Criss-cross Ponytail

I was right about the last style (Braided Crown).  It looked nice the first day, but after that it was a hot mess. I saw Bre on Monday visiting another one of the kids houses she just happened to be at and her mother tried to fit it, but didn't know how because of the ribbon.  I decided I wanted to do this elaborate hairstyle to kind of be able to cornrow the crown by doing little overlapping braids so it wouldn't fall it but it turns out I'm really not that good at braiding to be able to do that.  I settled for criss-crossing cornrows into a ponytail.

This was my first attempt at criss-crossing braids.  I really have only ever done straight cornrows.  Her hair was already in the first set of cornrows along her hairline from the braided crown style so I left those alone and I took out the ponytail of free hair.  I added moisturizer and extra virgin coconut oil to seal in the moisture.  Then I took my detangling comb and detangled her hair by small sections first with the comb then with a brush.  This usually doesn't take me that long but it I did need to work a little harder detangling this time because I was working with dry hair, almost 3 months of new growth, and it wasn't in cornrows for a week.

Next, I followed the part lines I made around her hairline and working in sections of 3, I parted off and clipped down hair.  When I had the whole head in sections of 3 I took out one section and parted off 3 cornrows to match the 3 cornrows on her hairline.

I had extended the middle cornrow straight to the center of her head.  Then I took one of the side braids, crossed it over the middle and continued braiding down to the center of her head.  I did the same thing with the other side.  I had one cornrow left after crisscrossing every three cornrows and braided it straight.

Bre and I made our very own curly ribbon ponytail holders and added that to the style, especially since her ponytail is so short.  There will be a post coming soon about how to make these out of regular fabric ribbon.  She liked the style.  It would have turned out better if somebody experienced was doing the braiding and was able to braid it tighter to the scalp.  In some ways it wasn't a bad thing that it was loose though since the new braids matched the week old braids.