How much length do you need to do a crown braid?

[Larki]

I've been trying to learn how to do one, and finally think I might have figured it out, but I run out of hair with half of my head left to braid! How much length do I need? :(

[Entangled]

It would depend on your thickness. My hair's about BSL, and about four inches in circumference, and I can do a French/lace/Dutch crown braid. How are you braiding? Are you just wrapping a braid around your head, or are you French braiding it? What exactly do you mean by running out? Do you mean ends poking out?

[Larki]

Well, I tried just wrapping a braid around my head first, but only made it from the nape to my center part (so like a quarter of my head) :p so that was a failure. And with French braiding, the braid ended a little less than halfway around my head.

[Nimia]

Did you watch the Torrinpaige video on how to do it? I watched it today and have managed a messy crown braid with BSL hair:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tjLWkfiHvE

[CurlyCap]

People are different heights, but their head's are not so different in size? I say that because I'm short (5'3"), and my hair needed to be between waist and hip to do a full crown braid (no taper near the end of the braid as it crosses over my head to be tucked away).

I do have curly hair, but I braided as straight as I could get it without heat.

[HumanBean]

I could do a crown braid at BSL, but not a fake one that wraps around, but a lace crown braid.

[Anje]

A proper crown braid, I'm pretty sure I've done in others with APL hair. That's where you French/Dutch/lace braid in a circle all the way around the head.

As for wrapping a braid around the head (I've seen it called a faux crown braid), I guesstimate that I would need a bit past classic with my thickness. I'm nearly but not quite there... Thicker hair would need more length, and my taper makes the weight distribution lopsided.

[kitcatsmeow]

Looking at your profile pic I'd say you have enough!! Your maybe using too much hair at the start. Try adding less to the braid. I did a nice crown braid at your length and even shorter. Now bag it's almost waist it's more difficult.

[two_wheels]

I have easily enough at just-shy-of-APL to do a crown braid (Dutch braiding round my head, obviously, not the kind where you pin a long braid round your head!)

[Nesoi]

I agree with Two_Wheels and Anje. A proper crown/halo braid is possible at really quite short lengths. I could do a (v messy and not fit for human consumption) crown braid at shoulder, and I have seen a YouTube of a successful one on hair just past chin length. How much length you need for pinning a long braid around your head, I am not sure.

[StellaKatherine]

I am at tailbone lenght with 38 inches my ends do touch the start of the braid ( when pinned ) but to actually have a braided ends connect nicely with the start I would need few more inches, the wild guess at classic lenght it should look nice ( 8 more inches for me ). So result would be -/+ 46 inch of hair lenght for me, but then again I kinda have a big head as well, with smaller head could go less hehe

Btw.. why people call the pinned braid crown a fake ? It isn't fake, it is real as any - it is just different. To be able to make pinned around my head crown braid is actually my goal and my dream. How something that is made with your own hair can be called fake ?

[Nesoi]

StellaKatherine, I don't think anybody is using the term 'fake' or 'faux' to mean something negative! It's just a way of differentiating what a person actually means by crown braid as different lengths of hair are needed for the different ways of doing it :)

[StellaKatherine]

StellaKatherine, I don't think anybody is using the term 'fake' or 'faux' to mean something negative! It's just a way of differentiating what a person actually means by crown braid as different lengths of hair are needed for the different ways of doing it :)

I know they do not mean bad about it, it just how it sounds... When I read fake or faux it make me feel, that pinned around the head braid is somehow less than the braided one. Like one is real and other is not. Hard to explain the feeling I get... My grandmother was wearing her braid pinned around her head, that is the style which is very REAL to me and hopefully at this time next year I will be finally rocking mine :D

[W2]

The crown braid in my signature is from 2 years ago - and my hair would have been about BSL then - maybe a little shorter - and I did just fine.

Actually, I think it's much harder now with the extra length

[StellaKatherine]

W2, your hair looks amazing, love all the shades there :inlove:

[Madora]

Larki, your hair should be long enough for this: two strand lace rope crown braid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPHEzUr5bWQ

I love this one in particular because you only have 2 strands to contend with and the result is pretty. You can also do this with 3 strands. (I do this style in the "upside down" position, with all my hair in front of me).

If you want to do a quickie "cheat" crown braid (3 strands) you might try this:

1 Detangle all hair gently
2 Make a center part from forehead to nape. You hair is in two sections.
3 Left side of head: Make a semi loose 3 strand English braid. Draw it across your head until it reaches the top of your right ear. There should be several inches of unbraided hair left. Pin hair in place for the moment.
4 Right side of head: Divide the hair in 3 sections (2 sections a little thicker than the middle section).
5 Remove pins holding hair. ADD the loose hair from the braid across your head to the CENTER strand of the right hand side hair braid.
6 Braid all the hair to the end, fasten with elastic tie. Bring braid around back of head. Pin under left hand side braid.

When braiding the hair into the right hand side braid, it sometimes helps to "add" in thin bits from each edge of the braid to the center section to make it more equal to the other sections in the braid.

[mira-chan]

According to the article labeling on LHC, a crown braid is dutch/ lace braided and a coronette braid is wrapped and pinned. I think the ideal length for a crown braid is about BSL to waist (though again this varies by hair thickness and head size). My hair has been too long to do it for the whole time I've been on LHC. At a certain length you get back tangling annoyance with that.

Coronette braid usually requires tailbone to mid thigh hair length for the full wrap. Again this varies by thickness, head size and how big the wrap you want/ find comfortable. Taper also makes this one difficult. I've been able to wrap all the way around for years but it's always heavier to one side because of taper so it's uncomfortable. It's getting closer to being workable finally.

[meteor]

I am at tailbone lenght with 38 inches my ends do touch the start of the braid ( when pinned ) but to actually have a braided ends connect nicely with the start I would need few more inches, the wild guess at classic lenght it should look nice ( 8 more inches for me ). So result would be -/+ 46 inch of hair lenght for me, but then again I kinda have a big head as well, with smaller head could go less hehe

Btw.. why people call the pinned braid crown a fake ? It isn't fake, it is real as any - it is just different. To be able to make pinned around my head crown braid is actually my goal and my dream. How something that is made with your own hair can be called fake ?

I agree on your estimate, and I also don't get it why people call it "fake", if anything, it's more full and real than the crown braid. I believe, most people will need at least classic+ hair to do this "coronet" braid: simple English braid wrapped and pinned around the head a-la-Tymoshenko:
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/73156000/jpg/_73156752_021242940-1.jpg
If you don't have enough length, you can always do it as a half-up or based on 2 braids as milkmaid braids.

For a crown braid, even APL is good enough, because it's based on French or Dutch braiding. Also, it's actually beneficial to have shorter and thinner hair for a crown braid, because very long and thick hair tends to dislike being French-braided due to many tangling opportunities and ends getting "self-braided".
Example of crown braid:
http://www.nguoi-viet.com/absolutenm2/articlefiles/180008-crown-braid-4.jpg

[Larki]

Thanks, everyone! I'll have to give it another shot sometime!

[Laurenji]

I think it's because people don't know what to call the "wrapped" version to differentiate it from the Dutch or French braided version. If the term "coronet" braid were always used for the wrapped version and "crown" for the Dutch or French braided version, it might be less confusing.

Also, it's possible that people call it "fake" because it's less technically difficult to do an English braid and wrap it around your head than it is to try and do a Dutch braid in a circle around your head. While the coronet could be considered more "real" because it takes more hair, the crown braid could be considered more "real" because it's more difficult to do. I guess it depends on how you're measuring "realness."