Arisia hair braiding

[juldea]

Some of you may remember that I got my hair braided at Arisia last year by blk and I really liked it. Well, being that Arisia this year is coming up in less than a month, I have been thinking about what kind of braid I want to have her do - and this year, I'm budgeting for it! I am willing to shell out for something really nice-looking.

Since being inspired by her last year, I have been able to French/Dutch three-, four-, and five-strand braids on myself. I have tried out six- and seven-strands on londo, but not on myself. Hence, I think I want her to do something seven-stranded on me, unless my hair is long enough to pull off nine, which would be total pwnage.

However, even as impressive as a regular seven or nine would be, I find myself looking at more complicated things online. Here are a few images I've found of things I really like:





The crowns (first two) are impressive, but I'm not sure my hair is long enough for them even just as three-strands, much less multi-stranded. The X-into-bun is really awesome-looking, possibly mostly due to the ribbons, but I think also because that woman has enough hair to make a really thick, nested bun, which I might not. The infinity-buns I mostly like for the infinity sign and not for the buns, and I bet that can be done in some form.

The last one, though, is particularly neat to me and immediately caught my eye when I saw it. It's a style I can totally see myself using for wedding hair someday. It's a mixture of a crown and a cascade, meaning there's a full-circle braid done, but there is also hair cascading down from it - only in this braid, it's cascading from inside of it. There's a headband aspect of it I really like, as well as the opportunity to show off both a neat braid AND one's nice long hair.

While only the last picture incorporates accent braids, I feel that any of these ideas could be made more impressive by the addition of some accent braids/twists. Some drapes off of the crown, or interesting bits adding to the X-bun, more figure eights in the infinity symbol, and just adding to the ideas already in the, er, crown-cascade... definitely neat ideas.

So those are my thoughts. If you want to help out by looking at pictures of pretty braided hair and making suggestions, here are some websites:

http://www.spicybraids.com/ (blk's site)
http://www.dreamweaverbraiding.com/
http://frenchbraidsbytwistedsisters.com/
http://www.tressesentwined.com/
http://www.melissasbraids.com/
http://www.hairbraidingbyellen.com/
http://www.braidedimage.com/
http://www.celesteaviva.com/

Oh, and I guess I need a picture of my hair length. Hrm. Don't think I have a current one of those. Well, it's currently in a Dutch five-strand and the end of the tail touches the waistband of my pants just barely. So... long, but not long as defined by blk's braiding site. ;)

Comments

[blk]

Yep, I totally understand the washing thing. My recommendation would be to a) wait as long as possible before you wash it, and b) sign up for a braiding spot saturday morning, then c) wash it, and d) come visit me saturday morning.
That way you can get a whole day of keeping it in before you have to sleep on it, as well. The part a) is because if you wait extra long, like until your hair is super oily and yucky, then wash it well, it will take a little longer to get oily for the next cycle.

I'll keep whatever hours people sign up for, so come by early and reserve whenever you want. :)

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I never knew that if you wait a while to get it super-gunky and then wash it, that it'll last longer the next time. I'll give that a try, then! I'll see you on Friday night when I come to sign up. :)