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View Full Version : argh! 4 strand braid



nytquill
February 24th, 2010, 08:52 AM
Okay so I have the technique down pretty well, it looks great for the first several inches, but as I get closer to the end of my four-strand braid there is always one strand that "runs out" (i.e. tapers) before the rest. No matter how obsessive I am about getting them all equal at the beginning. I end up having to tie the braid off with two or three times as much "tail" as I do with a regular English braid because one strand has run out of hair while the rest could happily carry on to the end!

I suspect this has something to do with how thin my hair is and how much taper I have. I don't have that much taper just from running my hands through it but I do have some, and with thin hair the effect is magnified I think. Plus of course when you're pulling back into a braid some hairs have farther to go than others to reach the "gathering point" which makes them taper off faster too.

Anyway I'm not really looking for a "solution" to this as I don't think there is one, my hair is just not suited to this style at the moment except if I leave a long tail on it. I'm just curious, for information's sake, if there's anyone else who has the same problem? :)

Arctic
February 24th, 2010, 08:56 AM
You can "lend" hair from other strands when you notice one strand is getting short. Congrats on mastering 4-strander!!!

nytquill
February 24th, 2010, 09:30 AM
Ooh yeah! I used to do that when I was younger learning how to do english braids and couldn't get them to come out right at the ends, I'd forgotten!

And thanks. It was tricky at first and I thought my fingers or my arms would fall off :lol: but once I figured out how to twist two strands in one hand by turning my wrist the handoffs kind of fell into place. Now it's just a matter of chanting "over under, under over" in my head so I don't lose my place!

Angela_Rose
February 24th, 2010, 10:32 AM
Do your four-strand braids twist like crazy? Mine do and I hate it... enough so that, though I can do them well, I *never* wear them.

nytquill
February 24th, 2010, 11:02 AM
I haven't had that problem; I can see why you wouldn't wear them! The pattern stands out a lot less if it twists around.

Mine do tend to get loose too quickly, but that's probably because although I'm no longer struggling I still don't exactly have it mastered to the degree of a 3-strand braid, and also my hair is very straight (rollers don't take and braid waves fall out in a matter of hours usually) and very slippery now that I've stopped stripping it to death!

Gumball
February 24th, 2010, 11:21 AM
Do your four-strand braids twist like crazy? Mine do and I hate it... enough so that, though I can do them well, I *never* wear them.

When you do a four strand braid you can either do a flat version (the one that has a design flaw of wanting to twist) or a box version, which is the one that basically looks the same on all four sides and doesn't twist. The trick is knowing which one is which so you can plan on doing the non-twisty one.

Angela_Rose
February 24th, 2010, 08:16 PM
When you do a four strand braid you can either do a flat version (the one that has a design flaw of wanting to twist) or a box version, which is the one that basically looks the same on all four sides and doesn't twist. The trick is knowing which one is which so you can plan on doing the non-twisty one.

Ah, see, there's my problem... I don't know how to do the box braid (yet).
I say you come out to the Boston meet in a few months and teach me how to do it! :cheese:

In the meantime, I'll stick to my five-strand and herringbone braids.

MoonMaiden90
February 24th, 2010, 08:38 PM
I actually have this problem with a regular 3-strand braid, mostly because the front strands framing my face are so damaged from when I chemically dyed it 3 years ago. It's pretty bad, with hairs easily breaking off and stuff. I think I'm going to give in and take two inches off soon. :( But it must be done!

spidermom
February 24th, 2010, 08:50 PM
This happens to me also. The strand on the side where I started always ends up shorter.

Angela_Rose
February 24th, 2010, 09:21 PM
This happens to me also. The strand on the side where I started always ends up shorter.

Do you take your braid over your shoulder to finish it, or do you turn it over your head and finish it that way?

When I stopped pulling my braid over my shoulder and switched to putting it over the top of my head, the running-out-of-hair thing stopped.

nytquill
February 25th, 2010, 01:00 PM
I can't figure out how to braid over my shoulder without losing my place, so I've always pulled up over my head to keep the movements/order of crossings the same. I really do have a lot of taper on the pieces that hang by my face (the more I braid the more I realize this) so I think that's the culprit. When I'm dividing up my strands, if I get one that has mostly "front hair" and not a lot of "back hair" it will feel even at the top but taper off a lot faster and end up short and tiny within a few inches of the end.

TXbarbie
February 25th, 2010, 03:40 PM
I've never been able to braid my own hair.... but I also had never heard of braiding over my head! I'll have to try that :)