It has been approximately five months since I took the challenge of learning how to cornrow my daughters hair as it's a great protective style.
Below are a couple of links to some great posts which I believe are great for beginners:
"Cornrowing-for-beginners" by Beads Braids and Beyond and Learn Cornrows which is highly recommended by KandLandKurls.
Now, Rory from Chocolate Hair/Vanilla Care has an amazing technique and many have learned by using a practice board, here is the link to her post "how-to-cornrow".
Although the above posts are great source of information, I'm more of a visual person. While searching for youtube videos, I came across Kate's videos. These are the videos that I truly learned from, the link to her youtube video is "How to Cornrow instructions".
Now let me tell you, as a beginner you will make mistakes, and after five months of practicing, I still make mistakes, specially when I have my six year old asking for snacks, or Ms. Bree needs a sudden "potty break". Please remember it's okay to start over if you are at a point in your cornrow where you can start over, but if you are towards the end of the cornrow, just leave it! Most people will never notice your mistake unless you point it out.
After practicing straight and short cornrows, you will be able to do more than just simple styles. I wanted to do something different this time. I have wanted to try doing the criss-cross braid for a very long time, which I also learned from watching Kate's video "How to do Criss-cross Cornrows Part 1" and "How to do Criss-cross Cornrows Part 2". I watched her video over and over again until I told myself, "this is it, I'm going to do this".
I opted to only do a single criss cross braid because I didn't know how long it was going to take me and i didn't know if Ms. Bree was going to sit still for that long.
On my next attempt I will probably do as many three or four.
After a few days, I did a little modifying. I undid the side pony tails and twisted her hair over night. The next day I removed her twists. (twist out).
and remember, keep practicing and don't forget to share your pictures and progress with us!!
you can send your pictures to caramelcurlznswirls@yahoo.com