Things I'm learning about hair care

Not my own, of course. There is little care going on of my hair. I wash it, comb it out and eventually pull it up and out of my face and that's that.

Adelia's hair, on the other hand, requires a little bit more. It's now gotten so long that if I don't do something with it, it gets very matted and tangly, so I have to put forth some serious effort to take care of it. Here's the saga for anyone who is interested:

Adelia's braids came out a week ago. They were in for 3 1/2 weeks total. I could have kept them in for longer (and, in hindsight, I wish that I would have given them another week), but I had time to do it one day and just went for it. It took me about an hour, maybe more- to take them out.

Twists: I washed and conditioned her hair and then I put her hair into twists for about three days. I did this by parting her hair into 9 sections and splitting each section into two strands, then twisting them together and adding colorful heart snaps on the ends of the twists. It was cute. But you'll have to take my word for it because I forgot to take a picture. Cute but not my favorite. I didn't like them NEARLY as well as the braids, and they only "wore well" for about two days. Also, the twists would smash down after each nap or nighttime.

So then I spent a few days trying to figure out what to do next. I wanted to do braids again but attempted it one day and either Adelia wasn't cooperating or Audra wasn't.

Cornrows: The next day I attempted to do cornrows, which was pure craziness because apparently you're supposed to braid UNDERhand rather than OVERhand and I tell you, you might as well have asked me to complete The Most Difficult Calculus Problem Ever for how impossible it was for me to try to braid pulling the strands underneath rather than over. Sheesh. I was practically in tears. And an hour later, Adelia's hair was still undone.

A day later I did some version of Piggy-back braids and ended up with this:

(front view)
(back view)
Clearly I need a little work on the parts. It's her LEAST favorite part, me parting out sections, so I rush it every time.

Anyway.

What I've learned for hair sessions:

-A video is a must. Preferably the Signing Time movie that contains the pizza song for my girl.
-Food is a must. In one sitting this week she went through a mini package of M&Ms, about a cup of raisins, and a large handful of craisins. Lollipops are good, too. I totally bribe her with those.
-Either Mark has to be home (to watch Audra, mainly) or Ella has to be in charge of Audra, preferably in another room.
-It is impossible to do school and hair in the same day. At least when you have as many children as I do.