The Scottish Sparrow: Amazing Braids

I absolutely love braids, especially when I get out of the shower and my mother does one for me. Times like those are precious, and it feels so nice to get my hair braided. This hairstyle is one of the few hairstyles that I cannot get enough of. I went through a phase where I decided to perfect my braiding by practicing on my dolls, and making little ones in my hair. Some of those dolls still have their hair braided, because I just couldn’t get enough of it. Now, I’m not even close to being a hair stylist. Honestly, I’ve never even styled my hair in a technical kind of way, but braids are one of the few things I am really good at. I like to braid my hair at night, and then in the morning I unravel it and my hair gets those nice waves.

One thing that occurred to me recently is that braids exist everywhere.The native americans wore braids. I actually learned how to braid in elementary school while we were learning about native americans. They also wore braid wraps on the ends of their braids, and I have a pair. I went to a museum, and I noticed these strang deer skin wraps. I learned they were braid wraps, and I just had to get them. Its not only native americans that know about braids though, there are braids in tons of cultures. In England, Scotland (this is how I am connecting Scotland to this topic), Ireland, africa, Australia, you name it, they have braided. In australia there is Australian plaiting which braids with kangaroo leather. As for Africa, I know alot of African americans that wear those millions of beautiful little braids. Those aren’t the half of it though, there are dutch braids, french braids, swiss braids and braids from the hundreds of other cultures that I haven’t mentioned. Braids have been in all of those places, and that isn’t even counting the kind of braiding that cultures use to make baskets, designs, or the braided challah bread that jews make.

I got interested, so I started looking up tons of different braids. All of them were so beautiful that I wanted to try all of them, but I am not quite that skilled, or that patient. There are a few major braids that I think other designs were stemmed from. Here they are, aren’t they amazing?

The french braid: My cousin did this on my every now and then. She was very good at this one. I love the feel of this one when she was doing my hair. I also wore this one to my fifth grade celebration, and to the memorial day parade for colorguard. French braids were mandatory for those parades, unless your hair was too short. I think they looked good on us.

The Dutch braid: I never knew about this one, it is one of my favorites. I was so excited to learn about this one.

The herringbone/fishbone/fishtale braid: The girl that sat next to me in history last year always wore this type of braid. She had this natural goldish, reddish brown hair that I was really jealous of. I always wondered how she did it to her hair, funny enough, I wasn’t sure it was even a braid.

Basic three strand braid: This is the braid that I normally have. In my opinion it is the easiest to create. Though this one is the more simple of the braids it is beautiful in its simplicity. There are also four or five strand braids that look similar to this one, only more complex.

Twist braid: This one blows me away! It is so fun looking!

I am going to admit now that I have a sort of facination with hair. I already told you that I am not really into styling my hair, but I love hairpieces. Little clips, and things like that are fun to have. I like to add them to my hair when it matches my outfit. I’m not really showy, but I’m not against the showy ones either. I actually have a wooden barret that has a braided/weaved design on it. I found it at a flea market. I had been wanting one forever that it still amazes me that I found it. I love that wooden barret. Just goes to show you, everything comes in time.

I also love haircolor. Personally, I love the color of my hair. It is blondish brown with natural highlights. It is fair, wavy, soft, curly on the ends, but straight on the top. At school I always loved to look at haircolors. One of my best friends has reddish hair that shines in the sun, and I think it is just beautiful. I also love to look at the hair color versus eyecolor. I like to see whether a person’s eyes are darker or lighter than their hair. I love the natural hair colors, I don’t really like the fake look of dyed hair, but I dyed my hair a few years ago to try it, so I don’t judge. It is fun to think that a person’s hair color is a result of years of mixing shades. Its interesting to know that everyone with blonde or red hair came from one common ancestor. Another thing that amazed me is that when caucasian kids have blonde hair, and then they grow up and their hair turns darker. I am one of those kids, so was my dad, and most of the people in my family.

Its black hair that I love the most though. Whenever I see someone with black hair, I just think it is so rich and beautiful. I hope that doesn’t sound weird or anything, I just really love black hair.

Anyway, Here are some more cool braids:

Swiss braid: