Lolita Braiding Three Ways

Pink? Polka dots? Hearts? You know what that means - I've roped Victoria into another one of my hair-brained schemes for the benefit of my lovely readers. "Hair-brained" is certainly applicable this time, because here's a hair-spiration post featuring this season's hottest style: Braids! From mainstream to mori-girls, everyone has decided that the braid is back. I've always adored braids as a cute, simple way to jazz up any style, especially in summer when you don't want all that humidity melting your hairspray away. Since my hair is so dark, details don't photograph on it well, so I recruited Victoria to help me out (she sat complacently on her cellphone, figuring out how to link it to her e-mail). Here are some of my favorite braided looks for lolita:

The Crown Braid: An old favorite of mine, it's a touch tricky and takes some getting used to, but if you can master it, the affect is understated but very glamorous. Just take a small section of hair from just above the ear, and start braiding as close to the root as possible. If you can, hold the hair over your head while you're braiding, as this will cut out any lumps that may form when you lay it over the crown. Then... lay it over your crown. Here I secured Victoria's braid with a bobby pin that matched her hair under about three fingers worth of hair behind her ear. If you want, you can adorn the end of the braid with a bow or flower corsage, but here I didn't think it would be necessary, especially with how cute it is to have the pink braid over the blonde hair. A pearl headband behind the braid would be very classy as well.

Crown Corsage Braid: Ahh, so you've mastered the crown braid, eh? Well, here's the level-up. Instead of a regular braid that you pull over the top of the head, take a small section and french braid it across, behind your bangs if you have them. Once you get to the end, curl the tips of your hair around a finger, then keep rolling until you have a rose-like corsage. Secure with a few bobby pins. I can't claim credit for this look - I found it off Youtube tutorial. I can't find it now, but if anyone is interested I'm sure I could dig around for it!


Pigtails With Pizazz: And here is my favorite braided style- sick of normal braided pigtails? take a medium-sized section from the crown at the front of your part and braid it - when I do it on myself I can just do a regular braid, but for some reason Victoria's hair wasn't taking it, so I did a french braid itself. I think this looks much more streamlined than my usual style, but I definitely wouldn't have the patience to do that on my own hair! Maybe if I'm styling someone else's, though. Adorn the ends with anything you would use on normal pigtails, or for added cuteness channel mori-girl and stick some small wildflowers or feathers straight into the braid itself.