3c/4a hair. I Can't French braid without it creating a gnarled mass of hair!!!!

[Talma]

Ok, I have very fine, highly textured hair that just loves to grab ahold of itself and create the Mother of all tangled masses each and every time I try to do French or Dutch braids or twists. This happens when I try to pickup and add sections that are smaller than about 2 inches wide.

I want to wear my hair in more intricate braid styles but my ends ALWAYS snarl together madly. Even though I've already thoroughly detangled my hair it turns into a monkey knot. and I get a big ol' mess before I'm 1/3 of the way through the braid. I can do 1 super simple French braid. Grabbing big uneven sections letting my hair part where it may...but those beautiful neat braids keep eluding me. You know the French braids that have small sections added at each step and every section is very close in size to the last. The way you see them in braiding books or on every other person on the planet but me lol. I can do it on relaxed hair but my natural, very fine, tangle prone hair fights me every time I try it. Do you braid on wet hair (though I prefer not to because tension increases on the hair and scalp as the hair dries and the hair shrinks), damp hair, dry hair (again, I shudder at the thought of trying to separate dry curls but I'm willing to try again...)?


I've tried it with wet, damp, and barely damp hair. Even on dry stretched hair...my ends just fuse together in groups based on how it was sectioned to stretch it. And those little buggers get mean when you try to separate them. Each time with a leave in conditioner on my hair...My hair gets violent without some kind of leave in. Each time I've tried smaller braid sections she gets very tangled and very angry at me. So, a simple chunky French or English braid is the style I have to go with. How on earth do you keep your hair from tangling back up?! Currently, even though I know how to do one, I can not even begin to get my hair into a crown braid, cornrow, etc.

P.S. My hair is between waist and hip, fully stretched (V hemline). I'm currently trying castor oil and flax seed gel as my leave in instead of a commercial conditioner. This clumps my hair similar to the Curly Like Me method...not quite as we'll but its far less work for similar results. Both methods don't seem to separate my curls very well at the roots and sometimes I still have to try and separate the ends because they will group together from a braid or bun. So,separating curls to braid is still necessary. For the love of John Wayne, please help a girl out!

[Quixii]

Though I can French braid other people's hair no problems, I cannot figure it out on my own hair. If I try to do it without detangling the curls protest and grab eachother, and even if I do it after detangling my hair seems to cling to itself in protestation. :(
So if anyone has suggestions, maybe they'll help me, too. :)

[Seeshami]

When I braid my hair I have to detangle each section every time I add hair and while I braid. I also don't have to deal with curls but maybe instead of wet or damp oiled would help.

[legendya]

My hair is like yours, and it is super hard for me to do a french braid. I found it easier with dry hair. Oil might help give it more slip.

[LadyCelestina]

Same here,but I gave up on french braiding my hair - the result is just not worth all the work,snarls and breakage.

I can still do other styles :)

[Kiwiwi]

Aww, I feel you.
I don't have -as much- of a problem with it as you do. But I can't french braid on dry hair, it just tangles right away and I can't get the pieces seperate.
I do it on wet hair and even then it's often not going good. So I barely do them....
So, no advice, I'm sorry! But you are definitely not the only one ;-)

[QMacrocarpa]

I have grabby hair too, and I've gradually realized that styles with loads of sectioning are just not for me. They're a hassle and I can't make them look very good. I can do chunky French/Dutch braids, but that's about it. You're not alone!
:blossom:

[Bagginslover]

I don't have curls, so I've no idea if this will work, but could you section your hair, and comb it in the right direction, and twist it on itself (to hold the section together, most curls I've played with will do this) before you attempt to braid? then you only have to braid, and not have to detangle the sections at the same time. I'd imagine it would work best this way on mostly dry hair, but as I said, non-curly, so I could be thinking about it all wrong.

