Long time, no cosplay hair post! So here's another Elven style, a couple of multi-braided half-up styles for my Elrond cosplay, from an Autumn 2022 nature shoot. The main style I went for is a couple of thin three-strand side braids in front of the ears alongside a fishtail/herringbone half-up braid at the back (well, a fishtail braid that evolved into a regular three-strand braid, because fishtail braiding at the back of your head is not for the weak-minded and is a real workout 😅 xD).
This style takes elements out of several Elrond hairstyles from the Peter Jackson movies: LotR Elrond tends to wear a fishtail half-up braid at the back with intricately looped sections in front of the ears, and sometimes, more intricate criss-crossing basket weaving braiding at the top of the head as well (see photo below, left). In the Battle of Dagorlad (during the Fellowship of the Ring prologue, see photo below, middle) his style combines the fishtail braid at the back with two side fishtail braids looped into and around the main herringbone braid. Elrond's main style in the Rivendell scenes of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (see photo below, right) features a couple of three-strand braids in front of the ears instead of his signature looped look in LotR, and he switches the more elaborate fishtail and basket weaving braiding for what looks like a couple of side rope braids tied at the back alongside another minibraid at the top of the head.
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| LotR Rivendell Elrond (FotR, Council costume) (left); LotR Battle of Dagorlad Elrond (centre); The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Elrond (right) |
My version combines the fishtail braid at the back from most of the LotR styles with the three-strand braids in front of the ears from The Hobbit, which I tried to loop a bit at the ends as a callback to his signature LotR look (but three-strands overall were easier to do and more comfortable to wear). I actually could also replicate a near version of his Dagorlad style with this look (see below), by looping the front mini braids into and around the main braid at the back (the only difference being, in the Dagorlad style it's all fishtail braids, but lol nope, I tried that style with what I already had at the very end of the shoot xD).
- For this style I used (and you can use):
-Sectioning comb, wide-tooth comb and/or brush, as needed
-Transparent small elastics for the accent braids and the braided half-up
-A circlet and a leaf slide/barrette for decoration
-Aloe vera gel/fixing gel, as needed
1) Section the hair: one small section at each side above the ear for the accent side/front braids that will hang in front of the ears, and one section for the braided
half-up at the back.
2) Fishtail+three-strand braid:
To be honest, I've had very little practice doing
fishtail/herringbone braids because they're pretty time-consuming and they involve considerable arm workout when you're doing them at the back of your head xD, but I was happily surprised to see that, considering the little practice I had, this one didn't turn out so bad and it was a bit easier to do than I had dreaded! Still, hard on the arms, and I was running late for the shoot, so it's not a fishtail all the way down - one third down (or so), it ended up morphing into a regular three strand 🤣. Still, I think it still looks pretty cool as is! And it's a good hack if you also have long, long hair and don't want to spend so long fishtail-braiding xD. I secured all sections of this braid with transparent elastics.
3)
Accent side-braids: Separate a piece of hair at each side and braid it
. It can be a simple
3-strand braid, or a
lace braid,
French braid or
Dutch braid. In this case - three strand, imitating Elrond's main hairdo in
The Hobbit movies. You can rest your arms a bit more with this step, even if mini braids can also be pretty time consuming with very long hair. Secure with transparent elastics.
4) Final touches: I added a thin circlet, tied at the back with some golden cord and also secured with a silver leaf barrette (which also serves to hide the knot). You can also use bobby pins/open pins as needed to fix anything in the braids.
Add aloe vera gel or a bit of gel or hairspray to set the style and potential flyaways (if you want), and it's done!
For the Dagorlad style, I just looped the front mini braids into and around the main back braid. I tried this at the end of the shoot, and also ended up wearing the style as an updo, with a fork and a casual cinnabun :
I also used these couple of video tutorials as reference, from Loepsie and Silvousplaits:
Picture gallery with more shots from the 2022 cosplay shoot, also feating mid-thigh
length shots:
SwordWomanRiona / rionashairblog.blogspot.com.es
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