17-year-old Milena has been interested in creating unique and elaborate hairstyles since she was just 6, but over the last decade, her creations have come to resemble something between braids and woven patterns reminiscent of detailed textiles.
When Bored Panda asked her how she got into such a craft, Milena said:
“I ran out of ideas and wanted to expand my knowledge, so I tried to combine different braiding techniques.”
She said most of her creations simply come to her while she’s braiding – and she’s not afraid to try new things.
If that’s not an indication of natural talent, we don’t know what is! Amazingly, Milena has no formal training.
Scroll ahead for 50 of our favorite Milena creations and be sure to visit her Instagram page at @hairstylists.dream when you’re done for hundreds more beautiful braids!
1. Start with a bang
Between the perfect rose gold color and the gorgeous weaving, this style is a total showstopper.
We can hardly stop staring at it.
2. Trending in teal
Her colored wigs provide her with the perfect medium for her art and have the bonus of allowing her to experiment without asking anyone to sit still.
We can’t imagine how long this took!
3. In a hurry
She clearly has jealousy-inducing hair as well as enviable skills.
We’re still trying to master a French braid, so we can’t imagine being able to whip this up before heading out in the morning.
4. Join the fun
The teen posts tutorials every now and then to give fans some insight into her process and allow them to mimic her braids.
Will you be giving this one a try?
5. Fishtail finery
This was an after-school creation after a hard day’s work, so wait until you see what she can create at the top of her game!
6. Two-toned talent
We’re pretty sure there are braids going in at least 4 different directions in this style. And it’s reminiscent of basket weaving – except with a lot more personality!
7. Fabulous foursome
What else can we say? We can barely pick a favorite amongst them.
But if we were going to be a battle princess, we’d choose the bottom-left style to go with our armor.
8. Catch a wave
Combining the perfect wave with the perfect weave is a fantasy style fit for nothing less than a mermaid.
We bet Ariel is thinking of changing her hair color!
9. Rainbow bright
We think #2 is our favorite, although the first one looks by far the most difficult.
Imagine having such fun hair to play around with. We might be wig shopping after this is all over!
10. Flower girl
And while we’ve certainly tried to tug at our braids to make them bigger or give them some personality, we’ve never some this close to making it look cool.
Your hairstylist is going to start sweating if you take this in as a wedding updo!
11. Lavish lilac
This might look simpler than her other styles but it appears to be a braid within a braid along with a French braid!
We wouldn’t even know where to begin.
12. Weaving tutorial
Since it’s a wig, it’s a lot easier to get hair to stay in place, but you can also see the importance of clips and other tools to create these styles.
Not all of them are simply whipped up in a jiffy.
13. Warrior princess in pink
Or at least our crown.
We can’t decide if this looks like it belongs on a warrior or royalty – but why not both?
14. Winsom weave
Just look at those tiny braids woven into this style!
That’s certainly an elaborate way to keep your hair out of your face.
15. How does it hold?!
But so many of these beautiful projects are Instagram fantasies anyway.
Of course, we’d still be willing to give it a try.
16. 15-strander
The outcome is worth the experiment though – because that’s one seriously impressive braid!
17. A way to wind down
Milena said this was a project she put together prior to studying for her math test.
It makes you realize that while her hobby looks professional, she’s still got plenty of other things to worry about.
18. Bringing it all together
Her signature flat braids and rosettes come together with those tiny hair pull-outs that are so difficult for the rest of us to get right.
19. Woven welcome
That likely puts some pressure on her to create new content, but she has plenty of amazing styles to go through already.
This is the photo she chose to welcome new followers.
20. Fit for a fairy
We bet there are some cosplayers out there drooling over these designs.
But can you imagine trying to do this on yourself?
21. Pick a side
Barely anyone could choose, so the most common answer was “both.”
We’re going to go with the style on the left, but we’re in awe of both.
22. Pretty in pearls
That’s when you know the artist just has an eye for the perfect end result.
We just want to know if the pearls were woven in from the beginning or were added at the end.
23. Colorful shoutout
It’s always nice when an account with lots of followers helps shine attention on newbies.
