tapering braids

[cdonald2]

Hi everyone! I was wondering if there was a way to gain length while having your braid not taper.
Like, is there a technique to do where you grow out your hair so it wont taper at the bottom while its braided? its harmless but a pet peeve of mine

[lithostoic]

Microtrimming. It really helps me. My taper has significantly decreased after doing it only once (meaning usually it would be worse at this length), and that's even with new growth coming in.

[pailin]

Yes, the only way to avoid braid taper is to trim regularly- basically to keep a blunt hemline, which will require maintaining. Once the ends are blunt, good haircare may help to keep it that way longer between trims, but most people find they have some hairs that grow faster than others. But since hair grows from the scalp and you always have new hairs coming in to replace the ones that are shedding, trimming is the only way to prevent taper.

[maborosi]

I have average thickness, am between TBL and classic, and very little taper- you can see in my sigpic my hair's pretty consistent all the way down, but my hair would definitely taper if I didn't do upkeep on it.
To prevent tapering, you do need to trim regularly. I do hemline cuts about 1-2 times a year to straighten my hemline and prevent a V or U shape from growing. It depends on your hair, but you may need to trim more, or less.

Keep your hair in the best shape you can and do regular trims and try to keep a blunt hemline. -

[CarrotTop]

Trimming every so often will help you keep a blunt hemline, for sure. But you'll probably still have some tapering in the tassel of the braid, depending on how you separate chunks for the braid. If you mean tapering in the braid itself, i.e. having one circumference at the top of the braid and a smaller one at the bottom, then fluffing the lower part of the braid up can help cancel out the tapering effect.

[Anje]

Some taper is inevitable, because you are growing new hairs all the time, and they aren't all full-length.

Trimming regularly helps, but some of it seems like it just varies by person. Years of maintaining eventually got me to accept that I wasn't going to get the ends to thicken any more than they had, at least till my bangs get there. My hair is going to taper at tailbone or fingertip, whether I like it or not.

[lapushka]

Don't braids always taper to some extent? Even if you have a blunt hemline, just the fact that you are winding 3 strands around each other (or 2) means that you'll always get taper. Or you'd have to blunt cut your braid tassel, but that would give you a terrible hacked in hemline, I'm afraid. And it will only be good for one go, because the next time you braid, the braid due to picking up strands randomly will have a different taper to it.

You can just never win with braids. ;)

[spidermom]

Having trimmed hair definitely helps. One trick I used to do is pull the first sections of my braid fairly snugly, then braid with a looser hand as I got closer to the bottom. It would appear that my hair had no taper, although it did. It's pretty much unavoidable because new hairs are always growing in and are thus shorter than the longest hairs.

[01]

I was wondering too. My hair got thinner near ends and thicker on top, eh. I started to fluff lower portion of braid to match the rest. Maybe trimming would help some but I'm on no trimming and too lazy to trim, lol.

[Hairkay]

I consider tapering normal. Since I've got wispies at the front if I do two plaits/braids there, I get a significant taper. The ends of the plait then loosens to look like a piece a of lace where you can clearly see the gaps through the hair. That makes the plait look the same width from top to bottom but it's obvious that the hair is not the same thickness to the end. It's a lot harder to actually notice the taper for the rest of the hair but I know it exist or I wouldn't be able to plait hair until I get to the last two inches and leave it without it instantly unravelling if I didn't have some sort of taper. That's why I don't always find it a joy to trim hair. That makes me lose my little bit of taper necessary for a good plait without needing to finish it off with a hair tie.

[01]

Ah, you're saying taper helps hair stay in braids. Interesting.

[lapushka]

Ah, you're saying taper helps hair stay in braids. Interesting.

Yes, that makes a whole lot of sense! :)