[chen bao jun]

Interesting. I have hair somewhere between 3b and 4a and french braiding is one of the things it does best. Mine is coarse, not fine, however. I braid it either wet or dry, with leave-in or oil, or both, this keeps it from tangling, it doesn't make it tangle. I don't think that being coarse would make such a difference from fine hair. Also, African American women with hypercurly hair, 4b and 4c, who usually have very very fine hair, do the best little tiny braids and cornrows..?
Let me see-- I do mostly finger de-tangling nowadays, but I do always part my hair with the back end of a rat-tail comb. This is a bit of a job--I part a bit, then make sure the ends are not clumping together in that spot, then I part some more, etc. Then I use clips to keep the hair I am not braiding out of the way. Then I finger detangle the section I am going to braid, from the bottom up, again. Then I start braiding, taking small sections, and making sure that the sections I take up are not clumping together at the ends and just keep going down (or up, if that's what I'm doing). After I do each section of the french braid, I check to see what clumping is going on underneath, and detangle more as I go. Does this make sense?
It's a somewhat painstaking process, but practice makes it better. I usually read a book now while I braid, because I get bored. And I don't make really really tiny braids, because although they look nice, my hair is so thick that it takes forever to get them in and to get them out. I don't like to leave braids in my hair more than three days, anyway. I most often do just two two braids, going upwards in an imitation of a crown braid. When I take them down, my hair is still curly and clumpy, but stretched out longer.
I haven't been so successful with twists--they climb out (my hair is rather silky). Someone told me recently that to make them stay, I should braid the very top of the twist and the very end, and I tried that and it seemed to work, but it didn't seem worth the trouble, when the braiding works so well.
HTH.

[CitznMag]

How about, prior to braiding, setting large curlers at the ends of damp hair to straighten the ends a bit till dry? Then maybe they won't curl onto themselves as much?

[CurlyCap]

My curliest hair is 3c, so take my experience as you will:

The thing I've noticed about braiding curly hair is that you have to "follow through" with every cross or twist of a hair section. It's not enough to just place one section of hair over another, like with straight hair. With straight hair, as long as the sections are together near where the style (braid, twist, etc) is forming, then the bottom sections fall apart relatively easily. They rarely knot. So when you braid straight hair, most of the concentration is near the top of the hairdo, where the sections are being crossed. Lots of people who style straight hair focus on maintaining tension near the hairstyle, because they worry that the style will fall apart without tension. OR they load the hair up with product or oil to make the hair stickier and easier to braid. You might have seen this when people post pics of Ren fairs.

However, with curly hair, the exact opposite happens. Curly hair loves to stick to itself. It needs no help! Which is great for updos, but TERRIBLE for intricate braids or detail work. What I've found works best is that every time you place one section over another, you have to move your hand all the way down the section you just moved, from where the cross occurred to the tips of the hair. This works out the (still) small tangles that built up just from moving curly hair. Being diligent about smoothing every section with every single cross or twist prevents little tiny catches from building up and turning into mega tangles. This takes more time. And if your hair is very long, it can be annoying to smooth all the way to the ends of your hair with every single stroke. But it works. I wore my hair in various single braids (English, French, Fishtail) every day until I was ~24. I often accented with small braids or french braids. You just get faster at it.

Having said all of the above, I prefer to braid my hair only when it is wet. 1) The curly hair still catches on itself, but I don't have to fight to separate my hair into sections. Also, my hands glide more easily over wet/gooped sections than over dry sections. And since I have to, FOR EVERY SINGLE CROSS, run my hands from the the cross to the tips of my hair, glide is a big factor. 2) Since the hair is more compact and more likely to fall into a single....wavelength?....when wet, I've found that my hair "looks" the way it's supposed to look in a braid when it's braided wet. For example, if I do a french braid on dry hair, I may have a french braid in the way I threw the sections, but my curl adds much more texture than the french braid and the french braid detail gets lost. However, if I french braid on wet hair, my french braid pretty much looks like one done on a person with straight hair. You CAN get that kind of detail if you braid tightly (ie, braid your dry hair so tightly that your natural curl pattern is pulled straight), but those braids are often so tight they are painful. I also think they cause traction alopecia if you wear them too often.

