Tutorial: Non-Flat Crown (Heidi) Braids (Picture Heavy)

[TheBluffs]

This is a tutorial that I promised on the 'How often do you wear Crown (Heidi) braids ? ' thread. :) It will show you how to get a 'Crown' look, as opposed to the 'Flat' look. I learned this back when I lived in Poland from my family, and have used it ever scince. If any of the instructions do not make sense (I've been there :confused:) , feel free to coment, and I will try and anwser your question. So without further ado, let's begin! :)

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7907&pictureid=108019
1. Start by braiding an English Braid. This braid should be comferably tight, so that it will be as high as possible. Braid all the way to the bottom, and secure with an elastic.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7907&pictureid=108020
2. We are trying to achive a 'Crown' type look, as illustrated. It will not be flat.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7907&pictureid=108023
3. You now need bobby pins, though I have found that Amish pins work just as well. Slide the pin of choice so that is on top of your head, but in your head. If we were to look down, we would see that this would form an upsidown 'T', with the pin being the bottom, and the hair being the long I. Becasue of this pinning, the braid will be upright.


http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7907&pictureid=108022
A upside down 'T'. (My hair is not pink :p )

4. Keep pinning in the upside 'T' fashion all the way around your head.

(Continuted in the next post)

[TheBluffs]

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7907&pictureid=108026
5. You hopefully will have got something that looks like this.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7907&pictureid=108025
Have fun! :wethree:

[Madora]

Alas, all I see are little red xs where the photographs should be.

[Laurenji]

Yeah, I'm not getting the pictures either.... this sounds really interesting, though.

[Mirsha]

The pictures are in her updo album :)


This is a tutorial that I promised on the 'How often do you wear Crown (Heidi) braids ? ' thread. :) It will show you how to get a 'Crown' look, as opposed to the 'Flat' look. I learned this back when I lived in Poland from my family, and have used it ever scince. If any of the instructions do not make sense (I've been there :confused:) , feel free to coment, and I will try and anwser your question. So without further ado, let's begin! :)

http://www.longhaircommunity.com/forums/album.php?albumid=7907&pictureid=108019
1. Start by braiding an English Braid. This braid should be comferably tight, so that it will be as high as possible. Braid all the way to the bottom, and secure with an elastic.
2. We are trying to achive a 'Crown' type look, as illustrated. It will not be flat.
3. You now need bobby pins, though I have found that Amish pins work just as well. Slide the pin of choice so that is on top of your head, but in your head. If we were to look down, we would see that this would form an upsidown 'T', with the pin being the bottom, and the hair being the long I. Becasue of this pinning, the braid will be upright.
A upside down 'T'. (My hair is not pink :p )

4. Keep pinning in the upside 'T' fashion all the way around your head.

(Continuted in the next post)

These are the pics:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7907&pictureid=108022
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7907&pictureid=108024
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7907&pictureid=108023

[TheBluffs]

Alas, all I see are little red xs where the photographs should be.

And I though that was just my computer. :confused:
I just spent a bit of time in Site Support and it is fixed! :) Pictures are all up correctly! :D
Thank you Mirsha trying to help out! :flowers:

[Spring]

Beautiful braid :). I've never seen a crown braid done that way.

[RitaPG]

You are so pretty and that style looks great on you ^^
My hair is still a tad too short for this one, but I'll definitely give it a try sometime. Thanks for sharing :flower:

[Xandergrammy]

I love this! Thank you so much! Any possibility of seeing a picture of the back of your head?

[Anje]

Ah, so the bobby pins keep the braid from tipping over?

[Madora]

Thanks for fixing the pictures. Very interesting how you did it. Always wondered how those crown braids stayed upright and not flat. Thanks!!

[kouran]

Thank you very much!!
:blossom:
This is my favourite hairstyle, I will try it today, but since I don't have bobby and amish pins I will try with the Good Hair Days' Magic Grip hairpins.

[Panth]

I do this sometimes and it's one of my favourites (although, yes, it does need quite a lot of hair and not much taper to look best).

A tip: it looks extra fun and unusual if you do a two-strand rope plait instead of an english plait.

Another tip: if you hair is just that little bit too short, try starting the plait just behind one ear, then pinning it from their (without bringing it across your nape). This way you'll make an alice band-shaped plait instead of a full circle, which takes less hair.

[hairwap]

All can say is amazing

Way to go hair

[embee]

Beautiful! :)

Must be nice to have thick hair. (envy envy) :)

Thanks for the pinning hint, that is something I'd never considered.

My problem has always been what to do with the tail end.... it is just this little wisp but it does not want to tuck in anywhere plus the braid is thin so there's not much to cover the tail end with. I love this updo. Mine always goes flat and I think partly it's my hair being thin and slick.

