butterfly braid

super cute but super easy braid with a fun look to it.  

you will need pencil or some kind of rod to put in the braid.  just use something that slides in and out of the braid easily.   sharpened pencils tend to stick on the wood for me and pens obviously have too many little things to catch on.   i used a crochet hook, just make sure you only go one direction with it.

start with a normal underbraid.

stick your rod into the braid try to keep it kind of horizontal.  

separate a small section from the section you are working on and wrap it up and around the rod then just put it back in the braid as normal.   

i did two sets of loops and then a small section of regular braid and then moved the rod down and made two more sets of loops.

you could make loops all the way down or just a few at the top.   if you don't move the rod down you will end up with larger and larger loops.  i did that too one day and it was also really cute.   kind of floppy loops on the side of her braid.   

lil's ladder

lil's ladder

i have enjoyed playing with the ladder braid technique quite a bit.   i used it for the  tiered waterfall braid and the sturdy ladder braid.     a ladder braid is simply taking a little section out of one side of the braid every time then braiding back into the next braid.

this time instead of just a ladder, the sections taken from the braids are then braided together between the mother braids.  
split the hair, i went with a diagonal but you could do a center vertical or whatever direction as well.  

do your top braid first so it stays out of the way of the bottom.   bring in hair from top and bottom as normal just take a small section out of the braid on one side every time.   in my case, it was on the bottom.   i have my daughter hold the sections up out of the way so they don't fall back down into my work.   you could use a clip or something too.

braid your second one now but now removing little bits on the opposite side, or facing the other mother braid.   (i hope this makes sense but the pictures should make it pretty simple if you are familiar with the process)

i left a section at the front to start my middle braid.   start the braid there and just add in from the bits you pulled out of the two mothers.

you could braid the three together or leave them like i did.   you could also run ribbon between the braids or down through the rungs of the ladder.   i can see doing 4 or 5 mother braids instead of just two.
lots of options with this technique.   have fun with it and enjoy!