Personally, I consider braiding my hair a much bigger endeavor than updos or wearing my hair out and curly. It takes more planning and since braids are supposed to look a certain way, it also takes a lot more precision. This is why I was so very happy when I finally figured out how to wear my hair down and curly. Infinitely less work.

Hope that helps!

[dwell_in_safety]

My hair is only in the 2's, and I still can't French braid without at least a couple tangles at the end of the day. I have no advice that hasn't already been given, but it seems that some tangles caused by French braids comes with the territory of having anything-but-straight hair. :/

[Sharysa]

The thing I've noticed about braiding curly hair is that you have to "follow through" with every cross or twist of a hair section. It's not enough to just place one section of hair over another, like with straight hair. With straight hair, as long as the sections are together near where the style (braid, twist, etc) is forming, then the bottom sections fall apart relatively easily. They rarely knot. So when you braid straight hair, most of the concentration is near the top of the hairdo, where the sections are being crossed. Lots of people who style straight hair focus on maintaining tension near the hairstyle, because they worry that the style will fall apart without tension. OR they load the hair up with product or oil to make the hair stickier and easier to braid. You might have seen this when people post pics of Ren fairs.

However, with curly hair, the exact opposite happens. Curly hair loves to stick to itself. It needs to help! Which is great for updos, but TERRIBLE for intricate braids or detail work. What I've found works best is that every time you place one section over another, you have to move your hand all the way down the section you just moved, from where the cross occurred to the tips of the hair. This works out the (still) small tangles that built up just from moving curly hair. Being diligent about smoothing every section with every single cross or twist prevents little tiny catches from building up and turning into mega tangles. This takes more time. And if your hair is very long, it can be annoying to smooth all the way to the ends of your hair with every single stroke. But it works. I wore my hair in various single braids (English, French, Fishtail) every day until I was ~24. I often accented with small braids or french braids. You just get faster at it.

I have 1a/2c coarse Filipino hair normally, but I do love braids and this is holding particularly true for me.

[chen bao jun]

Curly Cap's post is saying the same thing I was trying to say, but much better than I did. You need to smooth down to the end (I said detangle) with each cross. It gets automatic after a while.
I french braided my hair today and tried to notice what I was doing so that I could chime in here again but I have no better explanation than this. I think it might be helpful for you to do this WITH someone else that really knows how to do it a couple of times and have them check how you're doing it. Just looking at someone else do it won't really help. It's a matter of feeling. As I said, I do it over a book now, I don't even look in the mirror.
It makes no difference to me whether my hair is wet is dry.
I wrote that my hair is 3b-4a, which is a broad range, because I can't decide what my hairtype is. Looking at photos has been rather useless because sometimes I see people whose hair looks like mine describe themselves as 3c/4a but I see other people who also do describe themselves as 3b/3c. On another website, I looked at a thread which said, 3c's check in, and I saw people on there with hair that looks like mine, but also people with considerably looser curls and people with considerably tighter curls. All I know really is that it's curly, and that the curls are spiral curls, and that there are different sizes in different parts of my head. I have a lot of shrinkage, but not the most that I have ever seen. I haven't been too stressed about finding out the exact curl pattern, because knowing that I am low porosity and have coarse hair has frankly, seemed like more useful and practical information. My hair is silky when its properly moisturized. The ends are more dry than the rest of my hair, especially at the back of my head and its the dry ends that tend to be 'grabby' in the sense that I think people are using the word in this thread. But I do have hair that tends to tangle, I think because it naturally clumps and spirals--I need no product to 'encourage' or promote the spiralling which just automatically happens whenever water touches it. Conditioner and oil help me to get slip that helps to detangle, however, because once the spirals have formed themselves, they do NOT want to be separated, if this makes sense? But I can braid dry, by just working with the clumps already there and not separating them? Oh dear, I know that sounds confusing.
HTH.
By the way, I am curious as to why the OP wants to braid her hair? Just for looks? I braid my hair because its the easiest way to put it up, which has been helping it to grow since I've been on this forum, but her hair is already extremely long and she hasn't said anything about having a growth stall--why not bun, if it won't braid? I hope this is not an offensive question, I am just honestly curious.

