Arwen's Helm's Deep Hairstyle

Here's a piece of LotR trivia for y'all: Arwen was going to appear at Helm's Deep in the movies. They had even done some filming, but then Peter Jackson decided to cut it. (Oh my gosh! I almost typed Percy Jackson instead of Peter Jackson!)

So, to continue my LotR/Hobbit series, today I'm going show y'all how to do the braid she would have worn. (If you missed the first post, click here.) It's a bit complicated, but I'll try to break it down into easy-to-follow steps, okay? Here we go!

(Oh look who's in the background of this one!)

Arwen's Helm's Deep Braid

1- Brush hair and make a middle part.

2- By the right temple, pick up a small section of hair and divide it into three equal pieces.

3- Cross the bottom section over the middle one. The bottom piece is now your new middle, and the old middle is your new bottom.

4- Then cross the top section over your new middle. Now you have another new middle section and a new top.

5- Pick up a little bit of loose hair and add it to the bottom section. You should pick the loose hair up from your hairline. (That's the edge of your hair.)

6- Cross the bottom with the added hair over the middle. You once again have a new middle and bottom.

7- Repeat step 4.

8- Repeat step 3 and then step 4 again.

9- Repeat steps 5-8 until you're about an inch and half from the nape of your neck. (See 2nd picture.) Then finish with a normal braid

10- Repeat steps 2-9 on the other side of your head. When you've done that, you should have two braids, each with about an 8th of your hair.

11- Divide the remaining loose hair into six pieces. You may want to clip every other section to keep them separated.

12- Braid each of the six pieces. You now have eight braids.

13- Take the two original braids and cross them, one on top and one on bottom.

14- Divide the braids into groups of two braids each.

15- Cross the right outside group under the right middle and over the left middle.

16- Cross the left outside group over the left middle and over the right middle.

17- Repeat steps 15 -16 until the braid is complete.

Whew! That was a doozy! Here's an extra picture for sitting through all that. 

If any of y'all try it, I'd love to hear about in a comment. By the way, what is the most random piece of LotR trivia you know?

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