Creative braiding

[slz]

On my way to my parents' for the holidays I was bored to no end - night train, couldn't sleep - so I played with my braid : I had my usual boring single english braid, I unbraided the last two thirds, which I divided in two parts i then braided separately. So the result was one braid that split in two. It looked pretty cool ! A bit snakey-looking, weird but cool. Now I'm thinking of going further this way, like two braids each split, or one split in two then each split again in two ... you get the picture. I think I never saw anything like this in the albums here, did I miss something ? Has anybody played with braid-splitting that could show us ? No pics for me yet - I will take some next time I do this kind of braiding.

Next : my mom used to have very long hair, which she cut when she was 30-something because of headaches. We were talking about it, and she added that "it was kinda boring, too, to always wear it the same way = braided", as if there was no other possibility. I told her she was so damn wrong, on the top of my head I could think of 7 different styles of braids to begin with. Then to show her, I did my three-braids do (can be seen in my album - except they were of equal thickness this time) BUT each one with a different style : middle one was a classic english braid, left = herringbone, right = rope braid. I loved it ! We tooks pics but with my niece's camera and I haven't recieved them yet.
So, yet another way to have fun with braids : multiple braid styles. I'm thinking of combining the two : like, english braid then split in two herringbones, or two ropes, and so on ... you get the picture.

Speaking of pictures : if anybody has some of this kind of fancy creative braiding, or anything else unusual : please share !!

[Gumball]

Think of a shape and try to braid in that shape. Another real fun way is to make a few various kinds of braids, bust out some pins, and arrange them!

[ravenreed]

I need to add more accent braids. I get bored with my hair and have been thinking that a few would make things more interesting.

[slz]

Yes but what about the pictures !!! :D
Gumball : not sure I could braid following a shape to save my life, but I've thought about braiding in"S" shape ... that'd be cool.
Ravenreed : yes, accent braids - love'em. I used to do one small english braid along the side of my face when I wore my hair down, to cut out on the boringness (lol is that even a word ??). Haven't done in a long while, thanks for reminding me. When I did my 3 different braids, my niece was much impressed by the rope braid so we did a small one on the top of her head, that was pretty cool, even on her short (chin length) hair. Or one tiny side braid that remains down when the rest is up in a bun - I understand not everybody would like it, but I really do.

[katha]

I put a few tiny rope braids right "behind my ears" sometimes, when I wear my hair down. I do it in the underlying layer of hair, so it's not that easy to spot, but I know they're there and I like them. Pain to get them out again though.. No pictures, sorry.

[ravenreed]

I ADORE rope braids, but alas, they do not work well with heavy layers. Perhaps when I have grown my layers out a bit more...

Something that did work with my layers, along with a bit of aloe gel, was the hawser braid. Two rope braids, braided together. I did a heidi braid but with hawsers and it rocked so awesome. :D



Yes but what about the pictures !!! :D
Gumball : not sure I could braid following a shape to save my life, but I've thought about braiding in"S" shape ... that'd be cool.
Ravenreed : yes, accent braids - love'em. I used to do one small english braid along the side of my face when I wore my hair down, to cut out on the boringness (lol is that even a word ??). Haven't done in a long while, thanks for reminding me. When I did my 3 different braids, my niece was much impressed by the rope braid so we did a small one on the top of her head, that was pretty cool, even on her short (chin length) hair. Or one tiny side braid that remains down when the rest is up in a bun - I understand not everybody would like it, but I really do.

[ravenreed]

Oh, and I have a dear friend who puts tiny french braids in her chin length hair, but pins them down to keep them neat. They look adorable! She also does some nice little twists that are so cute that I almost want hair that short just to do them.

[slz]

Yeah rope braids are cool but such a pain in the a** to take out ... I need to try accent rope braids. Really.

[Gumball]

Yeah rope braids are cool but such a pain in the a** to take out ... I need to try accent rope braids. Really.

Sometimes that's just too utterly true for words. Haha. I've learned not to rope braid on damp hair let alone doing smaller ones because it just gets exponentially tougher to take out because my hair takes to shapes so well due to its type.

[slz]

Did a "split braid" again today : here's a picture in me signature.

I think I'm going to do it quite often - just as easy and comfortable than a regular one, but funnier / unusual.

[enfys]

I've tried that split style but my hair is too slippy; it starts coming undone on the side I was planning to braid second.

In a couple of years, when I've minimal layering, I'll give it another go. For now I'll just sit here and steal ideas.

