Shades of Braids

As I mentioned in my last blog, I was able to knock out another item this past Sunday...

#20.  Learn to French braid my own hair - check!

I wasn't sure how long this one would take, as I consider myself hair-challenged.  Meaning - I'm not the most skilled in doing different things to my hair.  Sure, I'm well-versed in various forms and locations of ponytails and could do a low braid myself already, but I consider my expertise level elementary at best.  

So when I went about tackling this one I was ready for failure on at least my first handful of attempts.  After a productive Sunday spent shopping for my Kentucky Derby dress, I sat down on my living room couch with my comb and mirror and tuned the Xbox to YouTube where I did the appropriate search for French braid tutorials.  What I found were a series of helpful videos that guided me easily through the process.

Surprisingly, I didn't use or even need a mirror and was able to at least come up with something resembling a French braid on my first attempt:  

After I was able to at least execute the concept, it was a simple matter of practice.  On Sunday I continued to wet my hair and try yet another braid.  In total I probably spent about an hour and pulled together 6-7 braids.  While I still can't claim to be an expert, I was happy to make significant improvement with each attempt...

Now that I'm getting back into my work-out routine, I've been showering in the evening and French braiding my wet hair before I go to bed.  Even as I type this I have my hair French braided.  My biggest challenge - not spacing out while doing it and forgetting where I was (which section to pull next) - Ha!  I'm not sure if I'll win any awards on the quality of my work, but I can confidently say that I accomplished what I set out to do on yet another Operation 30 item.  

Less than two weeks away!

Side note on the working out (follow-up from my "Almost Normal" post)...still getting closer to feeling more normal from my bout with medicine-induced lupus, but not quite full throttle yet.  I'm also more than a little peeved for how puffy my face is from the prednisone (which is noticeable...to me, anyway...in my recent Europe and San Diego pictures).  I see my Rheumatologist tomorrow and hope to have a timeline for when I can fully ween off the steroids.  Hopefully soon!