Your favorite braids for a beginner?

[lilahtov]

Hi all,

I see that so many of you have signatures and photos and mentions of these gorgeous, intricate braids that protect your hair AND make it look so fantastic (both in and out of the braid!)

I can fishtail and french braid, but that's pretty much it. Milkmaid braids are the only braided updo I ever recall doing, and those are very simple. I would love to have a few more tricks up my sleeve, but alas, I don't think my hands or hair length--or lack thereof--is ready for anything too fancy yet! Of course, it can LOOK fancy :p

So, if you have any tips, tricks, videos, pictures, links, whatever, they'd be much appreciated!!

Thank you!:blossom:

P.S. For reference, my hair is about BSL.

[Tini'sNewHair]

Could you maybe also ask people to post what length their hair is at because many styles done depends a lot on a person length. I'm at BSL to and i would love to see what others do at this length but i wont know unless they specify this. Thanks heaps in advance :)

Oh and so far, i cant do anything, I find BSL to still be to short for me :(

[Rio040113]

How about a Dutch braid? Cable braid? Carousel braid? Rope braid? Lace braid? Waterfall braid? (Okay, I'll stop now :lol:) Also there are the braided buns to consider :) And you can do simple English braids etc but do tiny ones as accent braids or do 3 thin ones then braid those into 1 big braid, if that makes sense? Or do a French/Dutch but do it diagonally maybe. Or braid into a low side bun. The possibilities are almost endless :D

ETA - Once you gain some length I'm sure you can try for a crown braid but those scare the living poop outta me, they look so hard to do! ;D

[jacqueline101]

I think an English braid is easy. I think it's great that you're able to fish tail braid. You could check out YouTube for hairstyle help. I think an english braid looks great in a bun.

[Tini'sNewHair]

Here is the BEST tutorial for the fishtail braid. It works on my BSL hair but i still dont do it just yet because i want more length first.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEBQU2afd8Y

[Morphidae]

Hi all,

I see that so many of you have signatures and photos and mentions of these gorgeous, intricate braids that protect your hair AND make it look so fantastic (both in and out of the braid!)

I can fishtail and french braid, but that's pretty much it. Milkmaid braids are the only braided updo I ever recall doing, and those are very simple. I would love to have a few more tricks up my sleeve, but alas, I don't think my hands or hair length--or lack thereof--is ready for anything too fancy yet! Of course, it can LOOK fancy :p

So, if you have any tips, tricks, videos, pictures, links, whatever, they'd be much appreciated!!

Thank you!:blossom:

P.S. For reference, my hair is about BSL.

I would suggest downloading videos on youtube... They have some cool braiding vids there.

I watched a million of them, but not able to do any hahahaha I'm terrible at braiding!!! One of those things I truly feel I was not made for hahahaha

[ravenheather]

Dutch braid is my favorite. I do a regular one and a diagonal katniss braid. I wish I had enough hair to do Heidi braids and enough skills to crown braid.

[torrilin]

A crown braid may look hard, but all it is is a lace braid that wraps around your head. And lace braids are even easier than French braids! For most of us, it'll be doable around BSL.

Making a crown braid look *good* is something else entirely. Most of us don't have perfectly symmetrical faces and hair that's a very uniform texture all over. So most of us don't want a perfectly circular crown braid... we want one where all the wobbles and weebles help accentuate our best features and minimize our worst ones.

I generally like twin braids for practicing. Gives you more chances to get it right, and more practice moving your hands all over and still getting the movements right. Also, there are a lot of ways to put up twin braids and they tend to be more flexible about thickness. A lot of the time if you feel incompetent about updos, the problem is you're in love with specific looks and they're not necessarily the easiest thing for your hair type. Since twin braids give scads of options, even if you hate how loose ones look, you can probably find a couple updos that work on you.

If you look at a braid, you'll see that one side is v v v shapes in a long line, and the other is ^ ^ ^ shapes. So if one is usually the "outside" face, you already know the hand moves for making the other face out. The changes are teensy tiny. For most of us, one direction or the other is more natural. Learning to do the other one can feel really hard. Getting the *right* tiny changes in, and getting all the steps in the right order is tricky. It's ok if it takes more than 20 or 30 tries to get down.

[Madora]

Hi all,

I see that so many of you have signatures and photos and mentions of these gorgeous, intricate braids that protect your hair AND make it look so fantastic (both in and out of the braid!)

I can fishtail and french braid, but that's pretty much it. Milkmaid braids are the only braided updo I ever recall doing, and those are very simple. I would love to have a few more tricks up my sleeve, but alas, I don't think my hands or hair length--or lack thereof--is ready for anything too fancy yet! Of course, it can LOOK fancy :p

So, if you have any tips, tricks, videos, pictures, links, whatever, they'd be much appreciated!!

Thank you!:blossom:

P.S. For reference, my hair is about BSL.

Here is a link to Lillith Moon's crown braid (2 strand "rope" type):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPHEzUr5bWQ

I've used this method on my 50" hair and while it took a while to master, it was worth it. However, instead of standing erect, I bend at the waist, ring all my hair in front of me, detangle gently, then begin the braid in at the top of my right ear, then gradually work around to the other ear, change hands, and continue braiding around my head, and down the remainder of the hair.

You might be able to achieve this crown braid with your length (I've seen pictures of very short hair braided this way). The thing is: learning how to do it will take a while. It's all a matter of the tension you use (not too tightly!), the position of your hands as you braid, how you apportion the sections to be added in....believe me, we've all been there....trying to understand just what the heck we're doing! Practice makes perfect!

Good luck!

[jupiterinleo]

I'm a beginner, too. I just learned how to French braid today. :lol: I watched this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2ru7d9yDWo) and I finally got the rhythm on the second try. Braiding on yourself is hard! My arms get tired.

[YamaMaya]

My favorite is the good old fashioned English Braid, because well, it's the only one I'm good at :p. Also my layered hair limits my braiding options, but I'm working on that one.

[HintOfMint]

My favorite is to make twin french braids and then have the tails "merge" into one braid. I then wrap that braid into a bun and secure it with spin pins. It looks so much more intricate than it actually is.

[Sharysa]

HintOfMint, that's what most braiders call a combination braid.

[Federica]

One of my favourites is the four strands braid, it's easy to do and makes a great effect!
http://theautry.org/ortega/images/four_string_braid.jpg

Another easy braided style I wear quite often is the oval braided bun or half-up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysyq-w96AWg

[emilia1992]

You could try cutegirlshairstyles (www.cutegirlshairstyles.com). The website has both written and video instructions, and the braids aren't just for young girls! :)

[vindo]

I like a woven braid. It is very easy to do and definitely looks different.

Link (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HieviZLeVA0&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DHieviZLeVA0)

Only problem is braiding all the way down is a bit more tricky, but I just leave my ends unbraided, looks nice too imo. :)

[farmlass]

I have managed a crown braid, it took a practice run first, but once you work out what your hands are supposed to be doing it's not too hard. I'm really not too good at French or Dutch braids though, need a lot of practice there!

[BowTie]

I find Dutch braiding much easier than French braiding. It's probably because I naturally put sections under rather than over. And it seems to stay better in shorter hair too.