These Next-Level Braids Are Clearly the Best Way to Celebrate Valentine's Day By Yourself

Romantic dates are great if you can get them, but for some of us, Valentine's Day is more about staying as preoccupied as possible. Think less roses and hearts, more getting up, thinking about an ex for approximately .6 seconds, blasting some Beyoncé and just doing you. Want to go to Olive Garden by yourself? Go to town. Want to head to PetSmart and look at all the cats up for adoption? By all means.

The best thing to do is to focus on yourself, and for many, many hours. 

Which is why the best Valentine's Day activity might be undertaking some #ValentinesDayHair — in particular, these insane Valentine's Day braids all over Instagram.

Ya just gotta braid your hair into a heart, girl. Although it may end up looking more like a creation on the Great British Baking Show, attempting this great hair feat will definitely include hours obsessing over it. You'll twist your hair, perhaps scream in frustration and maybe start from scratch more than a few times.

This is an art, really. This is an Olympic act of both attention, skill and patience. After all, you're literally carving a heart out of hair.

But after that time spent, well, you'll probably feel accomplished. You'll look better — or at least more different — than you did before. And really, it's plain sweet — just take a peek at the countless women online proudly showing off their meticulously braided 'dos in honor of the holiday with #ValentinesDayHair and #ValentinesHair.

If you're headed out for a date later into the day, it's a great look; if you're single, then you can probably spend literally all day doing it instead of thinking about your ex. Order a pizza and go fucking wild. 

So if you want to start simple...

... or go for something elaborate... 

Tutorials online for this look offer a little insight into what exactly goes into braiding and twirling your hair into a heart, and the technique isn't nearly as difficult as it seems — if you're a talented, graceful, unperturbed beauty vlogger, that is. (Most of the beauty tutorials we see are about 4 minutes in length but involve some special maneuvering.)

But know that if it doesn't come our perfect — if the flashbacks to the terrible tangles of your youth are vivid or if your arm cramps when held up to the back of your head for too long — that's OK. After all, one Instagram user has offered her very real-life example: 

And if braids really seem too hard, you can go the easy (but more drastic) route: Valentine's Day hair color. (You didn't think you'd be able to get through Valentine's Day and not get another hair dyeing trend, did you? Of course not.)

Or combine both those trends into one:

The ultimate goal is just to spend the entire day doing something for you and feeling awesome about it in the end. And braids? Well, these heart braids may all be fairly ridiculous, but they're free, they require no other human beings (!) and they leave you looking badass.

What could make for a better V-Day than that?