Crown Braid for Dummies

[Islandgrrl]

Anyone have a really easy to understand, not too complicated tutorial or explanation on how to accomplish a crown braid?

I'm apparently hopeless. :silly:

[arylkin]

Yes please! Also- how long does hair need to be do do a decent crown braid?

[taliarose]

I'm interested also!

[LaurelSpring]

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that someone parted hair into quarters and braided each quarter then secured around the head. I dont remember who did this though.

[HairColoredHair]

That really depends which sort of 'crown' braid you mean.

I do a 'crown' braid by braiding my hair and wrapping it around my head (like in my avatar). Not very complicated, but requires longer hair.

Then there's the French braided way... which I cannot manage for the life of me!

[lolabee]

Hey!
I followed this technique... Its real easy
http://www.dreamweaverbraiding.com/braids/crown.htm

Just part off one side quarter of ur head (front quarter -- middle part till ear) and put it in a clip. Start french/dutch braiding all around your head. Once you've wrapped around the head till the part, just unlatch the parted and and continu french braiding. When there's no more scalp, just english braid it then wrap the end around your head and pin!
Voila!

I did it on my first try no problem!!!
Obviously, follow her instructions, she explains much better than I do lol

[lizzyjo]

I tried it once by starting on the left side of the back of my head and french braiding around. I could only make it half way around because eventually you have to switch your hands or flip the braid over or something to accomodate for the braid being on the other side of your head. Anyway, I gave up and haven't tried again yet. I'm sure it's possible, though.

[Islandgrrl]

That really depends which sort of 'crown' braid you mean.

I do a 'crown' braid by braiding my hair and wrapping it around my head (like in my avatar). Not very complicated, but requires longer hair.

Then there's the French braided way... which I cannot manage for the life of me!

I guess I mean the cheater kind. The kind I have to do until my hair gets long enough again to do it your way! :)

[freznow]

Whenever I try the french/dutch version it looks all wonky (weasels, anyone?)

Mostly it's: practice, practice, practice!

I can kinda do a coronet braid... but my hair's really slippery like that, always falls down. I think I need more pins.

[Islandgrrl]

Hey!
I followed this technique... Its real easy
http://www.dreamweaverbraiding.com/braids/crown.htm

Just part off one side quarter of ur head (front quarter -- middle part till ear) and put it in a clip. Start french/dutch braiding all around your head. Once you've wrapped around the head till the part, just unlatch the parted and and continu french braiding. When there's no more scalp, just english braid it then wrap the end around your head and pin!
Voila!

I did it on my first try no problem!!!
Obviously, follow her instructions, she explains much better than I do lol

This looks promising.

Clearly, though, you are more coordinated than I. I commend you on getting it first try! :)

[Arctic]

I can do one but they are not very neat looking at the back: I will try dividing my hair in sections like suggested here. :)

[Wavelength]

I tried this once, but I don't French or Dutch braid very well at all, and I felt like my arms were going to fall off. I think I'm just going to wait for my hair to grow some more and do it like HairColoredHair. :shrug:

[Anje]

The arm-trading for a french/dutch braided crown is one of the tricky parts, though my main problem is that I get really wonky parts in the middle, toward my crown.

What I do (on the rare occasions when I attempt these, and they're still not great):
1) Start at my left ear, and go over my head first.
2) I do a dutch lace braid (adding only from the hairline, not from the crown. This helps avoid the weird parts at the crown entirely. I haven't had much luck doing these braids as "french" rather than dutch, and I prefer the look of a dutch crown anyway.
3) I braid til I get near the ends, wet them so they stick together, and kind of weave them under the main braid a few times to tuck them in. Then I pin everything down.

Hope that helps someone. It's a tough style to learn, no matter what, but if you can do a decent dutch braid, it is certainly possible to do it. You just need to keep going after your arms get tired.

ETA: I'm not sure what length you need. I think APL would go into a crown braid well, and you might even manage to go a bit shorter.

[vampodrama]

I tried it once by starting on the left side of the back of my head and french braiding around. I could only make it half way around because eventually you have to switch your hands or flip the braid over or something to accomodate for the braid being on the other side of your head. Anyway, I gave up and haven't tried again yet. I'm sure it's possible, though.

same here, I got halfway done and then my brain just... switched off cos I needed to reposition my hands or my head or... something.... way too much thought process required! :p

[thetokenlady]

The hand switch is really the hardest part. Like a PP, I do a Dutch Lace braid (pick up from one side only). I usually start over one ear and work my way across the back of my head, and I'll turn my head as far as I can before I switch. Then I make sure I have each strand between different fingers and reposition my hands and keep braiding. When I run out of scalp I English braid to the end and wrap.

[Tangles]

I can almost do a crown English braid (ear to ear), and I'm just APL. Pretty cool. However, "almost" isn't good enough!

[Islandgrrl]

Okay, I did it! :happydance:

It took four tries, three of which ended up looking like I had an otter on my head :silly:

But I finally did it. There's a weird bump in back though, where I have the cowlick to end all cowlicks, but overall it looks pretty okay.

