Since debuting my natural hair back in January I've gone through some awkward moments. Some real nice moments and one serious I-never-want-to-let-my-hair-go moment.

This is WEEKS into the hairstyle

For most of the summer it was that ol' reliable hair style: a slanted part down middle, a swoop to the side brushed down, gelled, and bobby pinned. The back meh... detangle, put some product in and go. I thought I was doing a damn good job until my sister (whose been on her natural hair journey longer than me) told me how I'd been neglecting my hair. Yes, fellow naturalistas, I'd fallen into the lowest of low maintenance routines ever. I didn't even double strand. I'd co-wash every week, yes but didn't find myself doing much else with it. I was uninspired. In that awkward in between phase when my hair was just not long enough to do much with yet needed a great deal of nurturing to encourage more growth.

That was when my sister introduced me to crochet braids: a much needed break from my natural hair, a great protective hairstyle and really cute natural looking (AND economical) alternative to sew-ins or braids. My sister was able to do everything: the corn-rows and the crocheting. If you have limber fingers (unlike myself), this will be cake for you to do yourself. Not only does it have an effortless natural look but promotes MAXIMUM growth.

Putting product in this could weigh it down and make the curls droop. But for volume, I maintained with Garnier Fructis Curl Construct Mousse and to clean up my edges in the front, Olive Oil Edge Control (this is a good product for ALL Naturalistas!). Another necessity is a bottle of witch hazel astringent to cleanse with (probably not a good idea to do a wash with crochet braids ladies) 

This lasted me a good 6 weeks before I took them out and gave myself an easy kick-ass deep conditioner (I will provide the recipe below). I also fell in love with Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie. WARNING!!! Upon opening the jar you may want to eat the contents inside. DO NOT EAT IT. Instead feed it to your hair for a set of double strand twists (use aloe vera gel for hold). The second set of crochet braids seemed to zoom by but the growth was tremendous!

This time around, I perfected my deep conditioner. 'Twas DIVINE.

- 1 cup of Herbal Essence's Hello Hydration Conditioner

- 3 tbls of Honey
- 2 tbls Olive Oil

- A dash of Carol's Daughter's Tui Oil

I hope one day to provide you with an all natural deep conditioner but this was literally what I had in my bathroom since both times my decision to take out the crochet braids was more impulsive than usual.

Now I'm rocking the big Senegalese twists for winter! But if you're not ready to shell out big bucks for braids, as mentioned before, crochet braids are a cheaper, more accessible alternative.

Here's a crochet braids info session (!) from Jacebeauty.com