French Braid Woes

[squiggyflop]

i had trouble with them (read: couldnt do one to save my life) until my ah-ha moment while watching torrin paige's video on it..

im no where near great at it but i can actually do it well enough to leave the house in them now..

[MsBubbles]

I couldn't manage them either for years but repeating the mantra "...middle to left, add to left, middle to right, add to right, middle to left, add to left, middle to right... etc..." .

How does that work?! I've been doing outside to middle, outside to middle...

[Loreley]

I managed to do an acceptable french braid a few weeks ago and I tried to make one today but I couldn't. I'm not patient enough and I'd need more practice.

[Laurenji]

There's definitely an "a-ha" moment. I've known how to English braid my hair for years, but it was only last year that I figured out how to French braid it, even though I'd looked at lots of tutorials and had people try to help me and all sorts of things. I just had to keep practicing, and finally one day somehow it made sense. Kind of like juggling, I noticed--you can practice forever and ever and you don't seem any closer to being able to do it, and then one day suddenly (magically!) it works.

[Tiina]

How does that work?! I've been doing outside to middle, outside to middle...

Well, it goes both ways, the outside goes over the middle to be the new middle and the middle goes under the outside to be the new outside. It just depends on which way you think of it.

[spidermom]

Well, it goes both ways, the outside goes over the middle to be the new middle and the middle goes under the outside to be the new outside. It just depends on which way you think of it.

I was kind of confused, too. I always think "add to right strand, right over middle, add to left strand, left over middle"....repeat.

[Jessikinz]

Just keep practising! You will get it soon. It took me a little while to get the hang of it. You might even be able to find your own technique on french braiding. For me, I use my thumbs to grab sections of hair. Makes it soo much easier and faster, rather than holding the sections in one hand and using the other hand to grab the other sections. For some odd reason my french braids always take more time to do than dutch braiding. I prefer the dutch braid than the french one. Good luck!

[NorthernDancer]

I started doing braids on my mom when I was 6 or 7 (it was her deal if I still wanted bedtime stories). I think I graduated to french by 9, but it was three or more years after that before I could do one on myself. Now I'm so used to doing them on myself that I need to think about it if I want to do it on someone else. :P

I had this really great flip book (that I can't remember the name of) that had all different types of braid styles and how to do them. It had a diagram of how to hold the strands in your fingers that made it really simple for me (and remember I was a kid).
Hey, I think I found it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1570540187
I'm not sure if this was the one with the diagram, but it was one of the ones we had.

[AZDesertRose]

As many have said before me, there's definitely an a-ha moment. For AGES, I could do one on someone else's hair but not my own. It took LOTS of practice before I could do a French braid on my own hair. So it may not be what you want to hear, but just keep practicing and you'll be able to do it.

[linda g]

I'm the opposite, I can do a French braid fairly easily on my own head, but for the life of me, I can't do one on someone else!