My sister brought up many stranded braiding today and I remembered vague details of a book I read once and now not knowing is driving me insane.
here’s what I know:
I probably read this in middle school, so it was generally appropriate for that age, but I was reading way above my age level so it may have been a little above that
The main character was a girl who’s mom died
she had gigantic, poofy, uncontrollable red (I think it was red (but orange red not died red)) hair that she would put in an 8-stranded braid to keep it out of the way
Her dead (or maybe missing but I think dead) Mom also had this hair and would braid it this way
Her dad braided her hair this special way (because mom was dead) and eventually taught her how to braid her hair this way and learning to do her own 8-strand braid was important to her and s big thing about her independence
I think the inciting incident had something to do with her dad being killed/kidnapped but I might be wrong
she went on some sort of adventure to uncover clues and such that involved puzzle she had to solve that was 8 strips of cloth (I think they were red? (Red as in red, not red as in orange like hair)) that she had to braid in the special way to reveal the secret message, which then told her something about her mom and the origin of the braid
To braid the fabric she had to drape it over her head like hair because she had only ever done the braid on herself and she thought about her missing (or dead?) dad and how he used to braid her hair.
I think there was some sort of wise old man who helped her out with the puzzle but I might be making that up considering my interest in books it was probably fantasy and/or YA but idk
Anyway, lmk if you know what book this is and can confirm this is it a fever dream or have a recommendation on how to find it. Thanks!