I started off this semester with a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to learn online, I was gonna learn to double Dutch braid so that I could do my daughters hair for competitive dance.  I did wonder if it was going to be a task that I would learn quick and then I would be left to figure something else out to get me through the semester.  I was also concerned that it might be a boring subject for people to want to check out every week and how could I make it interesting.

Not only was I trying to learn something new online-I had to learn to blog which was something new to me as well.  I was feeling pretty overwhelmed and unsure if I could get it all figured out.  My first step was to order a mannequin head from amazon that I could use as my braiding model.

Week 1: Let’s Learn to Braid

Objectives: share with everyone that I was going to learn to braid so I could do my daughters hair for her competitive dance.

Week 2: Where to start

To be honest I found this project really tricky to start.  I was feeling super overwhelmed to carve the time out to dedicate to learning something new.  I understand the importance of this project-it just felt like one more thing I had to try and fit in.  I started off this journey showcasing where I was at in my braiding skills.  This week I had to figure out how to get pictures uploaded into my blog-little did I know that they would all be too large and I would have to learn how to use the snipping tool-I didn’t even know that was a thing.  Good thing I had a teenage techy daughter, lol.

Week 3: First step to learning something new

I took to YouTube to find a video for Dutch Braiding for beginners.  The guy in this video was awesome, he talked slowly and I felt like I could somewhat keep up with him.  It was a really big struggle for me to learn to braid backwards from what I previously lost.  My fingers were jumbled together and I struggled.  After restarting a few times I decided to do one straight braid from a ponytail because I figured this would be easier for me.  It seemed to work and I successfully pulled off this braid.  This week my “extra learning” included figuring out how to get my YouTube video posted onto my blog and how to link websites also.

Week 4:  Learning everything new, some a success, some a fail

This week was double whammy! Not only did I have to continue on my braiding journey I had to video my progress and learn how to get it uploaded onto my blog.  To be honest I had to got to my 17 year old for help.  I needed someone to take the pictures of me braiding so I could make the video, plus I had no idea how to get my video uploaded.  I decided to try out iMovie as it is an app that I haven’t really used before, my son likes to make stop motion videos on there, so I figured if we could make it work so could I.  Getting my video made was a breeze, but how in the heck was I getting it to upload onto my blog?? In comes my daughter…she showed me how to upload it to YouTube and then from there I could copy the link into my blog.  Worked like a charm!

Week 5: Can I make my braid look pretty?

This week I left things to the last minute, I went to YouTube and found a new how to video.  I was able to link the video onto my post,  but not the way I wanted it to go, but I couldn’t figure out how to fix it so I left it.  I didn’t post any extra pictures of my success, so my post was pretty lame this week.

Week 6: Let’s try something new

I decided that trying to keep up with videos was tricky when I was still struggling to make things work perfectly, so I decided to switch it up.  I took to google to try and find another way to learn and I came across a new website https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Dutch-Braid, that showed pictures and broke steps down that way.  I found this to be an easier thing to learn from.  I forgot to take pictures of my progress again this week.  It was interesting to see that I wasn’t the only person that sometimes finds it easier to learn from words and pictures rather than videos.

Week 7: SUCCESS

I was feeling like I was getting no where and that I was failing each week so I decided I need to shake things up.  I switched a couple things up this week, I decided to give my mannequin a break and I tried to braid my daughters hair.  I also found a blog that I used to learn from too-this was a really awesome tool for me as I was finding that the video’s weren’t working the best for me.  This week I successfully braided the best braid yet!!! I was so excited that it finally worked.  I was surprised how excited I was that I had finally made my braid look presentable.

My classmates helped pump my tires and make me feel like I could keep going on this journey.

 

Week 8: Back to the usual

I was still feeling pretty pumped from last week so I decided to go back to YouTube and see if I could find another video on there.  The video was good, but my skills were not.  My braids ended up looking like a hot mess again and I was left wondering if I was going to actually be successful by the end of this journey

Week 9: Will I actually conquer this goal by the end

I was feeling pretty deflated and pretty sure that I was not going to be able to be a great braider by the end of the semester.  I went on to use a YouTube video again this week and I decided to showcase my learning a different way this week.  I took pictures and went to Canva this time to make a video.  I hadn’t made a video on Canva before so this was a new learning experience for me.  I found that it was pretty user friendly and it was much easier to share to my blog post than iMovie.  I think I could really get used to using Canva as it is quite user friendly.