Sadness...no camera.

[granitbaby]

The hand switch is really the hardest part. Like a PP, I do a Dutch Lace braid (pick up from one side only). I usually start over one ear and work my way across the back of my head, and I'll turn my head as far as I can before I switch. Then I make sure I have each strand between different fingers and reposition my hands and keep braiding. When I run out of scalp I English braid to the end and wrap.

Yep, the hand switch is the hardest part of crown braiding. A bad hand switch can really mess up everything braided so far.

I have tried to crown braid with APL hair but the end of the braid didn't turn up well at all. When I made the crown braid in my avatar my hair was almost at waist, that was a really good length to crown braid. Hope to get there soon again.:)

[HairColoredHair]

I tried this once, but I don't French or Dutch braid very well at all, and I felt like my arms were going to fall off. I think I'm just going to wait for my hair to grow some more and do it like HairColoredHair. :shrug:

You could try it with two braids, one on either side of the head and wrapped in the same direction... Same look, less hair... :eyebrows:

[Stevy]

I start at my right ear and Dutch braid over the top of my head first. I've never been able to manage the 'section into four and start by braiding across the bottom' version.

I've never actually noticed having to swap hands. I guess I must just do it automatically by now.

[Islandgrrl]

I've never actually noticed having to swap hands. I guess I must just do it automatically by now.

Oh, lucky you! I'm such a spaz it's not even funny.

I decided to wear a crown braid this morning to teach yoga. It went fairly well putting it up, but I don't think I'm getting it tight enough. By the time we were done with class I had that otter-on-my-head look again. Sheesh.

Off to practice......

[MischiefsMuse]

lol, "Otter on my head"... It was worth it just for the mental image you gave me :D

[Stevy]

Oh, lucky you! I'm such a spaz it's not even funny.

I decided to wear a crown braid this morning to teach yoga. It went fairly well putting it up, but I don't think I'm getting it tight enough. By the time we were done with class I had that otter-on-my-head look again. Sheesh.

Off to practice......

OK, I think we should have a new official style classification - the Islandgrrl otter-on-the-head braid!

Is it the braided-to-the-head bit that's giving you trouble by being too loose, or the wrapped length?

[Islandgrrl]

It's too loose.

I can't seem to take hair from both the inside and outside edges as I braid so I'm just pulling hair up from the outside. Maybe my hair is too slippery when it's dry and I should give it a go when it's damp still. I can get the wrapped part tucked under and secured with Amish pins just fine now (although it was responsible for part of the otter look before I got that part figured out).

And then there's the issue of the larger-than-life cowlick at the nape of my neck. Not only does it poof out there, but it poofs out to the side.

Such a pretty style, but so tricky!

[Anje]

I can't seem to take hair from both the inside and outside edges as I braid so I'm just pulling hair up from the outside.
That's my main problem, too. It just gets too wonky when i try to go from the inside edge. I do think that adding from the outside only really necessitates going over the top of the head first. Unless you do the braid hanging upside-down. :) (I think we need an upside-down smiley.)

[annuscka]

Late to the party, but oh well :D I did my first crown attempts just now and the second does resemble the real thing, albeit a bit...ottery. But better than I thought for a second attempt! Main problem: what to do with the last inches of braid that just won't go anywhere! I can manage the actual French-up-side-down part well enough, but wrapping and tucking gets messy. Oh well.

I do it upside down all the way - kneel on the floor and start at my left ear. Easier on the arms I imagine, and the side hair is more controlled hanging straight down. Once I got to the front/right ear I had to lean one arm on the bed though, for support - must look rather amusing to an onlooker :D

[Paliele]

Regarding how much hair you need--I did a french crown braid with chin-length hair, but it was chin-length all over, not just in front. I've been growing it out from a pixie and haven't cut it, so it was about 6-7 inches all over. I had to make sure I secured it well at the back, but I thought it looked decent. :)

[nicolezoie]

If you're able to do a standard Dutch braid while creating your crown braid, the trick for me was to count how many plaits per quarter, and do the same number in each section around. The part on the back of your head really does end up looking like a starburst. I wish I had pictures of the one perfect crown braid I created on myself.. :(

While I could manage the swapping hands thing, I always had to use this braid-aide thing I bought at the store years ago that looks, more or less, like 4 plastic fingers with foam in between, which you stuff your three braid strands into, then swap it around the backside of your head, then carefully restart braiding.

I have not dared to attempt a crown braid since it was.. um. I'd say mid-thigh length. I figured out how to do it around hip-length.

[Flynn]

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that someone parted hair into quarters and braided each quarter then secured around the head. I dont remember who did this though.

It wasn't me, but that is what I do... divide it into quarters, and braid in the direction you want to wrap for the crown. My hair isn't quite long enough yet for a single-braid crown. I like my hair really good and secure, so it takes a whole packet of long U-shaped hair pins to hold it, though...