TOP 8 CROCHET BRAID MISTAKES | LIA LAVON

“Hey YouTube family! It’s your girl Lia, back with another video! And, as you can see from the title, today’s video is just my top 8 crochet braid mistakes! Now, I have only been in the crochet hair game 2 and half years at this point, starting at my channel 2.5 years ago. But I’ve tried 30 hairs, and I have had some wins, I’ve had some losses and I’ve done some things wrong throughout this journey and I continue to do some things wrong throughout this journey. BUT, to help you guys out and to alleviate some issues that I see go down throughout my comment section, you guys say: how can I avoid this? What am I doing wrong? What do I need to change? What do I need to do differently with this? I came up with the top eight comment crochet hair mistakes that I see people make all the time. And I want to kind of help you prevent from getting to the level where you are like, okay I got to take this hair out in two days…I want your style to last! I don’t want to lead you onto a path of destruction, I want your style to last and I want your hair to slay as long as possible! So, without further ado, lets get into my number one tip!”

“My first tip would have to be, or the first issue that I see so many people come up with is: not enough packs! People try to figure out how many packs of hair to get initially with their style. Now, when I first started, I NEVER knew, I would always over buy. I’d be in the store and I’d be better safe than sorry, but sometimes that did not work out, you guys saw in my Outré Bahama’s curl video. I literally was midway installing that on camera, had to turn that camera off and run to the beauty supply store because I had made some fatal flaws in the purchasing of that. So, what I would say is, the best tip I would go off of is…I check comments and reviews on all hairs that I have. If I’m buying it on Sam’s beauty or if I’m buying it from a site. I would go down and see how many the average person uses. I don’t go by what the site says, sometimes it says three packs is enough or one pack is enough, you know. I go by what actual people have said and I also watch review videos…that’s how I got into the game, by watching review videos, so I can make the most informed decision. I definitely do think it is better to be safe than sorry so, if you see a lot of people say three packs is enough, I would lean on the side of four packs because a lot of times crochet hair is only like $4.99, $5.99, $6.99 $3.99 a pack! So, it is very affordable. So, if you do make a mistake and some places even let you return hair. I know, not my local beauty supply store, but some let you return hair. I would definitely say air on the side of more packs than not. I know the common thing that works me, and I have a smaller head, is that I always get 5 packs of Main Concept. Main Concept has never let me down with no more than 5 packs. I’ve needed anywhere between 4 and 5 packs. I think on the Free Tress side I needed between 5 and 6 packs a lot of times. And this is when I was wearing the hair at a longer length. If you’re cutting the hair in half, you are going to need considerably less than what I had, so you can use half of what I had use. If you wear the hair in a 8 inch style or a 10 inch style you can cut the hair in half and end up using a lot less hair than needed. If it’s a Faux Locs style you are going to need somewhere between 7 and 9 packs to be on the safe side. Now, Faux Locs are very expensive, I know then run about $6.99, $9.99 so if you get a foe lock brand, you’re definitely going to have to spend a little bit more coin on that but you’re going to need upwards of no less than I would say, 7 packs of Foe locks or you’re going to be pretty much screwed up.”

“The last thing you want to do, especially if you are a professional is run midway out and go get some more hair and that’s another thing! If you do work with a professional, if a professional is doing your hair, you can ask them, consult with them, how many packs do you think I would need? And just go off of what they say.”

“If you go to a Crochet hair stylist they’ll know, they’ve done this, they do this daily.”

“Knotting! I get a lot of questions from people saying their knots are slipping! The thing I would say about knotting hair, because not all hair is created equally, this hair that I have on right now, Lulu Tress beach curly hair, I only knotted the hair once, and I knew going into it that this was a knot once type of situation. There are some hairs that you can tell how they are going to work out. If a hair is more rigid in texture and if you’ve tried out a crochet hairstyle then you would know what a more rigid hair looks like. If you haven’t its just a kind of rougher style. Some hairs have a kind of silkiness to it, some hairstyles have more of a roughness to it. Styles that are a little bit more rougher, so I would say this hair, I would say the Authentic brand. Those hairs need a little bit less knotting than a Free Tress deep twist. Free Tress deep twist, you’re going to have to knot that hair a lot of times for that hair to stay. That hair is a lot silkier, it just has a different texture, and it has a lot more of a looser curl. Model Model hair that I have tried, you’re going to have to knot that hair a little bit more.”

“I’d also say that the smaller the section though, the easier it is for the knots to stay. So, if you separate the hair out a little bit, so when you are installing the hair, you separate it out a little bit, and you are installing it that way, the less you are going to have to knot. You aren’t going to have to do as many knots in a smaller section. The larger the section is you are using, so if you are using large chunks of hair then you are going to have to knot those hairs a little bit more than you would a smaller section. And, I definitely, more recently in my last eight videos, I tell you how many times I’ve knotted that hair and if the knotting that I used by then end of it was effective or not because I’ve had knots slip too, there’s been A LOT of slippage. See what your stylist thinks, if you are going to a stylist or a professional. They will know how to knot your hair.”

“Braid pattern! I get a lot of questions about braid patterns. For me, what works best for me is a straight back. That’s what I do about 90 percent of the time. That’s what I do because that’s all I can do. I can’t do intricate styles. If you want to do it yourself, I highly suggest Beauty Can Braid for braiding patterns and to show you how to braid hair. Taste Pink has a lot of braid patterns too. So, I will go to them for different kinds of braid patterns and techniques. But I definitely think it is dependent on how you are going to wear your hair. I’d say make the braids as small as possible. Big braids are not going to work in a crochet style. Some people do 4 or 5 big braids and that’s not going to look as realistic as it can the smaller the braids, the better. Now, they don’t have to be the flattest cornrows, I’d say somewhere between 10-14 braids, depending on your head size too. That’s an adequate amount of braids to kind of have and it also depends on how you want to wear your hair. If you want an up do. I can’t really do…well I could probably do an up do. I can do an up do and some of my braids in the back can show but it depends on how you want to wear your hair, the kind of braid pattern you want to have, the versatility that you want to have. I have straight backs meaning I can wear the hair like this, I can wear the hair with a part on any side. Straight backs are just what works for me. The goal for me is though is to have the least amount of tension on your hair as possible. And, what I mean is, this is a protective style, you aren’t supposed to be left edgeless. You are not supposed to be meant to have headaches or take an Advil after your style. That is why a lot of times I leave out a considerable amount in the front. Not leave out leave out, but I also do keep my edges…and it may also be a factor of the braiding style that I have, or the braiding ability that I have.”

“The fact that I can’t braid that tight may be a good thing in the long run of things because I don’t put that much tension on my hair. Please don’t put that much tension. Whoever you go to, if it’s starting to hurt, be like loosen up girl! We are not doing this! We are not doing a very tight style because at the end of the day, this is to protect your hair. If you are not seeing benefits, if you are not seeing your hair grow, if you are not seeing benefits to crochet braids, I would definitely say I’m all for trying it but if you don’t see actual benefits and progression of your real hair, then look into a different protective style. But, protective styles and crochet braids are supposed to be, you know, easy low maintenance. They are supposed to be something that you don’t have to worry about. So, the least amount of tension you can put on your hair, your braid pattern, And, something that gives you a lot of versatility and something that you look forward to. Cause the way you wear your hair when you get your hair braided down, you’re going to wear it for a couple weeks, so you might as well like it.”

“Length! I know, I am probably the queen of” “what’re you talking about girl? You always used to wear your hair long!” I did! I did for SO long, and I still do at some point. You know, catch me in November, my birthday hair, is going to be long. It’s going to be LONG! I still do long styles at some point, but, I definitely would say, hindsight of 20/20 I would probably cut down a lot of my styles to very short. So, anywhere between 14 inches or less is the sweet spot for crochet hair. The longer you get, it comes with more hassle. This is not a human hair! People at a lot of times forget that this is NOT a human hair, it is made in a factory. This isn’t being cut from some one’s head, this is made in a factory the same way they make your T-shirts, the same way they make these blouses, the same way they make anything, this is how it is made. So, the more that it interacts with fibers the more it rubs against your hair, the more it rubs against your clothing, the more it rubs against other stuff…it just becomes more of a hassle the longer it is. “

“So, I know crochet hair a lot of times comes long, don’t mean you got to wear it long! I had to learn that the hard way. I was like, the hair is 24 inches, that doesn’t mean you have to wear it that long, that means you cut it! That means you can snip it, you can cut it in half, you can do whatever you need to do but don’t wear the hair as long as you can!”

