Crochet Weave, Everything You Need To Consider

I never expected my first crochet weave moment to come. Crochet weaves had always been something I was hesitant to try for several reasons (I will get to that shortly). It’s now been a week of me and this glorious head of hair that ain’t mines and i’m loving it.

I took the leap and got a crochet weave because I have several events and weddings to attend, in addition I will be going on a two week cruise vacation. Having natural hair is a blessing because it is versatile as hell, but my current hair style and state calls for a protective style. I have kinky curly type 4b hair, which has a high porosity AND has a double process in it to get this red hue.

It was all fun and games until I pictured myself doing a cannon ball into the pool and then screaming as my hair turned orange-green from the chlorine. On vacation I try to live my best life, I will be in as much ocean and chlorine as I can get, but wanted a protective style that would look cute and allow me to take care of my hair underneath. Crochet weave was the answer. Here are a few reasons why I didn’t want to get a crochet weave.

Finding a crochet hair stylist is hard

I live in NYC, but for some reason it was super hard to find someone who knew anything about crochet hair. It turned out that I may of been looking in the wrong place. I found several stylists on Instagram who could do crochet weave, but the gram didnt help me much. Some stylists postings look subpar, others wanted a ton of money and the rest just flat out never replied to my inquiry. No Bueno.

 

My Edges

Despite my appearance and racial background, I am a Black woman. Genetically most of us have sensitive hairlines and its very easy for any long-term hairstyle to give us tension alopecia. I have tried several styles from box braids to weaves and always narrowly avoided hair loss around my edges. Crochet weave lessens the risk for me because there is no thread pulling at my scalp because the crochet hair is simply looped around my cornrowed hair underneath.

 

Everyone is doing it

Again I live in NYC, one of the hair style capitals of the world. Crochet weaves are still a relatively new concept, but I see them every day on at least 10 women. I needed to do a style other than the Marley twists, Senegalese twists or faux locs. It took a while but I decided I wanted something close to my curl pattern, so this Bobbi Boss Water Wave was my pick.

 

Maintenance

I am no longer a fan of wash day literally taking all day. If my wash day exceeds more than 1.5 hours I get upset. The crochet braids are the main part that has to be washed. I intend on gently shampooing the braids, the same way I would if I had cornrows.  I apply diluted shampoo mix with an applicator bottle and gently lather. The shampoo will pass over and clean the synthetic hair. Afterwards, only an air dry is needed. Washing my hair now only takes about 30 minutes. Whoa.

Will it last?

Time will tell. My cruise vacation is coming up soon, after that I plan on keeping the hair in for a while to get a full month of wear. I believe my experience with weaves and wigs in the past may help me in keeping my hair looking as fresh as the day it was put in.

Keeping checking me out on Instagram and on this blog, I will definitely continue to let you all know what i’m experiencing with this crochet braid, crochet weave process.

 

Will you consider getting crochet braids? Crochet weave? Let me know in the comments.