5-stranded braid, first attempt

I don’t usually post my fails, but I think I could benefit from working my thoughts and observation through and putting them down.

I had the idea of starting a French braid with 3 strands and then adding 2 parts from the ears down and braiding it into a 5 strand braid.

Well, that was the theory!

I got completely confused and couldn’t separate the different strands and find the pattern with my fingers.

The result ended up as some sad mash-up of fish tail, 3 and 5 strand braids up until I got to shoulder length and could bring the braid in front of me where I could see what I was doing.

Then from shoulder to about BSL I think it ended up as more of a fishtail braid. (As far as I’ve gathered, the difference between fish tail and x-strand braids is that a x-stranded braid works with the same strands separated all along the way and with the fish tail you just take out a part of the whole each time you “braid in”)

But then from BSL and down, I finally got a hang of the motion and could keep the strands separated.

Here is the result:

Close examination shows the difference clearly!

From BSL and down it looks surprisingly good. At least IMHO.

I have an idea for how to try it differently tomorrow…