My First Tutorial

I finally sat down and just did it- here's my very first video tutorial, for one of my recent favorite mildly-dressy style.  It basically looks like Heidi braids- only done with 2 tichels and a ribbon.  Think of it as a braided variation on the dutch crown, but with only a very moderate amount of height added.

So without further ado:


If that doesn't work for you, here's the link to it on youtube.

Some Tribute Photos As I Try New Styles

I've seen two really interesting new style videos recently.  One was Wrapunzel's criss-cross wrap.  Here are my first attempts.

I'm doing this without layering underneath, so my criss-crosses are closer together than her's, and the scarf forms a slightly different shape on my head.

The ear-covering is really necessary for this style while putting it on.  At first, I thought it was a necessity, but I've now tried popping my ears out, and everything seems to remain pretty solid, and for me, that's Much more comfortable.  The effect is barely minimized.
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The second is The Daily Tichel's video on how to use a shirt as a tichel.

(The above is a short-sleeve synthetic top.  Useful, since it's hard to match turquoises, and I don't have a brown tichel.  But the short sleeves made it a little tricky- it's basically just knotted around itself in the back.)
My first thought was that this was a great thing to keep in mind for emergencies, or for the very creative.  But as I played around with different shirts, I realized that it was a really interesting way to make use of things like ruffles around the collar.

I did these without an underscarf or added volume (although I'd probably use one for all-day wear, mostly, especially since a lot of the shirts I was playing with were synthetic and a bit slippery or stretchy), since I was just experimenting.

Long sleeves provide some different options than short-sleeves do.

 (As here, there's a full wrap-around the bun.  Also, they do a good dutch-crown sort of affair, or just layered around the top.)

A lot of these wraps feel a little less secure, probably because I'm not practiced with them yet.  One of the things I enjoyed was that they made some pretty neat pony-tail arrangements.

My Fascination With Twisty Crowns Continues

I went to an outdoor wedding a while ago- a very good friend from college got married.  It was a picnic-style wedding.  So I was aiming for something that looked really festive, but wasn't too formal, and would put up with dancing, eating, hanging out, outside.  Most of my coverings are pretty stable, honestly, but it meant that adding sparkly things kept on only by bobby pins didn't have quite the appeal that it usually does for me.  Here's what I came up with:

It's made up of: 1 square scarf, folded into a triangle (blue with stripes) , 1 rectangular scarf (purple pattern), and 1 small square scarf (light green), roughly folded into a band.  

I put on the base scarf, and left the tails dangling.  Then I twisted the purple rectangle and the green square around each other, in the same manner as I do the tails for the twisty crown, (Wrapunzel has a how-to here) so that the middles of each scarf were together.  I tied that around my head, using up all the green scarf, but leaving tails on the purple one. 

I then twisted one blue triangle tail with one purple rectangle tail in the same fashion, and wrapped it over my head, behind the purple-and-green twist.  The purple reached about half-way around, the blue reached all the way.  I tucked in the blue tightly, and used it to secure the purple.  I then repeated the same thing with the other side, tucking under the first blue-and-purple combo.  I threw in a bobby pin in the middle to help keep things secure.  

I then added a small black and white headband to set off the two crowns.  

The whole thing stood up to dancing, pincnicking, hula hooping, and 3 young relatives.  

A Twisty Crown: A Shabbos or Mildly Dressy Style

 This is a variation on what often gets called the dutch crown, spun together with one of those classics of Shabbos hair-braiding, what was called a twist, I think.  It's also featured on wrapunzel, along with a how-to video.  I just made two of them, and intertwined them, dutch crown style.  (It's easier if you've secured the end of at least one of the sides with a hair elastic first.)

 I noticed that while this worked really well for me, I tried it out on my sister-in-law, and her head is a bit larger than mine- and the two twists weren't quite long enough to work out well.  So if you have a large head, you may want to use longer scarves than I did.  I imagine that you could use two separate scarves (both rectangles, I guess), wrapped around a separate scarf, which would give you a little bit more length to play with, and a different look.  I think I've given myself a new idea to play with.

 I did this with one square Israeli scarf- the very thin cotton kind, and one fairly narrow rectangular scarf.  So it made for pretty thin twists- especially as the twisting brings them to their narrowest.  That might make this a nice way to use this style without adding too much height or bulk, if that's something you don't find flattering for yourself.

Here's a general how-to:
1. Tie your square scarf with the back corner tucked in.  Keep your tails available.
2. Tie your rectangular scarf over it, keeping the tails of the first scarf available.  For this exact style, don't leave any of the first scarf showing in front.  (But that might be a nice variation, especially if you have some more space before where you want the twists.  Since I tend to show a little hair in front, I have less space.)
3. Arrange your tails with one from each scarf over each shoulder, so you have them in pairs.
4. Take the tails on one side.  Twist them each to the right, and wrap them around each other to the left (or vice versa.)  Secure at the bottom with a hair elastic.
5. Repeat with the other side.
6. Take both twists, and criss-cross them over your head, weaving them together, and tucking in the ends.
7. Adjust your placement, or any other fidgeting that you like to do.

I like the way that this can bring in just a touch of another color, helping to bring together an outfit.   It's also a way of making some decorative use of what might otherwise be an underscarf being used to keep a slippery top scarf in place...  It stayed in place very nicely for me, and the ends didn't tend to come loose, either.
And here's a close-up of my results: