She was going to have her hair re-plaited and as the hair stylist lives closer to me she thought it would be best to have it done round mine, so she spent the night.

Now my mother is a modern working woman, busy with lots going on – she didn’t turn up till 11.30pm, I had already given up on her!

She turned up at 11.30pm with a full head of small Ghana style braids and a stylist coming first thing in the morning!!!

No problem she said, nothing for you to worry about – just sleep, I go to bed around 2am most nights she said, I don’t need much sleep. So we went to bed, me to get some shut-eye, she to take her hair out (in the dark but with the curtains open).

But of course sleep was impossible for 3 reasons:

1. Even though it’s a large double bed, I felt every single movement, every tug of the hair. I tried counting tugs (thousands there were!) but to no avail.

2. My darling mother, bless her, was wide awake and had lots to say that may have been interesting to hear some other time but was decidedly unwelcome at 3:00am.

3. But by far the biggest factor of course was guilt! How could I sleep peacefully when my mum was spending hours taking out her hair next to me?! Oh I did try to help – every so often I’d stretch up and take a couple out but I was so exhausted, London is hot and humid right now and you know how draining that can be.

The only evidence of a hard nights work
A bag of used hair attachment

Well, happy to say the nightmare is over. She managed to get them all out and her hair washed & steamed (at the salon down the road) just in time for the hair stylist to start on the next hair do. And what a wonderful job the stylist has done – well worth our efforts. And thankfully she hasn’t done them as small as the last time!

Ghana Plaits – Side View

Ghana Plaits – Back View