so frustrated, oh my god.

[bedlamsbard]

I just spent over an hour trying to put my hair in milkmaid braids and failing horribly*. I could get in the braids! I could get on top of my head! I could not get it to fucking stay on top of my head in such a way that it actually looked good. Bobby pins and me, we just don't get along. Also I need thinner hair elastics. I REALLY REALLY WANT TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO THAT HAIRSTYLE, OKAY. Some part of me is positive that there must be a way to do it that just involves braids and hair ties, no pins or hairspray. Or at least minimal use of pins. For whatever reason, my hair just does not hold pins very well -- that or I'm putting them in entirely wrong. (I don't have particularly fine, slippery hair -- I actually have reasonably coarse hair, so it holds hair elastics really, really well, but pins are always a disaster for me.)

In a fit of frustration, I have finally given up and defaulted to a braided half-back, which I'm not a hundred percent pleased with, but whatever, seriously.

* I have looked at so many tutorials for milkmaid/Heidi braids. So many. For about a million different hairlengths, and all of them say essentially the same thing and none of them WORK. Or at least aren't in simple enough terms for me to understand. (It's the hairpins. I swear it's the hairpins. I'm going to go see if I can buy smaller ones; mine are left over from when I had my hair done for Tolo in sophomore year of high school.)

Comments

[dogstar]

I've always found if I cheat and hang my head upside down (like off the side of the bed or something) so I'm braiding upward instead of downward, it all works and lays flat and stays together for that. YMMV.

[bedlamsbard]

Hmm.

[issenllo]

Thanks for the inspiration! I was just thinking what to do with my hair since the weather's so warm. Er, start your braids low on your head, sort of just behind the years. Pull tightly. And when you pull them over the top of your head, they should be reasonably balanced before you pin. I only needed two bobby pins.

[bedlamsbard]

I've got a whole Pinterest board devoted to hairstyles, if that's of interest. (A lot of it's braids, but that's just because I like braids.)

I think I may be having problems with the actual pinning process -- I'm not a hundred percent certain I'm actually putting pins in the right way, which is weird, because you wouldn't think it would be that difficult...unless you're me, apparently.

[sporky_rat]

And make sure you're using bobby pins, not proper hair pins. There's not a way to do that style with just hair ties and hair, unfortunately. I've tried.

[bedlamsbard]

I've got bobby pins! I'm not entirely sure I'm using them right, but I've got bobby pins!

I feel like there must be a way to do it, but damned if I know...

[lotesse]

I wear milkmaid braids aaaaall the time, and I do it quick and dirty: two plain braids, elastics at the end, and 4-6 bobby pins. I pretty much just pin the braids to one another - if you balance em right and pin em together, in my experience they'll stay close enough to the top of your head as is no bother.

[bedlamsbard]

Hmm. I feel I should probably get different elastics -- mine are thicker than I feel is ideal.

I will admit that I'm kind of worried that I don't even know how to put bobby pins in correctly.

[pinesandmaples]

Gel and braiding upside down always helped me.

[bedlamsbard]

I'll try upside down; I don't have gel right now. Oh, hair.

[darklyndsea]

I'm extremely divided over whether I should be happy or upset that you've got me looking at hair stuff again. I guess happy, because this time around I think I've found *some* hairstyles that may actually work with my hair.

[bedlamsbard]

Heh. The only reason I have long hair is so I can do things with it -- I almost never wear my hair down because it gets in my way.

[darklyndsea]

I always have my hair in at least a ponytail, but attempting anything fancier than a braid usually ends badly, since my hair is bad at behaving and extremely thick (usually very long too, but I got a haircut recently so it's short- only about an inch below the bottom of my bra strap).

[holli]

I find that bobby pins are insufficient for holding milkmaid braids up-- I use big hairpins, like these.

[bedlamsbard]

I have a sneaking feeling that it might also be that I have, apparently, pretty heavy hair. I have mastered the milkmaid braids! However, the problem is that they make my head hurt, which is somewhat less than ideal. *sighs*