Crochet Braids...Third time is a charm

Hello! Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas holiday! This holiday has been an emotional roller coaster. This whole year has been an emotional roller coaster for me. But I am making it out alive so I am thankful In 2014 I will have a clean slate to start from. 

I was  in a hair rut about 1 month ago and I was very very tempted to cut my hair. I was especially tempted to do this when I saw my roomie Lola and her cute tapered cuts. But I fought the urge. Whenever I have these urges I know the best thing for me to do is to put some weave it my hair so I won't have to deal with it everyday. I was looking around the internet trying to find a cost effective weave and I stumbled upon crochet braids. I feel like this would be a good protective style to have. Plus I could have a little hair to swing around when I salsa dance. 

Attempt #1

 I have tried to put them in my hair 3 separate times. The first time was a partial fail. Here is a pic:

 I used marley hair for this look. The only problem I had was the layering. I did not cut the marley hair in half when I used it and it was way to long. I looked like a lion. I attempted to cut it myself and I was not happy with the results. I got a lot of compliments but I was not confident with this hair. I took it out after one week. Also, my mom braided the back to tight and I was getting little bumps along the hair line. 

Attempt #2

Next, I saw a tutorial on YouTube and decided to try crochet braids with straight kanekalon hair. This was a complete fail. 

Neytiri the Wicked Witch of the South. 

With curled ends

Why was this a fail? It was way to long. I felt like black Pocahontas. Also this hair shed like crazy. I was going for a different, much shorter look. Basically the girl on YouTube curled the ends with rollers dipped in hot water. That was the part that was a failure to me. The rollers/hot water did not take which resulted in the ends being curly but not curly enough. The look is not bad, it was just now what I was going for. I had this in for maybe 12 hours. I did not have to straighten my real hair for it to blend into the weave, I just had to blow dry it. The tutorial is listed below if you want to attempt this yourself:

Attempt #3

Okay. I felt like I had to give it one more shot. The main problem with all this was the hair. So I ended up ordering some Freetress Bohemian Braid hair off the internet. When I put this hair in I felt pretty and confident. 

Next I added some colored hair to the front! I had a wedding to go to so I could not work with it some more.

 When I got home I added a lot more hair to My whole head. Also I cut bangs. Waa-lah! (Excuse my ghetto French.)

If at first you don't succeed...try try again! Ok, So i used a straight back braiding pattern. The braiding patterns under crochet braids vary a lot. I am not the best braider in the world (which is why I was ashamed to take a pic lol) So I just kept it simple. But the braiding is the most important part. It is the foundation. Next time I will get my mom to braid it for me. A good braid underneath helps to keep the style secure and last longer. I ended up using 4 packs of hair. I cut the hair in half. I ended up having a little bit of black and the golden color left. Here is a tutorial I used. 

This sista used Freetress Water Wave hair. I chose to use Bohemian Braid because it is closer to my natural hair texture. I like hers though and may use that in the future. I have learned that with crochet braids the possibilities are endless! Just do a YouTube search and you will see for yourself. 

I plan on keeping this in for at least 3 weeks. I am gonna aim for a month. I don't think my braids underneath will last that long. We will see. 

Do you do crochet braids? If so, what type of hair do you use?