Pipe Cleaner Curls

it's been a while! i didn't realize it had been three months since i last posted! wow. time flies. well, in the past three months, i got married! yuppers! met my husband five years ago through eHarmony. so for all you online dating skeptics, give it a try! LOL! so, for my wedding, i tried a few different styles. its funny, i kept my hair long for so long because i wanted to be able to do some sort of fancy up-do for my wedding, and when i finally couldn't take it anymore and cut it, then we finally decided to get married! but, back on subject. i wanted curls, but i wasn't quite sure how i was gonna pull it off with short hair. i tried the braid out, but that was too informal looking. so i used the loc loops. first time it was too loose because my hair didn't completely dry. it was more like barely there waves. second time it was nice looking, but it looked better after a week when the curls started falling. then i saw one of chescaleighs YouTube vids about using pipe cleaner curls.

i've been following this girl on YouTube for years! if you haven't seen her, you should definitely check her out. she's the one who i first saw using the loc loops. she has 2 channels and some of her older vids are on the first channel, so you have to check them both out.

I've heard other people mention using pipe cleaners or straws for curls, but it all just seemed too complicated for me. i didn't see how you got the straw or pipe cleaner to stay IN your hair. thanks to the magic of YouTube, i found out exactly how to keep the pipe cleaner in your hair. my next concern was with shedding. in the vid, chescaleigh used black pipe cleaners and she has really dark brown hair. so if any of the pipe cleaner fuzz came off in her hair, it would blend in pretty well. i was using bright red pipe cleaners (brighter than my hair, if you can believe it! LOL) and if any fuzz came off, you would DEFINITELY see it. so, i asked my trusty friends on the Yahoo LovinLocs group (another gem in the locking world! get on it, people!!!!!!) and the people there reassured me that the pipe cleaners don't shed. so, with NO hair trial, the day before my wedding, i wet my hair down in the shower and went to work with the pipe cleaners. don't ask me why i didn't do a hair trial. i just KNEW the pipe cleaners would work. so here's a pic of me with all the pipe cleaners in my hair the night before.


thats me with my sister. she has a Youtube channel as well dedicated to loose natural hair.

for the front two rows, i did one loc per pipe cleaner. for the rest, it was two locs per pipe cleaner. i just wanted the front to look really defined. i looked like a crazy fool, and i ran around town doing my errands with my hair looking like that! well, i tied a scarf over the front, so from the front i just looked like a girl with a big hairstyle under a scarf, but from the back, you could see all the craziness going on under the scarf! LOL i don't have any really good pics of my hair after i took the curlers out, but here are a few of me at the wedding. you can't really see it in the pics, but i got beautiful, springy, spiral curls. the kids at my job (and a few of the adults LOL) enjoyed pulling the curls straight and then watching it bounce back into the coil shape. those curls stayed TIGHT for 2 weeks. then i got tired of them and washed them out.




yeah...i didn't keep the poofy dress on for long! that thing was HOT!!!!! LOL