Throwback Thursday

Ah, the humble English braid.
It's the very cornerstone of being able to contain my hair at night!
And a very nostalgic style for me, since this was the first real "thing" I could do with me hair once I started growing it out.

Today's hair

After yesterdays disappointment, I just wrapped it up in a Royal bun again.
That one has a lot of strong sides: It's flatly packed against my head and shows off the braidwork very nicely.
The bad side however, is that it is  lacking the structural strength and hold of the Nautilus bun.
Hmm. I just can't win with this.

Today's hair

Continuing my thought from yesterday: I formed a classical Nautilus bun out of the top five-stranded braid...

...And then wrapped the bottom, three-stranded braid up and around.

I have mixed feelings about this. From some angles, this looks very good.

Maybe because it just looks like the Royal bun from some angles?

Other angles? Not cute at all! So lumpy and uneven.
Meh.

Today's braid for tomorrows bun

Okay, so building on my thought from some days ago: "Would a horizontally split, double braid base work for a braided Nautilus bun?"

Top braid is a five-strander (Just for fun) and bottom is a normal three.

This time, I have split the hair into two portions at the point where I find it the easiest: At top of ear level. I always end up having to spend quite a bit of time on getting the two portions equally thick when I have to do that.

If this turns out the be even semi-nice, this will be something I will be doing a lot in the future.
However, I do worry the smaller, bottom braid might "disappear" in the finished updo.

Today's hair

Okay, so I did not like the two double buns from yesterday. 

So for today, I tried a braided Chinese bun out of the four braids. I like this one! It got pretty flat and nicely packed on my head and the five strand-base adds a little something that you can't immediately pinpoint.

It did give me an idea though: Would a horizontally split, double braid base work for a braided Nautilus bun?

Today's hair

Okay, this did not work out like I thought it would.
The buns did not end up as flat as I thought they would, and got that "cannonball" effect instead.
Hmm. Are pins/forks the way to go instead of Flexies?

Today's braid for tomorrows bun

Continuing my ideas from the weekend...

What I liked about the base braids was that they helped give the buns some "lift" instead of pointing the bun bases down around the neck. When splitting the hair horizontally at ear-height, the bun base ends up there instead and lifts the buns up higher.

Also, having several braids instead of a few seemed to help keep the buns flatter.

Let's see how this works tomorrow...

Today's hair

Still having the 8 little braids in, and thought I would give it a try with Flexies instead.

Not entirely pleased with this either: When using a Flexi instead of a fork, you have to use the Nautilus bun type instead of just wrapping it around like a cinnamon bun style.
This means you get a lot of "inside" on the bun instead and then you get that cannonball effect instead of a nice, flat bun.

I think maybe I could get the effect I want with 4 little braids instead?

Today's hair

Got a call from work asking if I could come in and fix something.

So, uh, what do you do quickly with 8 little braids to put them up in an office-appropriate style?

This was far from perfect, but I think I can see some potential here...

The Quattro pins didn't really work for this. Maybe a Flexi if I had to do it another time?

Hmm...

Today's hair

I decided to take a day off today, but felt like doing something other than my usual "Lazy day, simple braid" thing so I put it in 8 little braids.

Took some time to finish!

Pretty comfy though...