Most of the work here was on the hair, adding the ornaments and highlighting the texture. The bands that wrap through the hair were first blocked in by drawing a path with the pen tool, using guides to keep things lined up. After the paths were drawn, they were selected from the paths palette and saved. On a new layer above the hair, the selection was filled with white. With the selection still active, the bands were painted with the brush tool using black, 50 percent gray and 20 percent gray. After a reflective, gold texture was achieved, the selection was slightly blurred using gaussian blur. The metal, hanging ornaments were added from a stock photo and the braids they were hanging from were painted in with the brush tool.
The overall image was adjusted further using the dodge, burn, and airbrush tools. Smoothed by making feathered selections with the lasso tool then blurring and adding noise.