Helpful French/Dutch braid trick

[Henrietta]

Maybe I am dense and everyone around knows that but I discovered something yesterday.
Many times I knew I added like 10 strands of hair at every side and when I was looking at the mirror there was like 3 or maximum 4 adds. I was wondering where did they go? Now I know.

So- when you are adding pieces to your braid do not add the hair that is close to the braid. Don't care about it. It will be braided in automatically sometime and somehow. It was my mistake- I used to add pieces of hair that was close to the braid because it was easier and then, at the end, when I was just above my neck I had a piece of hair that was close to my face, at the very front of my head, above my temple. And when I added it, it covered the rest of my adds.
Sorry for the ridiculous presentation. Yes, Paint helped me with that:D

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac16/GwiazdkaNadia/FrenchoDutchbraidhelp1.jpg

Instead of making all the things I wrote about above, try to add pieces of hair from the front of your head, from the border of your mane, not from the back of your head.

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac16/GwiazdkaNadia/FrenchoDutchbraidhelp2.jpg
This way all your adds will be visible.

ETA: I've been braiding my hair for... 10 years? Or more? With some breaks, when it was too short to braid it. It's hilarious that I have discovered it NOW.

[Honeylove]

Thanks! I have not managed French/Dutch braids yet (somehow I seem to need a lot more fingers than I have), but when I try it again I will keep in mind what you shared. :)

[hmmm]

Cool tip! I hadn't even thought about this before.

[AstrayStar]

Good to know! Thank you!

[spidermom]

I've been doing that without thinking about it, scooping the extra strands from near my face back toward the braid for each add. I never thought of doing it another way.

[lapushka]

The more you braid, the more you learn, the easier it gets. :thumbsup:


I've been doing that without thinking about it, scooping the extra strands from near my face back toward the braid for each add. I never thought of doing it another way.

Same here.

[Phexlyn]

I've been doing that without thinking about it, scooping the extra strands from near my face back toward the braid for each add. I never thought of doing it another way.
Same here, but if you're not familiar with braiding in the first place, it can be hard to come up with that trick :)

I'm glad you worked that out, Henrietta. Have fun with your new braids :D

[Henrietta]

You're welcome ;)
It's hilarious- for me it's a big discover and for some of you it was obvious;)

[spidermom]

Thinking about it a little more, I learned how from a magazine article and didn't figure this out for myself.

[Dreamernz]

I did always wander about that for single braids, thanks so much for the tip :)

[yellowchariot]

Thanks for sharing, Henrietta! I tend to do all kinds of methods when I braid. Where my hair is longer now. I am having issues with "locking" it down to my neck once I reach the bottom part of my head.

[rosek]

I've always pulled only the pieces from my face. It actually creates like a pocket, where the braid is laying against straight hair that dosen't get added in until the end. I had a kitten I was playing with get scared once, and it ran up into that pocket. Under the braid, but actually in my hair! It really hurt, but was very cute afterwards.

[eezepeeze]

I've always pulled only the pieces from my face. It actually creates like a pocket, where the braid is laying against straight hair that dosen't get added in until the end. I had a kitten I was playing with get scared once, and it ran up into that pocket. Under the braid, but actually in my hair! It really hurt, but was very cute afterwards.
:D:D:D How funny! Although, I'm sure it hurt at the time. Gave me a good chuckle. :)

[habioku]

I've been doing that without thinking about it, scooping the extra strands from near my face back toward the braid for each add. I never thought of doing it another way.

Same here :D

[torrilin]

Thanks! I have not managed French/Dutch braids yet (somehow I seem to need a lot more fingers than I have), but when I try it again I will keep in mind what you shared. :)

Get comfy with English braids first. Once you do, you'll find that you maybe use as many as 4 fingers out of 10 to do the braid... for me it's more usually 3, but sometimes I'm doing pincer type actions with a spare finger to keep things stable.

Since you're only ever adding one strand to a French braid, it takes one extra finger. The hard part for me is it tends to feel very weird and tangly, so if I start the braid at the wrong spot I get exasperated and just switch to English braiding. And don't feel bad about it taking a long time to learn! I learned to do English braids on myself sometime in high school, and I didn't get French braids down on myself until I was around 23 or so. Before then, I *always* would have the stylist do a French braid on me when I got a trim, because I love how they look and I couldn't do them.

Now I'm working on getting twin French braids down... which you'd think would be really easy once you've got a regular one down, but it's not :). But I'll practice and eventually it'll come out nicely.