Wrapping it up

Now that I have a better understanding of how to braid my hair and what to do, it is just now mastering that skill. From being an athlete it has always been drilled into my brain that PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT and I kept reminding myself that throughout this project.  Unfortunately, it took me longer than I had anticipated to fully understand how to braid my hair and be happy with my progress. I found that I set very high expectations for myself and was very harsh in my feedback to myself.

However, I think this baseline has become super helpful and I will now try to braid my hair more often instead of asking my mom or friends for help. This process taught me a lot about how I learn. I realized that Videos and Images help me a lot more than pictures and words. This was interesting because I think it reminded me that everyone learns differently and I have to incorporate all styles of learning into my future classroom.

When I look back, I realize just how far I have come since the beginning of the semester in my braiding skills. Before this assignment, I was only able to do a single braid with the ends of my hair and wasn’t able to French braid at all on myself or anyone else and now I am able to do both! For this little wrap up let’s take a look back on memory lane and go back through the weeks, the progress I made, and the resources I used.

Week 1: Introducing my Learning Project 

• I chose to braid my hair for my learning project, in this post I outlined the resources I would be using and showed what I already knew how to do. Looking back I was very ambitious about how fast I was going to learn how to braid my hair and quickly realized through the project that focusing on French braiding would be good enough.

Week 2: Wiki (Not) How

• During week 2 I tried to use a Wiki How page, however, I found it extremely difficult to read and follow along just by looking at pictures. This resource focused on braiding other people’s hair not your own and I realized that it is much different. My biggest struggle this week was how sore my arms got trying to braid my hair, this is still an issue sometimes but my body has adjusted to the position and it is much easier now. It is crazy looking back at this week and seeing the messy single French braid and then seeing week 6 to see how far I have come.
  Week 3 French Braid

Week 3: Double Trouble with Braids

• Week 3 was a struggle. I used an Instructables website that actually worked really well because it had a combination of written explanations, images, and a video. I ended up setting myself some goals to focus on. One thing was keeping the braid tight to my head and crossing over the correct pieces at the right time. The braids ended up looking sloppy and messy this week. I also realized this week that you have to part your own hair evenly which I did not do in week 3 and am able to do now at the end quite easily. This was my first attempt at double French Braids.

Week 4: TikTok Can Teach Us Anything

• I love TikTok and usually use it for doom scrolling but this week I found a super helpful video that I used to follow along with and get tips and tricks from. The main takeaway this week was how to hold the hair so that I was crossing over the right pieces. I also realized that I was holding my hair really loosely which was giving it a weird sloppy look. Looking back on this now it blows my mind how far I came from week 1 and even from week 4 to the end.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5: Step-By-Step

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  Week 5 Braid

  During week 5 I struggled, with motivation, technique, and my harsh criticism of myself. I kept thinking it should look better than it did and was getting very frustrated. I used a Youtube Video that I really enjoyed and I tried to just follow along with the video. While braiding I also tried to focus on 3 things that I struggled with and realized that 3 might be too many focuses and tried to dial in on one or two areas to improve such as making the braids tighter to my head. I also took time this week to acknowledge my success and how far I have come.

Week 6: Last Chance

• This week I used two resources, this video that wasn’t super helpful. I found it wasn’t super accurate and had some false information such as cutting your own hair. The other resource I used was also just tips and tricks for braiding hair from the American Salon. This week was my last week and by far my best. There will always be mistakes and weak areas because this is just how life is, I really kept the motto Practice Makes Perfect throughout the whole project and that helped me to stay calm or calm down when I was getting frustrated.

 

At the end of this project, I have learnt so much about braiding hair. I realized that it is a slow process and takes a long time to perfect. It is tedious and what seems like a simple mistake can mess up your whole braid. The hardest thing I had to learn in this project was to be patient with myself. Learning from online resources is great because there are so many options, however, it is also tricky because it can be hard to find exactly what you are looking for and need to improve. Looking back I am so proud of how far I have come and can’t wait to continue braiding my hair and trying new and different types of braids. Thank you all so much for following along with this process and offering me your advice and tips along the way. Let’s close up this project by looking at my first and last braids!