As for your mum; that's the difference the internet makes! Without it a lot of us would have never seen the varieties of buns you can make of the braiding techniques. We don't have Ren Faires or anything where people braid hair for a living, so people just never learned how to.

[little_acorn]

Did a "split braid" again today : here's a picture in me signature.

I think I'm going to do it quite often - just as easy and comfortable than a regular one, but funnier / unusual.

Thats awesome - I really like that :D

When you split the braid how did you tie off one side while working on the other?

[Amara]

That split braid looks nifty! I've not seen any other pictures or heard of it before. It's funky and different.

I usually have a few small braids somewhere. Right now I'm wearing four small braids at my nape - like a quarter of the circumference of a pencil each. They show up when I pull my hair up for updoes, but are invisible in braids and when my hair is down. :) I leave them in to wash and everything. Every once in a while I'll switch it up - soon I'll take those four out and do a few in a different place.

[slz]

When you split the braid how did you tie off one side while working on the other?
I put the terry cloth "elastic" I used at the end of the braid later, quite tight so that the upper braid wouldn't loosen while I was working on the first small one. Worked well, I was also very careful to braid tight at the beginning of each small one, so that the transition wouldn't look too messy - turned out fine, the first one I did in the train wasn't that nice.


As for your mum; that's the difference the internet makes! Without it a lot of us would have never seen the varieties of buns you can make of the braiding techniques. We don't have Ren Faires or anything where people braid hair for a living, so people just never learned how to.
Well without y'all I'd have stuck to my same old (boring) english braid too ! Even if I didn't see this one here and "invented" it myself (although I'm pretty sure somebody must have come down with it already), I sure got my inspiration - enjoying my hair, finding new styles ... - here, from all I see on the boards and in the albums. So thank you LHC :D :D !!!

[skay]

Slz, nice split braid - looks very neat, too! :)

I'll probably get more creative with braids once my hair is longer.

[apynip]

When my hair was longer i did just teh opposite of split braiding but i joined them

I french or dutch braided my hair till i got to the base of my neck and then joined the braids into one.

It was easy to put up for ballet and easy to take down and still look nice.

I love your split braid though it reminds me of a snakes tongue

[Shicurls]

When I was in cosmetology school we had to learn how to braid hair professionally. Which really meant we spent the whole day putting braids into the dummies' hair. Then we had to do a creative updo with braids.

I was bored at this point because it had been all day! So, I did three braids close the scalp sideways across the left side of the head. I then braided the hair away from the scalp about halfway and curved them into a circle on another part. I had rope braids, inverted braids, fishtail braids, they were coming out of the head in all areas and going into each other. Ultimately, they ended in a side braid curling around the right shoulder. It looked so cool!!! I wish I had taken a picture. So, now I can't wait for my hair to grow so I can play!!!

[yellowchariot]

That braid is one of the coolest ones I've seen by the way it branches into 2 parts! How creative!

You rock slz :thumbsup:

[LittleOrca]

This is a braid that I learned thanks to Torrinpage and I love it. It doesn't always come out when I do it but on the days that it does I know those days are going to be a little more special.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff176/Little_Orca/Long%20Hair%20Gallery/Braids/HawserBraid.jpg

[walterSCAN]

That split braid looks nifty! I've not seen any other pictures or heard of it before. It's funky and different.

I usually have a few small braids somewhere. Right now I'm wearing four small braids at my nape - like a quarter of the circumference of a pencil each. They show up when I pull my hair up for updoes, but are invisible in braids and when my hair is down. :) I leave them in to wash and everything. Every once in a while I'll switch it up - soon I'll take those four out and do a few in a different place.

What do you secure your braids with so that they stay through washing? I would love to do nape braids and just leave them, but having hair ties at the ends of my hair irritates me if all of my hair's not in braids-- plus the rest of my hair tangles around them. :/

If anyone doesn't use hair ties/ elastics to secure their braids, what do you use? I'd love to find something else!

[Mannaz]

I love the idea of a split braid, wow! It never even crossed my mind you could do that! Somehow I imagine this style would work very well on guys and offer variation. What if you made a braid that, starts off in two, continues in one, splits again, goes back in two and ends in one.... Wonder if it would be possible to somehow give a more "round" shape to the split parts, maybe if you'd braid them much tighter... :hmm:
Hands up who wants to try this, please! I myself will have to wait for a couple of years at least *sigh*

[taliarose]

Sorry no pictures for this. What I've been doing lately is starting with an english braid for a 5th of my hair, switching to a two strand rope for a 5th, sitching back to the english and so on. I like it and haven't seen it before. Unfortunatly I don't have a camera :shrug: