For the half up hairstyle, I’m going to begin by dividing off the hair that I want to use for the half up portion. 

So I’m going to divide off the hair starting above my ears and bring this towards the back of my head. 

Now I’m going to divide out some hair to lay in front of my ears and around my face to frame it. 

Then I’m going to decide where I want my first braid to begin. 

So I’m dividing off a small section of hair on the left side of my head, towards the hairline and I’m going to braid this into a regular three strand braid. 

I’m going to cross the side strands under the middle strand alternating between the left and right side strands. So I’m crossing the left strand under the middle, then crossing the right strand under the middle. 

I’m going to repeat this pattern, continuing the braid, until it reaches down near the ends of the hair. 

Once it reaches far enough, I’m going to take my comb and comb upwards towards the end of the braid to keep the braid from unraveling. 

Now I’m going to create another small braid on the opposite side of my head. 

So I’m dividing off a small section on the right side of my head, closer to the top of my head, and braid this into a three strand braid. 

So I’m crossing the side strands under the middle strand again. I usually base the direction I cross the side strands on what is the most comfortable with how I’m holding my hands, whether over my head or next to it. 

Once the braid reaches far enough down the section, I’m going to gently back comb the end of the braid so it doesn’t unravel. 

Now I’m going to create a third braid closer to the hair line on the right side of my head. 

So again, I’m crossing the side strands under the middle strand, alternating between the left and right side strands until the braid reaches down towards the ends. 

Then I’m going to gently back comb the ends so the braid doesn’t unravel without needed a clear elastic band. 

Now that the three base braids are done, I’m going to create the half up portion of the hairstyle. 

So I’m going to divide off the hair above both of my ears and bring it around to the back of my head. 

I’m also adding in the braids last so they don’t end up buried underneath other hair. 

With this top section of hair, I’m going to create a little bun. 

So I’m going to twist the hair together and wrap it into a spiral going clock-wise. Once it reaches back down to the bottom, I’m going to tuck the ends underneath the wrapped section. 

Now I’m going to pin the bun in place using some bobby pins. So I’m going to work my way around the bun, sliding the pins in against my head so they catch a little bit of hair from the bun and hide underneath the hair. 

I used three bobby pins and just pinned wherever I was holding the bun in place. 

Now I’m going to create a few braids underneath the crown section. 

So I’m going to divide off a section of hair on the right side of the bun and create another three strand braid. So I’m dividing the section into three smaller pieces and crossing the side sections under the middle section, working my way down to the ends. 

Now I’m going to create another braid on the left side of the bun. So Im dividing off a section of hair and creating another three strand braid. 

So I’m crossing the side strands under the middle strand and working my way down to the ends of the section.

Once the braid reaches the end, I’m going to wrap it around the bun and pin it at the base of the bun using a bobby pin. 

Now I’m going to create another three strand braid to replace the one I just wrapped around the bun. 

So I’m picking up a section on the left side of the bun and I’m going to braid this into another three strand braid, working my way down to the ends. Then I’m going to gently back comb the bottom of the braid so it doesn’t unravel. 

Working off the last half up hairstyle, I’m going to keep all of the braids in place and pull the hair up into a ponytail. 

So I’m going to combine all of the hair together, while trying to keep the braids out on top of the other hair and I’m going to place the hair where I want my ponytail to sit.

Using a hair band, I’m going to tie off the ponytail. 

Now I’m going to create another braid in the ponytail itself, so I’m dividing off a section and I’m going to braid this into a three strand braid. 

So I’m separating the section into three smaller pieces and I’m going to cross the side strands over the middle strand, alternating between the right and left strands, and working my way down to the bottom of the section. 

With this braid, I’m going to use this hide the hair band. So I’m going to wrap the braid around the hair band a couple of times and then using a bobby pin, I’m going to secure the braid underneath the ponytail at the nape of my neck. 

For the updo hairstyle, I’m going to begin by designing how I want the style to look from the front and then I’m going to decide where I want my micro braids to be. 

So I’m going to place one braid on the left side of my head, near the top and I’m going to section off a small piece of hair. 

I’m going to braid this into a regular three strand braid so I’m dividing the section into three smaller pieces and I’m crossing the side strands under the middle strand, alternating between the left and right side pieces. 

You can either cross the sections over the middle or under the middle. I like the way the beginning of the braid looks when it’s crossed under so that’s why I’m doing it this way. 

Once the braid reaches close enough to the ends, I’m going to take a comb and back comb the bottom of the braid upwards. This will tangle the hair so the braid doesn’t unravel and I won’t need to use an elastic band to tie it off. 

Next, I want a braid at the back of my head, so I’ve divided off a section near the top of my head, close to the crown and I’m going to repeat the same steps as before and braid this into a regular three strand braid. 

This section is a little bit larger so the braid will be easier to see but it’s still a small enough section that it’ll work as an accent braid. You can alternate the sizes of all the braids or try and keep them the same. I think it works either way. I mostly went off whatever was easiest for me to do. 

For this braid, I’m crossing the side strands over the middle strand, alternating between the left and right side strands. This was easier for me to do having my arms above my head, and braiding downwards. 

Then of course, once the braid reaches near the ends, I’m going to gently back comb the bottom of the braid so it doesn’t unravel. 

Now I’m going to create a third braid on the right side of my head. So again, I’m dividing off a small section of hair and I’m going to braid this into a regular three strand braid by crossing the side strands over the middle strand, alternating between the right and left side strands. 

Then I’m going to gently back comb the bottom of the braid so it doesn’t unravel. 

Now I’m going to create one more braid at the back of my head. I want to have enough braids that they’re noticeable but not so many that it’s just a bunch of braids. 

So I’m braiding one more down the back of my head, starting at my crown and this section is a little bit larger than the previous braid so it’ll show up a little bit better. 

I’m crossing the side strands under the middle strand, alternating between the right and left side strands so I basically switched off the direction for each braid so when looking at them, two are arrowed up and two are arrowed down. I can’t remember if this happened on purpose or if I did it by accident. 

Once all of the braids are done though and I’ve back combed the end of the last braid, I’m going to divide off the top section of my head to be pinned as the crown section. 

So starting at my temples, an inch or so above my ears, I’m going to bring this hair towards the back of my head. 

I’m going to twist the section together towards the left side and then slide my pin in horizontally from the left side. I like to hook a bit of hair on the right and then bring the pin over the top and push it in from the left to help hold the hair in place without the bobby pin showing. 

Then I usually slip in a second bobby pin to make sure the section doesn’t fall loose. 

Now I’m going to combine the rest of my hair together and tie it off using a hair band. I want to make sure to tie off the hair right underneath the crown section so when I do the bun, it’ll sit right where I want it to. 

Once the ponytail is all tied off, I decided to add one more tiny braid closer to my face. This is how mapping out the braids beforehand can be helpful but I just quickly created one more braid and then pinned it at the back of my head, making sure to pull it out a little bit so it sat on top of the other hair so it could be seen. 

Now with my ponytail, I’m going to braid this into another three strand braid. 

So I’m dividing the hair into three equal sections and I’m going to cross the side strands over the middle strand. So I’m crossing the left strand over the middle, then crossing the right strand over the middle and I’m going to continue this pattern until the braid reaches near the bottom of the hair. 

Then once the braid reaches down low enough that the hair is getting too short to braid, I’m going to wrap it into the bun. 

So I’m going to take the braid and wrap it over the hair band towards the right side and I want to make sure to lay the braid flat over the hair band so you can see the pattern of the braid. 

Then I’m going to continue wrapping the ends around the hair band so they tuck underneath the bun at the nape of my neck under the hair band. 

Now I need to pin the bun in place. I like to hook a bit of hair in the bobby pin and then push it in towards the center of the bun so it’s against my head. I do this wherever I am holding the hair and wherever it feels loose. So I usually begin with a pin on the right side, then one underneath and then one on the left side. Then I’ll work my way around again repinning wherever the bun feels like it needs more support. 

I also like to make sure to check the bun from both angles so it looks symmetrical and doesn’t have any holes in it.