“Products! This is another mistake I get! So many people ask me, what do I use on my crochet hair? What products specifically? People want to run out and buy the most expensive shampoos, the most expensive conditioners. This just goes back to what I said a minute ago… these are fibers! This isn’t hair! So, buy you know, your regular shampoo, your shea moisture, that is meant for hair. You might as well rinse this out with Tide laundry detergent. At the end of the day. “Hair products” aren’t really going to work on this hair so, I’ve said this on my wash day video, what I mainly focus on when washing my hair, is washing my hair. I care about this, I don’t care about this $4.99 synthetic hair made in a factory.”

“So, my main focus is on detangling the hair, but when I am washing my hair, I am really washing it for this. (Points to natural hair on scalp) Washing it for this (points to synthetic hair) yeah, you can let water through it, sometimes you want to get scents out of it. The thing about crochet hair is that it attracts a LOT of scents. It’s like sometimes…. I have a dog and I keep her on her little blanket, so even when she is away from the blanket, the blanket still smells like her. The thing about crochet hair is that it is just like your other fibers. It keeps scents in and sometimes you can become nose blind to the scents. Like, if I leave my dog a little bit, come back like a day later and I’m like what’s going on here?! The same thing about your hair. You are attached to it 24/7, so you become nose blind to scents. But sometimes your crochet hair can have a scent to it. Remember when I put the fabric softener in my hair, if you guys watched my Authentic Deep Twist hair video? I put fabric softener in it and I thought the smell was gone, but the next day at work people were like: “I smell something, it smells like fabric sheets in here!” Oh, that’s my hair! That’s me, that’s me. So, the thing about this is, if you need to wash out something, just wash it out. Like that fabric softener, I probably should have washed that scent out, but I was nose blind to the situation. So, if you want to wash that hair, cool but use V05, use any kind of regular kind, $1.99, the dollar store, hotel shampoos, hotel conditioners, those type of things, you can use that on this hair. For your real hair, use what you would use on your real hair. But on your crochet hair you don’t have to use all that.”

“Products that I do like for it though is Mousse, and How I’m Silky Miracle Worker. I like that for detangling and taming frizz. I like the Mousse for taming frizz, I like the Hawaiian Silky for detangling hair. You’re going to need to tame frizz, that’s where Mousse comes into play.  Depending on the hair, you are going to need to detangle it often or you are not going to have to detangle it that much, but it just varies with the hair, how much detangling you are going to have to put it.”

“Number six! I get a lot of questions about separating. I didn’t know how big separating and not separating your curls meant. What I mean by that is, you get your standard hair in the way it comes. Sometimes you are like, do I separate the hair out or do I apply it as it comes? Well, for example, this is the FreeTress Island Twist hair. Now this is how it comes standard, this is all of the hair. Start with this, grab the hair, and then pull it very slowly, and then you are left with half sections on each. You have that one turn into these two. And, as you can tell, when it is separated, it is not as… this is it not separated, and this is it separated one time. So, the curls almost look different when you separate the hair out. I say it definitely depends on the hair. And I know, you can’t tell that until you’re kind of in the middle of it like this hair now. FreeTress Beach Curl hair I say in this video if you’ve watched this video, that I regret separating this hair out. I did separate it in the front, so this is what the hair looks like separated. The back section, I just wanted to have a test to see how it looked unseparated and this is the hair unseparated. It performed well, and it performed better than it did in the separated sections.”

“Another thing with my Outré Kinky Curl hair. I separated out that hair after I installed it. I first installed it and it looked one way and then I separated it and it looked another way. And I got a lot of comments in that video saying that you guys liked it a lot better in its non separated form. It definitely depends on hair itself and the style that you are going for. I say this goes back to another thing. I would definitely look up pictures, I would want to look up styles to kind of see what works best if you are going to separate the hair out or not. I’m not going to plug my own channel…BUT I do say my channel is to help you guys kind of see what decision you need to make in terms of separating your hair out. A lot of times, probably in videos 1-20 on my channel, I did not separate out the curls at all, and they lasted better. So, I am more prone to liking a hair non separated versus separating it, but that is my personal preference. For a lot of people, separating it allows them to use less packs, that’s a great benefit of the hair! A pre-looped hair, a lot of the times is pretty simple enough too because you’re defined in what kind of style it is. So, I am definitely prone to a non separated curl to a separated curl that’s my personal preference. And in terms of the look of it, I think it wears a little bit longer. So, separating curls or to not separate curls is definitely personal preference.”

