An experiment in laziness: Day 5

Out of pure stubbornness I kept the braids in and did two horizontal Royal buns.
No one at work has commented on the halo. Hmm! 

Scalp is slightly itchy and a little sore to touch in the partings in the back. Not noticeable greasiness though, but when I scratch the sore parts of my scalp I can feel the oil underneath my nails.
Strangely, the dry flaky sebum my scalp tends to produce the most of, haven't really been provoked by this experiment. Does my scalp really dislike rinsing? I thought it liked it? But I guess "It feels good" doesn't mean "It's actually the best choice"? Does my scalp really like to be left this much alone?
Strange.

Although I guess in theory I could do five days on the same braids, I don't think I want to do it again. Not feeling put together just isn't worth the time saved.

An experiment in laziness: Day 4

Okay, the halo is getting irritating now. I tried to tame some of it by running some leave in conditioner through the loose hairs to gather them up a bit for a more purposely-messy look, but after the commute to work the effect was ruined.
My scalp is really longing for a rinse.
It has been really awesome to be able to jump into the shower without worrying about my hair though. A real time saver there.

Today's style was two low nautilus buns.
I didn't notice until lunch that one nautilus was more pointy (Or whatever you want to call it?) than the other. Double nautilus buns have a tendency to get too much "inner" compared to "outer" and then it "pops" out. I guess it's too much length compared to the thickness of the braids that does it. A single nautilus doesn't have this effect.

Yesterday's four buns was the definite win so far, and this has been my definite fail.

An experiment in laziness: Day 3

Felt like playing around with it a bit on the third day and did four little cinnamon buns.
The halo is now developing more all over than just at the edges.

The four little cinnamon buns were super cute!
I don't think I've ever done these before?
This is definitely something I will do again!
Also, this is a fun and playful style so the flyaways doesn't actually hurt the look...

An experiment in laziness: Day 2

Second day and seeing some flyaways at the edges. Not too bad so far.
I remember having a leave in-conditioner once that had a lot of hold. Maybe I blogged about it and can find it again? Some more hold would have been perfect.

Today's bun is a single, massive, Royal bun.

An experiment in laziness: Day 1

First day of the experiment and I'm off to a good start with vertically stacked braided Chinese buns.

I think I did a bit more of an infinity shape structure with the bottom bun than the top one?
Still good though.

An experiment in laziness

Next week will be really busy for me. So while I was preparing for a week of work and sleep and little time for anything else, I had a thought...

The braid bases are great for busy days because I can easily "reuse" them for different styles and go directly to sleep with the braids. But how long could I stretch the "reuse" period? How lazy efficient could I possibly get and still stand myself?

There are a few factors in this:

• My scalp loves water, so it will not enjoy going rinse free and not having the braids redone. My scalp is slightly dry and I don't produce a lot of sebum, so I won't get noticeably greasy unless I stretch the no-wash for... weeks? Irritation and itchiness could be a factor though.
• How many updos/buns I could do with the braid base. Doing a good braid base would be kind of pointless if I can't use it for different buns. I always get this irrational irritation at those who have long hair but can't do anything cool with it. The options of updos is what made me grow it this long in the first place.
• Flyaways/halo. I think this will be the limiting factor. I don't generally like messy updos: Why waste time on making something cool with your hair, if you're just going to mess up the structure anyways? Wouldn't you want your effort to show? There won't be much I can do for this, since you have "wear" from sleep, wind and rain. A strong leave in-conditioner might help, but there is only so much they can really do and I'm not willing to use stronger styling products.

What braid base to pick?

My theory is that although I would initially think a Dutch braid base would be the best for it's ability to tame the halo, the Dutch structure itself will increase rubbing against a pillow. The braid needs to be "flat" against the scalp instead of protruding. 

My conclusion: Why not try four simple braids?

Styling options for four braids:

• Single bun options: Royal bun and (Complicated) Chinese bun
• Double buns options, horizontal: Royal buns, Chinese buns and Nautilus buns
• Double buns options, vertical: Royal buns, Chinese buns and Nautilus buns
• Quad buns options: Nautilus buns and cinnamon buns

I'm happy with the braid base.
Tomorrow I will start the experiment....