Star Spangled Hair-Stars & Stripes

With the 4th. of July right around the corner, I figured I would try and come up with some festive hairstyles for the occasion.  I'm going to try and think of more styles, so hopefully this will be just the first style of the Star Spangled Hair 'series'!  :)
This is a somewhat simple cornrow and Bantu knot style.

I finally went and got a new camera today just because of this style!  I worked hard on it and I really liked it, so I wanted a better quality picture than my phone can take!  Unfortunately, you can't get much of a camera for under $200 but anyway, the pictures are still better!

*I'm terrible at explaining how I do a style but I'll try my best!

I had a little bit of a plan for this style before I started.  I knew I wanted stars and cornrows.

I started by parting C's hair straight back, into 2 equal sections.  I tied off the left side of her hair and got to work on the right side. 

First I decided where I wanted the star.  I wanted to be able to make braids on each side of the star to make it stand out more.  I didn't want the star itself cornrowed because I wanted a 'stripes' effect.  Once I parted the star, I put the hair inside of it into a Bantu knot.  -I originally just did Bantu knots to keep the hair out of my way while I finished cornrowing, but I ended up leaving them because I liked them! 

 I just made some random cornrows around the star, starting each cornrow at the edge of the star.

*It isn't noticeable, but the 2 cornrows near the top of the star were braided together.  I had to do this because C has a lot of little baby hairs at her hair line, and I was trying to leave them out.  Making the 2 cornrows into 1 single braid made it a little thicker, and also kept them from hanging down over the star.

Here is the top view of C's hair. In this picture, you can see a little better how I braided the 2 cornrows together.  I tried my best to make each side somewhat symmetrical, but also look 'flipped'. 

This is harder to explain, but basically, where I made a cornrow going to the back of C's head on the left side, I tried to make the cornrow in the same spot going towards the front of her head on the right side with some of the cornrows.

(I really hope that makes sense!)

Here's the left side of C's hair.  I really liked how it turned out. On this side, I did a little cornrowing around the star to make it a little different looking from the right side.

I started this star right at the part line going down the middle of C's head.  Again, after I parted the star, I put the hair into a Bantu knot. 
I cornrowed the top left section of the hair near the star going towards the front of C's head.  I cornrowed the right section near the top to the star going around the edge of the star, then I did the same for the bottom right section... The pictures probably explain what I did better than I can- it's pretty easy to tell!

And here is the back view.  The stars weren't meant to be lined up in case you were wondering! 

I made big stars because I wanted something that wouldn't take too much time.  Styles don't last too long in C's hair, so it's pretty much a waste of time to spend 4 hours on one hairstyle! 

 (She already asked if she could have her hair down!)

*This style took us about an hour and a half-2 hours. 

I used our normal things- bottled water and oil, and also added 2 new things.  Taliah Waajid Lock It Up Tight Hold, and Unrefined African Shea Butter.

I love both of these products!  The Shea butter did a great job of moisturizing C's hair. 

The Tight Hold Lock It Up is a really great holding product!  I'll be doing a full review later to be fair, but so far it's the only product we've used that kept all the little hairs from poking out of C's braids over night! 

Another really good thing about this product is that it smells and feels a little mentholated- kind of like what Vick's Vapor Rub would feel like, even though the smell didn't stay on C's hair and it was really light scented.  I liked the cooling feeling because I have problems with my hands, and this gel really helped with the pain!

BUT... the Tight Hold Lock It Up is another one of those 'Good-Not-So-Good' products.

I didn't even think to check the label since we already have the regular Lock It Up gel and there are no bad ingredients in that, but I realized after I got done with C's hair that the Tight Hold Lock It Up gel has parabens so I'm not sure if we'll be buying this again. o_0

Are you planning any holiday themed hairstyles?