hair

2 BRAIDS, 3 WAYS

PHOTOS/POST: KRISTIN ESS

Long hair lovers, this one’s for you! We took 2 simple dutch braids and turned it into 3 quick hairstyles. They’re so easy and you can pretty much match 1 of these 3 hairstyles with any outfit. You could also wear one to work and seamlessly switch to a different one before heading out to a dinner or event. Once the two dutch braids were in, we never took them out when switching to the other hairstyles. Below you’ll see the looks that we came up with but first we’ve gotta prep the hair!

• Optional: add in a track or two of CLIP-IN EXTENSIONS for extra length!
• Curl your hair using THIS METHOD from our previous post. We alternated between the GHD CURVE 1 1/4 CURLING IRON and the HOT TOOLS WAND this time.
• After the curls were added we sprayed on some BLOPRO DRY TEXTURE SPRAY and lightly scrunched it in, breaking up the waves.
• If you feel like your hair is still too fine/soft and you need a little extra “grip” at the base, sprinkle a little SEXY HAIR TEXTURE POWDER at the root!
• Create two dutch braids going from the temple area to the back of your crown and secure the ends with a tiny clear elastic or lightly tease the ends to keep the braids from unraveling (that’s what we did here).

BRAIDED HALF UP: This is the easiest one. After your dutch braids are in, cross the two dutch braids over each other at the center/top/back of your head. Use a large bobby pin to secure. Cross them over in an X shape for extra support!

BRAIDED “X” PONY: Cross the tails of your dutch braids over each other at the occipital bone (that little bone you can feel in the back of your head). Gather the rest of the hair that’s down and wrap it all together in an elastic. Make sure the braids stay crossed over each other. Once the elastic is in, use a strand of hair to wrap around the ponytail holder. Next we shook and sprayed the pony using R + Co. STRONG HOLD FLEXIBLE HAIRSPRAY to give it the volume it deserves!

BRAIDED CHIGNON: Last but certainly not least, the chignon! This is actually just that ponytail wrapped up! We took the tail of the pony above and twisted it into a bun shape. We made sure the braids stayed on the outside. We added a little more SEXY HAIR TEXTURE POWDER before gently pulling the bun apart. Use large bobby pins (often called “roller pins”) to secure, especially if you have a lot of hair! You can find my favorite ones HERE.