[Vintagecoilylocks]

I also have the super fine 2c/3c/ curlies. As one poster said african american hair of 4a-4c braids beautifully but the larger finer curls don't seem to cooporate as well. My hair is soft and frizzy but flyaway. would not lay done even after after a truck ran over it. I gave up on trying to french braid once I past hip length. Trying to separate and hold three sections required two more arms. My daughter is just approaching hip but can manage to get it done. I use the tightly curly method on her and immediately after, while still wet and any time while dry after using my special recipe of butters, has allowed her to separate and braid her very full volumed curls into all sorts of styles and braids. She has combination 3ab/3c.

Check out 1ballerina, method to maintain separated curls. My daughters hair is thicker than hers.

The one way I achieved a french braid was when i was in multiple braids then I french braided those braids. My hair is just to long to deal with it now.

[Vintagecoilylocks]

C
HTH.
By the way, I am curious as to why the OP wants to braid her hair? Just for looks? I braid my hair because its the easiest way to put it up, which has been helping it to grow since I've been on this forum, but her hair is already extremely long and she hasn't said anything about having a growth stall--why not bun, if it won't braid? I hope this is not an offensive question, I am just honestly curious.

Bunning with loose hair can bring with it a host of tangles also. It depends on the person. Also requires some sort of holding device which may cause breakage. My hair in a loose bun will coil and twist together creating a mess if I wear it more than a few hours. Wish I could skip braiding.

[LadyKate]

My hair is not so curly as yours, but I have always found when braiding my sister's hair (tight, ringlet curls) I get the best results when her hair is wet or damp, with some product in (she usually uses mousse). Also, as I'm braiding (and I do this with my hair as well, as I separate each section, I run my fingers all the way through down to the ends. I also do this with each pass of the braid, otherwise the ends will form sort of reverse braid, tangling back on themselvs. Hope this is helpful.

[chen bao jun]

Bunning with loose hair can bring with it a host of tangles also. It depends on the person. Also requires some sort of holding device which may cause breakage. My hair in a loose bun will coil and twist together creating a mess if I wear it more than a few hours. Wish I could skip braiding.

Thanks for reply. This is very interesting. I was assuming I'd be able to bun my hair when longer, but now I will watch out for this. My hair is only APL but I can make a smallish bun because its very thick hair (high density). However, I do find that I get a bunch of single strand knots whenever I bun it or twist it up loose. Sounds like I need to do braided buns also (though my current length is too short for that). Thanks again.

[Kiwiwi]

But for me the problem isnot that I have to smooth it all the way to the ends. I do that always, have to indeed because else it's not working.
The problem for me is trying to seperate the piece in the first place. Like, I'm french braiding and I need a piece to add to one of the three pieces. So I try to seperate it while still holding the other two pieces. -That's- the hard part for me. It grabs to everything and doesn't want to be seperated. It's like I need 3 hands. One to keep the two pieces together. And one to seperate a new piece while holding (with the 3d hand) the 3d piece and trying to join the two together. (hope I am making sense)
It's hard.

The smoothing down once I succeeded in seperating it is not the problem.

ps. This only counts for french/dutch braiding. Which is what this topic is about. Normal braiding is not a problem at all for me.

[Phalaenopsis]

But for me the problem isnot that I have to smooth it all the way to the ends. I do that always, have to indeed because else it's not working.
The problem for me is trying to seperate the piece in the first place. Like, I'm french braiding and I need a piece to add to one of the three pieces. So I try to seperate it while still holding the other two pieces. -That's- the hard part for me. It grabs to everything and doesn't want to be seperated. It's like I need 3 hands. One to keep the two pieces together. And one to seperate a new piece while holding (with the 3d hand) the 3d piece and trying to join the two together. (hope I am making sense)
It's hard.

The smoothing down once I succeeded in seperating it is not the problem.

ps. This only counts for french/dutch braiding. Which is what this topic is about. Normal braiding is not a problem at all for me.
Practice!