[mellie]

Very pretty! Thanks for sharing!

[TheBluffs]

I love this! Thank you so much! Any possibility of seeing a picture of the back of your head?

Thank you very much! :)And I do have a picture!
You can see on the left part that there is a bobby pin in the updown 'T', and the silver things on the right are my rush job Amish Pins. :o
http://www.longhaircommunity.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=7907&pictureid=108047


Ah, so the bobby pins keep the braid from tipping over?
Exacly. They create a flat base , so the braid is on it's side.



Another tip: if you hair is just that little bit too short, try starting the plait just behind one ear, then pinning it from their (without bringing it across your nape). This way you'll make an alice band-shaped plait instead of a full circle, which takes less hair.

I never thought of that! :) It's a good idea for people with shorter hair.

[Laurenji]

Yay! I can see the pictures!

Unfortunately, my hair is way too short to be able to do this.... Maybe I'll try the alice band technique.

[ArienEllariel]

Ahhhhh that's what I figured. I knew there had to be some way that the pins were keeping the braid in that position...

Thanks for showing us!

[gmdiaz]

You are so cute. . .absolutely adorable.

And thanks for the tutorial!

[Proximity]

Yesterday I watched the film Onegin (an old favourite of mine) and was admiring Tatiana/Liv Tyler's crown braid style and wondering how it was done. Now I know :) Looking forward to trying it out myself when my hair gets long enough... probably in a couple of years time :rolleyes:

[Arya]

How long does your hair need to be for this? My braid has considerable taper, even starting from behind my ear.


Yesterday I watched the film Onegin (an old favourite of mine) and was admiring Tatiana/Liv Tyler's crown braid style and wondering how it was done. Now I know :) Looking forward to trying it out myself when my hair gets long enough... probably in a couple of years time :rolleyes:

You could use the same pin technique to pop up the braid you can make with the Yulia Tymoshenko for shorter hair style.

[TheBluffs]

How long does your hair need to be for this? My braid has considerable taper, even starting from behind my ear.


I'd say starting behind your ear would be waist +, and the one I did about TB +.
If you started from behind your ear on both sides, taper would not be noticable because of the top thicknessof the first braid (Yeah, I'm bad at explaining :confused:) and the top thickness of the second braid would overlap, and the taper could be tucked, creating the illusion of one regular thickness braid

[ElusiveMuse]

TheBluffs, you are so pretty!

[C.H.]

I've never done a crown braid. I should try it!

[turquoisebud]

This is so cute! My hair is way too short for this right now but... "Some day long hair will come." (set to the tune of "some day my prince will come") :p

[Darkhorse1]

Hey Bluffs! Great hair and hairstyle--I see you are in Canada---welcome to the sauna! This is a hairstyle ideal for our heatwave :D

[arwenevenstar37]

Yesterday I watched the film Onegin (an old favourite of mine) and was admiring Tatiana/Liv Tyler's crown braid style and wondering how it was done. Now I know :) Looking forward to trying it out myself when my hair gets long enough... probably in a couple of years time :rolleyes:


I love that movie too adn am also waiting to do that style! :) this is very lovely! thanks for the tutorial

[Arya]

I'd say starting behind your ear would be waist +, and the one I did about TB +.
If you started from behind your ear on both sides, taper would not be noticable because of the top thicknessof the first braid (Yeah, I'm bad at explaining :confused:) and the top thickness of the second braid would overlap, and the taper could be tucked, creating the illusion of one regular thickness braid

My hair is between waist and hip, but I do have long layers. My braid looks hilarious if I start from behind the ear! It's four times bigger on one side than the other. I should try two, and see what it looks like.

[TheBluffs]

Hey Bluffs! Great hair and hairstyle--I see you are in Canada---welcome to the sauna! This is a hairstyle ideal for our heatwave :D

I'm barring this for the heatwave on Thursday. ;) 37 degree's without the humudity, there I come. :D


My hair is between waist and hip, but I do have long layers. My braid looks hilarious if I start from behind the ear! It's four times bigger on one side than the other. I should try two, and see what it looks like.

Length sounds ideal. :nod: Now I'm curious to what kind of stange way thoes layers were cut. :cool: If behind the ears looks strange, go for higher pigtails and pin from there. Or a dutch crown, as you mentioned.

[Sunny]

This technique sounds so interesting, but the pictures are gone! Does anyone remember how this pinning technique was done? I love the feel of Heidi braids, but they look so much better on me when standing up like a diadem. I'm not following from the description how a pin can help the braid stay upright/on its side. I already try as much as I can, but some days they do tilt back.

