Back to School 2011 - V's Hair

We seem to have fallen into a pattern of giving V yarn braids every fall.  She did not have them for the first day of school last year, but we did them shortly after.  I really only like to do yarn braids once a year for several reasons.  1) they take a long time to put in 2) I leave them in a long time -which is both awesome and boring 3) I just like variety so once a year makes it exciting every time she gets them!  

This year I decided to basically repeat the fall inspired colors I did last year because I REALLY loved that style, but I HAD to make some changes.  I NEVER do any style exactly the same way twice!  I will be referring to last years braids all the way through, and I won't be explaining much about how I did the style so you should check last years post before reading this one!

Change 1-  I added Red yarn.  I was going to use this last year but thought it was too bright.  This year I was ok with it!  So we had black, brown, burgundy and red.

Change 2 - No beads.  The beads were great last year, but again I like change, and it is easier to get the hair into ponytails and other styles without a clump of beads on the ends.

Change 3 - I went for longer braids.  These are the longest we have ever done.

Change 4 -We did a layered look instead of a blunt cut look.  I usually try to have all braids the same length at the bottom, so for a change I tried layers.  I am not sure it is as cool looking as I envisioned, but to achieve this look I just made the bottom rows really long and then with the rows after that I made them a bit shorter each time.

Change 5 - We did piggy back braids on top.  Last year we had criss cross cornrows.  Again, I will leave these in for a few weeks and then take them out and put more yarn braids on top while leaving the back as it is.

Change 6 - I also kind of changed the pattern in which I put in the different colors of yarn.  This time I did the colors row by row from the bottom up.  I did two black rows on the bottom and than did a burgundy row, a brown row, a red row, and back to black etc.

I think that covers all the changes.  I made some little braided yarn pieces to use as hair accessories on the pigtails.  I kind of liked them, but I got sick of them and took them out after a few days.

Lastly, if you don't know how to do piggy back braid, here is one of our original videos on how to do them!  They are a great alternative for those who can't do cornrows.  Notice that B is the hair model in this video - before locs!

Katie