Pipe Cleaner Curls and Conleigh's Locs

We had family pictures today and Conleigh's hair really could have used a good shaping but I didn't have time to do that.   It looks a little scraggly, like we just let it grow and have paid no attention to it.  (Which is what we did.)  Really, I think some layering in a bob style would help but that's for another day.  Not wanting the scraggly look in our photos, I needed to figure out an alternative.  So I decided we'd try pipe cleaner curls.  Really, people have been doing similar things for years.  From the old foam rollers to straw sets, people have twisted their wet or damp hair around an object to give it a corkscrew shape.  

I used the tutorial available at Naptural Journey but really, I don't know that you need a tutorial.  You fold a pipe cleaner in half and twist it, leaving an "eye" at the top.  Then you thread the ends of the hair through the eye and coil it up on the pipe cleaner until you get to the scalp.  Fold the pipe cleaner on the scalp end over to secure it and you're done.  Then repeat about 200 times.  I did it on freshly cowashed hair and used Darcy Botanicals Twisting Cream to help give the curls some staying power.  It took me about two hours to get them all in.  (I did not do every loc as a separate curl.  I did up to four locs together on on pipe cleaner.)  Conleigh slept in the pipe cleaners and the hair dried overnight.  (You do want the hair to be thoroughly dry as even slightly damp hair will not hold the curls like it ought to.)  While she was eating breakfst, I took the pipe cleaners out.  Then I separated the locs so the curls were not clumped together.  She really liked it.  I'm hoping that she will be gentle with them and they will last all week...we'll see.