Having braid multipe heads of hair from 1a to 3c (I haven't had the privilege to braid 4a-4c hair)
Curly hair has its advantage as the braid just stays put. The disadvantage is while making the braid you need more patience with the dividing, because indeed, the curls like to stick together. So it's best to practice and learn how to grab two strands, holding them, while you use your other hand to separate (I also use my other hand's thumb).
I have straight hair, but because it's so long, the ends tangle while I'm braiding, so I also needed to be able to do this. For braiding it's the two Ps: practice and patience.

I wasn't as handy when I just learned braiding. Over the years I found little tricks that I could use. Everybody needs to find what works for them. I personally find braiding curls a lot more fun than straight hair, because curls hold the hairdo so well. It's also a lot more forgiving with mistakes you make. On straight hair, every little deviation is visible.

[Talma]

Holy cow! There are a lot of responses! Sorry that I'm just now getting to them, I never got an email telling me that I had any responses so I assumed this thread got passed by. I will try and respond to everyone by the end of the day. Thank you!

[Talma]

When I braid my hair I have to detangle each section every time I add hair and while I braid. I also don't have to deal with curls but maybe instead of wet or damp oiled would help.

I will definitely give this a try. Maybe with damp hair that has a slippery leave in or oil or almost completely dried hair that's been oiled. Do you detangle with your fingers, comb or brush as you braid?


My hair is like yours, and it is super hard for me to do a french braid. I found it easier with dry hair. Oil might help give it more slip. thanks! I'll give oil a try. I may have to at least dampen the ends though. I don't know. Those little buggers spiral together quite often. :)


I don't have curls, so I've no idea if this will work, but could you section your hair, and comb it in the right direction, and twist it on itself (to hold the section together, most curls I've played with will do this) before you attempt to braid? then you only have to braid, and not have to detangle the sections at the same time. I'd imagine it would work best this way on mostly dry hair, but as I said, non-curly, so I could be thinking about it all wrong.

I'm not sure if this will work for my hair type or not but I will play around with it. My biggest problem is trying to section the hair to braid since my hair grabs itself even after thorough detangling. Not detangling my hair after washing is just asking for some major matting, which would be a nightmare to try and get out.


Interesting. I have hair somewhere between 3b and 4a and french braiding is one of the things it does best. Mine is coarse, not fine, however. I braid it either wet or dry, with leave-in or oil, or both, this keeps it from tangling, it doesn't make it tangle. I don't think that being coarse would make such a difference from fine hair. Also, African American women with hypercurly hair, 4b and 4c, who usually have very very fine hair, do the best little tiny braids and cornrows..?
Let me see-- I do mostly finger de-tangling nowadays, but I do always part my hair with the back end of a rat-tail comb. This is a bit of a job--I part a bit, then make sure the ends are not clumping together in that spot, then I part some more, etc. Then I use clips to keep the hair I am not braiding out of the way. Then I finger detangle the section I am going to braid, from the bottom up, again. Then I start braiding, taking small sections, and making sure that the sections I take up are not clumping together at the ends and just keep going down (or up, if that's what I'm doing). After I do each section of the french braid, I check to see what clumping is going on underneath, and detangle more as I go. Does this make sense?
It's a somewhat painstaking process, but practice makes it better. I usually read a book now while I braid, because I get bored. And I don't make really really tiny braids, because although they look nice, my hair is so thick that it takes forever to get them in and to get them out. I don't like to leave braids in my hair more than three days, anyway. I most often do just two two braids, going upwards in an imitation of a crown braid. When I take them down, my hair is still curly and clumpy, but stretched out longer.
I haven't been so successful with twists--they climb out (my hair is rather silky). Someone told me recently that to make them stay, I should braid the very top of the twist and the very end, and I tried that and it seemed to work, but it didn't seem worth the trouble, when the braiding works so well.
HTH.

