April 2020: Braids, How Many Strands Can You Manage?

[neko_kawaii]

By now you have probably mastered the traditional three-strand braid. Maybe even the two-strand rope braid and the ever changing sectioning of the fishtail braid. But can you four-strand? Five-strand? Eleven-strand?

It's like the Limbo, but. . .going higher. . .with hair.

How high can you go?

[bparnell75]

Now this is getting tricky. I can't even 4 strand.

[Siv]

I learnt the hawser braid the other day! Does it count?

[HaMalka]

I learnt the hawser braid the other day! Does it count?

If it does my Arwen Battle Braid counts as a 27 strand braid.


I can reliably do a four strand on myself, and I have managed 5 strand braids. The most strands I've ever done on myself was the Arwen Battle Braid which was made of 9 braids. I don't think I could manage 9 strands on myself if they weren't pre-braided.

On others and on bread I can reliably do 6 strands. The most strands I have done was a whole head basket braid that I just kept going with. I'm not sure how many strands it ended up.

[AmaryllisRed]

I used to be able to do a five-strand Dutch braid but that was with like a foot less length.
I can do a seven-strand if I do two English braids and weave them together with a chunk in the middle. That counts, right?

I feel like I have too much length now, but if HaMalka can do it... also I feel like Andrea691 has done some multi-strand braids on super long hair.
ETA: So I should stop making excuses!

[AmaryllisRed]

Hey, four strand!



This style challenge might prove an excellent diversion for me...

ETA: Five strand!



I don't think I know how to do six...

[Kat]

I can do five, but it's not easy. After all, after that I run out of slots between my fingers to put the sections in...

Also, since my hair is so tangly and wants to stick together so much, it's not easy to keep the strands separated, *and* from being frizzy, etc.

I'll say that reliably, the most I can do is four-- this is a number I can manage, and that I don't need extra fortitude to tackle.

[AmaryllisRed]

Six! Notice how the braids get wider... and shorter...
I got warm and had to take off my sweatshirt between the first and second attempts.

[Kat]

Here's the braid I just did (unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to take a good picture of it in my hair): https://www.animatedknots.com/four-s...re-sinnet-knot

It looks like a square 3-strand braid, really. (And as I can think of easier ways to achieve that 3-D look, like splitting each side strand so it crosses both over and under the middle strand, and as my hair is too thin for the 3-D effect to really be noticeable, I doubt I'll be putting the effort into this braid in future. It would look really great on someone with really thick, smooth hair though.)

Tomorrow I'll try this one: https://www.animatedknots.com/four-s...nnet-knot-2974

*Thinking out loud here* I find that in my hair, four strand braids don't look that much different from three-strand braids (and most people probably don't even remotely look closely enough at me to notice), so I don't often put in the effort. One of my problems with four-strand braids is keeping them tight; because there are now more strands than I can easily manage with the number of fingers I have, I often will have to drop one strand as I cross it and then pick it up in the other hand, which makes tightness more difficult than if I was constantly holding and pulling on each strand like I am with a three-strand braid. Yeah, I can pull it tight again after I cross, but that's imperfect, tends to pull the hairs up funny, and when I'm passing strands between awkward fingers, I have the tendency to manage to split the sections slightly and then I'm trying to both hold my hair and get everything where it belongs. So, between the looseness and me trying to keep all strands where they belong, that's why my braids look messy and get shreddy.

[TatsuOni]

Does a six strand braid, made from six braids count? I've done regular four and five strand braids, but the only six strand braid that I've made, was from six braids.