Heyy curlfriends! My name is Adanna Thomas and I am a new blogger for BU Naturally this year! I grew up in Buford, Georgia. I’m a third-year neuroscience student with a linguistics minor at BU. I’d say I’m somewhat new to being natural, as I started when I came to college in 2019, so I’ve only been natural for about 2 full years at this point. I’m excited to talk more about my experiences as a newbie through the blog.
That being said, allow me to add a little bit more backstory. As I mentioned, I only started going natural right before I came to college. Up until that point, from early childhood to 17, I was anything BUT. Whether it was relaxer, straightening, curling irons/rods, stretching, silk presses-- you name it. I used it. My mom, who doesn’t share my hair type, didn’t know how to deal with my type of hair, so I never learned either. That is, until I went off to college and decided I was tired of my damaged hair and promised I’d learn how to take care of it myself if it meant I didn’t have to mix another jar of lye ever again.
Along with this, I wasn’t allowed to get protective styles like weaves, sew-ins, wigs, or box braids. Fast forward to the peak of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, I was seeing more and more tutorials and TikToks of people doing these protective styles themselves. People couldn’t go to salons or braiders for the sake of safety, and when it was deemed “safe” enough to get them done, braiders would charge exorbitant amounts of money for them. So, now that I am grown and experimenting with ways to style my hair, I was interested in trying out doing box braids at home! This all took place basically over this past summer (from April to August).
The first time I did the braids, I did them completely on my own. I ordered my braiding hair online, watched Youtube video after TikTok after Twitter video to determine what method I’d use, got my braiding supplies, and hunkered down to do it over a long weekend we had in April. Even though I thought I had prepped myself enough… it still took me about three days to complete. And they still didn’t come out great!
...yeah. To give myself credit, this was my first time working with braiding hair. I was also braiding using a damaged wrist and no proper mirrors or parting tools, in my cramped dorm room. I had to take breaks and redo multiple braids, as well as feed in more hair in places where the braids were too short. I didn’t know how to properly make sure hair stayed securely wrapped so that it wasn’t frizzy or poking out in places. I sealed the ends with a flat iron. I think for the most part, if I had worked with smaller sections, they would’ve come out much less clunky than they did.
The feeling of these longer (heavier) braids was definitely interesting to get used to. It was new for me to have to tie up and style my hair in different ways to compensate for the added length. It gave me a lot of new freedom to try out new hairstyles, which ultimately gave me more confidence and appreciation for how I looked and the style I came up with. Ultimately, although they were busted, I’d say it was an overall good experience.
The second time I did box braids, my mom and I did them together. At this point, my wrist pain had gotten worse and showed no signs of improvement. Something my mom always liked doing with me was doing my hair, and she liked the way my hair looked with braids. So she wanted to learn how to do them for me. We got the hair from a beauty supply nearby, she did her own research, and then we began. She wanted to try doing the knotless method, and instead of sealing the ends, I wanted to add beads and just tie it up that way.
As you can see they turned out really good! They were about the same length as the ones I did the first time (though slightly longer), and MUCH more even in thickness. My mom is also amazing with braiding, much better than me, so it was no surprise that she did so well with this new method.
The feeling was much different than it was the first time. Because of the added length and the beads, they were much heavier and slightly harder to tie up. Even still, after learning how to maneuver the beads, I was definitely able to pull off more hairstyles and, since they looked much better, made me feel a lot more confident. The major con was the headaches because they were so heavy.
The third time I did box braids, my mother did them again right before I left for college. We decided to go shorter, as well as add fewer beads, and I think that worked out really well.
They were overall tighter and lasted much longer. These photos are from my birthday, which was about a month and a couple of wash days after they were installed. They weren’t as heavy this time and didn’t end up giving me a headache. It could have also been because I had gotten used to life with braids, but I felt like I was the most used to these braids and was able to pull off more with them.
Overall, I think my experiences with box braids were really fun learning moments! It was cool to learn the different styles I could do with them. It was also pretty shocking to notice how much they did for my self-esteem! I think because it felt like I could do more with my hair with “less effort” than I would with my natural hair, I would be willing to dress up more. Plus, there really is something about the way that hair would swing that made me feel on top of the world. I am definitely going to be doing braids more often, and I’ll maybe even try experimenting with other styles similar to it. It was fun and I’m glad we learned how to do them.