Usually, African American hair is easier to cornrow than other hair types but it depends. My brother is between 3b and 3c but his hair is baby fine, super soft, and slippery so while his hair is easy to section and detangle, he can't wear braids for long because his hair just unravels out if the braids every time. Even if wearing a do rag to bed. My hair, holds braided styles very well but my hair is so long and has so much shrinkage that the curls just spiral up and grab each other every time I try to do anything more intricate than a French braid using 6 sections. But I have seen women with tighter curls than my own and just as much shrinkage with intricate braids. I don't know what I'm doing wrong because the online tutorials rarely touch on detangling.

IMO fine vs coarse matters a bit. Fine hair is obviously more fragile but it also tends to get ridiculously small tangles at times. Those tangles seem to happen extremely easily and are a pain to get out...IF you can get them out without snipping them. Even the bigger tangles have to be very carefully undone or my hair will break.

:D Thank you for going through all of the steps that you use. That helps a lot! What type of leave in or oil do you use?


How about, prior to braiding, setting large curlers at the ends of damp hair to straighten the ends a bit till dry? Then maybe they won't curl onto themselves as much?

I've tried braiding stretched hair but my hair still grabs itself. The only difference with stretched hair is that my ends fuse and stick together in the smaller sections that I stretched them in. I've tried trimming my ends, thinking that that was the problem but now I think it's just a characteristic of my hair. The ends love to stick together.

Maybe stretching the length of the hair but dampening and oiling the ends so that they don't stick together will work though!!! :)

[jeanniet]

But for me the problem isnot that I have to smooth it all the way to the ends. I do that always, have to indeed because else it's not working.
The problem for me is trying to seperate the piece in the first place. Like, I'm french braiding and I need a piece to add to one of the three pieces. So I try to seperate it while still holding the other two pieces. -That's- the hard part for me. It grabs to everything and doesn't want to be seperated. It's like I need 3 hands. One to keep the two pieces together. And one to seperate a new piece while holding (with the 3d hand) the 3d piece and trying to join the two together. (hope I am making sense)
It's hard.

The smoothing down once I succeeded in seperating it is not the problem.

ps. This only counts for french/dutch braiding. Which is what this topic is about. Normal braiding is not a problem at all for me.

This is the issue for me as well. I think the real problem is that I should have started practicing when my hair was around APL, instead of trying to learn at waist+. There's too much hair, it's too long, my arms get tired, etc. Four hands would be ideal, lol.

[Talma]

Curly Cap Thank you for your reply. That helps ALOT. I have the tendency to try and smooth after I've crossed a couple of sections so now I realize that I should be doing it from root to end every time I pick up a section. I most likely will have to rake through it with my fingers as Chen Bao Jun described earlier. After reading both of your posts, I realize that my hair also has a tendency to frizz so that is most likely a factor. It can be tone down with oiling before or after washing, using a paddle brush, or smoothing certain leave ins through my hair in sections. So I will give that a try next time as well.

Chen Bao Jun thank you for your replies as well. This all has been most helpful. For me, hair typing has been more bad then good. I waisted 3 years worrying about that stuff because I thought that if I could just fit my hair into one category that it would teach me how to handle my hair flawlessly. Unfortunately, I think if I ignored typing, I would have been able to concentrate on what's best for my individual head of hair instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. I say that because no one can agree on what type of curls belong to a given category. I've seen what I consider 3c (Rachael True's hair) be described as 3b or a 4 on some sites. My hair is what I consider 3c in the front, 4a at the crown and somewhere in the middle everywhere else. Like you, knowing the elasticity, porosity, and density of my hair works better. Also, I've found a few hair twins which help with styles and maintenance.

