Monday, June 6, 2011

Lesson 53: Woven and Braided Buns

On my style request post "Ryan Family" asked for a tutorial for this braided bun, which is actually a hairpiece you put over top of your own (short hair ponytail or small bun).  This is what I came up with.  It doesn't look exactly the same, but I still love it.  Belle reminded me of a Japanese anime cartoon when it was done.  The weaving part is sort of complicated, but a braided bun can be done without the weaving just by braiding the ponytail (one braid or more) and wrapping the braids around and tucking in the ends with bobby pins.
(Once again, pardon the weird pictures--my software is pretty old, and I can't update it anymore.)  Put the hair in pigtails.  Or you could just do one bun at the back.
Divide the pigtail into four equal size sections.
Now comes the weaving part.  Bring the top left section (red lines in the pictures below) over the bottom left section, but keep a loop hole open in it for later on.
Cross the bottom left section (yellow) over the top one you just brought down and over the bottom right section (green).
Take the bottom right section (green) up over the one you just crossed (yellow) and over the top right section (blue).
Cross the top right section (blue) over the one you just brought up and then tuck it into the loop you've been saving open from the first strand (red).
Now pull all the tails to tighten up the weave.
Braid all the tails as far as you can go and add clear elastics.
Wrap a braid around the whole thing, looping until you run out of hair.  Tuck in the tail and pin it in place with a bobby pin or two.
Repeat the wrapping around step with every braid.  Add more bobby pins if anything sticks out.  Repeat for the other piggy.

If you really prefer the look of one big braid around the whole thing with the weave in the middle, I suppose it could be achieved by doing sort of a french braid around the weave instead of braiding each strand.  I haven't tried it. If you try it and get some success, I invite you to email a picture, and I'll post it.

4 comments:

  1. Very cool thing to do in the center of the braid. Sort of reminds me of what I used to do when I made key chains boondoggle. Very creative!

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  2. Cant get jist of what goes where from the description, even with coloured diagram! I think I will just have to try and figure it out by doing it. A video would be really helpful for this one if you get around to it.

    Love all creative ideas, thanks for sharing!

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  3. To Anonymous: Check out this site: http://www.yoarra.nl/eng/technieken-recht.php
    It tells how to do boondoggle with scoubidou. It is a similar technique, but perhaps easier to see than with hair. They are laying over the top and bottom strands and then tucking in both sides rather than going around in a circle and just tucking in the last side. Either way should work.

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