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View Full Version : Tips On Dexterity And Learning "New Moves?"



FennFire911
December 7th, 2016, 04:26 PM
Well, having made my first paranda last night, I've finally found the only problem I've ever had with doing my own braids "inside out." Basically, I can't French braid my own hair, only Dutch. Inversely, I can only French braid other people's hair and can not do Dutch on someone else.
This presents the problem of hiding the paranda knot. I need to be able to do a correct English braid. When I start a braid at the nape of my neck, instead of going right over middle, left over middle and continuing, I do midfle over right, left over right and continuing. Doing it in reverse like that causes the knot of the paranda to be pushed so it's visible.
I tried, clumsily, to do an English braid in the correct order. I only got a few twists in before I got mixed up and lost my motion, but it was enough to see that that is what direction I'll have to braid to keep the knot tucked in.
But I just...Can't. If my hands are behind me, my hands work opposite of how they do when I'm braiding someone in front of me.
How can I retrain my hands? Is it even possible? After braiding in these directions for over 20 years is there any hope I can unlearn and relearn?

ephemeri
December 7th, 2016, 06:23 PM
I wish I could give better advice but all I've got is "practice makes perfect." I went from not being able to dutch or french braid AT ALL to being able to do a fairly decent dutch braid on myself and a passable french braid on someone else in the span of about 4 months. I practiced several times a week. I'm still not great, but my fingers at least figured it out enough to give me hope! HTH

pailin
December 7th, 2016, 06:27 PM
Maybe if you practice it as a side braid, so you can watch what you're doing in the mirror, maybe that would help you learn the motions.

Borgessa
December 7th, 2016, 06:41 PM
Just keep doing it over and over again, soon your hands learn and just do it automatically as you do now with the dutch version. You know yourself you don't even think about it, your hands just do it. It will come as it did with the other, also.

Nique1202
December 8th, 2016, 04:30 AM
Yeah, practice is the only way to learn. Maybe if you watch a video tutorial and try to mimic what the demonstrator is doing a few times in front of you before you put your hands behind your head? Either way, 1-2 times a day practicing and you should have the basics in a few weeks. Good luck!

FennFire911
December 8th, 2016, 08:41 AM
I'll look up more videos. I kept trying last night without much luck. I'll keep on but my goodness at this rate it's going to be a good while. :/

Anje
December 8th, 2016, 09:08 AM
You'll get it, but it's definitely going to feel awkward at first. (I know dutch braiding feels awkward to me when I've tried it.)

Rather than thinking about crossing the outside strands in, maybe think of it as reaching under them to grab the middle strand and pull it out? It's just that you're lifting the outer strands up a bit and working beneath them, instead of on top.

Kat
December 8th, 2016, 09:16 AM
You can do it. I always braid "inside out" too, which I discovered the first time I tried a French braid and came out with a Dutch braid instead. I had to re-train myself (and that was not easy-- both learning to French braid, AND having to braid opposite from the way I'm naturally inclined to??). Going slow and really thinking about it helped.

Braiding "the other way" still feels awkward for me, and unless I'm doing a French braid I don't bother, but I can manage it.

spidermom
December 8th, 2016, 09:18 AM
Practice. It was a long time ago that I started learning how to braid, but I still remember how awkward it felt at first. Oh, and I mastered the art of a rope braid a few years ago, and it took me quite a few tries before I was able to reliably twist in the opposite direction of the cross-over.

FennFire911
December 10th, 2016, 08:46 PM
IT HAPPENED!!!
My daughter did it for me earlier today and when my ex and I took our younger daughter out for her birthday (we still do whole-family for special events) my ex gave me some light-hearted teasing about having a braid like from the movie Avatar and asked if I could plug in to all other living thingd now lol

But this pic, I did this myself this evening at home. It's not perfect yet but significantly better than my inside out first attempts now that I'm English braiding in the right direction. Still slow going and still room for improvement, but wow this feels great!
Slightly damp, slow, looking in the mirror from the side....Thanks for all the encouragement!

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j188/foxfire_ga79/IMG_9936_zpsycldjpic.jpg (http://s80.photobucket.com/user/foxfire_ga79/media/IMG_9936_zpsycldjpic.jpg.html)

FennFire911
December 10th, 2016, 08:49 PM
You'll get it, but it's definitely going to feel awkward at first. (I know dutch braiding feels awkward to me when I've tried it.)

Rather than thinking about crossing the outside strands in, maybe think of it as reaching under them to grab the middle strand and pull it out? It's just that you're lifting the outer strands up a bit and working beneath them, instead of on top.

Going under is what helped me most.