Step-by-Step

I am quickly realizing that learning a new skill from online sources is maybe not as easy as I thought it would be. I have been working on my journey of braiding hair and quickly realized that it is in fact not as easy as it looks and I did not pick it up instantly. This week I used another YouTube video to try and improve my skill of braiding hair. In a conversation with a friend, I said I know how to do it, I just need to get better at it. And I think that is true. I strongly believe I have learned how to braid hair, now I just have to improve the skill and as an athlete, the mentality I have about that is practice makes perfect. So now I have been watching videos to try and pick up on ways that I could make my technique better. This was the video I used this week!

Practice makes perfect. That is what I am working with. From last week’s blog, there was a few different parts I wanted to work on fixing.

1. Pulling or holding the hair tighter so that the braid is closer to my head.

2. Keep working on a straight part through the back of my head.

3. Start with smaller pieces of hair and add even pieces throughout the braid.

This week I struggled. I kept getting super frustrated that it didn’t look perfect or anything like the video. I must have done the first couple of crossovers a million times before I finally realized and convinced myself that it doesn’t need to be like the video and that I can just keep going and see what happens. I was trying very hard to keep the hair tight so that the braid would be smoother. And I think it kind of worked, at least better than last week. Another success from this week was that my part was much better. It looks more clear and separated through the back of the head. I constantly have to remind myself that it is okay to not be perfect! It is a slow process and I have to acknowledge my successes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though I have to acknowledge my successes, I also understand and believe that I have to acknowledge my mistakes in order to fix them in the future. So there were a few noticeable mistakes this week.

1. In the first picture, you can see that on the right braid, I pulled hair from the wrong spot and that is why it appears lifted at the top there. It has a curve to it. To fix that, I acknowledged that I pulled the hair from underneath the braid and not from the side and that is why it lifted off my head.
2. My second braid always works better! I don’t know if that is because by that point my hands have remembered how to move and where the hair goes or if it is because of the using one arm at weird angles instead of the other. I realized I always start on the left side and then do the right side and the right side always works out better!
3. I really need to focus on which pieces of hair I move, sometimes I think that I get distracted by trying to add hair to each strand and then I forget which piece of hair to crossover.

So now that I know that, I will focus on these points next week and see what I can do!

Only 2 posts left! Check-in to see how the final attempts go!