Star Spangled Hair- "Fire Cracker"

I know I said I had a few styles in mind for the 4th of July, and I planned on doing them until some things came up.  The main thing was extreme pain in my fingers and hands.  For that reason, I decided to combine 2 of my ideas into this somewhat simple but very busy style. 

I think I liked the last 4th. of July hairstyle better, but I still like this one too.  :)  The streaks of red reminded me of a firecracker, especially before I cut the ends of the yarn off, so that's what I'll call this style.

I don't use yarn very often- actually this is only the 2nd time I've ever done it, so I'm not even sure if it looks right.  Of course I like it because,well, I did it!  I started off by just making a big star in the middle of C's head and made a Bantu knot in the middle like I did with the stars in the last 4th. of July style I did.  Instead of yarn-rows in the back, I did some regular cornrows.  I decided to end them with banded braids in red, white and blue rubber bands.  I might switch those to barrette beads later.

As I do with every style, I started with wet, well moisturized and detangled hair.  I usually leave that part out just assuming everyone knows to do that, but I thought this time I'd mention that part anyway!

First I parted a line down the center of C's head, to get an idea of where to start the star.

Once I had the star parted, I tied the hair inside into a big Bantu knot and started my cornrows.  Then, I parted about the width of my thumb all the way around the star where the cornrows would go. 

*As I said, this is only the 2nd time I've worked with yarn.  This was the first time that I ever incorporated yarn into cornrows, so I think I could do better if I was to try again.  (Which I plan to)  :)

I decided how long of a piece of yarn I would need by holding the yarn at her scalp with about a half inch or so extra, and stretched her hair with the end of the yarn in my fingers.  I used about 2 inches more just in case... It's better to have a little extra than not enough and have to go back and redo the cornrow! Once I had the right length of yarn for the first cornrow, I cut an equal length of yarn.

This is one time I really wish I had someone home to take pictures of the next process because  it's going to be really confusing to explain!  I'll try my best though...

Section off where you want the cornrow to begin.  I usually use a very small amount, but with the extra thickness of the yarn and C's hair being so thin near the hairline, I started my cornrows with a little extra hair (which is why there's a little bit of hair without yarn at the beginning of some of the cornrows)

With the 2 pieces of equal length yarn, wrap them around the hair, kind of like you're going to make a knot. Start your cornrow with one strand of just hair, one strand of hair with one piece of yarn, and one strand of just a piece of yarn.  Cornrow as usual.  (I hope that makes sense...)  keep braiding all the way to the end, then tie off into a tight knot to keep it from unraveling.  *Some people burn the ends, I don't like to use fire during hair styling! ^_^

After I finished all the cornrowing around the star, I did 2 regular cornrows (without yarn) on each side of C's head.  I didn't add yarn because we wanted to use our new star beads, and the braids ended up being too thick with the yarn. 

I decided to do ponytails in the front this time instead of cornrowing.  I gathered C's hair into a ponytail on each side and made big braids.  I wrapped some yarn around the middle section for more color.  I ended each braid with a red barrette.

I added a few festive red, white and blue beads with some star beads and she was finished!  This took me around 2 hours, mainly because I didn't have a plan and just was coming up with the style as I worked.

 So, what do you think? 

*If you have a 4th of July style to share, send it to me at curlyhairisbeautiful@gmail..com  and I'll post your pictures!  :)