Your question isn't offensive at all. I just prefer braids over buns for several reasons. It's more protective for me than buns for one. My hair tends to fuse together into the huge mass when bunning, more so at the ends. It gets more tangly than in a simple English or French braid. My curls also get stretched to the point where they are skinny and stringy looking and the tend to stick out at a funky angle. Braids are also more comfortable for me than buns. My hair is waist to hip length ( v hemline) fully stretched but shrinkage makes it look between APL or MB depending on my style. I want to grow it to mid thigh which may be shooting for the moon but that's my goal anyway. I want it to look HL to TBL while curly. While more intricate braids aren't a necessity, it would brake up the monotony of my style. If its too damaging to do them on my hair then I will stick to the basic braids. I wear my hair braided instead of loose because it's more protective and because I don't want to cut my hair into a better shape to compliment my features. I'm trying not to cut my hair for another year or two because I would like to see how shrinkage behaves with the longer length of my hair before I do so. If shrinkage still makes my hair look APL by then when fully shrunken then I plan to get it shaped.

[Seeshami]

I will definitely give this a try. Maybe with damp hair that has a slippery leave in or oil or almost completely dried hair that's been oiled. Do you detangle with your fingers, comb or brush as you braid? *snip*


I use my fingers the majority of the time, but I will break out the comb or if The Naughty Mess is really being a jerk the tangle teaser.

In this video I made to show the braid thread regulars how to do a braid I do it incessantly. It look almost like a compulsion and in the video that I just regularly braid it you can't see me detangle because it's over my shoulder but I do it then too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAHDXxIUzvU

[Talma]

I also have the super fine 2c/3c/ curlies. As one poster said african american hair of 4a-4c braids beautifully but the larger finer curls don't seem to cooporate as well. My hair is soft and frizzy but flyaway. would not lay done even after after a truck ran over it. I gave up on trying to french braid once I past hip length. Trying to separate and hold three sections required two more arms. My daughter is just approaching hip but can manage to get it done. I use the tightly curly method on her and immediately after, while still wet and any time while dry after using my special recipe of butters, has allowed her to separate and braid her very full volumed curls into all sorts of styles and braids. She has combination 3ab/3c.

Check out 1ballerina, method to maintain separated curls. My daughters hair is thicker than hers.

The one way I achieved a french braid was when i was in multiple braids then I french braided those braids. My hair is just to long to deal with it now.

Vintangecoilylocks Thank you! I have seen some of 1ballerina's videos on YouTube but I'm pretty sure I haven't seen that one yet. I'll look for it tonight. Does your daughter use the Tightly Curly method with butters or conditioner? I'm thinking about trying it with a whipped Shea butter as conditioners alone don't do it for me. Too little and my hair frizzes, to much and I get a ridiculously hard cast on my curls that looks really dull once its been scrunched out. Flax seed gel and castor oil gets almost the same results but soft and shiny so far.

I've tried braiding sections before French braiding the whole thing but the roots looked really bad when I did.


My hair is not so curly as yours, but I have always found when braiding my sister's hair (tight, ringlet curls) I get the best results when her hair is wet or damp, with some product in (she usually uses mousse). Also, as I'm braiding (and I do this with my hair as well, as I separate each section, I run my fingers all the way through down to the ends. I also do this with each pass of the braid, otherwise the ends will form sort of reverse braid, tangling back on themselvs. Hope this is helpful.

That's exactly what my hair does too. Finger combing seems to be the best line of attack for tangles judging by everyone's responses. Thanks!


But for me the problem isnot that I have to smooth it all the way to the ends. I do that always, have to indeed because else it's not working.
The problem for me is trying to seperate the piece in the first place. Like, I'm french braiding and I need a piece to add to one of the three pieces. So I try to seperate it while still holding the other two pieces. -That's- the hard part for me. It grabs to everything and doesn't want to be seperated. It's like I need 3 hands. One to keep the two pieces together. And one to seperate a new piece while holding (with the 3d hand) the 3d piece and trying to join the two together. (hope I am making sense)
It's hard.

The smoothing down once I succeeded in seperating it is not the problem.

ps. This only counts for french/dutch braiding. Which is what this topic is about. Normal braiding is not a problem at all for me.

I feel your pain. Although I am obviously not an expert, this is what I've been doing to get as far as I have...which isn't all that far...obviously :) If you're holding one piece in each hand and are trying to pick up a third then I think your problem is in shifting your hand position so that you can hold all three strands in one hand and then with your free hand, pick up and separate the section you want to add. Is that the case or did I misinterpret your post?

