Princess Anne Braids with Bun
Friday, Nov 16th, 2007 by Janna
If, one year ago, you would have told me two French braids, joined together and coiled into a bun, could be a practical, everyday hair style, I would have been rather incredulous. I mean, honestly, this is a style one could wear to a wedding or fancy tea party, but everyday–? But that would have been before my sister Erica began experimenting, branching out in her French-braiding techniques. As one who has not yet mastered the art of doing a single French braid on myself, I still do marvel at the the skill and dexterity required to French braid down both sides of the head. Erica has proved to me, however, that, with enough practice and patience, one may gain the confidence to create this style every day–be it for a formal wedding, or for keeping your hair out of your eyes while you dust the house! 
Princess Anne Braids with Bun
or Erica Berge’s Fail-proof Method for Inspiring Hair Envy in Dexterity-Challenged Older Siblings
Note: To create the Princess Anne with bun, you truly ought first to master French-braiding your own hair. Detailed instructions and photos can be found here. It could take a couple weeks of steady practice before you feel confident enough to move on to double French braids, which are a required skill for the Princess Anne.
Step One — Gather the following hair styling tools: pick comb, barrette or hair clip, two small hair bands, 6-10 hair pins.
Step Two – Use the pick comb to part your hair down the middle of your head, all the way to the nape of your neck.
Step Three – Gather a small portion of hair from one side of your head. Divide this portion into three sections. Cross over with the section closest to your ear, then with the section farthest from your ear.
Step Four – French braid down the side of your head, adding small pieces of hair to each section before crossing it over.
Step Five – Stop braiding when you have added all the hair from one side of your head. Now, this next part is important: Secure the two outside strands of the finished braid inside the barrette. Keep the other strand free, but don’t let it get mixed in with the hair on the other side of your head.
Step Six – Repeat the process for the other half of your hair, but when you get to the end of the braid, don’t clip two of the strands into a barrette — hold onto ‘em and read step seven…
Step Seven – Keep holding onto those two outside strands, and with your other hand, combine the two middle strands into one. Your hair was divided into sixths, now you’ve made the sixths into thirds! Wow, I can do math! Hair styling is very educational.
Step Eight – Remove the barrette. Braid your thirds together, as far down as possible. Note on the two hair bands suggested: As you near the end of your braid, you might notice your hair is in different lengths, which makes it difficult to braid down as far as you’d like. Here’s a tip: Use your first hair band to secure the braid, then braid the tail down farther, securing this mini-braid with the second hair band.
Step Nine – Coil the braid into a tight bun and secure it with the hair pins. Add a couple of hair-sticks, or trim with a little bunch of silk flowers, and you’re ready for that wedding or tea party! A quicker, more stable version, which will stay in place through a whole day of active housework, uses about five mini jaw-style hair clips to secure the bun.
Looking at Erica in the mirror in the mirror in the… No, wait… 
She makes it look so easy. Much more practice is needed before I’ll be able to re-create the Princess Anne with bun on myself. Until then, I’ll stick to my old standby: the flip-through ponytail. 
P.s. What a delight to read all the kind comments on my previous “hair-doing” post! Thank you all so much for sharing your thoughts and ideas.
I am so impressed! Erica is so very talented! Do you mind if I come over to get my hair done while I am there?
I love these posts! How fun! (And I’ll bet Erica’s arms were really tired after pulling off such a hairdo!)
Oh, yeah, Karen!
I didn’t mention the workout your arms get when creating this hairstyle. Once you get the knack of it down, it goes much quicker, and doesn’t stress those muscles so much.
I’ve heard.
Ok…so do we get a step-by-step on the flip-through hair style next? I think I know how to do it but I just want to see more of your lovely pictures and read your delightful commentary! I love this blog!! (and I am very happy to see another post so soon!)
Yes, I suppose I could hand the camera off to Erica for a bit and let her take photos of the flip-through. It should be entertaining; at one point I’m standing with my head tipped upside down, hair flying every which way.
Come on over, Krista!
“Our staff will be happy to assist you in creating the hairstyle of your dreams.” 
Very beautiful!
WOW!! What beautiful hair you all have!! Do you have a secret?? I hope that you keep these hair styling helps coming. If only my hair was a long as yours…. it is growing out though!!! Thank you for your beautiful blog, I just discovered it from A Joyful Handmaiden! (another beautiful blog!)
Blessings,
Alexandrea
Hello! I am *so* glad that I found your last post from A Joyful Handmaiden!
I love doing this hair style, but lately my hair has been to short for it…however, this is basicly how I wore my hair for my wedding…I had to “tweak” it a bit as my hair wasn’t quite long enough, but it looked so nice with those tiny jaw-clips and 6 spray rose buds. Just another idea! 
I really do enjoy this blog…your pictures are beautiful and I love hearing about all of your sisters and your goings on. 
Having 4 sisters (and a total of 3 more sisters in law) I really love looking! God bless!
“Tilly”
Pretty!! Oh, how I wish I could french braid my own hair!! Well, I guess if I want to try this, I’ll have to have my momma come over
Beautiful! I do a similar style where I start above one ear and circle around braiding over the top of the head and back down to where they join and I put a pretty clip there to hold it so it looks like a braided crown all around the head. I will have to give your lovely style a try! Thanks for posting these hairstyle tutorials.
