4-strand braid

[david]

Hey all,
I have been trying to work out how to do a 4-strand braid for ages now. I have looked around the internet, looked at several video on youtube and I cant seem to find a clear set of instructions. So I was just wondering if anyone here had a simple idiot proof :) guide as to how to do them.

[Blandine]

For practice, I'd suggest braiding with a thin scarf. Easier to sort the strands, and makes a thick braid with an interesting pattern.

Tie hair into a ponytail. Tie a very thin scarf (a crinkly material saves you the ironing afterwards) either round your head like a headband, or round the elastic at the beginning of the pinytail.
Divide: Strand 1: one end of the scarf. Strand 2: half of your hair. Strand 3: half of your hair. Strand 4: other end of scarf.

Braid: Strand 1 (scarf) under strands 2 and 3, and backwards over strand 3. (Scarf end now rests beteween the two strands of hair).
Strand 4: under two strands (3 = hair and formerly 1, now 2 = scarf) and backwards over one.

The pattern stays always the same:
outer strand on the left - under 2 - back over 1.
outer strand on the right - under 2 - back over 1.
Say this aloud while you braid. Helps. Sorting the strands into the gaps between your fingers also helps.

Hope this was understandable...

[papillion]

There's a few different instructions here (http://community.livejournal.com/magic_daydream/4731.html), perhaps one of them will be clear enough for you?

[Purdy Bear]

Heres my method, and it works for any amount of strands.

Take the farthest right braid, pass over the next, under the next orver the next etc. until it becomes the last one.

Then going back to the farthest right braid repeat the process again (over, under, over etc) until that becomes the last one.

You always start on the far right (obviously if you find it easier to start on the left then you can as long as you always start on that side).

Iv done up to ten strands on this string with this method.

If you check out Torrin Paige's channel on You Tube, she does one very similar weaving the hair back and forward.

[Hile]

For practice, I'd suggest braiding with a thin scarf. Easier to sort the strands, and makes a thick braid with an interesting pattern.

Tie hair into a ponytail. Tie a very thin scarf (a crinkly material saves you the ironing afterwards) either round your head like a headband, or round the elastic at the beginning of the pinytail.
Divide: Strand 1: one end of the scarf. Strand 2: half of your hair. Strand 3: half of your hair. Strand 4: other end of scarf.

Braid: Strand 1 (scarf) under strands 2 and 3, and backwards over strand 3. (Scarf end now rests beteween the two strands of hair).
Strand 4: under two strands (3 = hair and formerly 1, now 2 = scarf) and backwards over one.

The pattern stays always the same:
outer strand on the left - under 2 - back over 1.
outer strand on the right - under 2 - back over 1.
Say this aloud while you braid. Helps. Sorting the strands into the gaps between your fingers also helps.

Hope this was understandable...

Your instructions were great, thank you! I have been practising this for a while and now I finally got it:D Until now I only have been able to do a flat 4-strand braid with the method Purdy Bear explained.

[misstwist]

I have found the clearest instructions for multi section braids on knot making sites.

[schweedie]

Oh my goodness, thank you, Purdy Bear! Thanks to you I just managed to make my first ever 4-strand-braid on my first attempt! :D

And Blandine, thank you for the scarf suggestion! I will definitely try that now that I have the technique, that does sound like it would make a gorgeous braid.

[Angela_Rose]

I do it this way- over, under, over. Switch strands- over, under, over. Switch strands- over, under, over... repeat... and there you go!

[GeoJ]

I do 4 strand braids like this:

Left-most strand moves over the second strand, then under the third strand. From under the third strand I cross it back over the third strand. Then I take the right-most strand and repeat the process in the opposite direction. I keep alternating sides like that and it results in a nice-looking round braid (I did one on my DD this morning).

Sometimes I use a similar pattern for 5-strand braids and it makes them look a little different in a good way.

[david]

Heres my method, and it works for any amount of strands.

Take the farthest right braid, pass over the next, under the next orver the next etc. until it becomes the last one.

Then going back to the farthest right braid repeat the process again (over, under, over etc) until that becomes the last one.

You always start on the far right (obviously if you find it easier to start on the left then you can as long as you always start on that side).

Iv done up to ten strands on this string with this method.

If you check out Torrin Paige's channel on You Tube, she does one very similar weaving the hair back and forward.

Thank you all for the suggestions I tried them all. I found "Purdy Bear's" method the easiest though, a great simple way. I managed to go from pieces of rope to my hair using this method. Obviously there's still some practice time needed to get it perfect but I cant wait to use this style. Its amazing how many different ways there are to do this style.

[schweedie]

Managing to make a regular four strand braid is making me hungry for more! I've been browsing YouTube without luck, so I thought I'd ask here: does anyone know of a tutorial on how to make a four-strand Dutch braid? (A regular, down the back - I did find one tutorial but that was more of a side lace braid.) Or just have an easy way of explaining it? Because I can't for the life of me figure out when to pick up more hair.

I'd love to know how to make the boxerbraid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyFDNSXf6mA) the Dutch way, too.

[Finoriel]

Round 4-strand braiding techniques like box braiding or rope-braiding do work dutch style, just not the regular (woven) 4-strand braid.
I don't know any good picture tutorial, but I make one like this:
I take a section of hair from the area where I want the braid to start. Divide into four and do two or three turns of box-braiding "under two strands/back over one strand", this helps to keep the finished braid from sliding/sagging down during the day.
Then I start adding a strand of loose hair from the right side of the braid to the current braiding strand and braid it.
For the next braiding strand I add hair from the left side of the braid.
And sometimes I do one inbetween turn without adding any hair.
Etc.
When the braid is finished you can't really notice where hair was added, it seems to come from underneath the braid.

Dutch 4 strand rope braiding that way works, too. It's not that neat looking, though.

For a flat/woven dutch braid (or french braid) you would need an uneven number of strands. 3, 5, 7 etc.
They don't work well with an even number of strands since the regular woven braid pattern causes that one side of the braid looks french and the other side would look dutch.
I made one to display the issue with this some time ago. It looks :laugh: interesting.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?pictureid=60818&albumid=2818&dl=1264085014&thumb=1 (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=2818&pictureid=60818) clickable

[schweedie]

Finoriel, thank you for the explanation! Now that I read it, it makes sense that a woven even-numbers-strand-braid wouldn't quite work when you attempt to Dutch braid it. I still like the look of the one you posted, though. :D But it would work with five strands, then, if you did it the way Purdy Bear suggested? When do you pick up new hair?

[bunzfan]

I thought this girl did a very good tutorial by putting different coloured bands on the ends while your learning http://www.youtube.com/user/LetsMakeitUp1#p/u/3/CzmpOIT3Bco the weaving in and out seems the most difficult thing to me.

[rose.grace]

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=19