Protective Style: Fulani Inspired Braids

So I have another protective style for you guys and I’m really excited about it. For the past couple of weeks (3-4 to be exact). I’ve been rocking this beautiful Fulani inspired braids. This time around with getting my hair done I wanted to try something different that I have not done before. This style definitely came through and completely transformed my look. This look gave me all types of African royalty vibes! With this style I had the cornrows redone to refresh the look once the front started getting messy.

But aside from that I want to let you all in on the reasons why I loved this style. Continue reading below for further details!

Unique

This style is currently trending and I’m starting to see many people with it, but at the time when I had it I didn’t see too many people with the style. It was all over YouTube and I thought the style was beautiful but I was kind of scared to try something so different. I wasn’t sure how it would look on me or how I would do such a style. I was then approached by Raven, founder of The Queendom of Hair (If interested check out her social links below). She offered to do my hair and I decided to finally try out this style since I knew she was a skilled braider and I hadn’t seen anyone with the style yet. I wanted to get it while there were still only a few people with the look. This style was so different, literally everywhere I went I ran into people who would compliment me on my hair. I have never gotten that many compliments on a hairstyle in one setting before so it was pretty exciting! People are used to seeing Marley Twists, Senegalese Twists, Box Braids, etc. But they had never seen a style such as mine especially with the beautiful beading.

Protective

Braids in general are a protective style, so of course this style had its benefits as well. Now, don’t quote me but Im sure that somewhere I have read that cornrows are the best type of protective style for your hair. And with this style I had box braids in the back and cornrows in the front. And the front of your hair is what you want to protect the most because it is what frames your face. What also makes this style protective is determined by what products are used in the hair prior to creating the style. Raven used lots of oils in my hair and this helped for my hair to be soft and moisturized when it came time to take them out.

Out of my Face

So as I said previously with this style I had cornrows in the front and box braids in the back. Now I love the box braid style (full head of box braids), but for the summer time this style can be slightly inconvenient because of how hot they get. I’ve even noticed that with this style I always had it up in a bun or ponytail to keep the braids out of my face and off of my back. Now the benefit of the Fulani braids would be the cornrows in the front! I loved this aspect because with the braids I didn’t have to worry about hair in my face and this was major for me. I was able to keep the braids in for longer because they didn’t become uncomfortable or hot over time.

Nostalgic

And now another reason why I truly enjoyed the Fulani inspired braids was the sense of nostalgia they gave me. When I was younger my mother use to braid my sister and my hair and use beads. As of recently I had been wanting to do a style in which I could include the beads I once use to wear in my hair. The Fulani style gave me my chance to bring back the beads I once wore. I would even say that the braids stood out more as a result of the beads and other hair jewelry. This style definitely brought me back to my early childhood.

So to end this off I’m just going to say that I really loved this style and how different it was. The Fulani braids definitely made me reconsider the idea of integrating cornrows into a lot more of my hair styles. I never really thought of them to jazz up some hair styles but such as buns and pony tails. But overall, I really enjoyed this style and I can see myself doing it once again.

Hair Stylist: @The_Queendom_of_Hair

Photographer: @Cuba_Gone_Wild