Braided Updo Tutorial for long and thick hair

Elle's sister Anneliis has the most gorgeous thick hair I have ever seen. With that beauty also come some challenges. Her hair is so thick and heavy that it's hard for her to put it up. So, she asked me to come up with a simple enough updo that she can manage to replicate herself, and that would hold her hair firmly and last for more than 10 minutes.

As you can see from the pictures above, her hair is very long and very thick. But, oh so gorgeous!
Here's the updo I up with:

1. & 2. Take the upper section of your hair on one side and simply braid it.
3. Anneliis parts her hair on the side, so I did a side braid on the other sides upper section. Here's the tutorial on how to do it. You can opt to do a simple braid on the other side as well.
4. & 5. Now you have two braids that meet at the center back.
6. & 7. Take the unbraided portion of the hair and twist it into a simple bun. Make sure to secure it tightly with a hair elastic.
8. Push the bun back against the head and secure firmly with pins. Girls with lots of hair should try to find those super long pins that can almost go through their thick bun.
9. Take the first braid you made and twist it around the bun.
10. Tuck the tip of the braid underneath the start of the braid and secure it with a bobby pin or two under the second braid.
11. Take the second braid and twist it around the bun making sure you cover the end of the first braid.
12. Secure the tip of the second braid with a couple of bobby pins (you can customize them with buttons) and secure the bun with extra pins to hold the braids in place.

Anneliis said that the hair-do did stay in place for hours, but started to bother her because the short pins I used (that are plenty long for my own hair) started to scratch her scalp. I guess we need to find her some new pins.