Weird yet dope braids

For my last blog post I wanted to try some of the braids that I was scared to try before. I first tried the leave out braid, then the upside-down braid. Both of these styles actually took me a month to master, this is why I had to make it my last one. These two styles I tried out on my soccer team mates, on our trip to Spokane. First up was the leave out braid, it is a french braid, but you only take out a little piece of hair, then skip a few inches down and grab another. It is difficult to explain in words, but the point of it is to look like a cool pattern, rather than to pull your hair back. At first this braid is quite simple, you start of with just a normal braid, next from the book I read, "Carefully grab a small section of hair and bring it to the braid, repeat this like a french braid. It's pretty much the same except you  have to go down an inch before you take another piece, making a noticeable gap in the braid" (Smith 1222). At first when I read this I was very confused, but after I tried and looked at the pictures it made sense. It took me 17 tries, but finally I got what it is supposed to look like:

This is my good Friend Katherine, (our right mid) everyone say "Thanks for modeling Kat". OK Now that one wasn't too hard for me, it was time to do the scariest of all, the upside down braid. I have tried this before and failed. It is a french braid on the back of your head instead of the top, typically girls will do this when they have their hair in a pony-tail, for instance I have seen girls do this for soccer. I did not really know how to go about this braid, but my book had some suggestions for doing this on someone else. "Have the model lay on a bed or some sort of flat surface, you must be above them. Make sure they tuck their chin in, and have all of their hair forward" (Smith 1734). I combined this new technique with what I have already learned about French braiding from my first post. Surprisingly it turned out really cool! a big thank you to Taylor for modeling (her hair is colored and it makes it look cool) Well that is all for my blogs, I hope everyone learned some valuable tips on braids because I sure did! I challenge you ladies or dudes with long hair to try rocking some cool braids to school! Bye guys!

My favorite braid

Now that I have experimented with many different braids, I'm trying to just focus on one braid that I like wearing the most. Since I cut my hair and it is layered, I cant braid my own hair anymore. Today I did double dutch french braid pigtails on Kate K. She showered and washed her hair "hair works best when it is clean and damp" (smith 899). Next she sat on my couch, I carefully brushed through her hair, and parted it down the middle. Parting hair down the middle helps make the braid look neater and it keeps the hair on the correct side, making it easier to braid on separate sides (smith, 898). I first tried to separate a small piece of hair and organize it into three parts, next I began a simple dutch braid. I had to restart a couple of times because I wasn't holding her hair tight enough. One thing that helped was holding her hair closer to her head, this made the braid a lot neater, and more precise looking. I tried my best to keep all the new strands about the same size, but it can be hard, this being said my braids turned out pretty good, but one side looked slightly better than the other. After I got the part of the braid by her head perfected I decided to do individual braids not join the two, so that it would be different from my first try. My favorite side is the one directly below this article. which do you guys like better? Why do you think braiding wet hair is better than dry hair?

Braiding my own hair pt. 2

Much like my last post I will be focusing on mastering one type of braid on myself. This next braid is a rope braid, which can be very hard if you don't have 3 arms. Every time I have tried to do this on myself so far things have gone wrong, in the book, Smith says "Take the two peices of hair and twist, I always twist towards my face, but the two strands must be going in the same direction." (Smith, 487) So i put this to the test and began twisting them towards my face, this actually made it a lot easier to keep track of. however holding all of this hair in my hands was a little too much for me. In the book it says "If its too hard to hold and twist both in your hands, do one first and after bite down on the end, it may be gross but it keeps the twist." (Smith, 498). Reluctantly I tried doing one first than putting it in my mouth, surprisingly this help out a lot more than I thought. After i had twirled both towards my face, I twisted them together the opposite direction like I previously learned how to do on my first post. These new techniques definitely helped me out, I can now do this braid quickly and easily for when I'm running out to the store or something. So far which braid do you guys think looks best? Also when do you think one of these quick braids could come in handy for you?

Braiding my own hair

Now that I have been practicing braiding my sisters hair, I will try to braid my own hair. This is a difficult and sometimes frustrating task, it also hurts your arms! The braid I want to see most in my hair is a Double Dutch braid.

 In my last blog I learned how to do a dutch braid, now I will be performing it on myself. I'm always the worst with starting my braids, so of course I read some tips from my book. I first split my hair in two, I found it easier to set one half aside in a ponytail. now the author says "take a rather large section from the front. Mine is from about my temple to the end of my part." (883, Smith) I tried this technique and took a larger portion of my hair to start.

 It took a couple of tries, but over all I think I got the hang of it. I learned from this type of braid that your hair must be fully brushed, and any hair that you don't use should be separated . Again the author said that after a couple of tries you can get the perfect braid, after you do make sure to pancake it, (vocab word from last blog). (smith, 890)

Remember, a dutch braid is a french braid but you take the pieces of hair under instead of over the middle. To reflect I have definitely gotten better at braiding other peoples hair, and I still really need to work on mine. All it takes is practice on getting a solid start! ladies, what do you think the hardest part of braiding your own hair, versus braiding someone else's hair?