And can we just say how obsessed we are with this rainbow wig? THIS is #hairgoals.
24. Short and sweet
She has a handful of shorter styles on her Instagram page as well.
It’s pretty amazing that she managed to get the braids AND the curls perfect.
25. Hat hair
Well, lots of reasons, but it doesn’t make this style any less cool.
We’re big fans of the hair artist’s more avant-garde moments.
26. Big with a bow
And the bow on top was the perfect addition.
It certainly puts our skinny little braiding attempts to shame.
27. Chase the waterfalls
And we definitely see where the waterfall imagery comes in!
We just wonder how much hair someone has to have to put this off.
28. One good thing
We can’t even imagine how long this took – especially crafting numbers out of strands of hair!
We’re just glad we didn’t have to sit still for it.
29. Cheeky checkerboard
“I mostly love that there are endless possibilities and it’s a great way of expression and inspiration. I personally also find it really relaxing because you can let go of any disturbing thoughts and just focus on the art of doing hair.”
And we can see how this would be a great way to zone out of things going on around you. We feel better just looking at it!
30. Dizzying
Even commenters who say they do crochet and macrame said they had no idea how Milena accomplished this one.
31. Nip and tuck
We’re not even sure what kind of braid to call this.
We just know our stylist would look us pretty funny if we asked her to try and replicate it.
32. 3-D to infinity
And that also means there’s nothing just stuck in there to get the hair to stay in place like that – it’s woven into place.
That’s what blows our mind.
33. Fit for a mermaid
This style is often used as a cover photo for stories about Milena’s Instagram page because it’s just so unique.
We’re marveling at how the colors stay apart at the outer edges but blend so beautifully in the middle.
34. If at first you don’t succeed…
She said:
“It’s important to show that not everything is perfect and works out the way we want…I think we should also share our failures more often because that’s what makes us better.”
35. Scroll for triple the fun
There’s so much going on here and yet it doesn’t look like “too much.”
36. Sci-fi
It’s no surprise that this one had people asking if they could buy some of her styled wigs (and it sounds like the answer is no, for now).
37. Radiant red
If you look closely, you can see that some of the strands used to create the style are actually tiny braids themselves.
And we love the asymmetry of leaving one side unbraided at the top but then braiding it again at the bottom.
It’s just so interesting to look at!
38. Twinning with 36 artists
Be sure to check out the hashtag to see the other creations. They’re all pretty magnificent.
39. It’s in the DNA
But she was following a tutorial and later realized it was called a DNA braid.
That explains why it needs to twist!
40. Triple heart
And while clear elastics are the key here, we can’t imagine how much precision it takes to get them in the right place without tugging out other hairs.
It’s perfection!
41. Diving for pearls
Just when you think these styles can’t get any sweeter, she adds the perfect final detail.
42. In the beginning…
We included it since it’s a style we’r\ve tried to create ourselves and failed at miserably.
Big braids are a lot harder than they look!
43. Braided braids on braids
In fact, when a commenter asked her how long this style took to create, she said just an hour and a half!
We would have imagined many more hours went into it.
44. Radiant rosettes
Maybe we need one of those!
45. Oceanic
What a dreamy look.
46. Dutch fishtail
Somehow she tagged this #easyhairstyles!
Now we know there’s a level we’ll never be on when it comes to hair art.
47. Rose garden
This is just a little something Milena found in her old photos.
We’d be showing this to everyone, every day if we had created it!
48. Rainbow connection
Are we the only ones pricing wigs right now?
49. Stress-reliever
Milena had had a tough week due to school exams when she tackled this style.
What a beautiful way to zone out!
50. Neverending talent
She’s incredibly talented.
While she’s got over 40k Instagram followers at the moment, we’re pretty sure she’ll have more very soon!
“I think that my hairstyles are pretty unique and special and people are usually amazed and shook that this is possible,” Milena told Bored Panda.
THAT’S for sure. We certainly didn’t know braiding could be such a detailed art.
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Source: Instagram – @hairstylist.dream
H/t: Bored Panda