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It seems very difficult to me to do any type of braid at the
back of my head. Are there tricks I do not know about?
One thing you might try is putting your hair in a pony tail first,then bend over and braid it.Then you can slide the hair band down and use it on the end of the braid. I know it sounds akward, but it's the only way I have found to keep the braid centered as I braid.Of course,it is more fun to have someone else do it for me.
Tamara
Here's what I do. I'm not sure how standard it is, if at all, but it makes a very nice braid.
Brush hair thoroughly. There's nothing worse than a tiny tangle to bring your braiding to a screeching halt.
Separate the hair evenly. I hold the hair approximately at the point where my head would touch the wall if I were standing with my back to the wall and my head level.
To the uninitiated, this can be daunting, so I'll put a bit more detail.
First I gather all the hair in a sort of pony tail.
Flatten the pony tail a bit and by feel only, separate one third off with the right hand. Hold with ring and pinky finger of right hand.
The remaining hair must be divided exactly in half. That's much easier than thirds. Do this, and give the left third to the pinky and ring finger of the left hand, freeing up the index and middle for the next operation.
Compare the size of the center and right locks. They should be equal. Depending how far off you are, you may opt for starting over or just moving a few hairs over.
That little digression to me is the hard part. Now I will continue.
Hold the left and right locks apart, allowing the middle section to fall straight down.
Readjust the grip of the right lock: support the lock with the middle finger (and probably ring and pinky) of the right hand and hold the hair down with the index finger. In other words, the rightmost lock passes over the middle finger (and ring and pinky -- this will be the last time I include this parenthetical remark), and the index finger passes over the hair to hold it in place. In this position the middle finger and thumb can easily grab the central lock:
Middle finger and thumb of right hand grab central lock. (Meanwhile, the index finger and thumb of the left hand have been holding the left lock)
The previous step sort of elevates the right lock above the central lock. Now, with the middle finger of the left hand, grad the elevated righmost lock.
At this point, I usually apply slight tension on all three strands and move them up and down a bit. This "sets" the first stitch.
At this point, the process becomes a repetitive process of middle fingers traveling under the strand held by the same hand and over to the opposite hand.
This frees the opposite hand completely, which is very useful for very long hair because you will probably need to extend the hand down the entire length of the hair if not at every stitch as I do, at least occasionally to detangle the braid that otherwise would form at the other end of the hair.
I hope that wasn't too confusion. Perhaps I'll get one of my daughters to photograph me at each step.
Hmm...How do I explain this?
I had never even thought about there being different ways to braid; I always thought "right over middle, left over middle," etc.
This is how I do it (I hope this is comprehensible):
-I pull my hair into a rough ponytail somewhere at the back of my head, and hold it with my right hand.
-then I use my right thumb (underneath the ponytail) to separate off a third of the hair from the left. It's not too hard, probably from lots of practice. You quickly get an idea of what 1/3 feels like.
-after I separate the third, I still hold the main ponytail with my right hand, but grasp the separated third with my right index finger and thumb, so that my remaining 3 fingers separate the two sections. This lets me untangle the whole length of the split with my left hand.
-after that, I grasp the separated third on the left with my left hand, separate that third from the other section with my middle, ring, and pinky fingers, and use my thumb to separate that section in half, like above.
-since I'm running out of fingers, I switch my middle finger from between sections 1 and 2 (counting from left) to 2 and 3, so that my pinky and ring fingers are around section 1, my middle finger is around 2, and my index finger and thumb are around 3 (all on the left hand, so the right hand can untangle)
-to do the actual braid, I grab section 3 with my right hand while simultaneously releasing it with my left index finger & thumb (still holding sections 1 & 2 with my left fingers)
-then I grab section 2 with my right index finger and thumb, releasing those fingers on my left hand, so that I am holding 2 and 3 in my right hand, separated by my middle, ring, & pinky fingers
-then I slightly twist my right hand so that 3 is above 2
-I keep holding 1 in my left hand with my m,r,&p fingers, and reach out with my i & t to grab 3 as it rises
-I pull 3 over 2, keeping my right hand on 2, so that I have 1 and 3 in my left hand, just as 2 and 3 were previously.
-I then twist my left hand slightly and grab 1 with my right i & t, etc.
For me, this is the fastest way to braid, because the twisting motion of your hands brings the hair into place just as fast as you can move your thumbs to grab it.
When I want the braid to be really neat, I do it more slowly, but that would take waaay too long to explain ;-)
Normaly I let braid my hair by someone because it's somewhat difficulty to braid my about 44 inch (1.1 m) (from the neck) long and heavy hair by myself!
Ales
how do i do braids like wyclef!