[...] P.s. These hairsticks would work wonderfully with the Princess Anne Bun hairstyle… [...]
Well, I successfully pulled off the Princess Anne Bun! Yes, my arms were a little tired, but it feels so strong and in place! I think it even looks good with the braid hanging down. How fun! It would be fun to do all of our hair like that but doing 7 heads in one morning would be a little challenging! I need to teach everyone to do it so we can just sit in a big circle and do the one in front of us! Now THAT would be an interesting post for the future! Get all of you girls and the Kastners in one big circle doing each others’ hair! How fun! We will be waiting…….!
I loved your journal on long hair styles. I recently came across some web pages that go perfectly with this! One web page is longlocks.com which also talks about other long hair styles. Another website called intimelyfashion.com suggests another method to make curls in a style of pincurls. I tried this today and got many compliments on it. The pincurls do not result in such uniform curls as your instructions indicate and are more messy but are very pretty.
[...] P.s. These hairsticks would work wonderfully with the Princess Anne Bun hairstyle… [...]
GORGEOUS Janna!!! My Ma’s been French Braiding my hair lately…I’ll have to see if she can try this!
SO What?
how do u keep ur hair healthy and growing long…my hair is very damaged and i am try to grow out my hair….any advice….
ps…i dont want to cut it off…(my hair is color treated,flat ironed,blow dryed,plus split ends….) hellp
and ohh love ur hair…
Hi, Lilia! Thank you for your comments.
I guess my advice for keeping your hair healthy is to avoid, as much as possible, all harsh treatments, like perms, dyes, blow-dryers, curling irons, etc. All that stuff is hard on your hair! Also, you might look into using a natural conditioner, like coconut oil, to help restore your damaged hair.
Wow! Not only did you do a lovely job of your hair, the pictures themselves are beautiful too. ^_^
Does coconut oil really work as a conditioner for damaged hair? I have very long hair that is a bit dry and damaged from chemical colouring and heat styling (I’ve since started using henna instead of harsh dyes, but my hair’s still not in great shape).
I need to learn how to braid like this, now that my hair is finally long enough!
Thanks for sharing this! It is so pretty.
Hope to see some more soon.
Thanks.
Thanks for the lovely posts on hairstyling. I just stumbled on your website today and (as a young Christian woman myself) I find it very refreshing! Thanks again!
I saw your blog on SimplyVintageGirlBlog and this hairstyle is so pretty! My mom braided my hair and twisted it into a bun, but I like how you added the French Braid! Great idea! Great photography!
Joyfully in Jesus,
Elizabeth
When I first started french braiding my hair I would stand in the bathroom doorway. This particular doorway was just the right size to hold my elbow up at about a 45 degree angle thus supporting my arms while I learned. Once I had a bit of practice under my belt I just did it without the extra help.
One must remember that these hairstyles were created when even middle class people had servants to help as the amount of work in an average household without any electricity or modern conviences would overwhelm even the most ambitious and resourceful woman. That being said, often there were more than one generation of women in the same home.
As with Janna and Erica, sisters were often each other’s hairdressers. It is worth noting that the easiest way to learn to do French braiding is on someone else. You can see what you are doing, have both hands free and can ask the person on whom you are working to hold a piece or two while you get ready for the next step – this gives you four hands to learn instead of just two. After some practice on someone else, then you can move onto yourself. You will have a better feel for doing it correctly and an understanding of how to fix things when they don’t go quite right.
Just a good example of “doing unto others…”
Find someone like minded and long of tresses and trade doing hair with each other. You will both benefit from learning on someone else, while enjoying the relaxing effects of having your hair done. Good conversation and sharing are always a plus to this arrangement too.
I have found a few links along the way of period hairstyles I would love to try, but alas I have the thin limp stuff too. The only way I would even dare it, is with someone else to do the steps for me.
I have found that having my hair curly before I try a hairdo works better than just washed clean straight hair. There is more body and it gives you more volumn – yes, even those of us with the fine thin suff. Try those pink foam rollers. They are comfortable and easy to do. Use more rollers with smaller amounts of hair. If you hair is long you will be surprised how much it will layer up on a roller, and it will dry faster if you don’t crowd too much hair on one roller.
I have a niece who has loved “doing my hair” since she was five. At five years old she braided my entire head in tiny braids. I was quite surprised that she had the concentration at that age to stick with it until it was done. She is eleven now and knows how to french braid. I might just try and get her to try some of those do’s with me.
Doing hair with kids – especially if they can help you too is great bonding time. It creates intimacy in a way that doing other things together do not.
Sarah
I did this hairstyle for my senior prom two days ago and it worked wonderfully! Actually my mom did it for me (she’s very good at braiding hair and she does mine all the time). We had to alter it a bit because not only is my hair long but it is also extremely thick as well. My hair was damp to start with because it made the braiding easier. Instead of putting it into only one braid at the bottom my mom divided it into three braids and wrapped the three braids up into the bun using jumbo hair and roller pins. We then added baby’s breath and a small white rose to cover a hair elastic from the end of one of the braids that was showing. My hair actually stayed in perfectly for two days until I had to take it down to wash it. If not it would have held for much longer I’m sure. Check out my pictures at http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f180/fantasyfreak92/Prom%20Hair/ (and yes i was watching pirates of the caribbean while my mom did my hair)
oh btw the password to see the pictures is ‘Claire’… sorry!