Hair Too{s}day.

Volume 4: Basics - How to braid

Welcome to my  weekly tutorial  of what do to with your hair!! People are always asking me 

"How did you do that to your hair?" 

And so here are my answers, trials, and step by step tutorials of 

"How you can do that to your hair, too!"

Happy Holiday week!

I'm in crazy holiday cheer today. Jammin' out to my perfectly personalized Pandora Christmas station, complete with Bing Crosby and my favorite Christmas songs :) 

I hope I've been able to give you some ideas for the perfect Christmas' Do for this year. I always love your comments, including those I get on Facebook :) So a little shout out thank you for those Facebook followers that are always telling me they can't wait to see my link appear in their feed :). It means so much! After last week's do, a comment from my favorite bloggerfriend and follower Mandee (my favorite cat lady) confirmed what I had been thinking about for awhile. 

> that I should probably include a tutorial on how to braid <

So here you have it. I included a video on how to do a basic French braid, don't worry we're going slow here ;) and then because I felt like it, I show you step by step, how to work the braid magic on various popular braids. 

Don't get frustrated. It took me some time to get the hang of it also. 

Just know these few things: 

1. Practice makes perfect It really takes some time to just play with it and get a feel for it. (Oddly, I can never really watch myself braid in the mirror, because then I get turned around, so I don't look and try to "picture" what I'm doing..I don't know if that makes sense, but try it! 

2. The messier the braid, the better Don't be a perfectionist. You don't want to end up with school girl braids. It has to turn out messy, with pieces sticking out for softness and texture. 

3. Dirty hair is better hair Any braid is always more difficult on freshly washed hair. It's just a fact :) 

Alright, enough blabbing. Let's BRAID! 

What you need: 

- a comb to brush your hair

- clear hair ties

- bobby pins

- a "claw" to help you hold hair out of the way

1. basic French braid

**disclaimer: I was pretty convinced my speakers on my notebook were/are broken, hence the always silent tutorial videos. Apparently it picks up music ?! .. I was going to redo the video..but then the Excedrin commercial comes on and I thought it was hilarious! So I left it :P 

What you do: 

- Brush your hair back

- Gather a pretty good layer of hair and part in three parts. 

- The first braid I'm showing you how to do a "normal braid" as I call it. You'll see the difference in a minute. 

- Take the left outer part and lay it over the middle, grabbing it between your index and middle finger, holding it tight with your middle finger. 

- Take the middle part into your left hand and hold the whole thing in your hand tightly. 

- Take the right outer part and place it over, grabbing it with your left hand middle finger, letting go of the piece that should be between your thumb and index finger. 

- Grab the loose piece with your entire right hand. There should be two pieces in your left hand and one in your right. 

- Place the piece that's in the middle over to the right hand (use your spider hands) so that you're holding on to two pieces in your right hand now. 

- Ready for the next step? Find another finger in which to place the outer left piece, and once your left hand is free pull a straight NEW piece of hair along your head, lift it and add it to the left outer piece that you just added to your right hand. 

- Release the underneath piece, holding on tight to the "new" part you just created, and repeat on the right hand side. **You have to play with this switching, to get the hang of it and figure out a way you can hold it easy. I hope I'm not totally confusing you yet. 

- Repeat repeat repeat until you're completely braided. 

- NOW, I'm going to do the "under braid" which you should use if you're going to braid your hangs out of your face, like Lauren Conrad always does. 

- It's the entirely same concept, except when you first start out, you have to literally just braid under, instead of over. It took me awhile the get the hang of this one, but some people think it's easier. 

- With this braid, it'll look like your braid is sitting on your head, popping out a little. 

2. The LC braid

What you do: 

- Part your hair on the side of your head. (I'm having a really hard time doing this reverse in the webcam :P) ((AND I love this song!!))

- Part if all the way over as wide as your ear. Pull back the rest of your hair so it's out of your way. 

- Also, *** practice with this, it's tricky *** part three small pieces (again I'm having issues) 

- Start braiding under like we just learned, but in this braid, you're only going to pick up new hair on the outside of your hair, watch closely how I do it. 

- Every piece that goes under from the front, gets new hair, the other pieces get braided regularly, till I'm back to the front piece. 

- This can be a little difficult, and it takes getting used to braiding sideways, hence the reason why I'm moving my head all over the freaking place. 

- (aren't you loving the music? :D) 

- Stop adding hair right above your ear and finish the braid

- Pull it around against your head and pin in behind your ear. 

- Now you can wear your hair done, please not as messy as mine, or pull it back, or keep on going with last week's do! 

3. My famous head.wrap braid

What you do: 

- (I know. The Christmas music is awesome) Start off the same way as the last braid, except your beginning pieces should be just slightly thicker. 

- Don't pull your hair back, just brush it back from your crown. 

- With this braid you're going to completely French braid, so take up new hair with every new piece. This is a pretty advanced braid so don't get frustrated! Try the not looking thing if you feel like you got a hang of the whole braiding thing!!

- (Like my singing?)

- Braid down the side of your head like before, pushing back the top layer and pulling pieces from underneath. 

- Once you get slightly past your ear, you're going to want to start braiding across the back of your head, so start using the top layer of hair you've been pushing back till now. 

- Here comes tricky part number 1. Switching hands! You're gonna have to switch your hands to come around both sides of your head so you can continue braiding. I have no easy way to tell you how to do this. Practice with someone either watching and helping you hold until you get the hang of it. 

-Once you've successfully switched, keep braiding normal, taking hair from below and from the top, until your all the way across the back of your head. (My swivel chair is not working with me today)

- Tricky part 2 switching hands again! This one isn't as  hard, but you're going to start braiding looser and holding the braid further away from your head, finishing the braid, once you have all of your hair in the braid. 

- Once the braid is to the very end, hold it firmly, and tuck it under your hair. If you have longer hair, see my pictures below of when I used to do this with longer hair!

- Secure with bobby pins and you're completamente!!

I know you can't see anything really, a little where the braid starts, but I have the back of my hair braided in the same process. I just did it in a half up version. SUPER easy and looks better the messier it is, if you just straighten your hair. Do the same thing and above, just start on the side of your head, and leave half your hair down, so you're gonna braid up a little higher on your head, and the braid will be skinnier with less hair, but it looks so cool. Once you get to the other side of your ear, just let the ends hang down, secure the braid with a clear elastic and pin it right behind your ear. 

Would you believe me, if I only kept this picture from 3 years ago, only because I loved that you could see my whole braid? :) Anywho, again I started on the side of my head, leaving my bangs out, braiding all the way across the back, and then just tieing the whole thing in a half pony. Again straightening looks the best I think. (I knew this would come in handy :))

(look! it's my hilarious friend Ry from Mile High Madness :))

Who said side braids aren't in? I think there'll be a lot of braids for Christmas do' this year. :) 

If I could wear my hair braided every day for the rest of my life, 

I would. 

xo . the braid queen