Week 10: A little bit of success goes a long way

I continued on my YouTube video journey and using my daughter hair to braid rather than my mannequin.  I found that using real hair was much easier to work with so my poor mannequin has been just hanging out by herself these days.  This week I had a bit of success, I was able to get the top of the braid tighter and closer to the top of her forehead, but the back was still a disaster.  I gave into the fact that I never conquered that during this journey.

I have had a few take aways from this journey.

1.  Don’t leave it to the last minute-I would feel rushed and then everything always seemed to go wrong on these days.
2. It’s good to switch up the way you are doing things-when I realized videos weren’t the easiest for me to follow I found a new way.  The internet is an amazing thing and you have tons of information at your fingertips
3. Even if you have multiple failures, keep going, it may be a rocky road.  Enjoy the little success moments instead of focusing on the rough ones.
4. There are sooo many apps to use, this was a great opportunity to learn the ropes on some new apps that I have never used before
5. Blogging isn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be-once everything was set up, it was easy to keep it going.  Something I need to work on is finding new ways to engage readers.

Even though I struggled to jump on the train and start something new, I am happy that I did buy a ticket.  I have learned some awesome new things on this journey.  My braids may not be the best out there and I’m probably gonna beg and pay people to help us get through my daughters last dance competition season, but I am proud of the success I did make- I can do more now than I could before I started.

As they say a little bit of success goes a long way and I had a little success this week that made me feel like I got this!  This week I went back to using a video to learn by, so  I took to YouTube and this is the one I decided to go with.

My daughter let me braid her hair again this week, thank goodness as my mannequin head looks like it has seen better days.  I took a tip from a video I used before to put the unbraiding side of hair into a ponytail, I thought this might help me when I get to the bottom as that seems to be my trouble area.  Unfortunately it didn’t help a ton with that.  I was super successful at getting the braid tight at the top and to start at the top of her forehead on both sides which has been a goal since the beginning of this journey.  I was able to keep most of it together as I moved down her head this week.  It wasn’t super tight on the sides, but I was able to gather and add it to the braid.  Once again it got to be a big mess at the bottom, again I think that I leave too much and then I can’t get it add properly.

This week I also managed to do the left side of her head better than I have ever got it, which is success too! It got to be a hot mess at the bottom too, that seems to be the main issue now.  I told her this the best one yet and she could almost leave the house with the way it looks. Hopefully next week I will be able to figure that out, as it’s the last week and I haven’t successfully nailed this yet!  Check back next week and see if I can get this figured out on the last kick at the can.

Honestly, I think I’m not fit to learn to Dutch braid, lol.  I am defeating the odds that you can always learn something new that’s for sure.  I have definitely had some success,  but I cannot make it these braids look pretty for the life of me.  I have switched my model from my mannequin to my daughter (thank goodness she’s being a good sport) and that’s not helping 100% either.

This week I used a website  that had both a website and followed up with pictures.  I thought I would switch it up and watch the video first, and then follow the pictures and braid from there.  I find it easier to look at pictures instead of attempting to keep up with the video or trying to pause it as my hands are caught up in hair.

One of my goals these last couple weeks has been to make the braid sides tighter and to work on getting my braid started at the top of her forehead.  This week I felt like I did better at starting it at the top of her forehead and it stayed pretty tight on the right side of her head.  Then as I moved down it all went downhill.  When I got to the middle of her head I got mixed up on what strand I was on as someone talked to me, so it looks like a humbled mess there.  I managed to get back on track and made it look right from there to the end.

The left side always tends to be a bit more tricky for me and that continued this week too.  I’m not sure what’s up with that or what I can do differently to make it work better.  I was able to get it started closer to the top of her forehead, but as I worked down it didn’t go extremely smooth.  I didn’t end up with a big chunk of hair being stuck on either side like last week, so that was more successful.  I’m still not even close to the stage to tuck the tails at the end of the braid and make it look the way it’s supposed to.  As time gets closer to the end of the semester the more panicky I get that I have completely conquered this task.  Hopefully we have a better week next week.  Check back and see if I decide to go back to the mannequin or bribe my daughter one more time.

 

This week I was going to use the tutorial video that the dance club has posted on their website, but unfortunately the link was not working.  So I found myself back on you tube searching for new videos to use.  I came across this one that was based on making 2 dutch braids so I thought I would use it this week.  As at the end I need to be able to have 2 tightly braided dutch braids.

