The following tutorial was inspired by THIS video, which I reccommend watching before you read this, just to make things a little simpler. Anyway. While I thought it was better than most (and it had the actual hairstylist from The Hunger Games movie!) I still didn't think it looked exactly right. AND I don't know how many people have money to go out and buy that fancy hair kit. I know I don't! So, (to sound horribly cliche) without further ado, I present my very own tutorial on how to braid your hair like Katniss!
What you'll need:
- A hair elastic
- A curling iron
- Basic knowledge of french braiding and/or dutch braiding (see THIS video)
- Some hair pins (just in case)
- A comb
- A reference picture (optional. try THIS one and THIS one.)
Step One: Turn your curling iron on. Part your hair on the right side, using the comb. This was a bit weird for me, since I have a natural left part, but after some combing and pinning (just to press my bangs into submission), I made it work!
Step Two: Take a small piece of hair from the top of your hair, and twist it, so it looks like this;
Pick up your curling iron, and wrap the twisted piece of hair around the barrel, holding it there for eight to ten seconds. Let go.
Repeat several times, twisting and curling pieces all around the top of your head.
Le result:
Yes. Yes it looks weird. Hang on. |
result:
Still looks strange, yes I know. |
Step Four: Take a medium-big-ish sized piece of hair from the left side of your head, and separate it into three equal pieces. Start dutch braiding; cross the pieces under each-other, picking up new pieces of hair as you go along.
Step Five: As you go along, instead of making the braid travel diagonally across your head like most tutorials show, wind down past your ear and around your head.
Step Six: Keep braiding until the braid reaches the right side of your head, and you start running out of hair. Once all the hair has been gathered up, finish off the braid normally, only remember to keep crossing the pieces underneath one another.
Step Seven: Tie the end with an elastic, and pin back any big twistys that are sticking out. Katniss didn't wear hairpins, but I had a few huge bits of hair sticking out all over the place. Just make sure to tuck the pins under your hair, so they can't be seen.
The Finished Product;
Ideally, the braid would be tighter, but I was in a hurry AND too lazy to do the braid over again. Anyway. This is my first hairstyle tutorial, so tell me if it was helpful (or not)! :)
I could probably take requests too, if the style is simple enough. I'm thinking about doing Clove's Training Center hair, or Prim's Reaping hair.