Share your Achilles' Heel hairstyle!

[florenonite]

This is that one style you've been trying to do for what feels like forever and you can never get it quite right. For me it's a Dutch crown. I first encountered the style more than a decade ago, and every so often I decide to give it a try again, but I can never quite manage it. My Dutch braiding skills are fine. I also have no problems with switching my hand positioning (a diagonal French braid is my go-to style when my hair is longer). But no matter where I start the braid, I always end up with all the ends poking out right at the top of my head, like devil horns. I think I once managed to make it look all right, around five years ago, because my specific length and starting point aligned so the ends were poking out everywhere else, instead ;) Ends poking out of braids are a pretty common problem for me, so I think it's just a fact of my hair type that some styles are out of reach :shrug:

What's your Achilles' Heel style?

[lapushka]

The *darn* nautilus bun. Dang it. :lol:

I'll just stick to my LWB, thankyouverymuch. :)

[florenonite]

Hah! I could never manage a nautilus, either, even at hip (and I don't see myself ever growing longer - too much work!). I'd get it aaaaaalmost done and then the whole thing would slide out from under my hands in the last step XD

[school of fish]

Most of them :( :p

I'm pretty style-challenged, and I prefer to wear my hair down most of the time so I don't put in the practice required to get proficient. I do have a couple of go-to buns to get my hair out of the way when necessary, and I side braid when I need to contain it, but that's pretty much much my repertoire. I'm really not motivated to wear or work on styles, and it shows in my skill level ;)

But if I had to pick a clear winner on Styles At Which I Stink it would have to be the french twist. Sigh.... those failures are epic... The french twist is the one style I really would love to be able to achieve because I just love its elegance, and I have practiced that one muchly but it eludes me. Between my style-challenged fingers and my teflon hair that spits out hair toys after a couple hours, I just get too frustrated to push forward with practice. As much as I love my hair, styling actually gives me very little pleasure.

Every so often I break out the spin pins and give that french twist another go, but inevitably I end up huffing off in cloud of disgust as yet another attempt turns into a pinterest fail... hahaha!!

[Nique1202]

The *darn* nautilus bun. Dang it. :lol:

I'll just stick to my LWB, thankyouverymuch. :)

Meanwhile, I'm exactly the opposite. The nautilus is holding beautifully these days, but my lazy wraps still fall apart in minutes. :laugh:

With regard to braids, florenonite, a crown braid will almost always have hair poking out, just because of the way it goes all the way around. You might have better luck braiding damp or well oiled hair instead of dry? All my braids shred out big chunks, but I find that they hold a lot longer without shredding when my hair is damp or oiled when I start. Also, you could try moving where you start the braid or reversing the direction in which you're braiding. Might throw you for a loop at first but it might pay off!

[two_wheels]

Love this thread idea! My hair has no natural slip so nautilus is great here.

Disc bun for me- it holds ok, but not great, and somehow compacts my hair into a walnut sized blob of frizz with bits sticking out everywhere. I always get my engagement ring caught in my hair as I'm making it too. Grrr!

[florenonite]

Meanwhile, I'm exactly the opposite. The nautilus is holding beautifully these days, but my lazy wraps still fall apart in minutes. :laugh:

With regard to braids, florenonite, a crown braid will almost always have hair poking out, just because of the way it goes all the way around. You might have better luck braiding damp or well oiled hair instead of dry? All my braids shred out big chunks, but I find that they hold a lot longer without shredding when my hair is damp or oiled when I start. Also, you could try moving where you start the braid or reversing the direction in which you're braiding. Might throw you for a loop at first but it might pay off!

Oh, I get the chunks poking out right away even when my hair is damp :lol: And I've tried quite a few different starting points and it still happens; this morning I started behind my right ear, went down around the back of my head and over the top, then tried starting in the same place and going across the top of my head and around, and both times ended up with all the chunks at the top :D I'm at around shoulder blade length right now, so I think that no matter where I start I'm either braiding across the top of my head at a point where I've reached the ends of the hairs earlier in the braid, or I'm finishing up the braid in just the right place to wrap it across my head.

I suspect it might be worse because my hair is straight, fine and thick, so I'm adding more hairs in each turn of the braid than someone with thinner or coarser hair. Perhaps I should try taking in much smaller sections of hair?