My goal this week was to start the braid at the top of the forehead instead of farther back.  I convinced my daughter to be my model again as I found her hair easier to work with than the mannequin last week.  I started off by splitting her hair down the middle and working on the right side.  I was able to start off more at the top of her forehead was a plus! I didn’t find adding more hair so troublesome this week and then it all went downhill….when I got close to the bottom of her head I took too big of a chunk of her hair and in reality most of it was supposed to be for the other side.  This made it look bulky and well to be honest not very good.

 

Next I moved to the left side, this was my bad side last week and this week it proved to be the same.  I couldn’t get it started at the top of her forehead and I actually started more to the side, which made the whole thing a helter skelter mess!!  Once I got half way down her head it got way better and I ended off strong, but the damage was already done.

Today was not such a success, and the end result is definitely not stage worthy.  I am running out of time to perfect this braid as class is running out.  I was hoping to have more success stories to write about, but that hasn’t been the case.  This experience is teaching me to persevere when things are hard-which is not like me, I often throw in the towel and give up.  You’ll have to check back in next week to see if I have success again.

I finally feel like I have had some success on this braiding journey.  I switched things up this time and I braided my daughters head instead of my mannequin head, I will say it was much easier to manipulate.  I may have to convince her to sit down and let me do it more often during this learning process.  I also switched up what platform I used this week, I found a blog that had a step by step tutorial.  I liked this method, as I found last week it was easier for me to learn from pictures instead of videos.

The first step was to separate the hair in half, my kids don’t have a normal middle part so it gets a bit wavy looking when you look closely.  My hairdresser gave me a tip this week: to hold my hands close together when braiding, so I tried really hard to follow that tip.  I started on the right side of her head.  I really struggled with this side and she eventually asked me to try the other side because her head hurt, lol.

I moved onto her left side, it went better but, still not very good, I didn’t do well with gathering hair from the sides which has been a struggle from the beginning.  I had a couple restart times, but I didn’t want to redo it again so I left it looking a bit wonky and not the best.

   

I went back to her right side as I felt like I was a bit on a roll and I might actually be somewhat successful.  This side went so much better! There were still some spots that I struggled to get hair gathered from the sides and middle, but overall its probably the best braid that I have done yet!

Next’s week mission to try to get to be a tighter braid and started more at the front of her head.  Stay tuned to see if I have another successful try.  Last picture is of a person who is super pumped that she finally had a successful post to write.

This week I decided to try a different way of learning.  From the beginning of this project I have been finding a new “how to” video on youtube.  This week I found a website that had the option to follow along with the pictures and writing, but there was also a video option if you would like to watch.  I went with following along with the pictures this time, this was I could work along at my own pace and not feel like I was constantly rushing so that I could keep up with the video.

This first part of these instructions is to just do one solid braid first, I went back to the basics and worked on this, as they showed a different way to get the hair on the sides into the braid which is my downfall.  I did pretty good with this task this week, I still struggled to make the sides look clean and finished.  I think that I need to start using more water to keep the hair more damp, I try to avoid water as I wasn’t sure how my mannequin head would fair.

The next step was too split the hair into 2 sections-this is the way I need to make perfect as this is what I need to do for dance season.  I am getting the task of the under hand braid perfected, but I find I get mixed up as I start to add more hair to the braid in a smaller section.  I get the different sections mixed up and I find that I do a mixture of underhand braiding with some that are normal braiding so it looks clumpy and messy.  I also didn’t go good with adding the sides at all…another fail.

I did learn something new about myself though, I definitely learned better reading and following along with the pictures than I have with watching videos.  I am going to try and find some other resources that are laid out this way to see if it helps me finally figure out how to add more hair and for it to look clean and finished.  Maybe this week I will be able to use my daughters hair to see if that is easier to braid than the mannequin head.

Thanks for following along with my braiding journey.  I didn’t take any pictures this week of my progress, but I will bring them back next week.  Whose hair do you think I will braid my mannequin or my daughters, check back to see if your guess was correct.

I decided to try a new video this week, I had used the same one the prior two weeks because I liked the guy in it.  This girl was good, she repeated herself which was awesome-that way I had a constant reminder of what I needed to do.

