Let's talk milkmaid braids. From the front, I l-o-v-e them. From the back? Not so much. I actually would go so far to say I despise how it looks from the back, and never wear my hair that way because of it. Some gals can pull it off with flying colors, but those gals don't have weird shaped heads topped with super fine light hair that has absolutely crazy wild untameable curls that start at the root underneath the crown area. Ugggghhhhh.

Enter the Dutch halo braid. It gives you the same effect as milkmaid braids, but without the icky center part in the back. Instead of having two pigtail braids that you cross over each other at the top of your head, you essentially Dutch braid (reverse French braid) a braided halo around your head. You start at the part in front, and add in hair as you work your way around. After watching this video tutorial about 9 times and this one about 7 times (I wish I was kidding), I finally felt like I 'got' it. I gave it a whirl on my sweetheart of a niece over the 4th of July, and gosh...she looked so beautiful in this simple updo! Gotta love a hairstyle that looks fab on gals of all ages. I haven't tried it on myself yet going all the way around my head, but definitely hope to soon...gotta keep working on my "I can't see the back of my head, and hope I'm not making huge knots" finger nimbleness. Despite that, this 'do is a definite keeper.