can twist, tuck, or tie this end. If you want to make a crown gele, you're going to be tucking the ends in so no piece shows. And then you when the right end is tucked in, you will do the same with the left end. But I like to do this:

13. Tie the right end and the left end together at their base. Tie the ends so that they are comfortable on your head-not too loose and not too tight. You should now have a Headwraps that covers your head with two pieces hanging down-one longer than the other. You could just leave it like that, or you could experiment with twisting, tucking one end at a time or tying both pieces together until you end up with a "finished product" that you like.

Traditional Headswraps

I found there are sooo many ways to tie the many headwraps so I
 will try and post a different style each day of the coming week. Hope you enjoy the different styles and try them out. So the first is a traditional headwrap... Enjoy your week...and Look out for more Headwrapping styles

Headswraps

This is an age old hairstyle, some may look shubby, others look wonderous but all in all, the headwrap is a woman's crown. The names range from gele, skintolo to "Orie Rogos". You can have a complicated do or a very simple one, a very colourful or a plain one. I do love headwraps especially the Nigerian ones or just the simple hiphop ones. You can wear them anyway anytime. Depending on size though you might try and avoid wearing an elaborate skintolo to the office you might look really confused. In some cultures there are rules on who can wear which colour and what size, but as the world becomes a global village I think more people are wearing headwaraps for their beauty and not their representation. Next I will add a post on how to tie the wraps. Do you tie the wraps? Do you like them? Do you admire them?