How to take care of rasta braids?

Before braiding

Braiding

Home care

Do braids and open rasta hairstyles damage hair?

Prop­er­ly braid­ed hair­styles do not dam­age hair, and with the right care and gen­tle unbraid­ing, there is no need to cut the hair. When braid­ing, we do not use any chem­i­cal prod­ucts or adhe­sives. For cer­tain types of braids, we may incor­po­rate syn­thet­ic fiber (kanekalon), which does not harm the hair in any way.

Who are rasta braids suitable for?

Ras­ta braids and their vari­a­tions are suit­able for hair longer than 10 cm. Gen­er­al­ly, braid­ing is suit­able for all hair types, but braids may look slight­ly dif­fer­ent depend­ing on the hair tex­ture.

Due to the time-con­sum­ing nature of braid­ing, I work only with clients aged 5 and old­er. Thank you for your under­stand­ing.

How to prepare for braiding?

There is no need for any spe­cial prepa­ra­tion before braid­ing, but it’s bet­ter if your hair is fresh­ly washed. I rec­om­mend wash­ing and styling your hair as usu­al either the day before or on the day of braid­ing.

How are the braids made? How many braids will I have? And how long will they be?

First, you choose the type of braids you want and how many of them you’d like. Depend­ing on the tex­ture of your hair, I may sug­gest a dif­fer­ent solu­tion (adjust­ing the num­ber of braids, with or with­out kanekalon) to ensure the best pos­si­ble result.

Once we decide on the type and num­ber of braids, I will start braid­ing your hair and, if need­ed, incor­po­rate kanekalon and any cho­sen acces­sories. When the braids reach the desired length, I will fin­ish and secure them to pre­vent unrav­el­ing.

If you’d like, I can style the fin­ished braids into a hair­style of your choice right on the spot.

What materials and shades can I choose from?

For braid­ing, I use kanekalon, which I reg­u­lar­ly import from my native Ghana. I offer a wide range of col­ors, and some types can even be mixed togeth­er to achieve even bet­ter and more unique results.

Can I buy hair accessories or elastics for braids from you?

Yes, in my stu­dio you can pur­chase a large vari­ety of acces­sories and orna­ments that I reg­u­lar­ly bring from my native Ghana.

How to take care of rasta braids and cornrows?

The most impor­tant part of car­ing for ras­ta braids is reg­u­lar wash­ing. I rec­om­mend wash­ing the braids with the sham­poo you’re used to. On the oth­er hand, it’s good to min­i­mize the use of con­di­tion­ers and sim­i­lar prod­ucts, as they can soft­en the braids and cause them to slip. In our stu­dio, you can also pur­chase spe­cial hair prod­ucts specif­i­cal­ly for ras­ta braids. After wash­ing, wrap your hair in a tow­el and gen­tly dry it. If you like, you can blow-dry your braids. Dry ras­ta braids can be styled into a bun or any oth­er hair­style accord­ing to your pref­er­ences.

How to take care of open rasta or watercells rasta?

The basic care for these types of braids is the same as for ras­ta braids. Unlike ras­ta braids, you can use con­di­tion­ers or hair oils, but only on the low­er part of the hair, where the braids are no longer in place.

Open ras­ta braids should be reg­u­lar­ly combed with a brush—either dry or while still wet dur­ing wash­ing. When comb­ing, it’s impor­tant to hold the braids in place to avoid pulling the braid­ed part away from the scalp.
Combed hair can then be styled, for exam­ple, with a hair straight­en­er, espe­cial­ly if the hair no longer feels smooth and soft. Only use straight­en­ers with adjustable tem­per­a­ture set­tings.

Water­cells, on the oth­er hand, should not be combed. Gen­tly sep­a­rate indi­vid­ual strands with your fin­gers from the scalp down­wards. To make this eas­i­er, you can light­ly apply con­di­tion­er or hair oil to your fin­gers.
Water­cells can be dried using a tow­el or care­ful­ly blow-dried.

After braiding my hair, my scalp started itching. What should I do?

Very rarely, you may expe­ri­ence an itchy scalp. If the itch­ing is uncom­fort­able or per­sis­tent, you can apply an oak bark infu­sion or oth­er sim­i­lar prod­ucts avail­able at the phar­ma­cy to your scalp.

In the first days after braid­ing, I rec­om­mend not pulling the braids into tight hair­styles so your scalp can get used to it, thus avoid­ing itch­ing or pos­si­ble rash­es.

If you expe­ri­ence ongo­ing itch­ing or a rash after braid­ing, con­tact me, and I will rec­om­mend suit­able pro­ce­dures specif­i­cal­ly for you and your hair type.

How to unbraid braids or open rasta?

To unbraid the braids, we start by cut­ting the braid­ed kanekalon just below your nat­ur­al hair. Then, care­ful­ly unbraid the braid and untan­gle the kanekalon. You may notice a dread­lock of hair near the scalp, which nat­u­ral­ly falls out. Its size depends on how long you’ve had the braids in. These hairs should be combed out. Just like braid­ing, unbraid­ing the braids is a time-con­sum­ing task, so make sure to set aside enough time for it. After unbraid­ing, your hair will be curly, but this will dis­ap­pear after the first wash.

Open ras­ta braids are braids that are not braid­ed along the entire length of your hair. After a few cen­time­ters, the braids are fin­ished and secured with a knot. When unbraid­ing, it’s nec­es­sary to cut this knot, then pro­ceed in the same way as with unbraid­ing ras­ta braids—carefully unbraid mechan­i­cal­ly while also untan­gling the kanekalon from your hair.

As for how long to wait before unbraid­ing, it depends indi­vid­u­al­ly on your hair type, how quick­ly your hair grows, and the ini­tial length of the braids. Gen­er­al­ly, wear­ing them for about 2 to 3 months is rec­om­mend­ed. After a longer peri­od, the dread­lock at the scalp becomes very tight and hard­er to unbraid.