French braid help please

[Nevermore]

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but any attempt I make at a french braid turns into a dutch braid. I love dutch braids, but I want badly to be able to do a french braid correctly so I can do a french tuck right.

When you add hair to a french braid, where does it go in relation to the hair already in your hand? When I put it over or under, I get the same not-right result. I'm pretty sure this is where the issue is, because all my other braids come out just fine, from herringbones to english to five strand braids.

[Riot Crrl]

It's not so much hair in your hand vs. new picked up hair. It's fundamentally which direction you are doing the braid in.

French: put left (if that's what you are starting with) strand OVER center strand, put right OVER center strand
Dutch: put left UNDER center strand, put right UNDER center strand

If you have got used to doing a simple 3 strand braid only the second way, the first way could take some getting used to. You might try getting used to it on a simple 3 strand before complicated it by picking up side hair.

[Nevermore]

Is that really all there is to it?! O.O My god, why didn't I realize that? Thank you!

[Riot Crrl]

Yep that's all there is! :D

[jel]

Yeah, it's easy... but not quite! I'm the opposite of you, Nevermore - I French braid all the time and then my fingers get all confuzzled when I try a Dutch braid! :p

[Zindell]

I French braid all the time and then my fingers get all confuzzled when I try a Dutch braid! :p

Haha. And I am the opposite to you. I dutch braid without any problem ... then when I try to put my hair on top instead for a french braid, my fingers get "confuzzled"! :D

[Periwinkle]

Yeah, it's easy... but not quite! I'm the opposite of you, Nevermore - I French braid all the time and then my fingers get all confuzzled when I try a Dutch braid! :p

I'm exactly like that! I just can't do a Dutch one. It confuses me beyond all belief.

[heidihug]

I'm exactly like that! I just can't do a Dutch one. It confuses me beyond all belief.

Me, too. All my attempts at Dutch have ended up a befuddled mess. I will try again this weekend and see what happens - wish me luck!

[Fluke]

I can manage a Dutch braid perfectly fine on my daughter, but I can't get my fingers to work on my own hair. French braids I find a lot easier to do on myself though, but I mess them up on my daughter!!
But with a little more practice I hope to get the hang of both kinds both on myself and my daughter :)

[mommy2one05]

have you tried the styling station at the long hair loom? Their instructions and step by step pictures helped me out with the french braid.

[atlantaz3]

Yeah, it's easy... but not quite! I'm the opposite of you, Nevermore - I French braid all the time and then my fingers get all confuzzled when I try a Dutch braid! :p


I'm right there with you I can french braid but turn all thumbs with dutch.

[spidermom]

I don't understand how one can be easy and the other confusing. It's basically the same motion, only you're crossing OVER the center strand each time for french, UNDER for ducth.

Sometimes I get distracted by something, then forget which braid I was doing and switch to the other one, which makes a mess of it (of course). That's about the only trouble.

[Nevermore]

I just did my second ever french braid! Yay! It's not perfect, my fingers need to learn to braid the french braid way, but it's pretty awesome and totally a french braid, just a bit sloppy.

Thanks everyone! I'm glad I wasn't alone in french braid inability and thank you especially to Riot Crrl who knew exactly what I was doing wrong!