[restless]

Unfortunatly the ever so popular cinnabun is the bane of my hairs existence.

[Johannah]

Kind of every bun except for the nautilus, cinnabun and LWB :lol:

[PixieP]

I just don't understand how to do a nautilus!

And crown braids. I just can't do it. The only one I managed to do is TorrinPaige's version when she makes it around the actual crown of the head, but it does NOT look pretty, so I only make that for sleeping.

[HairPlease]

Any bun. I've tried and tried and never succeeded with ANY bun. I can do whatever braids you may ask for (or at least learn them quickly), but I cannot bun. Either I'm bun-challenged or my hair is not a big fan of them. Either way, nada.

Except those goofy pony-scrunchy-knob buns for which my hair is too long now.

[pailin]

Crown braids, I managed one that I wore out in public, exactly once. But now that I can finally manage 2 dutch braids (2 days ago!), and it's long enough to wrap around the back of my head, I don't care anymore, I've fallen in love with my dutch braid-milkmaid braids. With spin pins. No one around me knows the difference anyway!
I could never manage a french twist either, and while I can manage a nautilus, I cannot make it comfortable.

[PixieP]

Oh yeah- French twist too. My hair just doesn't want to do it!

[HairPlease]

Oh yeah- French twist too. My hair just doesn't want to do it!

Oh yeah, I forgot about that, me too. It falls right out no matter what.

[ravenheather]

A crown braid. So my goal is enough length to do a coroner braid. I think growing that will be faster than learning the other. I just can't braid upside down.

[KittyBird]

Right now that would be all of them! :lol: I can only do a tiny tails-up/peacock twist secured with a ficcare or a large flexi-8, or a stubby little ponytail.

There were lots of buns I couldn't do with long hair either, for example french twist, equlibrium bun, hypno bun, and so on. I mostly just did a nautilus or lwb. If it was full moon and the stars aligned, I could do a cinnabun. I found them hard to secure comfortably, usually one side would pull and then everything would fall apart after a while.

[Spinder]

French rolls - I always adored the look of them, but I could never ever make one myself! My hair just won't go into that shape when I twist it around.

French braids - I just cannot ever figure out how to do them on my own head and make them look right.

Helix bun - Couldn't get it to stay at all, though I suspect I simply don't have enough hair for this style yet.

[florenonite]

I'm loving reading all these responses! I'm sensing quite a theme here: crown braids, French twists, and nautilus/cinnamon buns :D

Spinder: Which one's the helix bun? It doesn't sound familiar.

[missrandie]

Anything on third day hair. I currently don't have enough length to do any true buns, but my hair is made of Teflon, I swear. It slides out of spin pins, anti-slip claw clips, hair forks, ficcares, etc. The only thing that will hold it up on a third day is African Butterfly combs secured sideways, with one comb on the bottom and one on the top. That's the only way.

[Robot Ninja]

The French twist is also the bane of my hairstyling existence.

I can't do a figure 8/infinity bun either, but I don't care about those so much.

[LadyAdelina]

I've always thought the dutch milk maid braids are adorable on others, but I just look like a dork who wrapped her braids around her head, haha. I like the ones with the bangs hanging out in a purposefully messy and face-framing way, and it just looks sloppy on me. Believe it or not, I'm not super into looking dorky AND sloppy at the same, I usually go for one or the other...

I just need to stand in the mirror for longer than 10 minutes without getting frustrated, I think.

[Frankenstein]

French braid, nautilus, spidermom bun, disc bun... among many others :p

[Arctic]

I can't really count those for which I don't have enough hair (length or thickness) - that would make a long list of no-can-do styles, and I can't really do anything about it. Of the ones that do suit my hair stats I usually am able make them, or at least think of some kind of variation.

Crown braid might have a special place in my hair struggles list, too, though. While I learned the basic technique for it as a new LHCer, it took a long time to hone my method so, that I can make a good looking one with some sort of trustworthiness. I have been deeply determined to make it work and never gotten tired of trying. Alas it too would look better with thicker (denser) hair. I'm not sure why this style has been particularly stinging my hairdo-fu esteem, because it doesn't even flatter my head shape or face, ha ha.

