Baby steps to become better at pretty styles?

[citylove]

I think this might be my first post, although I have been an avid reader for many years. My hair is now waist length and I still don't do a whole lot with it, and would really like to start doing some of the pretty styles I see on here (I spend way too much time in the hairstyle of the month forum).

Problem is, I am completely overwhelmed at the amount of time it takes me to try one style (and of course fail miserably multiple times) that I get discouraged and go back to my lazy ways. (Should I mention here that I work outside the home and have a very busy toddler when I am at home?!)

Can anyone recommend a progression of styles I should learn in a particular order? Which styles should I master first before going on to something more complex? I can do a rope braid, a rope braid bun, and a decent french braid, but that is about it.

Thanks for your advice!

[Magalo]

Lazy wrap and nautilus bun are pretty easy with a stick. You can also learn the dutch braid, and do braided buns (french or dutch). I LOVE LOVE crown braids but it takes a bit more practice. But it's so pretty!

[sisi33]

I would start with a Cinnabun, then a Nuatilus, and so on! It really is all about practicing when you aren't tired! If you are tired, it makes hair failure so much worse. Also, with you being able to French braid, if you make 2, you're 80% done with a Chinese Braided Bun! YouTube Is great help in the beginning! Almost all the videos are very clearly explained, and you can pause at each different step. If you have extra time, look at videos you think you might like to try, and then save them to a "Hairstyles" playlist for later. Hope this helps some!

[lunalocks]

I have found doing it along with the video helps. I agree - cinnabun, nautilus. Figure 8, for me, was pretty easy.

[SerinaDaith]

When I started here I was at a chin length bob. I started learning to section off my hair in three sections so I could french braid each section. Then as my hair got longer french braiding got easier and easier. Following along with the videos is great, you can always pause and rewind as needed. I have worked out a few but a lot of what I really want will have to wait till I get to about BSL or better (a year from now with any luck). Also if you section the top half of your hair then pony or braid the bottom and only work with the top sometimes you can figure things out that way (like my "figure eight" in my profile pic). Trust me my first attempts at anything that was not a basic braid, pony tail or scrunchy bun were probably comical and I still can not piranda or crown braid for the life of me but I practice while I am reading or catching up here.

Play with your hair, relax, it doesn't have to be perfect right away, you will get it eventually! I am a full time student, wife and mom to three, with cat's, a dog and everything that goes with it. If your hair is stressing you out just put it up till you feel like playing with it again! I learned to french braid this year. To say I am but a grasshopper here would be understating things!

[Natalia]

Alot of buns are just a variation on the same base so they arent as difficult as youd think ;). Id start with a nautilus because it practices twisting, loops, and folding all in one bun its also self locking and very secure. After that lazy wrap, wrapped, and cowrey then maybe a kl knot if you have enough hair. Another fun one is the spirit bun :). After you get downa few basics try double buns or wrapped buns. My profile pic is a braid wrappen bun and with your braiding skills it woule be east for you. You make a half up using the top layer of hair for the bun then braid the bottom and wrap it around the bun and pin in place.

[jacqueline101]

Maybe crown braids there are a lot of braided styles that are elegant.

[kittengirl]

I was going to post a thread similar to this! My hair is about 2 inches away from BSL now, and I have been experimenting more and becoming very frustrated. My hair has been so short for so long that I seem to have lost my knack for styling it. I tried to follow some tutorials then I realized I was just trying too much too fast so now I am learning to Dutch braid, which I had never done before. I think I've almost got it perfect. This has given me a bit of encouragement. You are so lucky, having so much more length to work with!

[schweedie]

Since you say you're already able to do a French braid, perhaps you could try the Jamie Leigh bun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6vq6paUaF0)? (I just learnt it myself and fell in love, heh.) I think you should be able to do that at waist length, although it depends on the thickness of your hair, of course. The French braiding is the tricky part of it - the rest of it is just wrapping the braid around a stick, which really isn't hard at all!

[Naiadryade]

I'm also a style beginner, and taking my time about it. Beyond the simple twist-and-wrap-your-hair-around-itself-till-it-runs-out-and-wrap-a-scrunchie-around-it-bun (no idea if this has an actual name), I only really know two buns. The infinity/figure 8 bun is uinque-looking, and really only one more step than the above mentioned simple bun, though it has to be held with hair sticks or, in my case, spin pins. I absolutely love the seashell bun because it is easy, super fast, super secure with 2 spin pins, looks nice and fun and mimics nature (and I love spirals).