How To Dutch Braid Step by Step For Beginners – Full Talk Through – Dutch Braids For Beginners

My goal today was to work on adding hair from the sides and making it look tight and clean….you’ll have to check out the picture to see how this went.  I am really struggling to gather hair from the sides and add it into my braid.  My hands aren’t big enough to hold the three strands separate for that long.  I’m hoping if I practice more it will help. I’m finding that my mannequin head is getting quite knotty, I brushed it all out today before I started and it seemed to be better.  Next week I think I might try on my daughters head and see if I have better luck.  Her hair is also super long with natural curl/wave so it maybe tricky as well.

I started off good this week and ended in a bit of a disaster!  I found that the top was staying tighter, the problems seemed to get worse as I attempted to add hair.  The sides did not stay tight and they did not look pretty!  Thanks for checking in and hopefully I’ll have something beautiful to share with you next week.

 

 

This week I had a double challenge to take on.  One I had to try and move along on learning to braid and second I had to learn to make a video of some kind to showcase my learning (good thing for teenage children that can help their mom out).  I started off by returning to the same video I used last week as I didn’t go farther than the learning to braid underhand part.  The guy on this video talks a normal speed and doesn’t go super fast, so it’s easy for me to stop it or go back to the place I missed something.

My attempt this time turned out….horrible! I cannot figure out how to add more hair from the side so I gave in and did a smaller underhand braid on the left side instead of the right which is my usual preference.  It turned out to me a messy disaster, I think that my mannequin’s hair is too long and it tangles easy so I am struggling to make it look finished.  I am going to try and get it brushed out so that next week things will hopefully go smoother.

I decided that it might be easier to make an imovie on my phone-thought I might have better luck with this app.  I took a series of pictures during my learning time of different points.  Once I had these pictures, I uploaded them into the app and from there it makes the slideshow for you.  I pushed the + button and added in the song from what they had available, I didn’t download my own.  The biggest struggle of this process was getting it sent to myself properly so that I could add it into my post, for this step I enlisted the help of my daughter and she showed me how to send it to myself through icloud.  The next tricky step was trying to figure out how to upload the video onto my post.  I went into youtube and from there I created my own account and uploaded my video onto youtube, this gave me a link that I could then post onto my page.  Hope you enjoy my amateur video making skills-I’m also not a very good selfie taker, lol.

Stay tuned to see what fun I can get into next week and if I actually conquer being able to add more hair into my braid…..

 

I took to you tube this week to find a video to help me get started.  I put “How to dutch braid for beginners” and I picked this video first.  This video is really awesome! The guy that is speaking/teaching talks slow and ensures that he explains the exact steps.  I decided to concentrate on the first part of the video before moving on too far.  The beginning is learning to do underhand braiding-this was tricky for me.  As a only one type of braiding girl, trying to train myself to do it backwards was hard.  I decided that I would stick with this step and perfect before moving on.  I did it multiple times, some turned out really good and some were a hot mess.  This week I am learning to have patience and perseverance, if things to don’t come to me easily I’m quick to bail usually.  But I kept going and I am hoping that when I move on to the next step this week I will be prepared to move on because I stuck it out.

My biggest struggle still is to get a tight ponytail to stay in so the front doesn’t look so lumpy and like its falling out, I may have to find different hair elastics.  This mannequin has super thick hair, which I wasn’t expecting, but it is also helpful as my daughter has thick, natural curly/wavy hair-so it is similar.  Now I’m gearing up for the next step on this journey.

This first week of my learning project has been tricky for me about knowing where to start so I admit, I have procrastinated it until I find myself under pressure.  I sometimes find it hard to carve out time to do tasks like these in my busy work, school, mom life, I will do better this week!

I decided the best place to start was to practice my skills where they are now and see how it goes.  My husband put my mannequin head together this week and mounted it for me at my height so that I could get started.  I did my classic single braid with a little bit of hair, the one I would give my girls when they were little and I felt bad I couldn’t do beautiful braids for them, I would do this single braid and then pull it back into a ponytail or a top knot/bun for them.  As my girls are now teenagers it is rare that I get the chance to braid their hair so this is how I did.

Next I decided to see if I could do one big braid as a whole ponytail.  I cannot do it from the top of the head and moving my way down because I struggle with gathering and adding more hair as I go.  I could not pull this type of braid off often as my girls hair is thick and I found that I often lost humph somewhere, and it all came back to me quickly as this braid was automatically loose, which would probably fall out on a normal moving persons head.  I also never know how to finish the end off when there is more hair on one strand then the next so I usually just scoop it into another loop.

I am gonna head and find some helpful videos for this week, hopefully.  Watch for what kind of braid I do next.