prehistoric long hair! (Elling woman, braided bun)

[Angela_Rose]

I'm starting to think I may have done this wrong... I divided my hair into four parts. Woops. I did the top English braid, plus three rope braids at the base, then added those to the strands from the original English braid and braided the whole damn thing together. Woops.

[Angela_Rose]

Originally Posted by nowxisxforever

Oh wow, you drug this one up from pretty far deep down, didn't you? Awesome though!

::shrugs:: Sometimes poking around on the fora can be a good thing!

[JKRBeloved]

This is such an interesting thread! How cool to be able to determine this woman's hairstyle with such precision from so many centuries ago.

[rhondalicious]

I think the photos of everyone's variations are lovely!

[rhondalicious]

HAHAHAHA oh no. My hair is definately too short for this. I mean, I got the braid going down to the bottom half, have a bit of a 3 strand braid, and a bit of a rope braid...

Uh, I apparently have just enough hair to tie a knot in the 3 strand braid, sticking the rop braid through the middle... But there is NOT enough hair to dangle down. Instead, I get a braid knot bun that sticks out about 2 inches from my head, due to the thick braid, and then about 1 1/2 inches of rope braid pokes right out the middle of that, and then another 2 inches of poky tassel standing straight out from that.

It looks like I have a small tail poking out of the back of my head.

I tried to get photos, but my camera hand is awfully shaky.

So, this hairstyle is for longer than waist length, and probably thinner hair than me. OI!

Though, with 2 hair pins in, it's pretty steady and I don't think it'll droop or go anywhere...

[eternallyverdan]

Have just tried a severely modified version of this, as I was too lazy to do a bunch of braiding and I couldn't be bothered to get up and find elastics to hold my rope braids together while I combined everything. Thus, I just did 3 english braids, combined them all, twisted it once, and left the rest of if hanging loose. It feels really secure, and I like the sort of asymmetrical look. This one is definitely a keeper!

The whole thing:



and a close up of the updo part:

[Arctic]

I also tried this today, I have hair between APL and BSL.

[zombi]

Originally Posted by Teazel

While doing all the braiding I also wondered about the amount of time this woman had on her hands. It takes quite a while, with the fiddly seven strands and all. Complicated updos, especially if they require help, have always been a mark of status. And why seven strands? Three strands for the top, then seven, then two, with the whole divided into thirds... I wonder if there was symbolic significance to those numbers, rather than it just being a pretty and/or practical hairstyle.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I hope a few more people will try the style; it's a good one!

If what someone said about Celts being in that place at that time was true, and if she was an adherent to an ancient Celtic religion, there are schools of thought which suggest that threes and sevens and nines are sacred number s -- perhaps if she was a religious sacrifice there could be some religious significance also placed on that way which her hair was dressed before going to meet the gods. Or whatever. hey, it's a crap theory, but I had to put it out there!

[Feye]

Thanks for posting, this is very interesting. Although I feel very confused about the braid and have no clue how to follow the instructions. I must re-read everything again.

This is the confusing part:

At the hairline on the back of the neck you braid the rest of the hair into the braid which is then divided into seven parts. You braid these together two, two and three. At the end the pigtail is divided into two twisted pigtails.

Edited to add: Oops, I suddenly see that this thread has become really long that that there might be further instructions earlier in the thread. I'll gi read those pages.

[ZadenWillowfyre]

I've actually seen this in person! So very interesting! Sometimes I wish my hair was longer (or a bit thinner) to do stuff like that...right how i'd be way to thick.