Festival Braided Knot Pony Tail

The Festival Braided Knot hairstyle caught my eye when I first got this book from the nonfiction section of the library. I thought it looked so cool and it really solidified that I wanted to do this project on hairstyles and wanted to learn to do things like that. So, I decided to do this as my fourth post because I think it's super pretty and I've learned enough the last couple months that I figured I'd be able to at least attempt this gorgeous look on my friend Kayla :)


This hairstyle is one that is super hippy-dippy, which is really trending right now. It's something that is unique but also fashionable and in-style right now. As Bond states: "This organic version of the braid is showing up everywhere from summer music festivals to the red carpet. Let your inner flower child out to play, and give this fun style a try. It's made of two French braids leading down into a ponytail, with random tendrils falling out of the style to create an earthy, undone look" (Bond 158). I believe that hairstyling is a type of art, so I decided to tackle this look and be an artist while I had the chance!


The only materials needed for this style were bobby pins, elastic bands, clips, and hairspray (optional). I used everything but clips and hair ties when I did this style on Kayla.


Step 1 instructs to start with dry hair. The picture in the book has the hair curled, but Kayla's hair was straight from the day before.

Step 2 had you spray the roots for volume, but I didn't do this to Kayla's hair because I felt that if we wanted to do another hairstyle afterwards that it would be too messy to work with. So we skipped this step.


Step 3 had the reader part the hair into two sections, down the center, so that the two sections were for the most part equal in size. Step 4 had us clip/pull aside the right side of the hair to keep it out of the way.

 

Steps 5-9 showed the reader how to do a Dutch braid, which is the opposite of a French braid. I already knew how to do this skill, so I braided the hair in the direction that the pictures showed.

Step 10 had the reader braid until about the shoulder, and then secure the left side with a hair tie or clip. Step 11 said to repeat the Dutch braid steps on the right side of the hair.

Step 12 had me tie the two braids together at the base of the hair.

Step 13 said to take out the ties at the end of the braids and gave the option to tease the bottom of the ponytail for texture and volume. I left the ponytail part of Kayla's hair straight, because I thought it looked really nice the way it did.

Step 14 said to take a strand of hair and to wrap it around the hair tie, and then to secure with a hidden bobby pin to finish the look!

 

 

I think this hairstyle was extremely successful! It worked way better than I could have hoped! I feel that I have made a lot of progress in the art of doing hair and am really proud of this look. Kayla loved it as well :)

One thing I would do different would be to curl the hair first, because I think that if the ponytail was curly it would look a lot more free and wild, and not so put together. This hairstyle also went a lot quicker than I expected! It only took about ten minutes, which Kayla and I were surprised about! I hope that other people can try this as well, because it looks great and I think it's a really intricate look!

Would you prefer a straightened ponytail, or a curled one? What changes would you make to this style?

Citation:

Bond, Kylee. Idiot's Guides - Hairstyles. New York: Mike Saunders, 2014. Print.