Help with Dutch braids!!

[Mellifluous]

Recently I have been Dutch braiding my hair a lot as I love how it looks but I've noticed I seem to always have the same issue. I always get a sagging loop type thing at the back of my head where each braid comes off my head, by the nape of my neck. I can keep the braid really neat and tight the whole way and no matter how I hold my hands I always seem to get these loops. I have also noticed that my Dutch braids seem to go down the side of my head, not the back. Basically, I want my braids to look like this:
https://imgur.com/SZrsDVEhttps://imgur.com/SZrsDVE

Help!

[SelenVinland]

This might be a hand position issue. You have to position your hands and pull the braid in the direction you want it to go, so keep your hands close to the hairline if you want the braid close to the hairline. Sometimes if I'm not paying attention my braids drift a bit haha.

Likewise, to keep the neck part tight, you have to keep your hands close to your neck; if you pull the braid away from your neck while you're making it it'll end up with a bubble when it lies flat against your neck.

[spidermom]

Yes, what SelenVinland says, plus I find that I always get a better result if I pick up the last of the hair at the nape of my neck in a single unit rather than picking up half on one side, then picking up the other half on the other side.

I used to have a problem with my braids compressing down on themselves so that if I started at the top of my head, by the end of an hour or two, it would have slithered down so that it looked like I started it in the middle of the back of my head. What I was doing at the beginning then was taking 3 strands, crossing right under middle, crossing left under middle, then adding a new strand to right and crossing under middle ... It stays where I put it much better if I start by crossing right under middle, then left under middle, then right under middle before I start adding new strands.

I hope I've made myself clear and if not that something is at least helpful to somebody else. Peace!

[tähkäpää]

I've had the same issues with my French braids, I assume the same logic applies to Dutch braids as well. From watching tutorials it seems that to get the braids to be on top of the head/closer to the part, your hands should be on different sides of your head and you'd be braiding "from above". I don't know how to do that yet. When I braid with both of my hands on the same side of my head, a similar position to if I was just doing a normal side braid, my braids also end up very close to my ears, like you described.

[Elodea]

This might be a hand position issue. You have to position your hands and pull the braid in the direction you want it to go, so keep your hands close to the hairline if you want the braid close to the hairline. Sometimes if I'm not paying attention my braids drift a bit haha.

Likewise, to keep the neck part tight, you have to keep your hands close to your neck; if you pull the braid away from your neck while you're making it it'll end up with a bubble when it lies flat against your neck.

Yes, hand position is very important with Dutch braids. I've been wearing double dutch braids very often these days and have managed to get pretty good at doing them on my own hair. When I get to the portion that's right at the nape of my neck and I'm adding the last chunk or two of hair, I just try to be very, very careful to hold my hands close to my scalp there and pull the hair/braid tightly as I'm braiding that portion.