Crimped Knotted Braid Pullback

I’ve got to admit I’ve had a bit of fun since I pulled out my old crimper and added some cute crimped texture to Goose’s braids & messy bun in this recent post.  This style is basically the same as our Knotted Braid Pullback, but we added the crimping to change it up a little.  I actually wanted to experiment with the crimping and see how the braids would differ if I crimped the hair before I braided her hair, as well as after I braided it.  So here are my results!

Step 1 – Make zig zag part

Step 2 – Part down to each ear

Step 3 – Braid

 Step 4 – Crimp the braid

This is where our experiment started!  In this step I braided first, and then crimped.  If you are short on time, this is the way I would recommend because it is easier and quicker to just run your crimper down the braid.  You get a bit of crimped texture but not a ton.

 Step 4(a) – Crimp hair before braiding

We took all the hair on the right side that was parted out in front of the ear and sectioned it into a few smaller sections and crimped it bit by bit.  This took a bit more time, but in the end gave quite a different look.  If you don’t have a crimping iron, you can use this technique we showed a while ago.  Obviously it will take more time – but it’ll give you a similar look.

 Here’s the result from braiding then crimping:

Here’s the result from crimping first, and then braiding.  The braid was so much thicker and had a lot more texture to it.

 After I was done with the whole crimping experiment, we just finished the style by starting at Step 3 in our Knotted Braid Pullback that you can see HERE.  And since I’d crimped all the way down the hair on the left side, the remaining hair in the pull back had a bunch of texture from that.  It reminded me of feathers.  It was pretty — in an odd sort of way! 🙂

 I’m not sure which way I prefer.  By crimping first, you get all the hair right up to the root crimped so there is the extra crimp & texture up there instead of just in the braid.  I loved that this braid was so much thicker by crimping it first.  Definitely a plus if you are working with thinner hair.

By braiding and then crimping the braid was flattened a bit more and the crimping didn’t hit each plait of the braid since it’s uneven.  If I would have gone back and crimped a bit more I probably could have gotten each plait of the braid to have some crimping on it.

Anyway, there you have it.  The results from crimping before and after you braid.  And just to put my disclaimer in here — always use caution when using heat on your hair!  I don’t recommend crimping your hair on a regular basis, as excess heat can damage your hair!

So… which look do you prefer?