Criss-Crossed Rope Braid Pull-Backs

Here's another style we used for dance class.  Nothing new; I've seen something similar to this on plenty of sites online.  I used what I've seen called "twist braids," "two-strand twists," and other names, but growing up, I learned them with the name "rope braids," from Klutz' Braids & Bows book, which is now out of print!  (Except Klutz taught the braid with three strands, which I have always since found cumbersome; why use three when two looks almost exactly the same and are WAAAAY faster?  Plus it is MUCH easier to do the French version with only two strands!  Anyone else have opinions on this?)  Anyway, here is the hairstyle...

Part off 6 square-like shapes on top of her head, and tie them off with elastics, like so...

(You can see one of our most effective methods of distraction during hair time.  :)  )  Beginning with one of the two front pieces, do a rope braid over to the piece kitty-cornered to it and secure it there.  If you don't know how to do a rope braid, here's how:  Divide the hair into two strands.  Twist both in the same direction, then lay them over each other again and again in the opposite direction.  (Would a video tutorial be helpful?) 

Then do the same thing on the opposite side.  Once these are both done, if your daughter's hair is long enough, you can do it again to get to the back sections.  Little Miss' hair was just barely not long enough, so we just rope-braided straight back to the last sections...

Finally, we finished the pull-backs off with a little ribbon.  Ribbon tends to slip off of elastics, so here is my trick to keep it in place...  Using my handy-dandy not-sharp craft needle, I thread the ribbon through the back of the pull-back, below the elastic:  

Then I wrap the ends around the elastic, in opposing directions once or twice to hide the elastic, and tie a bow in the front.  Ta da! 

And here we are watching the bigger girls after dance class...  :)  I realized after taking these photos that the ends of her hair were sticking out a bit on the side I shot on; I should have flat-ironed that part of her hair.  Oh, well!  

Happy hair-doing!  :)