bottom braids

I've been thinking about braids a lot lately.  I think braid-mania as we know it started with the A Wang spring 2010 show.  You know what I'm talking about, you've seen it a million times by now, and it's still going strong.  I'm not complaining; I'm a big fan.

But recently I saw this ad again in Vogue España.  It's from the Givenchy spring 2011 campaign.

 image from fashionista.com

It kind of blew me away.  They just braided the ends of the hair!  This is revolutionary stuff, how could I not have noticed it before?  And how come this didn't catch on like wildfire?  Why wasn't everyone doing this?

 On the runway the 'dos were a little more over the top, and actually I think all those old school glam waves around the face somehow detract from the gorgeousness of these bottom braids.  But still, the bottom braid (I just made that term up, don't go around saying it like anyone will understand you) is very appealing to me.

 Would it work in real life?  Will someone with less layers in their hair please try it out and tell me?

For those of us who do have tons of layers, both the side braid and the bottom braid are pretty much impossible to achieve in any meaningful way.  But then I found this at Rag&Bone FW 2011:

 

Random messy braiding joy.  And the other day it was even featured on Refinery 29 in a bit they did on easy new hairstyles.  They called them 'deconstructed braids'.

What do you think?  Pretty cool, right? And I think even with layered hair it would work well, maybe weaving in a few more small braids in with the larger ones.  Then again in real life it might just look too disheveled for anyone to believe you did it on purpose.  Then again, I might not care.

all runway images from style.com