Preparing my hair for braids - protective style

Due to winter having arrived this side of the world, I will be plaiting my hair into braids as a protective hairstyle. A protective hairstyle is one that ensures your hair ends are covered and not exposed to the harshness of  winds/air, cold temperature/hot temperature and friction against clothes (e.g collars). Basically a style that 'hides' away your hair strands.

To prepare my hair for the braiding I deep conditioned my hair last week using hair mayonnaise in order to strengthen my hair through the protein (keratin) found in the hair mayonnaise. This week, I am performing another deep conditioning treatment but this time it is a hydrating/moisturising treatment, i.e. Hot oil treatment.

My home made hot oil treatment contained:
15ml coconut oil
10ml castor oil
5ml grapeseed oil
10ml jojoba oil

I created a water bath to heat the oils, in other words brought 1 cup of  hot water to boil then placed the oils (in a small container) on the boiled water. The idea is to make the oils warm (not hot as you do not want to burn your scalp).

The next step was to apply the oils to my scalp and strands then cover my hair with a plastic cap and sit under heat for 40 mins. My source of heat was a thermal heat wrap. Below are the pictures:

Here is my thermal cap: