I am so excited to have won my first ever braiding competition!!! Katie @abellasbraids on Instagram had a contest, so I entered a few of my braids. There were over 500 entries in the intermediate category, and all of the braids were amazing! I never thought I’d have a chance. Go and check out #abellasbraidsintermediate on Instagram to see all the incredible hairstyles in the competition. Here is my winning braided tiara, which I did on my daughter for her good friend’s birthday party:

In the last few hours I have been asked so many times about this braid, that I thought it is easiest to do a blog post to try to explain it.

Many thought that it is some kind of a feather braid, and I think a feather braid would have been a good idea if I knew what I was doing when I started. But I made up the braid as I braided…

I started by making 5 mini braids (just normal 3 strand braids) in a line in the middle of her head from ear to ear.

Next, I started a lace braid headband from the right ear, and every time when I got to a mini braid, I pulled it to the front (face side) and braided the lace braid over it. And when the mini braids made a nice size loop, I braided them into the lace braid.

Finally, I was not happy with how the back of the lace braid looked like, so I started another mini braid near the right ear. I pulled it through the main braid, braided a little bit and attached it to the back of the headband by doing a stitch of lace braiding, pulled it through the main braid again etc.  And finished by attaching everything together.

Here are a few pictures to show different sides of the hairdo:

I am so honored to have won the competition. Abella’s Braids has been my biggest inspiration lately. Katie does amazing braids, and I’m a super fan, so it really means a lot to me! Go and check her out on Instagram, Youtube and her blog: http://www.abellasbraids.com/

And of course, if you haven’t already, go and check out @jennishairdays on Instagram!