I had medium or small-medium twist braids installed for $80 by one of those in-home African braiders on 1/6/08 . In my opinion, she did a decent job, she was professional, took only bathroom breaks, didn't braid too tight and she LISTENED to my hair request which was much appreciated . I told her I didn't want too tight braids from the beginning and kept restating this esp. when she started doing the front -many braiders just don't seem to understand the concept of not braiding too tight. But, because I'm trying to baby/grow out my edges and because the edges are now SLOWLY starting to fill in from past braiding experiences, I am not trying to cause further damage to my hairline/temples.

Also, the braider didn't add a lot of hair ( less than 1.5 package of Marley braid) which kept things looking very natural and light . Also, I told her I didn't want any hair trimmed/burned once the braiding was complete, so after she curled the ends by tying it with a rope, then dipping it into a cup filled with boiled water, I was done 7.5 hrs, yippeeee (it used to take a full day, sometimes a few extra hours the following day to finish my hair when I used to wear very small braids/ micros). I never used to like bigger sized braids, but now I'm loving them. The less time I have to spend on my hair, the better!


Maintenance:

I rebraid the perimeter every 2 or 3 weeks, while leaving a lot of the edges out. I know the hair doesn't look as neat due to not "catching all the hair", but I know this is much healthier for my edges in the long run. I spray every day or every 3 days at the very miminum with mainly African Royal if I remember. I wash every 3 weeks or so, more or less depending. The Marley hair blends very nicely with my 1Bish colored hair and natural hair in general,however, I'll def. add some color next time around. Also, the older the hair gets, the more I like it as it resembles my natural hair a lot.

I plan on keeping the braids for up to 12 weeks and will probably rebraid or experiment with a full wig due to time constraints and just simply wanting to take a break from my hair.

Note: I have pics of my braided hair, but don't currently have the charger with me to post. March 2nd will make it 2 months since I've had my hair braided.

Braids Removal:

-Took last braids out on 3/28. But, I had started taken them out little by little a week prior to help faciliate the process starting w/ the back. I didn't like the feel of my hair once the twists were taken out, despite spraying w/ the braids spray at least every 3 days and misting my hair every morning in the shower. My hair seems to always be dry, dry, dry and the detangling took HOURS (nothing new), and while I didn't see a lot of long shedded strands, I saw A LOT of those darn little ends all over the place.

Also, I'm looking forward to trimming my hair at least 1-2 inches. I will most likely do that in June or July at which I may go to the salon to get my hair flat-ironed and then trim (maybe) or simply stretch my hair and have a stylist do so. From hair observations, I saw decent growth upon removing my braids esp. in the front, middle sections, but I still need a good trim.

-Washed/deep conditioned hair. I used Global Watch's sulfate-free shampoo followed up w/ creme of nature moisturizing shampoo (green bottle). My scalp was left clean and hair didn't feel stripped. I then lightly conditioned w/ wholefoods conditioner as a light rinse. Later, I deep conditioned w/ cholesterol creme followed up w/ Keracare moisturizing conditioner mixed w/ olive and castor oil and twsited hair while wet.
-I will be wearing my natural twist for a week before rebraiding.

***Note: I'm in search for a very, very, good moisturiizing conditioner w/ very little or no protein. Ladies, if your hair texture is similiar to mine, please let me know what conditioner or other products you use to keep your hair very soft, I seemed to have tried all the natural/commercial products and nothing seems to work and if it does, it's only temporary. I have major moisture issues-my hair could feel soft for a little bit and sometimes it is, but once exposed to air, forget about it.