Hair braiding day 30

The last day in my 30 day challenge. It's been surprisingly easy to find 30 different braids and twists to do with my hair. In fact I had several to choose from today. I'll admit I tried an idea I had in my head and wasn't happy with how it turned out and so ended up redoing my hair in a completely different style this morning. I couldn't have my last day be a flop!

Style 30: back braid to double braid bun

Last summer I became a big fan of the braid going up from the back. It takes care of all of those wispy fly aways that when it is hot out you don't want hanging on your neck. However buns and I are not on the best of terms. So I was really pleased when I figure out that I like this one a lot more than most. I started out by flipping my hair upside down and braiding up my head from the back. I stopped a little lower than normal not wanting a bun on the top of my head today (although it is still fairly high up otherwise the braid doesn't show). The collected all of my hair in a ponytail where I had stopped braiding and tried to get all the bumps smoothed out. Divided the ponytail into two parts and braided each part loosely tying each braid off with a rubber band. Took one braid and wrapped it around the ponytail, pinning into place and then did the same thing with the other (I think I wrapped the opposite direction but I can't really remember). It makes for a much more interesting bun, and my hair doesn't slip out of it nearly as easily as with a regular bun. That's it for my 30 braid challenge!

Hair braiding day 29

Yet again, Pinterest gives me an idea. I have to admit that a lot of my ideas come from there, mostly because I am most likely to try a braid I can actually see. Although I wasn't able to exactly replicate it since when I tried it just didn't look right, perhaps my hair isn't long enough or full enough?

Style 29: Braided into a roll

I started by collecting all of the hair that lay behind my ears and tied it into a low ponytail. Then with that same section of hair I put another small rubber band close to the end, with the hair loose (not pulled as close together as possible)...it is more about getting the ends even then a tight ponytail. I then took that piece and flipped it up, tucking the end under (one roll) and pinning it in place. The hair from in front of/above each ear got braided and tied off into the end. Then I took each braid and tucked the end into the roll and pinned it in place. Mixed emotions about this one. It looked fin this morning, was very loose by the time I got home this evening. 

Hair braiding day 28

There have been tutorials all over the internet for this braid this year. In my head I think of it as the hot new braid, sort of like ropes were at one point, or the topsy tail was big when I was little. So of course I had to try the waterfall braid at some point in my 30 days. I'm not sold on this braid though. It definitely falls into the loose, wispy category, and although I guess my hair is still up as I write this it does not feel very secure. Perhaps it is a special events type of hair style rather than a day to day one.

Style 28: Waterfall braid

The idea here is that you don't keep everything in your braid that you pick up. My best attempt was when I began like a normal braid, Added hair in only on the top, but when I added in I let the piece that I would have added it to go over the middle piece and then leave my fingers. So you are continually picking up on the top a piece that becomes all that is one strand in the braid. I haven't figured out a good way to end this braid either. I'd probably choose to put a fancy clip where I finish rather than finish the braid out, but I ran out of time to go digging for the one I wanted this morning.

Hair braiding day 27

So I really wanted to do this braid for Valentine's Day, but couldn't figure out how to do it on my own head. I don't think it'd be that complicated....but my fingers don't twist that way! Instead I decided to adapt this one to make my own braid bun, and yes, it brought quite a few ohhhs and ahhhs during the day today.

Style 27: Heart bun

This was a lot easier then I thought it might be. I took half of my hair and made a single braid from just to the side of the my center part and tied it off at the end with a band. Did the same thing on the other side, leaving enough space between the two braids to fit two fingers. Then taking the first braid I rolled it around itself from the inside to the outside and pinned the top part in place. Took the second braid and did the same thing, rolling it towards the outside. Then I added one more rubber band tying the two braids together. After looking a few times and walking around the house I ended up adding two more hairpins to secure the outer pieces of the heart down. 

Bonus Style 27b: Rope bang braid

That's right. I actually did two different braids today. I ran this afternoon and then remembered I had a parent meeting and after I washed my hair just wanted a little something to keep it out of my eyes. So I did a far off center part, collected two pieces and began to do a rope. I only added hair in on the forehead side, and only did that until I got across my forehead. I did a few more twists then pinned it into place. Stayed up well enough for the 3 hours I had it in, and suspect it would have lasted just fine for the whole day.

Hair braiding day 26

I keep thinking that I am going to run out of ideas, but with just another 4 days left I'm beginning to believe that I won't have a problem after all. I must admit, that is in a great part due to the wonders of Pinterest. Today's hair style came from a pin I saw there, admittedly modified a little to work with my slick, thinner hair.

Style 26: Hot crossed bun

This is another pretty simple hairstyle. I divided my hair into three pieces, with a larger portion in the center. That piece got curled into a bun. I have to admit that by the end of the day my bun was pretty fuzzy, but that probably could have been avoided if I had used a bit of mouse, of course that would have required actually having mouse. I didn't use a rubber band as I didn't want it to show and just pinned them bun into place. The front two pieces I did a simple braid with and attached at the end with rubber bands. The first braid I did ended up being two low to be able to wrap around the top of the bun so I had to redo it higher up. Then took one of the braids and wrapped it around the bun, crossing over the top, and pinned it in place. Did the same with the other braid, crossing over the bun the other way.

Hair braiding day 25

Today was a bit of an adventure. What felt like a completely new hairstyle compared to what I normally do. I must admit that I actually tried this hairstyle a couple of days ago and took it right back out as it was super messy and uneven. I guess a trial run helped make this one successful. My inspiration came from here, although I don't think it looks much like a halo, more like a path going around a mountain. Perhaps that is because I wrapped my rubber band around the ponytail part about 4 times to make sure it wouldn't fall out, perhaps it would lay lower if the rubber band hadn't built up so high.

Style 25: Around the mountain

While I really think you'd be best off watching the video that was my inspiration, here is what I did briefly. First collect 1/3 to 1/2 of your hair in a ponytail at whatever point you want your braid to go around. You should be pulling up the middle of your head, nothing that lays around the hairline. Then, like with a crown braid you start braiding. I start somewhere over my right ear. When you add in hair on the outside you will pick up from the hair that is down. When you add in hair on the inside you add a small section from the ponytail. It is a bit tricky to have both sections run out at the same time in the same place, but I was able to finagle it. You need to pay attention when you get down to maybe 2 or 3 sections to add in. Go all around your head. At the end, finish the braid out and attach it with a rubber band. Then tuck the end of your braid under the pieces that you had pulled from the ponytail. One advantage to this braid is that it looks almost like it is a continuous braid and you can't really see the beginning or the end. Rather more difficult to do on you own hair then on someone else, but clearly it is possible. I just had a hard time circling evenly around my ponytail. I will say I got lots of compliments on this one today. I guess it was just different enough to be intriguing!

Hair braiding day 24

Today was another variation of the fish bone. I haven't found a whole lot of different styles I can do with this, partly because I find it so hard to hang onto and make tight, but I figured that if I could do one I could probably do two. In some ways I think this one turned out a lot nicer than the single one I did a few days back.

Style 24: fish bone pigtails

The idea here is pretty simple. Divide your hair into two equal parts. Do a french fish bone braid on each side. When you add hair in make sure to take a small piece from what you already have in your hand as well so that it doesn't just fall right out. I did a better job today of taking small pieces once I got down to the tail and it looks a lot more like a fish bone!

Hair braiding day 23

Some days you just want something easy. Today was one of those days. What can I say? Its Friday. So I decided to do the second most simple braid I know. Second, only because I typically braid over instead of under so my fingers take a bit more thought this way.

Style 23: Inverted French Braid

So this one it almost exactly like what I consider a "normal" French braid. The only difference is that instead of pulling the outside strands over the middle one you pull under. I have a bit more difficulty making this tight at the top, I just can't pull it quite as tight, it still seems to stay in pretty well. As with most braids, the smaller sections that you pull up (meaning the more times you add to your braid) the tighter the braid will be. 

Hair braiding day 22

Today was a really easy and fast hair style. It took my maybe 2 minutes to do, and that is enough for me to say it is probably one of those styles that will stay in my repertoire, at least while my hair is this long.

Style 22: double braid wide bun

I started out by gathering my hair into two ponytails that sat about four fingers away from each other, one on either side of my part. I then braided each ponytail and secured with rubber band. Taking one of the braids I wrapped it around the other ponytail, going around the top and securing it where it landed on the bottom with bobby pins. Then I took the second braid and wrapped it around the other one, going from the bottom to the top, tucked the tail under the earlier braid and secured it. When I looked in the mirror I had to add another bobby pin so that the braids were fully covering up the original pony tail holders. Simple, pretty and worth a few remarks from my students today.

Hair braiding day 21

Whenever I decide to do a fish bone braid I always realize two things. One: that this seems to be the one type of braid I have not gotten any faster at despite doing it for several years. Two: that I'm not really sure I have the patience to do it well because it really only looks great if you take small pieces to move and are consistent in the size you pick up; neither of which I'm good at. Besides my arms start to get really tired whenever I do this! I thought to do an abbreviated version today, although I'm not sure it was any less work than any other fish bone.

Style 21: Half up half down with fish bone

Fairly simple hairstyle today in theory. At leat until my arms got tired. I collected a section of hair from the front, and did a fish bone until it reached the middle of my head. Clipped that in place to keep it from falling out. Then did the same thing on the other side. Collected both pieces and banded them together. If I was going to dot his again I would probably try to keep my fish bone going a bit longer so that it would (1) go all the way to the band and (2) could hang a bit looser. But hey, there's limited time when you hit the snooze button. You can see the fish bone a bit better in this one:

 

Hair braiding day 20

This one comes after an image that my sister pinned onto my Pinterest board. I'm not sure that it turned out exactly like the picture, but was apparently interesting enough that at least one girl in each of my classes today commented on it. In fact, I'm not really sure how to explain what I did as I didn't really look in a mirror and I just kind of tried something to see if it would work. I might even say that it looked better at the end of the day when it was a bit looser than it did as I left in the morning.

Style 20: side braid to a bun

So I didn't really part my hair or anything. I just started braiding somewhere above/in front of my right ear. I only added hair in from the bottom, for no particular reason except I didn't feel like trying to get the braid to curl while adding hair in on both sides. I braided until just past the middle of my head, hoping it would look something like a swirl into the bun. Collected all of my hair in one hand and twisted it around into a bun before securing with about 6 bobby pins (I told you I didn't really know what I was doing, I just kept adding until it didn't feel like it would fall out). I didn't braid the tail, I didn't use any rubber bands. I just tried to make sure that the bun curled above, almost sitting on, the french braid so that it didn't cover it up.

Hair braiding day 19

Today as a remarkably simple style to do, which I hadn't considered until I stumbled across this video. I might try what she recommended  but thought I'd start out with just attempting one. I'll say it stayed in all day, but not quite as well as many of my other styles (perhaps the hairspray is a necessary element but as I don't own any I wasn't going to use any).

Style 19: waterfall twist

Really, the video would give you the best idea of how to do this, but it is rather simple. Starting over my left ear I took up a small section of hair and divided it in two. Bring the bottom over the top and hold on to it dropping the other piece. Pick up a new piece from just underneath where you want the twist to lay, bring it over the top and drop the other piece. Repeat until you reach the other side of your head. I attached it with a fancy bobby pin somewhere behind my right ear , having pulled back a small piece of hair from the front of my right side as I don't like hair in my face during the day. Less than 3 minutes from start to finish.

Hair braiding day 18

Time for an old standby. Some days you just have to go with a braid you know will work, that you've done so much you hardly have to think about while your fingers get to work...

Style 18: pigtails

As with almost any style that has more than one braid the trick to doing these will is to part your hair and then tightly tie up the half that you are not going to work on to start out with. Otherwise this is just a normal french braid only using half of your hair. I'm particularly fond of this style when I know I'm going to have an active day, and often wear it this way when I play soccer. It stays up well and keeps my hair out of the way without feeling too heavy.