Hair braiding day 9

One of my Christmas presents from my sister this year was a topsy tail, a plastic tool that helps you to turn your hair through yourself. I remember having a fake one of these when I was younger that was made out of a wire hanger (perhaps?) and I had no idea that they were still producing these. It's put me on the task of trying to find ways to add this element to some of my braided hairstyles. Today's is probably the easiest idea I could come up with on how to incorporate the two into one hairstyle.

Style 9: twin braids into a topsy tail

I started out by pulling a section of my front hair back and braiding it (no adding in, just a simple braid) and attaching a clip at the end to hold it in place. I then did the same on the other side. I pulled all of my hair together and tied a rubber band around it, releasing the clips on the end of the braids. A topsy tail on the ponytail, pulling it through the top, and I was done. A simple hairstyle that was quick but looks a lot more complicated then just braiding the front pieces.

Hair braiding day 8

It was interesting today to realize that I received no compliments on my hair from the teenagers that I teach but several from other teachers. Although a while back one of my students came in excited to share that she had figured out how to do this one after seeing my hair up. I suppose this is either a little girl hair style or a more elegant up do.

Style 8: braided crown

This is another variation of a normal french braid. I comb my hair so that it is cascading all around my head from a center point. Then starting over my left ear (I find it simpler to braid towards my right) I start braiding around. The hard part to this braid is that I always  have to change my hand hold at some point. The first few times I tried this I ended up with a twist in my braid, which while it looked cool was not what I had been aiming for. The best thing I can recommend is when you reach that point to collect all three strands in one hand and then move the hand that is currently from the far side around before you really think about which strand is supposed to be going over next. I promise it does get easier. This time I actually had to change my hands twice. Once as I got just past my left ear, the second time after I had all the hair but needed to finish out my braid. When you are finishing out the braid it is important that you pull your hair and braid as if you are still going around in a circle so that it will lay well. Tie of the end with the smallest band you can (often the end of your braid will end up somewhere towards the front of you head so a big hair band is really obvious) and then use a couple of bobby pins to attach the tail of your braid behind the braid at the front of you head. I suppose there is no reason you couldn't start this braid at the back of your head so that you'd have a smoother front but I've never been able to sort that out in my own braids. If your hair is long enough the end of you tail will end up over your ear or past it and so it can still have a smooth look in the front with a double braid. 

Hair braiding day 7

This morning I went with one of my standbys. This is a hair style that I use a lot, especially when my hair is shorter (as short as ear length works). I was happy it turned out as well as always and allowed me to leave the house feeling like my hair had a clean and simple style. I will admit though, that when I first tried to do this it took me a while to be able to make my hands braid across instead of back. It still feels rather unnatural, but I've learned as long as I go by feel and don't try to look at what I'm doing (or where I should be pulling from) it turns out better.

Style 7: french braid headband

There are two things that are necessary for me to be able to do this style on myself. The first is to make a clear part across my head, brushing all the hair forward that I want to include in the braid and tying back the rest of it tightly. Since I rely on the feel so much with this braid (after two or three years of doing this braid I still have to think about it each time) I have to have the hair I don't want included completely out of the way. The second thing is to make sure that what I am braiding is wet. I don't know why, but I can't seem to do this on myself when my hair is dry. It turns out looking rough, bits pop out, ends are all over the place and it looks too messy for my preferences. When it is wet it comes out looking smoother and staying in better. In fact I've often left his braid in overnight and it still looks fine in the morning if I've braided it wet. Once you have your hair separated you simply have to do a regular french braid working from over one ear towards the other. I prefer my braid to lay behind my ear so I try to add in a bit of hair just behind the ear to make it stay in the back (although my mother prefers the look when the braid hangs in front and is more visible). The idea is pretty simple if you can already do a french braid, the real trouble is just getting your hands to move in a different direction then normal.

Hair braiding day 6

Do you know what it is like when you have this idea in your head and despite your best efforts things don't turn out anything like what you were picturing? It is kind of like all those silly posts on Pinterest which are all "What I think I look like while _____ .... what I really look like." Sadly that is kind of how I feel like my hair style today turned out. Problem is, when you only give yourself half an hour to get ready in the morning it doesn't leave with you a whole lot of time to redo hair styles that don't live up to your expectations. On the opposite side I got a couple of compliments on my hair today, so maybe it's not quite as a bad as I felt, just not what I was aiming for.

Style 6: triple braid pull back

While this was really easy to do it didn't turn out anything like I had hoped for. But then my hair isn't anything like the person I saw it on. First braid just from pulling back the top center section of my hair. Pull hair from underneath towards the right to complete a second braid. Pull a piece of hair across from right to join a section from the left side to try braid a third piece. I purposely took uneven divisions in my braids to try to make them look more interesting. I think I would have been happy with this one if the last braid, the one that pulled across had started much higher on my head. I'm not entirely sure why it fell down so low, but perhaps if I had added in a small section of hair from underneath on the top it might have stayed up there a bit better and then you would have been able to see the three braids all flowing down.

Hair braiding day 5

Style 5: Triple braided bun

This was a new hair style for me, but surprisingly simple with what turned out to be a fairly elegant end product. All you have to do is gather the top third of your hair on your center line and make a single braid. Gather the next third (pulling in from both sides) under that and make another braid. Then collect your remaining hair under that and make a third braid. Then simple twirl your braids into buns and pin into place. I started with the top one so that I could make sure the others lined up fairly close to that. I put two bobby pins in each bun and it was secure enough to last all day at work, although didn't quite make it through soccer practice in the evening. Thanks to my sister for the idea which came from here.

Hair braiding day 4

Style 4: meet in the middle

I have found that with my face shape I really like having my hair pulled back on two sides. Sometimes I do just two french braids but as I get older it seems that maybe this is a bit childish (although I'm sure that will appear here at some point). My concession to what looks good on me while not being two young is to start with two french braids then have them meet and combine into a single braid. As you can tell I'm not always super even when I do this. I have found that it looks much more striking if you braid under instead of over (the middle strand goes  on top) as it makes the braids stick out. Usually I pick up hair six times total before making the braids meet. As I don't look in the mirror to sort out the back it always by feel. When I finish the picking up hair on one side I braid it out and stick a barrette on the end to hold the braid. Do the same thing on the other side, then hold the two braids together until it feels like they are meeting in the center. At that point I do my best to figure out which two strands are inside on each braid and pull those out of my braids to become one strand in the new braid while the remaining two in each side combine themselves. Then it is a single french braid, still braiding under, until I use the rest of my hair.

Hair braiding day 3

My sister gave me all sorts of fun new hair toys for Christmas, so I decided to play around a bit with the bun donut that she gave me.

Style 3: Back braid to a top bun

It's hard to see from this angle (it's all about what my downstairs neighbors think will make the best photo each morning on our way out the door) but I started out by flipping my hair over and doing a french braid from the bottom or my hair line up to wear the bun sits, using roughly the bottom half of my hair. I've since decided the braid part of this is much more visible if I do it wet (or am doing it on someone else's hair where I can actually see what I am doing and make it clean...on myself this is more of a messy hair style). Then I collected all of my hair in a ponytal, slid the bun donut over the ponytail, waterfalled my hair all around to cover the donut, slipped a hair band over it to hold it in place and then wrapped the leftover pieces around tucking them in with some bobby pins. I'd say the bun part turned out well, not so happy with the braided bit this time around.