My name is Dottie and I am awful at doing my own hair.
If I had a superpower, it would be the ability to do my own hair in fabulous styles in under two minutes, which is how much time I like to spend on my hair.
I am not one of those people who have been blessed with beautiful heavy locks that look amazing when your hair is long. I would have loved to inherit a stunning combo of my Dad’s Afro and my mom’s thick hair, but alas, I inherited my grandmother’s thin hair that likes to frizz out if I even think about humidity.
So, what is a girl to do? Become one with a short bob for the rest of my life. Normally, I’m OK with that. Except right now everyone is braiding their hair.And it looks stunning!
You can’t go on to Pinterest without seeing the most glorious braid hairstyles ever.
But to do some of these braids, you need a degree in Trig to figure it out.
And guess what you need for 99.9 percent of these braids? Rapunzel like hair. Sigh.
Image via: Natalie Dee (the most awesome comic artist ever!)
My ultimate obsession is with crown braid or milkmaid braid. Sigh!
Here is the best tutorial I’ve seen on that. And of course you need four foot long straight hair…
Now not all braids are created equal…
But all are interesting. But what about my short hair. Can I do anything? My goal this month is to find some tutorials on short hair braiding and see what magic I can do!
Have you ever tried braiding your hair? Any tips, tricks? Anything! Hmmm… Maybe some hair pieces… Thoughts?
as a girl with “rapunzel” hair its hard to braid! The only thing I can do successfully is the milkman braids. But only when my hair is dirty or it wont hold up. Try braiding after you haven’t washed your hair for a day or two. It will be a bit easier. Also get lots of bobby pins and clear elastic bands. Its the trick to making your messy braids look good 😉
It looks really hard to braid one’s own hair! I will be lucky if I can do a simple braid. Yikes! But I’ll certainly get the bobby pins and clear elastic bands going, lady!
I’ve been feeling the braids lately too. I even attempted some french braids recently that didn’t quite work out well enough to leave the house like that, but it’s getting there. I also have hard to braid hair in that (and I know this will sound like a horrible humble-brag) is so incredibly thick and corse, so unless I divide my hair in 6 braids, or grow it out to me feet, I can only manage a few passes of hair before I reach the end. Its kind of a “trying to tear the phone book in half” thing, if that makes sense to anyone other than me (maybe I did too many drugs as a teenager). My coworker has thinner, finer and slightly wavy hair and she gets all these adorable, soft-long braids in her hair. Meanwhile my two stubby braids looks like frayed ropes on a ship. Someone should teach a workshop on Braids for EVERYONE so we can all feel like milkmaids and fairies and peasant girls from Tuscany.
Frayed ropes on a ship! Moe, I love the way you write so freaking much! I understand the heavy hair thing. I have a friend who has that and I totally respect that!
I heard there is this magial place called the Braid Bar, where you can go in and they will braid your hair. FOR REALS! Must find it!
I love this. I have a longing for braids. I have long hair but its layered and SUPER DUPER fine/curly/frizzy/rebellious/annoying. I think I may try to pull off one of these with a LOT of bobby pins tomorrow.
Thanks for the inspiration as always.
(And ditto on the milkmaids and fairies and peasant girls from Tuscany, Mrs Moe :D)
I am going to wait until my hair is totally dirty and try doing the braid circle thing. Maybe I’ll try it on my kiddo first. Yeahhh….
Thanks for featuring my braids! I just did a braid challenge of 30 braids in 30 days so you could say I’m a bit of a braid fanatic.
Check out Hair Romance next week as I’ll be doing tutorials for braids in short hair too x
Christina–you are a hair GODDESS!!! I can’t wait for the short hair tutorials!
Dottie,
I feel your pain about the frizzy hair situation as I have always had the same problem, I found some products that worked for me personally and have kept me from hacking all my hair off once again. The two products that make my hair less frizzy, softer and shinier are: moroccan oil and curler enhancer ( i have been using Aveda be curly). The curl enhancer works great if i wear it straight and curly becuase it is adding moisture to the hair.My hairdresser said to stay away from any type of product that contains alcohol.I just thought I would share because last year I was so sick of having crazy fizzy hair and cutting it off be the only solution.So I did my homework and tried a few things and I’m glad I did. I hope this helps (not that you were asking) and now that I have longer hair I can try out one of these cool braids 🙂
I’m so glad that I’m not the only one. I can’t do them to save my life. When I do, it just looks like my thin hair is even thinner! Pfft…
I’m COMPLETELY with you. I was blessed with the thin hair that looks good short and short. No other way. I daydream about long locks. I even asked my hair dresser about extensions to play around with. You know how much they cost? Like 600 bucks and you have to re-do them every three months or something. I’m like you, two minutes, somewhat out of my face, and I’m done. I can’t fathom spending that much. But those lovely braids, they sure are tantalizing. Send the short hair tutorials my way!
The GOOD/BAD split screen had me laughing, Dottie! These are all beautiful styles (except the one) and I always want to try this, but I too am completely untalented at doing my hair. When I do my hair before I perform it’s a Hail Mary and a can of hair spray.
I am going to check out Christina’s short hair braids next week for some help, for sure. Have you seen this blog? It’s got some really great illustrated tutorials for all types of braids and a whole lot more.
http://www.sheletsherhairdown.com/search?q=braids&x=0&y=0
braiding really takes getting used to!! i know that feeling….it took me atleast 1 month before they were turning out okay!! i love braids so much though!! if you can manage the french plait you should eventually be able to do any type!! if your only starting i recommend doing it in damp hair!! if you have layers a fishtail plait can be an ass!!