Braid in Style with Madison Braids: Top Picks and Tips for Chic Hairdos!

Madison Braids...these braids come in many sizes and colors. You can get braids in black, dark brown, brunette, highlighted, ashy light brown, dirty blonde, sunset blonde, ashy highlighted, platinum, auburn, golden red, and strawberry blonde. These braids are braided by hand, and they are adjustable as well. The adjustable piece reminds me of a bra strap. They are quite stretchy, and can fit adults and children that are age three and upward. They have different styles of braids, like lulu two strands, the halo (that I bought), fishtail, and a kind that is interwoven with lace called "Lacey". The five strand braid looked interesting, and they have a headband style as well, which does not feature the bra-strap style adjustable strap. The braids are made with synthetic hair, and the site mentions that you should not dye them, and that each one is unique as, again, they are hand-braided.

The braid I wanted was Halo in Dark Brown, but it was unfortunately, out of stock. I settled for the Black. The black was not noticeably, obviously a different, stark color against my dark brown hair. I picked this braid because it looked very large and thick, but I think it was a mistake. I have hand-tied extensions in my hair, so even though the adjustable band was comfortable, It was not very comfortable with hand tied extensions. I have a strange issue that anything tight on my head, particularly putting pressure behind my ears, gives me a headache. This goes with tight sunglasses as well. I noticed that I was experiencing a bit of discomfort only due to this sensitivity. I did feel cute wearing the braid, and wanted to tighten it a bit more so it wouldn't slip when I looked forward or down. Some people in the Facebook reviews mentioned that they remedied this with bobby pins. In retrospect, I wish I would have bought a smaller braid, or the one with lace. The bigger Halo braid is a bit bulky and it's hard for me to ignore it's presence on my head. I only wore it once to work, and for fun, I tried putting it on my husband's head but he didn't like that, so it's just been on my make up counter ever since.

I got a few compliments wearing this. Someone at work looked at my hair and said that it's a good style on me. I secretly thought, "If she only knew I'm wearing two sets of fake hair...I'm so fake. Ha! She thinks it's real!" Another co-worker asked me if my braid was real. I inquired as to why she asked, and she said that she wanted me to do a braid like mine on her hair. Ha! I can barely create a braid on my hair as it is. So I guess that was somewhat of a compliment...maybe.

The Price for the Halo Madison Braid when I put it in the online shopping cart was $38.00. I used a discount code that removed $9.50 from the price. Shipping was 5.95, and there were no taxes, so the total was $34.45.

I feel like my initial enthusiasm for this braid was more than the actual enthusiasm I feel for wearing this braid. I don't really look forward to wearing it, mostly because I have to be aware of it's bulk, weight, tightness and presence. Then, there's the fear of the dreaded pressure headache..and I work 12 hour shifts. Also, when I tried to brush my hair, I accidentally lifted up some of the hairs on the braid itself, and I can't seem to put them back in place...so they remained sticking up a bit. I probably, well, I won't be buying the braid again. I have received many, many, many emails reminding me to buy another, but I think just one is fine, and probably for special occasions and for short periods of time. It wasn't really a game changer, or life-changing. In fact, when I tried to wear it for an outing with my husband, he curtly told me to "take that thing off".

On Facebook and on the actual website, you'll see a lot of glowing reviews with gorgeous Instagram-esque women standing casually by a rich-person-house pool, looking all nostalgic and thoughtful and perfectly wearing her braid. But I only wore it once, and that's it. They do have a 30 day return policy, but I think I'll keep it just because it's kind of cute and it's something different, but it's probably over-priced. Certain large online retailers offer this braid with synthetic hair at half the price, and from a different company. I probably would buy this at $15.00 from there if I were to do it all over again. In fact, many reviews on this particular online retailer site mentioned that they bought a cheaper braid to see if shelling out nearly $40.00 would be worth it, and to see if such a braid would be bulky, scratchy, or headache-inducing.

In my overall opinion, the braid is beautiful and well-made, but bulky, uncomfortable and overpriced. The difference is that Madison ships from Florida, and the ones I saw online shipped from Japan. And, of course, that makes a difference to many people. If you're tender-headed, like me, I wouldn't recommend the Halo braid, or any of the large braids.