French twist is also tender spot for me. Right now I don't have enough thickness at the sides to pull it off, but even when I did I almost never liked how it looks on me. The top especially looks ugly to me, and I gaze longingly the variations hair stylists do, where there is some sort of pretty swirl or roll at the top.

There are some fails here and there but I can't even remember the details anymore. Mostly I get my styles done without much problems, partly maybe because I choose my hairdo battles wisely and maybe just don't set my eyes to ones I know in my heart would be over my skills or my hair stat's possibillities.

[florenonite]

I can't really count those for which I don't have enough hair (length or thickness). Of the ones that suit my hair starts I usually am able make them, or think some kind of variation.

Crown braid might have a special place in my hair stuggles list, too, though. While I learned the besic of it as a very new LHCer, it took a long time to hone my method so, that I can make a good looking one with some sort of trustworthiness. Alas it too would look better with thicker (denser) hair. I'm not sure why this style has been particularly stinging my hairdo-fu esteem, because it doesn't even flatter my head shape or face, ha ha.

French twist is also tender spot for me. Right now I don't have enough thickness to pull it off, but even when I did I almost never like how it looks on me. The top especially looks ugly to me, and I gaize longingly the variations hair stylists do, where there is some sort of pretty swirl or roll at the top.

There are some fails here and there but I can't even remember the details anymore. Mostly I get my styles done without much problems, partly maybe because I choose my hairdo battles wisely and maybe just don't set my eyes to ones I know in my heart would be over my skills.

Heh, I can't do French twists because my hair is too thick! They make me look like some sort of egg-headed alien. That said, when my hair was around hip-length I managed a really beautiful French Twist variation where I folded the loop at the top over the twist and secured it with a couple of hair sticks.

[Anya15]

Any kind of crown braid. And the French fishtail braid, I cannot get it to work well on my thick hair.

[PixieP]

This thread convinced me that I will do my very best to master the french twist. I'm going to a funeral on Wednesday and it's the perfect hairstyle for that.

[ashke50]

There are plenty of styles I can't do, but the one I really want to be able to do and just can't get right is a French plait. Also struggle with Dutch plaits, crown braids, and other related styles.

[vampyyri]

I haven't tried anything outside a french braid, dutch braid, LWB, cinnabun, infinity/figure 8, or nautilus... there's so much more that I'm sure I will fumble on, but I have these down! I do want to try a french twist and disc bun... we'll see how that goes in the future :lol:

[Decoy24601]

I can't do a nautilus. I just don't have enough length because my hair is so thick.

I can do a french twist, but I've never found anything capable of securing it because my heavy long, thick hair defies any kind of pins and forks/combs for this hairstyle. It also makes my head look rather huge.

[Thraven]

The fishtail. It looks both too neat, and too messy at the same time when I do it myself. On other people it looks great, myself, not so much.

[Anje]

French twists never fail to look awful when I do them.

[Cg]

French twist. I could do them up to BSL but from then on, the top ALWAYS springs out and away, often with some force and always within 2 minutes. If I use a Ficcare to anchor, the twist tangles itself around the spring while coming undone and then I lose those strands. I'm not even sure superglue would work.

But like every unteachable, I still keep trying every so often (just not with Ficcares).

[Arctic]

Heh, I can't do French twists because my hair is too thick! They make me look like some sort of egg-headed alien. That said, when my hair was around hip-length I managed a really beautiful French Twist variation where I folded the loop at the top over the twist and secured it with a couple of hair sticks.

Ha ha, yeah every hair type has it's ups and downs :D Interestingly the one french twist variation that I do get to work consistantly also makes a loop/coil on top and gently pulls it loose, some sort of between stage between french and peacock twists.


I just remembered a recent fail, the hair friendly bouffant. :D

[PixieP]

Well I actually managed to do a french twist, it wasn't the prettiest, but I did it. And then I realized I don't like the look on me XD

[Tosca]

I'm loving reading all these responses! I'm sensing quite a theme here: crown braids, French twists, and nautilus/cinnamon buns :D

Spinder: Which one's the helix bun? It doesn't sound familiar.

The helix bun is gossamer's creation. She has a tutorial on it on her youtube. I can do it, and it feels balanced and secure on me.

My Achilles heel hairstyle is any kind of French braiding on myself. I get muddled. I can do them really nicely on other people, just not on myself.