Do the Dutch/French do more Dutch/French braids than other countries?

[Rilig]

A bit confusing, but here I go:

Does anyone from a country with a braid named after it notice if that braid is used more in that country versus others?

Example to explain it better: French LHCers, do you notice more French braids in France than in another country? Alternatively, do any Dutch LHCers notice more Dutch braids in the Netherlands than another country?

[torrilin]

I really seriously doubt it.

Often stuff that gets called Dutch in English isn't Dutch in the slightest. It's Deutsche or German. And German speaking countries have a pretty long tradition of braided hairstyles where a Dutch style braid helps to make the hairdo look better. Some parts of the Netherlands and Belgium have similar traditions too, but given how English tends to beat up other languages and borrow words without asking, I wouldn't bet on that being the origin. The US has a *lot* of German immigrants, and rather fewer Dutch ones :).

French also frequently doesn't mean French. Depending on what you're talking about, it can mean anything from actually from France to "ooh, that's pretty/delicate/tasty". For most stuff I can describe in French, if the English name says it's French, the French name says nothing of the kind. And if French people describe something as francais or francaise, it almost never is described that way in English.

[Merlin]

I knew a French girl years ago who often did a French Braid...but said that in France it was often called an Indian Braid...

In France by the way, sausage curled ringlets are called des anglaises - all the English girls have them in Asterix and the Brittons (http://comicsagogo.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/asterix-the-beatles.jpg); Asterix of course being the great exemplar of French racial stereotyping!

[DarkCurls]

Nah.

We don't even call them French braids. And I've only seen one person at school, besides myself, wearing them.

It's kind of like French fries. We don't call them French fries like the US does and we don't eat them more than others. :-)

[Kayleigh]

I'm from the Netherlands and the most common braid is the French braid, but it's always referred to as a normal braid. I don't see a lot of Dutch braids, but it's an upcoming trend. Just like the herringbone/fishtail, I think it's winning territory on the French one. There isn't really a common name for Dutch braid here I believe, but I know a lot of hairdressers refer to it as an outside braid.

[Alun]

A plate of cold meats is called an assiette Anglaise in France, but it is not a traditional English dish, nor do the French have what the English call French mustard, which Americans have never heard of, and nor do the English eat what Americans call English mufffins, which they have never heard of.

As with food, so with hair, I imagine.

[Alun]

Nah.

We don't even call them French braids. And I've only seen one person at school, besides myself, wearing them.

It's kind of like French fries. We don't call them French fries like the US does and we don't eat them more than others. :-)

AFAIK, frites originate in Belgium, not France. And in England they are called chips, not French fries, but when Americans say chips they mean crisps!

ETA: And how you say crisps in French I don't know

ETA2: IME French people often eat their frites [aka French fries] with harissa (hot sauce from Algeria!)

[Sharysa]

AFAIK, frites originate in Belgium, not France. And in England they are called chips, not French fries, but when Americans say chips they mean crisps!

Exactly. I think the whole "French/Dutch" braid thing is just to make them sound foreign and exotic.

[Magalo]

AFAIK, frites originate in Belgium, not France. And in England they are called chips, not French fries, but when Americans say chips they mean crisps!

ETA: And how you say crisps in French I don't know

The real french word is "croustilles" but every body say "chips" (in Quebec). :p

[Merlin]

A plate of cold meats is called an assiette Anglaise in France,

Which I suppose, given that the French have a huge range of cooked meats, and even special shops for it, while have a choice of 'ham' or 'tongue' or 'corned beef' is bizarre! Maybe it's a subtle French joke....

[DarkCurls]

FAIK, frites originate in Belgium, not France.
ETA2: IME French people often eat their frites [aka French fries] with harissa (hot sauce from Algeria!)
Yes, that is what I meant to say... They're just strange figures of speech.
I love harissa, yum, but then; we like spicy foods. My father is from Asia.
Most French people I know have trouble with things that are "hot"! :p

I've heard French and Dutch braids referred to as "glued" braids (:p), or African braids. Mostly they're just called braids.

[torrilin]

There isn't really a common name for Dutch braid here I believe, but I know a lot of hairdressers refer to it as an outside braid.

Hey, cool, that's how my sister and brother and I called it when we were little kids. American kids don't necessarily learn the fancy names, so while we could *do* French, Dutch, 4 strand, 5 strand etc braids, we just described 'em by how you have to make them.

[chen bao jun]

Actually, English muffins do come from England, where they used to be simply called 'muffins'. They are unknown there nowadays, but that is the place where they were invented and they were very popular, as were their close cousins, crumpets, when such things were homemade. No big company, like Thomas' in the US took up mass producing a facsimile of them once people stopped baking in England and then they became unknown.

When I lived in France, 'steak et frites' (steak and frenchfries) was one of the national dishes much as hot dogs or hamburgers are here. You would always hear French people as foreign tourists demanding to know where they could get steak and frites in benighted countries such as Italy. But frites were eaten with mustard. Harissa paste was eaten with couscous, from North Africa (Tunisian as well as Moroccan, I am not sure if also Algerian), which was well on the way to becoming a national dish in France already in the 70's. If people went out to eat, it was always 'couscous' that they got. Unless it was steak et frites, or a croque monsieur.
As for French and Dutch braids both, if you look at Janet Stephenson's hair archaeology videos from the ancient world, especially the ancient classical world, you can see they have a long long history. I think women everywhere had a knowledge of how to do these kinds of braids in the days when women had long hair that they wore up and/or covered, at least once they go married. I think its only since the 20th century with the inventions of haircuts for women and beauty salons and 'styling' and wearing hair loose (since 1960 not even covered with a hat, as used to be obligatory) that braids got relegated to the realm of little girls and now not even little girls wear them much. People also tend to stereotype other countries as 'picturesque' or full of colorful peasants in attactive costume and both many provinces in France (Brittany for example) and Holland were stereotyped in much of the rest of the developed world recently as places full of gorgeous women with super long blond hair in plaits of one sort or another and embroidered, lacy 'folk' costumes as opposed to modern women with short hair and high heels.