[Alexandrina]

This technique sounds so interesting, but the pictures are gone! Does anyone remember how this pinning technique was done? I love the feel of Heidi braids, but they look so much better on me when standing up like a diadem. I'm not following from the description how a pin can help the braid stay upright/on its side. I already try as much as I can, but some days they do tilt back.

Sorry, I'm no help. I have no idea what she means by pinning an upside down T. Wish I could see the pics tho!




https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=7907&pictureid=108023
3. You now need bobby pins, though I have found that Amish pins work just as well. Slide the pin of choice so that is on top of your head, but in your head. If we were to look down, we would see that this would form an upsidown 'T', with the pin being the bottom, and the hair being the long I. Becasue of this pinning, the braid will be upright.

[Lunnafindel]

I think it's where the pins are perpendicularly crossed to the hair, so if you were to take a cross-section it would look like like: __VV__ or _(pin head)__V(braid)V__(pin ends)___
The pin would point from your forehead back to your neck, catch the bottom loop of the braid, and then anchor into the scalp hair behind the braid.

I don't know if that makes any more sense, but I can't draw a picture without a lot of effort.

Maybe I'll try it this afternoon and if I get it to work I can post a pic!

[Sunny]

I think it's where the pins are perpendicularly crossed to the hair, so if you were to take a cross-section it would look like like: __VV__ or _(pin head)__V(braid)V__(pin ends)___
The pin would point from your forehead back to your neck, catch the bottom loop of the braid, and then anchor into the scalp hair behind the braid.

I don't know if that makes any more sense, but I can't draw a picture without a lot of effort.

Maybe I'll try it this afternoon and if I get it to work I can post a pic!

That DOES make sense! Thank you! I have a clear picture of it now. What I'm still not sure about is how it can hold the braid without the braid leaning back. But maybe it's also that my braids aren't super thick, so when they're "on edge" they're fairly thin and may pivot. It's absolutely worth a try, though!

[Lunnafindel]

Oh great! I did end up trying it yesterday, and it successfully held my braid on end (and looked really cool!) but I couldn't figure out how to stop the ends of the pins from showing. I'm not very good at bobby pins, so maybe I'm doing it wrong, or maybe it's just accepted that the pins are visible in the back but no one cares? I don't know...

Of course I did it while on a conference call and wasn't able to take pictures of the process, so I guess I'll have to try again sometime.

[Sunny]

I did it and it worked great! The braids really don't tip backward, and it's very secure. I think the tips of the braids are going to show, unless your stacked braids are deeper than the pin is long; but it's also not terribly visible unless you have very smooth, neat hair. (I try, but I'm quite a wavy and the state of my head at the end of the day speaks eloquently!)

I do also use the short bobbie pins, about 1" long. They're my favorite for virtually any pinned style, since they take much less hair to be secure, and are less likely to pinch and pull. They're finer metal as well, and seem to visually disappear.

[Alexandrina]

I think it's where the pins are perpendicularly crossed to the hair, so if you were to take a cross-section it would look like like: __VV__ or _(pin head)__V(braid)V__(pin ends)___
The pin would point from your forehead back to your neck, catch the bottom loop of the braid, and then anchor into the scalp hair behind the braid.

I don't know if that makes any more sense, but I can't draw a picture without a lot of effort.

Maybe I'll try it this afternoon and if I get it to work I can post a pic!

Hey, thanks for figuring this out, but I'm having trouble picturing your explanation, do you think you could maybe help me understand- are the VV the pins standing up? Or are the __ the pins? I don't understand how it would hold the braid standing up if its just pushed into the bottom? Or am I just picturing it all wrong, lol.




I did it and it worked great! The braids really don't tip backward, and it's very secure. I think the tips of the braids are going to show, unless your stacked braids are deeper than the pin is long; but it's also not terribly visible unless you have very smooth, neat hair. (I try, but I'm quite a wavy and the state of my head at the end of the day speaks eloquently!)

I do also use the short bobbie pins, about 1" long. They're my favorite for virtually any pinned style, since they take much less hair to be secure, and are less likely to pinch and pull. They're finer metal as well, and seem to visually disappear.

Oh, I'm glad it worked for you! Could you explain how you did it?

[Sunny]

Oh, I'm glad it worked for you! Could you explain how you did it?

What I did was put the pins in straight back. Placed the braid across the top of my head on its side (i.e. standing up), opened a pin, and inserted it from the front catching both scalp and braid hair. The pin is pointing straight toward the back of my head. When one braid is secured by a pin or two, I'll put the other across and try to catch both braids as I finish pinning.

The difference from how I did it before is that the pins are pointing straight back. Usually before I will angle them along the braid itself. But then they're prone to lie flat on the head.

I hope that helps! I'll try to take pictures tomorrow morning when I do it again.