Thanks for stopping by! This is my corner of the blogosphere where I'm keeping track of
styles/techniques/products, lessons learned, my to-do list, and favourite links.
Feel free to offer any comments, feedback, or advice - I'm learning as I go !


Wednesday, July 25, 2012

July Copy Cat Carnival - Fishtail Braids on Natural Hair


I have been looking forward to participating in July's Copy Cat Carnival, hosted by Untrained Hair Mom. JJ has been wearing her hair in a protective two-strand twist style since she wore her hair big and free for the Baby Big Hair Frotective Challenge, and I have been psyched to try something new.

I was paired with Baby Bella Hair (blog author Tracey). This is a fabulous blog that I have been following since it first started. In fact, I previously copied two Baby Bella Styles in April (go check these styles out too!). 

While going through the Baby Bella blog for the July Carnival I found this Fishtail Pigtail style:
See the original Baby Bella post here
Fishtail braids are one of those things that have always been a mystery to me, and I decided to add a new skill to my repertoire by giving this a go. I took the Baby Bella advice and headed to YouTube to wrap my head around how to do a fishtail braid. This video did the trick for me and I was on my way!

After trying a couple of times on my own mid-back length, 3B(ish) hair, I decided this would work best on hair that was straightened (as Tracey did), or at least stretched. I banded JJ's hair with old tights cut in strips and left the bands in for 3 days to achieve as much stretch as humanly possible (for more general information about banding, see this post by Precious Curls). The ponytail on the right side shows how much stretch we were able to achieve without heat. 

I swear the part looks more centered in real life!!

And here are JJ's fishtail pigtails:


And a close-up of the braid - not too bad for a first try....


JJ loved these pigtails as did everyone at school. I was very happy to be inspired once again by Baby Bella Hair and also to challenge myself to try something completely new to me!

as per JJ's request - she likes the upside-down photos!

Be sure to check out lots of other great Copy Cat styles below!!



8 comments:

  1. Cute!!! That same video is how fishtail braiding finally "clicked" in my head! I still haven't tried them yet, can't wait! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes - the video totally made it click for me too! The trick seems to be to not "overthink"... Share when you try on B's hair (or your hair)!

      Delete
  2. Very Cute! You nailed it, you make me want to try fishtail braids!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks! do it!!! they are easy - and fancy!

      Delete
  3. I really want to learn this braid... it is on my ever growing to do list. You did great!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Steal my heart!!! I totally love it....BTW Kae had a phase where she liked to take pics upside downs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much to YOU, my inspiration! I'm gonna have to put together a little album of just the upside down photos, lol.

      Delete