Ever After tutorial

I have been dying to get my hand into some longer hair for some serious renaissance braiding. After french-braiding Pippy's hair for school yesterday, I realized it didn't hurt my wrist to braid, so I invited our friend miss E. over for a braid tutorial that was requested a while back on my fb page (link on the right) I originally did this braid on Angel 3 or 4 years ago, and with just 2 "x"s  across the top, trying to simulate the braid worn by "Margueritte" in the movie "Ever After" you can see it HERE (it is the last style down).
So, this is what we did on miss E. today:

(please excuse my kids' afterschool snacking mess)

As you can see, I weaved the twists across a bit differently this time. So to start this style, I separated the part that would be hanging down and secured in a ponytail so I wouldn't accidentally pull those hairs into the braid. Then I did a zig-zag part with the top. I did the braids just like I did in This Style HERE with the exception that on each side, just as I passed over the ear, I brought the hair from the top of the head (that I would normally add to the next section) down and had her hold onto it (like when I do a "waterfall" braid). I did this again about 4plaits later (on each side) as well. This gave me two sections to do tiny twist braids once each side was braided:

I used Garnier's "Surfer Girl" wax/pomade on each of these sections before twisting them, to prevent fly-aways. Now for the fun cris-crossing part:

I started with the furthest to the back twist on the right side and crossed it over. I put my small size topsy tail thru part of the braid (in front of her ear) on the left side, and used it to pull the twist thru. I did the same thing with the FRONT twist on the left, pulling it thru the braid BEHIND the right ear. The next twist is the back left: you pull it up under the previous twist as you cross it over:

It will end up going through the braid in FRONT of the right ear (at the same point as the 1st one you crossed on the left) Finally you will pull the front right twist over and pull it thru the left braid, just behind the ear. I had enough hair left over to bring all 4 strands back down into the center where the 2 big braids meet. I secured it all with an elastic and then braided on braid down the center:

If you don't have enough hair left to bring the twists down like this, you can use the topsy tail to "wrap" them around the big braids (a fun look) or just bobby pin them underneath those braids.

Finally, I took that bottom portion out of the ponytail and brushed it, leaving this the finished look:

One of my favorite renaissance braids :) I hope this tutorial makes sense and that you'll try it! If you do, post pics on our fb wall, we love to see the fun styles you do!