Anyone French/Dutch braid using your Pinky to hold added hair?? I've forgotten!!

[Lazy Loop]

Does any one French/Dutch braid like this? I nearly forgot how to do it! It's pretty typical, until you add hair. What I remember (if it's even right):

Separate a section of hair in to 3 strands, cross left strand under to right hand, and "Scoop up a little hair on right side with right pinky. Then hold the newly crossed hair together with added hair by LOCKING it with your right pinky finger" (it is now prepared to be crossed on the next pass)..............


Years ago I learned this and that is how I Dutch/French braided my own hair. I recently tried to show someone on a girls long hair, but it just left me. I think I am sort of remembering, now that my own hair is getting a bit longer. I don't remember if I learned it from a book I had on long hairstyles, or YouTube, but I think it might have been in the 90's?? I tried searching Google and YouTube but didn't find anything that was like this. :hmm:

[Arctic]

That does not sound right.

However, to save myself from lot of typing, check out some you tube videos.

In general, you add more hair from left to the left section then cross to the middle, then add hair from right to the right section, then cross to the middle... continue... And also, your first stiches are like 3 strand braid. You do one normal stiching pair, then start adding hair.

[Lazy Loop]

Arctic, You are correct, it doesn't work!!! The only part I really am sure about is, locking the added hair with the strand by holding it with pinky finger!!

I mean curling and locking pinky around the strand, it was always very secure that way. Both hands had a pinky full of strand plus added hair. I guess the middle strand was manipulated by the other fingers, maybe??

[Arctic]

I seem to a different kind of learner than you. I have never payed attention to which fingers I use when. My fingers just know the movement pattern without me having to think. I guess everyone has their own style of braiding, how they move their hands and fingers. :)

[CopperRed]

This is sort of how I do it.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAWZyitE_6A

[gwenalyn]

Arctic, You are correct, it doesn't work!!! The only part I really am sure about is, locking the added hair with the strand by holding it with pinky finger!!

I mean curling and locking pinky around the strand, it was always very secure that way. Both hands had a pinky full of strand plus added hair. I guess the middle strand was manipulated by the other fingers, maybe??

Personally, I use my thumb to scoop up extra hair, but in fiddling around just now I think I figured out a good way to use the pinky. It requires a little change to how I usually order the steps. For simplicity, I'll just talk about the French braid. I think most people do it this way:


Take three strands
Cross left over the middle
Cross right over the (new) middle
Gather new hair into the left strand. This is the new left strand. (Here, I use my thumb.)
Cross the left over the middle.[/B]
Gather new hair into the right strand.[/B] This is the new right strand.
Cross the right over the middle.[/B]
Repeat 4-5.

I use my thumb to gather additional hair in steps 4 and 5. However, if you want to use your pinky, it is more natural to change the ordering so that you gather more hair *after* you cross the strands, like so:


Take three strands
Cross left over the middle. Later, this happens almost simultaneously with step 5.
Gather new hair: Your right pinky goes under the rightmost strand, and over the new middle strand. Scoop up the middle strand and extra hair on the right with the pinky.
Cross right over the middle strand (in your pinky). My hand turns naturally to do this, so it's almost simultaneous with the previous step.
Gather new hair: Your left pinky goes under the leftmost strand, and over the new middle strand. Scoop up the middle strand and extra hair on the left with the pinky.
Repeat 3-5.

So you see, the repeated part goes: Cross and gather left, cross and gather right. In contrast to the common way, which goes: Gather and cross left, gather and cross right. Not sure if this makes sense to anybody but me. :rolleyes:

With practice, I think this would actually be a faster French braiding technique, assuming your hair doesn't self-braid much. It seems harder to stop in the middle of the braid and rake through the strands to make sure they aren't tangling. It seems like it would be harder to learn how to French braid with 4- and 5-strand braids, if you used this method to learn 3-strand braids. But this is all just speculation on my part.

Does this sound like what you learned? I'm going to go wash my hair and try again after it dries, because right now my hair is gunky with hairspray and coconut oil and difficult to braid with. I've only tried the above technique for a few stitches so far.

[Lazy Loop]

CopperRed, that is a very good video! Gwenalyn, It's almost similar. I followed both of your methods. Now I remember two more things that were different:

The right strand is held between pinky & ring finger, in a clamping way. Pointer and thumb make a "duck bill" and are the grabbers for moving strands over/under. Same for Left hand.

Seems like adding hair was a half-step out of sync with conventional methods. I want to say, "Cross, Add, Clamp, then do the other side" or something like that.

Oh, well, These methods work as good. It just seemed more secure when I did my own braids, somehow. Thank You All!!

[lapushka]

Back when I still used to French braid (like in my teens), I used my thumbs to add in extra hair.

[spidermom]

I don't pay attention to which finger is doing what, either. I just do it.