[ocracoke]

The length of time it takes to do the styles depends on what you are doing. My daughter pretty much refuses puffs at this time. She loves beads and puff don't allow for beads. Her hair is also getting longer so it takes more time. As already mentioned my hairstyle times do not include washing, combing out, or conditioning. I like to do hanging twists because they are easy to put in and easy to take out. I can do her entire head in hanging twists in less then an hour. Hanging box braids and corn rows take much longer. I have her hair up in a set of 3 rows of cornrows right now and I would say that that took about 4 hours to put in - not all done in one sitting. If I do the hanging box braids then it normally take about 6 hours to put them in. Keep in mind that cornrows (at least for me) can stay in about 2 weeks and hanging box braids can stay in for about 4 weeks. So while you put a lot of time into it up front, you then get a long break from doing hair. Also keep in mind the length of time it takes to take the braids out. It takes me about 20 minutes to takes out the hanging twist, cornrows take about 1/3 the time to take out as it did to put in, and box braids take about 1/2 the time to take out as it did to put in. I wash her hair in between styles and I spray her head with a leave in spray conditioner every other day while in a style. Having her hair in braids or twists helps keep it healthy and strong. The day after a style I will sometimes leave it down with just a little finger combing -- great coils and curls. But I pay for it with needing to comb out her tangled hair -- it takes no time at all for it to become tangled.

Probably more then you wanted to know,
Samantha