13.5 Hours

So K's hair has been a bit of a mess. She has had a ton of breakage both just due to the fact she wouldn't wear a sleep cap for the first 18 months home (and she won't stay on her satin pillow) and little kids rub their heads on everything (the car seat, the cot at nap, rolling around on the floor). Also, the poor kid has a mom who had a pretty steep learning curve with regards to her hair. (and we followed a lot of advice and bought a lot of product that really wasn't right for her hair- even though friends, and in some cases strangers, assured me that it was "exactly what I need.") So now we are trying to minimize further damage while the little short fuzzy hair grows out. A couple of people told be about a great protective style called a genie loc (or yarn braid) Basically, you take yarn, wrap it around the base of the hair and use one strand of hair and two strands of yarn to create the braid. (you can continue it past the end of the hair to make extensions if you want)

So it took five days and 13.5 hours (5.5 to take down the previous style and about 8 to put the genie locs in) but K had a new style. It has now been 24 days since the whole style was finished (and 28 since the first genie loc was braided) and we have just recently gotten the "fuzzies" back at the base of her hair near the top of her head. I will have to re-braid the ones on the top but I think that we can get another week or two out of this style. Pretty impressive considering we are in the pool EVERY day, and that that also includes our time in Texas.