Katya decided to comb my hair, beachy style. (Note:*not* Beachy Amish.) Here is her tutorial.
Begin with second-day hair. Separate the hair into the semblance of three sections.
Work your hands back and forth rapidly, creating something that is a cross between a regular three-strand braid and a rope braid. Scowling helps.
When to the end, run quickly for a hairband. Have your big sister help you with the hairband technique, and voila! Beachy hair, a-la Katya. Note: Use plenty of hairspray, you’ll need it.
I was touched with her efforts, even if they only lasted *maybe* five minutes. I need to figure out how to teach her to braid. Katya is rather–intent, about hair. Always playing with it. She’ll even pull out a strand of her own and twist it in her hands, when she’s not angry. When angry or frustrated, she sometimes tries to pull out handfuls of it. We direct her to more appropriate means of expressing her frustration. Poor kid.
It’s a pity Katya’s hematoma is causing a quarter sized patch of hair to fall out; it was just getting long enough to tuck into a braid. :-( 
(P.S. This picture was taken a few days ago. The spot is bigger now.)
My husband has taught our two older children how to braid using three thick shoestrings of same length, tied together, preferrably of different colour. That way there is initially no problem with separating into sections, and the shoestring isn’t slippery either. I don’t know if it still might be too difficult for Katya? Maybe the strings could be attached to something, like a chair?
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I tried with ribbons knotted, but she hadn’t the patience. She might get it now, though. With Katya, you just have to keep trying.
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You might teach her how to do a twist (two strand “braid”) if she can get them tight enough it almost looks like a braid when finished, and less to keep track of.
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