If it is the case, then I would practice this on someone else or tie three scarves to a doorknob to get the feel. In your less dominant hand take three sections of hair to start. with your palm facing down (because this is the position your hand will be in when braiding your own hair) put a section of hair between your ring finger and middle finger, one between your middle and index finger, and one between your thumb and index finger. The sections of hair will rest right up against that little web between your fingers. Curl your fingers under almost like a fist. You'll need to work up endurance to hold your hands and arms in this position but once you can do it for a few minutes you'll be ok.

When picking up the new section, pick it up with your thumb and index finger of your free hand close to the scalp. Use a pinching action to get a precise group of hair (whether you have to finger comb, comb, or brush is up to you as right after this is where I usually hit a hitch most times). Now switch that new section to the hand holding the initial three sections. This time though, hold it with the tips of your index finger and thumb. I know you still have hair fused together at this pint but do your best to hold on with your thumb and index finger tip. Use the thumb of your fee hand to run down the length between the new section and the rest of your hair to fully separate it. Pray that it doesn't tangle as badly as mine and continue to the next section. Maybe if you hit a snag here like I do, try detangling the way Curly Cap, Chen Bao Jun, and some others suggest. If you have any luck, let me know.

Try it using 6 large sections first on damp hair. So that you just have to add one section to each of the initial three once to complete the braid. Tangles are hardly ever an issue for me then. Usually only at the ends if any and I've learned how to take care of them quickly with one hand. Usually by holding the ends with my free hand and using my thumb of the hand holding everything else to pull up on that section to get it free. You have to see it to know what I mean though.

[Talma]

Phalaenopsis thanks for your post. Do you usually braid curly hair dry, damp, wet, oiled...? I think you're the first person that I've heard say that she prefers braiding curly hair over straight. Most stylists in my area, upon seeing my curls in all their glory get this look in their eyes...you know they are screaming on the inside lol. I wish there were more pro curly stylers and braiders in my area. :) do you detangle with your fingers as you braid or comb/brush?


Seeshami thanks for the link. That helps. I think in my case I'll be going much slower and have more detangling to do but this gives me the idea. :)

[Seeshami]

No problem. I am glad it helps even though our hair types are completely different. I am sure with time, practice and confidence you'll be surprised how quick you get.

[Phalaenopsis]

Phalaenopsis thanks for your post. Do you usually braid curly hair dry, damp, wet, oiled...? I think you're the first person that I've heard say that she prefers braiding curly hair over straight. Most stylists in my area, upon seeing my curls in all their glory get this look in their eyes...you know they are screaming on the inside lol. I wish there were more pro curly stylers and braiders in my area. :) do you detangle with your fingers as you braid or comb/brush?
I've always braided curly hair dry. I also don't comb it before braiding, because that would ruin the curls. I only use my fingers to divide the strands and no real detangling, not even with my fingers. For intricate braiding like cornrows or other tiny braids, its' probably best to comb the hair and maybe put some leave-in in your hair, but then the person who's wearing the braids will probably not take them out by the end of the night. With regular braids they usually do take them out by the end of the night, so I try not to ruin their curls and make one poofy mess of their hair.

But yes, curly hair is very fun to braid. ^^ It doesn't slip out of your hands like straight hair does. The braid just stays put on its own and I don't have to pull on the strands so much to make sure the braid will stay put. I personally hate my own hairtype the most for braiding. 1a F hair, it's so freakin' slippery and fine, every little mistake is visible, you need to be careful because one little hairstrand can pull and hurt the person you're braiding. You have to comb the strands constantly to keep it smooth when you bend it into another position. Lumps and knots also easily occur.

Don't get me wrong though, I love my own hairtype, the silky smoothness is great. And the upside of my kind of hair is that you can see the intricacy of the braid better. There, curls have some disadvantage.

I think the problem with curls is that most haidressers don't learn how to deal with them. And that's wrong, curly hair just requires different treatment, that's all. Would they be just as well informed about curly hair as straight hair, they wouldn't react like that.