January 2021: Dianyla Braid

**neko_kawaii** · January 1st, 2021, 11:08 AM

Dianyla braid - a sectioned English Braid

Create the front section by using finger or tool (hair sticks are great) across your head from left to right: ear to ear, temple to temple, across the top of your head. The second and third sections are the remainder sectioned straight down the middle to nape. Braid as usual.

This braid creates a slightly different appearance from the front (that first deliberate section) and some with thick hair find it to be more comfortable than three random sections.

**neko_kawaii** · January 1st, 2021, 11:29 AM

Here is one I did quite a few years ago

**Feral_** · January 1st, 2021, 12:43 PM

That looks really nice! Sadly far too complicated for me, I can only do a basic English braid

Cg · January 1st, 2021, 01:01 PM

I used to do this one a lot when my hair was a good deal shorter, and I always liked the look of the Dianyla.

**SparrowWings** · January 1st, 2021, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by Feral_

That looks really nice! Sadly far too complicated for me, I can only do a basic English braid

Don't fret! This is a basic English braid, it just uses deliberately-created sections to start, instead of randomly-separated thirds. Lots of words for a very minor (yet much larger looking) change.

Edit to add: For my part, I've tried this method of sectioning a couple times in the past, because it sounds like it would work better, and I like how it looks, but it pulls in all kinds of awkward places for me. So, I stick with my own equally-deliberate sectioning instead. Basically, pie pieces, where the nape/back of head narrows towards the middle of my head as the third section, and the front/sides/top of my head are split in half as if making a center part (but not actually parting it) for the first two sections. I've been doing English braids that way for as long as I can remember. It's also the sectioning I've found that best emulates a high ponytail placement, which is where the weight sits best for me.

**Feral_** · January 2nd, 2021, 06:34 AM

Originally Posted by SparrowWings

Don't fret! This is a basic English braid, it just uses deliberately-created sections to start, instead of randomly-separated thirds. Lots of words for a very minor (yet much larger looking) change.

Edit to add: For my part, I've tried this method of sectioning a couple times in the past, because it sounds like it would work better, and I like how it looks, but it pulls in all kinds of awkward places for me. So, I stick with my own equally-deliberate sectioning instead. Basically, pie pieces, where the nape/back of head narrows towards the middle of my head as the third section, and the front/sides/top of my head are split in half as if making a center part (but not actually parting it) for the first two sections. I've been doing English braids that way for as long as I can remember. It's also the sectioning I've found that best emulates a high ponytail placement, which is where the weight sits best for me.

Thanks for that explanation SparrowWings. I understand the pie pieces! Embarrassingly I can’t master any plait where it starts on the head itself (Dutch, French and even half up braids are all beyond me). The sectioning is messy, I lose the thread of what goes where and I run out of hands. My limits are a basic English, milkmaid or a plait that starts out as a pony tail!

**florenonite** · January 2nd, 2021, 06:42 AM

Originally Posted by SparrowWings

Don't fret! This is a basic English braid, it just uses deliberately-created sections to start, instead of randomly-separated thirds. Lots of words for a very minor (yet much larger looking) change.

Edit to add: For my part, I've tried this method of sectioning a couple times in the past, because it sounds like it would work better, and I like how it looks, but it pulls in all kinds of awkward places for me. So, I stick with my own equally-deliberate sectioning instead. Basically, pie pieces, where the nape/back of head narrows towards the middle of my head as the third section, and the front/sides/top of my head are split in half as if making a center part (but not actually parting it) for the first two sections. I've been doing English braids that way for as long as I can remember. It's also the sectioning I've found that best emulates a high ponytail placement, which is where the weight sits best for me.

This is how I've done English braids for over a decade and I was sure this WAS the Dianyla braid

On my hair I don't like how this looks as well as gathering all my hair at the nape and sectioning it into three equal pieces, so I tend to do the latter for everyday wear and the higher, more carefully-sectioned form for sleep and exercise.

**SelenVinland** · January 2nd, 2021, 02:21 PM

Oh hey, this is one I can kind of do!

https://imgur.com/La4tMtk

**Feral_** · January 3rd, 2021, 01:18 PM

Originally Posted by SelenVinland

Oh hey, this is one I can kind of do!

https://imgur.com/La4tMtk

That looks really neat!

**Lunnafindel** · January 3rd, 2021, 03:39 PM

Haha I've been thinking of this as the "COVID" braid, because I started doing it at the beginning of the pandemic because it was nice to not part my hair all the time and who cares about my appearance anymore

Good to know it has another name! I like it because it makes the sectioning so easy - almost automatically the right size every time!