Braided Rosette Buns / 2 Styles in One

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Guest post from: Goldilocks*n*Me

Hi everybody! This post will show you how you can get 2 completely different looks from the same base style. A day 1 and a day 2 look. It will also be my first attempt at a step by step which has been noticeably lacking from my blog. Here we go!

I started on banded hair. This allows me to work with stretched hair as opposed to GDL's curly curly curls (easier that way). Here we are right before band removal

 

As you can see some of her bands slipped off overnight, no big deal. I then take out all the bands to asses how stretched it is, how wet it is or if it's all the way dry to figure out what products I need to use that day. Here we are at that step.

On this day GDL's hair was still pretty damp which meant that in addition to my shea butter pomade

I'd need to use my spray bottle of conditioner/water mixture. If her hair was completely dry (like it usually is by morning) all I would have needed was the pomade. GDL's hair cooperates best when it's wet-wet or completely dry, middle ground doesn't work too well for us.

From here I parted her hair in half from ear to ear and tied the back half out of the way.

Next I put the front half in a side ponytail using a clear elastic.

I took the ponytail on top and put it into 4 braids as seen here

Notice I braided one braid a little more loosely than the others (see below). You'll find out why I did that later :D

Now we're to the stage where we can finish the first look. I laid the 4 braids flat against GDL's head and joined them into a ponytail with the bottom half of her hair. I then braided that ponytail into a single braid and added a clippie to the top (because her ponytail had bubbles in it, don't you hate when that happens?! Easy fix, add a clippie!) Now I chose to hide the (4) braids into the 1 big braid, they're still braided all the way down, you just can't see them. You may choose to let them show for a different look in your bottom braid. Here's the finished style!

Overnight I always take any bands (at the base) out of GDL's hair for sleeping. So remove the bottom ponytail holder and cut out the elastic on top. Careful don't cut any hair! Have your daughter sleep on a satin pillowcase/cap/scarf or whatever you prefer that will minimize her hair fuzzing up really bad overnight. In the morning you'll need to reband her top ponytail with an elastic. The braids might be a little puffy down by the band, but the braid itself should be fine if your satin did a good job the night before. You can re-do the braids if you want but you shouldn't need to. You don't have to worry about that puffiness by the band either, (you'll see why!).

 For our 2nd look we're gonna start by taking our 3 smaller braids (remember we left one braided more loosely) and we're gonna form 3 of my favorite new things, rosettes! That's why we don't have to worry about puffiness, it'll be covered up anyway! Of course you can do 1 or 2 rosettes instead of 3, especially if working with very thick or very long hair. To form a rosette simply form the braid into a circle like you would a bun, but try to get it to lay as flat as possible (think pincurl), then pin in place. I used bobby pins that match GDL's hair color but I think hairpins would work well too, because they're usually shorter than bobby pins. Here we are with 2 of our 3 rosettes formed

 

 So after your last rosette is pinned, we're gonna make a slide braid (from the braid that we made more loose than the other 3) that will go from the top ponytail to the bottom ponytail. Take 1 strand and hold it tight, hold the other 2 strands with the other hand. This was tough to take a picture of because I don't have 3 hands but here goes

 You can barely make out that 3rd strand against my palm and the other 2 strands off to the right. Keep the single strand in your left hand and the other 2 in your right hand (or vice versa) and begin sliding the "2-strand" hand up the "1-strand" like so (if it doesn't slide easily re-braid more loosely and add some pomade to make the hair slippery-er)

After you slide it all the way up (don't let go) and pull it back down to the level where you'll be joining it to the bottom ponytail then clip it there and move it aside.

 

 

 Notice it's not the perfect slide braid look at this stage, don't worry about that, we'll adjust it later. Now make your bottom ponytail. I made a side pony for this one but on our first style the day before it was a middle ponytail. Slide braids take a lot of hair to make a little braid so the shorter distance they have to go, the better they look (unless you've got looong hair to work with). So make that side pony and join your slide braid to it.

Now we can adjust our slide braid. Just use your finger and slide up or down whatever needs to be slid (slidden? whatever).

 

Finish the bottom ponytail anyway you like, I chose a 3 strand twist. And there you go!

Hindsight observation- It's way easier to get one rosette to lay flat than 3 in close proximity. Later on this day because her rosettes kept popping out, I unpinned them, braided the 3 braids together and made one big rosette, nice and flat. It stayed all day! I still want to master the 3 rosettes because I love the look of it!

So there you have it, 2 styles from one base and a step-by-step. Now I'll conclude this longest post in history. Good Day! -Tav

For more amazing styles from Tav please stop by their blog, Goldilocks*n*Me.