Cornrow Braids For Kenya

My third Princess wanted to have her hair in cornrow braids when she went to Africa for her two week service mission. She knows the convent in which they are staying has limited shower use and was worried about head lice, bed bugs and many other things that could make her long hair become and issue so she asked me to braid her hair.

I asked her if she wanted it straight down the sides or away from her face so she didn't need a head band, clips, barrette, bobby pin etc. She wanted it away from the face so that is how I did it.

I have cornrowed the girls several times over the years. When my oldest was little I had an ethnic African tell me that I really did a good job on the cornrows. I thought that was a good stamp of approval on my talent.

Basically, cornrows are just small french braids. If you can do a french braid, you can cornrow. French braiding is done with three small pieces to start with. You then braid those in a regular braid but pick up a piece of hair on the outside each time you take the braid from the outside to the inside. That is it.

To make the design you want, you take a small toothed comb and use it to make the lines you want. She wanted the top to go straight back and away from her face and the sides to go away from her face but not straight back. So, I made the part down and then away.

All you do is use an elastic to hold the other hair out of your way and then french braid the piece of hair you have parted braiding it until you can't anymore. We used little elastics purchased at the dollar store but in the past, someone in the "know" told me to use waxed dental floss which worked well but not as well as the small black elastics you can buy now.

She also wanted beads in her hair but didn't decide that until we had already braided several so we put them on the bottom. I found this new back of glow-in-the-dark beads unopened for $.50 at a second hand store so we thought those would be fun. We put those in at the bottom of her hair and used another elastic to hold it in place.

On the back, she wanted more volume so we just parted the hair into squares and braided them in a plain braid rather than cornrow so she could pull them up into a pony tail as she liked the look. This took much longer because the back had 4-5 braids each row rather than the one cornrow braid. It did have a great look however. She was happy with the results.

My youngest braided three of the smaller braids into one braid which gave an interesting look. We left one of the triple braids in so you could see how it curled the braids overnight. I thought it gave a cute look for variety but Princess number three wanted the straight cornrow look for her trip.

It was fun and now my youngest princess wants her hair cornrow braided for girls camp which is coming up in a few weeks. It will be fun for her to have her hair braided. I am glad we cut her hair as it will be a much easier task.