how to do the BRAIDED UPDO: graduation & wedding hair look

June 07, 2019

my cousin casey is GRADUATING! to celebrate the occasion, i’m going to do a gorgeous BRAIDED UPDO. this loos is perfect for formal events like graduations and weddings. long story short: this look is TIMELESS.

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step 1: TEXTURIZING the hair

hair

first, i’m going to prep the hair with ‘fix’. i’m going to mist it throughout the hair and power dry it. it’s going to TEXTURIZE the hair and give it a bit of grit.

step 2: CURLING the hair

hair

second, i’m going to curl the hair. since i’m going to be pinning most of the hair, i’m not getting too worried about sectioning the hair.

step 3: BACKCOMBING the hair

hair

there’s an art to backcombing. you want to firmly hold each section and place the comb in the same spot on every strand of hair you touch. backcomb each strand the exact same number of times.

with my curling iron, i’m carefully smoothing out the strands of hair around her hairline.

hairline

once i’ve backcombed all the hair on her head, i’m going to gently comb-over and even out the look to make sure it doesn’t look lumpy. remember to discuss volume and parting with your clients before you jump into the UPDO.

step 4: sectioning the hair

hair

i’m going to start by separating the hair i want to use as the BRAIDED sections in the updo.

updo

gather all the hair that you aren’t putting in the braids into a ponytail. smooth the hair and use this clever trick: attach a hair elastic to 2 bobby pins. put the first bobby pin in and wrap the elastic around the hair. with the second bobby pin, make a criss-cross pattern to secure the ponytail.

ponytail

do one last check for symmetry before you pin the hair. i’m smoothing the hair and examining her hair.

step 5: pinning the hair

i’m going to take a section from the ponytail and make a loop that corresponds with the direction i curled the hair in. next, i’ll pin the loop close to the foundation i’ve set with the original bobby pins.

i’m going to repeat the process around the head until i’m ready to go start the braids.

step 6: the BRAIDS

BRAIDS

now i’m ready for the braids. i’m going to start by applying nvenn’s ‘clean’ dry shampoo to reduce excess grease. dirty hair styles better but doesn’t look the best. ‘clean’ will make sure your hair looks FLAWLESS.

FLAWLESS

before i start the braid, i’m carefully examining the sections. i want it to be small enough to show detail, but big enough to include all of the hair.

hair

to accomplish this, i’m doing an UNDER BRAID. in the classic fashion, we’ll divide the section into three sections. from there, we’re going to take the right section and wrap it under the middle section. then, i’ll repeat the same process with the piece on the left. as you continue across the head, you’ll add in a piece of hair. i’m going to continue this until i get to the ear.

ear

once you hit the hair, ask your client for some help! i’m having casey hold the base of the braid while i loosen the braid.

i’m going to smooth the hair out and lay the braid where i’d like it to sit on her hair. use the criss-cross technique to secure the braid in the base. pin the last two pieces of the hair to cover pins.