I've also recently learned to dutch braid. The process is very similar to french braiding, but dutch braids really stand out! (Badum-ch.) And I love the braid waves I get from dutch braids. Soon I'm going to try this gorgeous style (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG4MTltnX7M), which is what motivated me to learn to dutch braid in the first place. The hardest part of it for me will be getting the braids properly positioned on my head, so they are parallel and not too far apart. Other than that it looks really easy!

ETA: Since you know how to rope braid and french braid, a french rope braid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQLIjmsFuVw) seems like a logical next step! I haven't tried this myself, though.

[Seeshami]

I vote for just playing with your hair wrap it twist it braid it aimlessly because it's how you'll learn your hair. You might not invent anything new and need to ask what they are, or you can just ignore what the rest of the world calls it and call it what you want. Case in point I call the french twist a five second loop, rest of the world calls it a french twist, we both think the other is crazy but it's all good.

[citylove]

thank you for all the replies! I am so excited to have somewhere to start. In fact, I reserved a few minutes before my day started to do a nautilus bun for the first time, using a video tutorial. It slowly slid down the back of my head but it officially lasted the day! I attempted a picture for you, and it isn't exactly perfect but here's my first (well, 3rd or 4th) attempt at a new bun! yay! Thanks :)

http://s1197.beta.photobucket.com/user/jessmajors/media/IMAG1075.jpg.html

[dulce]

How about some easy hair toys?For example, flexi 8 clips or african butterfly clips?Easy to do fast,different hair styles,check utube for hair style demos with these 2 items.

[katiebeans]

I'm in the same boat, I stink at replicating all of the pretty hairstyles I see on LHC. So I will be keeping an eye out on this thread. I have already found some good advice :) I'm glad the OP succeeded with a new bun style!

[AngryVikingGirl]

I only can offer one advice about braids. To avoid frustration, I do a braid every evening for sleep. It doesn't matter, how it looks but every time I get a bit better at it.

[torrilin]

I'm also a style beginner, and taking my time about it. Beyond the simple twist-and-wrap-your-hair-around-itself-till-it-runs-out-and-wrap-a-scrunchie-around-it-bun (no idea if this has an actual name)

Cinnamon bun if it lays flat to your head, bee butt if the coils stack on each other. Sometimes also called a ballet bun or "a plain bun". It's often the first bun someone learns, tho it isn't actually one of the easiest ones to do or make stable for a lot of hair types.

A Gibson tuck isn't exactly a bun, but it can work well on fairly short hair that isn't super slippery. Since my hair is fine and straight, it's a disaster :D

French twists and peacock twists will often work on shoulder length hair. They're basically sister styles, one has the ends tucked, the other leaves them out. Again, my hair is really slippery and these both tend to result in pissed off escaping hair.

French braids, Dutch braids and lace variations of them are doable on quite short hair. If your hair is too short for one braid to work, try two, or three, or a lace braided headband. These are about the only things that don't result in my hair escaping when short. Doing twin braids leads into all kinds of neat styles as your hair grows, and most of them are pretty flexible about thickness and how slippery your hair is... which is not something I can say about a lot of other styles sadly :D.

[MsBubbles]

This is tricky because what medium or coarse thickness haired ladies are going to find 'easy', a fine haired person very well may not, and vice versa. It helped me out the most to find like-haired ladies here, and ask them for tips on how to do intricate braids or secure buns, and what hair-holding tools work best in our hairtype. It's not the same for coarse vs fine hair, for example.

Unfortunately the hair type classifier has not yet made it back to the avatars, and I don't see a way to search the members here, but if you notice someone else with similar hair to yours in any of the updo threads, it might help you more to check with them than to go by random people saying "I found xyz bun/braid the easiest at first".

You are on the right tracks though to practice a bit every day.

[Wildcat Diva]

Why not try some variations on the Cinnabun/ bee butt. If you do a bee butt, then you can take the first coil and flip it up or over to make an 8 Or an infinity bun.

Also the flipped Cinnabun seems easy. Take your Cinnabun and flip it up, bottom comes up and the outside of the bun is now facing in towards your scalp. Hope you are able to use a stick or a hair fork? Good luck!

[citylove]

I figured out the right way to post pics so I thought I'd try again. Thanks again for the tips, I'm inspired :)

http://imageshack.us/a/img266/11/imag1075.jpg

[lydiajo]

Looks good to me. Mine are a mess and often undefined.