Extension Braid Pompadour Updo

So as i was saying in my Feeling a Little Frustrated post, i finally had a little time so i went ahead and braided my own hair. I would have loved to go to the salon but being tight for cash, and knowing that i need to wait a little while longer before getting the larger braids again, i decided to braid my hair myself for the first time again since i had been in high school! I used to put my hair in microbraids all the time, no problem,  but i had never done bigger braids before so my backup plan was to just do cornrows if the box braids hadn't worked out. Luckily, they did, and i'd say they turned out pretty good! My mom actually almost got upset with me cuz she thought i went and spent money on getting my hair done... i'll take that as a compliment! lol
I did these braids on day old hair (it was spur of the moment) using regular Kanekalon synthetic hair. I started in the front, did the side edges, the back and then worked my way up to finish the middle, all the while just parting long rows, and sectioning the rest of the hair out of the way. From there i would say i just sliced 1inched cubed sections, fully detangled and added some Eco Styler Olive Oil gel before starting to braid. Non stop i would say this took my about 6 hours total, but since i did have a few distractions, it took me about 12 hours. Finished result?

Not too bad if i must say so myself :) You know the deal, I've been wearing my high buns and ponytails, lol. I went out last night and decided to try something new, an updo of sorts and it came out so beautiful! I got a million compliments on my hair last night so if you ladies love it just as much, let me know and i will do a video tutorial of how i did this updo. Here goes:

1st step ~ Trying to figure out exactly how i was going to wear my hair. I was loving the Pompadour but not sure about the ponytail so i decided to try doing one of my trusty buns and that was all i needed!

 The Girl next to me is my cousin and she has beautiful curly hair as well... and another who's been through it all with her hair... Stay tuned to hear a little more about her too =)