“Another thing I get questions about A LOT of the times. To Apple Cider Vinegar rinse the hair or to not Apple Cider Vinegar rinse the hair? For me, I don’t rinse my hairs. I don’t do that simply because I haven’t had, to date, knock on wood, an adverse reaction to any of the crochet hairstyles that I’ve tried. So, my roommate, she has an adverse reaction to Main Concept and some other hairs too. She tried the Main Concept Beach Curl Hair way before I did, put it in her hair, lasted a day! And, her hair was on fire and she vowed off of Main Concept at least until I told her to try the Waterfall Curl Hair. So, she didn’t try Main Concept for at least a good 7 months. And then she tried the Waterfall Curl Hair and she really did like that hair a lot. I think her, and her best friend went to Vegas with the hair in. So, she liked it later on, but Main Concept didn’t work for her immediately and it was because she had an adverse reaction to it. She started rinsing her Main Concept hairs and now she tries Main Concept hairs, likes them but they she has to start rinsing the hair. That is something that some people have to do, and some people don’t have to do.”

“Now, rinsing the hair will show you some things. She let me know that she saw things coming out of her hair that she didn’t even want to see. She saw some white stuff coming out of the hair, no thank you! You know, you don’t want to see how your hamburger gets onto your plate, you just want the hamburger on the plate. You don’t want to see the cow situation, you don’t want to see all that! You just want to see the pretty stuff. I didn’t want to see all that! I didn’t want ot see what comes out the hair because it’s an illusion and its gone, but I know there is a process to make the hairs the way that they are.”

“Again, they are not real hairs, but they have to be processed in a way that they look like they are. And I am sure that involves a lot of chemicals and a lot of stuff. The chemicals in the hair can react BADLY to some people’s heads. And, I am not saying that so scare anybody, because I want everybody to try crochet hair. But if you’re somebody who has an adverse reaction, please please please rinse the hair. Even if you think you have a sensitive scalp. You know that your scalp be acting funny sometimes, just rinse your hair! And even if you want to be on the safe side, RINSE THE HAIR!

Now, you guys ask me this all the time…does that change the integrity of the hair, is the curl a different curl after you wash the hair, which I would assume. Again, not fully sure because again, she washes all of her Main Concept hairs, they don’t look any different. Now, I don’t know if it changed composition in the way that it feels, but, rinsing the hair, definitely a personal preference. “

“ANDD Number 8! Night time routine! A BIG factor! Big factor into the longevity of your hair. Big factor to if your hair is going to last long or not. I’m a bonnet queen, I sleep with a bonnet all the time. I’ve been sleeping with bonnets for the last 28 years of my life. First word was probably “bonnet” because I am all about wearing my bonnet at night. I don’t care if I got a boyfriend, I don’t care if I got anything else going on, a bonnet is going on my head! I LOVE my target bonnet! You guys ask me all the time where I get my bonnet from…its Target! It’s big enough to tame all this. I got this for the Faux Locs that I had tried. It was big enough to contain all that and also somehow, it’s like a magical bonnet that can fit any style I have! Because it works well for any hair that I have. And, I pineapple a lot of hairs at night. Twisting the hair is an option as well, I just don’t see the benefits in me in terms of twisting a lot of my hair. But twisting is also a thing as well.”

“Night time routine is going to be essential. Detangling your hair as needed, so if you’re watching your show, just sit there and detangle the hair. I know it takes a lot of time, time that I have recently not be having. But if you do find time to do it, at least once, if you have to detangle the hair at least 3 times a week. Then, I definitely say that’s not a hair I want to try. But what I mean by that is taking your favorite detangle whether it be Mousse or Hawaiian Silky, and just kind of going through. I am using this hair as an example now, I have not detangled this hair in a week, but you know, going through and detangling it. You’ll find some things at the bottom, just cut it if you need to. I feel like this is what detangling proactively prevents though. Being proactive in your detangling, in your night time routine is definitely something that helps your crochet styles last as long as possible. And, that’s what you guys want! You want a longer lasting style, you want a style that is not going to slip! You want something that is going to be enough packs! Night time routine, very important in the longevity of your style. If you want your style to last as long as possible. You can’t not take care of it and expect it to last long. Sometimes, I don’t take care of hairs, and it is like… it doesn’t last long! But, that has been my top 8 common crochet mistakes! “

Check out our Crochet Braids