Side Braid, Back After An Absence

It's been a while- I almost forgot about this style.  This is a turban with a side-braid over it.  I doubled up a thin sash with a narrow scarf in making the side-braid, which gave a little bit more color, and some bulk to the tails that fall over my shoulder.

My favorite aspect of this style is that it has the ability to be done in advance, then assembled, as it were, on the spot, if you want.  Great for days when you need to flow from one sort of activity and level of formality into another.

Tutorial coming soon, since I think this one is easier to learn by seeing than by reading a description.

RIbbon and Braid

It's been a while since I've done a braid.  This one is done with a pashmina, a square scarf, and a small ribbon.  But before you go for it yourself...

I really liked how this looked, with the second layer of the white-and-grey pashmina pulled over and going straight into the braid, but it didn't stand up well to the needs of the weather.  I put the braid up into a hat that I put on to keep my ears warm- it was a chilly day.  When I took it down, the ribbon and general arrangement was quite messed up, and I had to take it down to re-do it.  So this one seems better for a day when you don't need a hat, or maybe you should just wear ear-muffs instead...  (I've never worn ear muffs.  Huh.)

Working Backwards

Now that I already posted a tutorial video for tichel heidi braids, here are some pictures of what the style actually looks like on me.

Here's one from Thanksgiving, with my Dad thrown in...  This one is actually a little different- rather than layering two square scarves, I just put on the one, then took a narrow rectangular scarf, held it with the square scarf's tails and the ribbon, braided down both sides, and it worked out quite nicely.

And here are some earlier pictures, that didn't get up since I was computer-less for a while.

 And here's a view from on top, so you can see the braids and their arrangement clearly.

 And yet another day.

 And here's still another one.  Of course, they're all done with the same purple ribbon, since that's the one that I know is long enough.  (It came off the wrapping of a wedding gift.)

 On this one, I covered up the first scarf entirely, except for using the tails to braid with.  It's a simpler, cleaner loo.

Travel With Tichels: A Capsule Wardrobe

I dug this up in my drafts folder, and it seems pretty ready to go- so here's a mildly editted version of my writing from last year.

In my (admittedly limited) reading on style blogs, I've encountered the idea of a "capsule wardrobe" for travel- that by packing clothes in similar colors, you can pair things together in different ways, and create a bunch of different outfits with a minimum of stuff to schlep around.  So I decided to experiment with the same idea with tichels.

So here are 9 varied styles, all done with just 3 scarves.  6 of them all use the same 2 scarves.  Looking back, I see I did none with just the blue scarf and the white scarf.  So there are another several variations available, which could break up the similarity of some of these looks quite a bit.

1. 2 scarves, the smaller as a headband, with the ends hanging loose.
2. The same 2 scarves, but with the smaller put on first, folded back over the second/larger scarf.  The second scarf's ends brought up as a crown, and the smaller scarf's ends tied over my bun in a bow.  (They could also be left down, twisted with the larger scarf's ends in the crown, or just wrapped plainly over the bun, or tucked under.)
3. Same scarves, braided together.
4. Ditto, with the braid brought over and around the bun.
5. No braid, but with the ends of the two scarves twisted together in two twists, and wrapped around the bun.
6. Same again, but instead of wrapping the twists around, they're twisted tighter, then bent to twist back around themselves at two lengths.
7. Three scarves, two put on as headbands/folded, and the ends braided together.
8. Each scarf put on just a smidge behind the other, then one end of each of the first two twisted together and brought over as a crown behind the third scarf.  The rest of the ends are hanging (or could be stuffed back underneath), and could be secured with a clip, or a bow.
9. The second two scarves, layered over each other, and the ends brought up and over, each just behind the last.

The differences here are sometimes fairly subtle- but moving back and forth between combining different pairs of the three scarves in any of these different ways, with different profiles- I might alternate between an arrangement that has lots of hanging tails or braids first and then one that creates a lot of height, etc, to make the differences more dramatic.  Switching which two scarves are used will also create more of a sense of variation.

Throwing in a fourth color scarf, or a couple of small embellishments (pin/headband/hairclip) will also make more distinction between styles.

Of course, do I listen to my own advice in this post when I pack? Almost never.  Maybe some time soon I will though.

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.

Photos Need A Title

Here's a covering I put together a few weeks ago.  My plans were to put together something that felt comfortable, secure, and inspiring.  I ended up with this wrap, using 2 rectangular scarves, one ribbon, and a hair clip.

I wrapped the first scarf, and tied it in the back, with two equal ends.  I used a smaller scarf for the second one, so I tied it quite unevenly- with one long end, and one so-short-it-almost-didn't-exist end.  I took the 3 hanging tails (2 from the first scarf, and 1 from the second), and wrapped a ribbon around one of the ends, and braided it.  I secured the braid, and tied the excess ribbon into a bow.  The accessory was just a random throw-on, it felt right, and I wanted to bring the colors together with my mostly-black outfit, as well.

Medieval-esque

Remember my first attempt with wrapping a scarf-braid around my head? I promised to let you know what happened with a braid with more different strands.  Here's the result, with a five-stranded braid, using 5 different scarves (some quite thin, as I didn't want to turn into the braid-head monster):

 The braid is made using the tutorial here, which is very easy to understand and to carry off.

I secured the first end with a hair clip, while I braided, then brought the ends together at the back of my head and used a hair elastic, covered with a scrunchie, to secure the ends.  The tails have a lot of bulk, rather reminiscent of a decorative head-band I saw on a little girl at shul recently- it had lots of ribbons hanging down in the back.




My impression was that it looked sort of like we imagine the Medieval period (rather than like what it was actually like, which I'm less sure of).

It's fun, and it's something you can make in advance, then take off, and slip back on later.  Good perhaps for packing to transform yourself from work clothes to something more festive.

Using Braids

As a kid, I wore my hair in braids pretty much all the time.  Really- one braid or two, usually french-braided, was my go-to for years.  I'd brush my hair, then go sit down in front of my mother's bed, and she'd braid my hair while she listened to NPR and I read.

I have a long history with braids, in other words.  And I love them, they're beautiful.  I enjoy playing with different braids for challah, and braiding the dangly edging of my scarves when I'm bored.

I also love playing with braids on my coverings.  In the past, I've braided the ends of my scarves, or taken those braided ends and wrapped it around a bun.

This time, I made a braid first, then tied it on around my head.

This one was four-stranded, made of two scarves folded in half and looped together, and sort of improvised.  You could just as easily group two ends together, and make a regular three-stranded braid.

I'm going to play with some larger flat braids, and see what they look like (stay tuned).  So far, this looks like a nice way of dressing up a plain scarf, using some of those scarves that are too thin to use for a covering on their own.  Add it to the list of ways to use a narrow scarf (or two).