HAIR: Four Ways To Tie Off A Braid

So last week I should you three different ways you could do your hair using only the three strand braid. This week I decided to do another simple post about braids, but this time I am going to give you four different ways to keep your braid in place. These will work on any type of braid, not just the three strand, and  are fairly simple to pull off.

The first option is probably the hardest to do at first, but is really simple once you know what you are doing. It's organic, which means that all you need is your hair. This also means that it is the perfect hairstyle for if you are in class and you want to put your hair up but can't get your hands on an elastic. The first step is kind of tricky to explain. You have to braid just a bit different than what you are used to to achieve the effect. When you are braiding your hair, instead of separating the bottom of the braid (you know how the ends get stuck together), leave it and braid as far as you can go. Once you can't go any further, your fingers will end up making a hole where the next braid should have been. You have to take the ends of the braid and flip it through the hole to create a little knot that will keep the braid in place all day. The braid might be a little shorter than what you are used to, but still looks super cute!

This is probably my favourite way to tie off a braid. It is so simple and looks really unique, especially with small accent braids. All you have to do to recreate this undone look is tease the ends of the braid and spray it with hairspray. It is super duper easy and can be done really quickly.

This one is a cute look but requires a little more time than the others. All you need is a few bobby pins. I suggest you get them in your hair color, I just used black to show what they looked like. You will need to take a piece of your hair, and wrap it around the end of the braid. You could also use an elastic and wrap the hair around that to ensure that the braid stays put. Then just in the hair in the back. You may need to use several pins if your hair won't stay flat. You can conceal the bobby pins better than I did by pinning up instead of down like I did.

Last but not least, I decided to throw in the classic, easy braid-ending technique that everyone knows. It is extremely basic, but effective and pretty much everyone ties off their braid using the ponytail.

So those are my four, well more like three and a picture, ways to keep your braid in place. What is your favourite way to keep your braid in place? Do you have any others?

XOXO,

Taylor

HAIR: 3 Braided Styles That Use Only The 3 Strand Braid

With all of the complicated hairstyles that are going around (like this one and this one), I was thinking where are all the simple three-strand braids? So I came up with three different hairstyles that only use the three-strand technique, perfect for anyone that doesn't really know how to do other types of braids. These hairstyles can be used on any type of hair, and I am pretty sure the first two can be used on shorter hair, with a little bit of modification.

This first hairstyle is just a headband made out of your own hair!

1. Start with hair. You can find it on your head. Any type of hair will work.
2. Separate a section of hair between 1 and 2 inches from the rest. I like to take it from behind my ear, because it will sit at the perfect place on my hair. I also like to tie the rest of my hair away, so it doesn't get mixed up in the braid. 
3. Start braiding the section. A helpful tip: Start braiding upwards, to wear you want the braid to be when you make it a headband. This will prevent large bumps from appearing.
4. Continue to braid your hair. You do not need to braid it upwards the whole time because this will make your arms hurt.
5. Tie off the braid.
6. Place the braid where you want it to be in the headband. Then, so nobody sees the bobby pin you are going to secure it with, lift up a section of hair from where the bobby pin will sit. 
7. Pin the braid down with a bobby pin, then put the hair you held up back down. Smooth everything out so it looks AH-MAZING!

And then you're done!

If you thought the first hairstyle was easy, this will be even easier. 

1. Again, start with hair. 
2. Take a section of hair about an inch or two wide, and begin braiding. You do not need to braid it up or do anything fancy, just braid it.
3. Then tie it off.
4. Finally, and this step is optional, you can thicken up the braid, by pulling on the outsides of the braid. This will make it look more full, but you can leave it un-pulled if you want to.

Then you are done, honey-bun.

This hairstyle is kind of like braid-ception.

1. Again, you need hair to do this hairstyle.
2. Separate the hair into three sections. Be sure to use all of your hair.
3. Tie off two of the three sections. I decided to keep the middle section, but it doesn't really matter. If you have layers, it might be harder to use the back piece, since it is a side braid.
4. You are now going to separate the section into smaller, inch-size sections (or whatever size you want) and braid them (like the peekaboo braid).
5. Then tie the braid off and pull on it to make it thicker.
6. Complete steps 4. and 5. until you do not have any hair from the section left.
7. Let down the rest of your hair.
8. Braid all of your hair together, using the braids as one section. Then tie it off.

And that's it!

So those are the simple hairstyles that you can do if you only know how to do a three-strand braid. These are also perfect for days that you need to do a quick easy hairstyle because they all have less than ten steps. 

Three-strand braids are the easiest, but what are the hardest braid for you?

XOXO,

Taylor