Hello my dears!
Looking forward to Halloween costuming and styling, we have a Braid Mask Tutorial here, as promised……Thanks to Zana Mala for Inspiration and the fierce concept of going beyond the braid to the Braided Mask.
The Braided Mask would be a great addition to a bird costume, owl costume, mosquito costume, Mad Max inspired costume, or a generally cool empress costume.
To do this hairstyle, I had to do a bit of planning……I wanted a strategic smattering of interwoven braids that would leave her eyes showing, and I kind of, weirdly, wanted her to have a bird-like look with a sharp beak.
So, I planned on a french braid down each side, dropping out some pieces which would connect across her forehead like webbing, and then join together across her nose to form a beak.
I started by making a center part from the front of her head to the back. I sectioned out her bang section and clipped it aside, knowing that this would be the french braid which would join the 2 side braids, creating the spine and connecting the webbing of the braids.
I began with a braid on one side of her bang section, french braiding from the top, down the side of her head. When I reached her hairline around the temple area, I began to drop braid sections on the lower side of her braid, as seen in the ribcage braid technique.
I dropped 4 sections in a row from the lower side of her braid, then continued braiding down the free end, securing the very end with a small elastic.
I did the same thing on the other side.
Then, in the bang section, I started a french braid at the very top of it, and continued french braiding that small section.
Once I worked my way through that section, adding in all the hair, I continued braiding the free ends. After 3 overlaps of hair in the free ends, I began adding in my dropped sections from my side braids, one at a time in order, alternating. This created the webbed look as the sections were pulled across her forehead and included into her center braid. I continued that braid down the center of her face, to the ends. I secured the ends with a small elastic.
Now, with all the rest of the hair, I made 2 basic braids, one on each side of her head.
Then, I gathered the ends of all 5 braids at the tip of her nose, and ponytailed them together with a clear elastic. I removed the individual braid elastics, and combed the tail into a little beak.
Kind of awesomely strange, right?
Try a Braid Mask for Halloween this year, I double dare you.
xo, HTHG
