The French braid is a beautiful and classic hairstyle. Although its intricate weave may appear complicated, creating your own French braid is a simple process. The secret is to add a strand of hair to each section before braiding it. Once you’ve gotten the basics of a traditional braid down, you could try a French lace braid for a fancy twist.
1. Creating a Classic French Braid
Prep your hair. Brush through your hair to get all the tangles out and make it soft, smooth, and ready to braid. For a single braid going down the back of your head, brush your hair backwards, away from your forehead.
- You might want a braid down the side of your head instead, or maybe you’re making more than one braid. In that case, part your hair and brush it into sections depending on how many braids you would like.
- You can braid your hair when it’s dry or when it’s wet. But, braiding wet hair gives you soft, pretty waves when you take it out later.
2. Begin sectioning your hair. Start the process by gathering a big chunk (3-4 inches wide) from the top-center of your head. All the hair in this section should come from the same “hair row.” You don’t want to grab strands from higher up or lower down.
- If you have bangs, you can bring them into the braid at this point or leave them loose. Choose what you think looks best. To braid them, you’ll need to grab hair from the very top-center of your head, right above your forehead.
- The section you start with has nothing to do with how big your braid will be. You start with a small section, but the braid grows thicker as you add more hair.
3. Separate this first “chunk” into three pieces. Just like traditional braids, French braids use three sections of hair to create their pattern. Separate them out by running your fingers through the chunk you are holding to create three even pieces. Make sure that none of the pieces are larger or smaller than the other two.
4. Begin in a traditional braid. First, you have to get your hand positioning right: hold two strands in one hand, and the third strand in the other. Begin in a traditional braid by crossing the “right” strand over to the center. Then, cross the “left” strand from over to the center. Repeat until you’ve made a few rows of a traditional braid.
5. Work in new hair. Keep going with this traditional braid pattern, but start bringing in other pieces of hair. Before crossing a section over to center, grab some hair from that side of your head and include it in the cross-over.
- Every time you cross over, work in another small piece of hair. How much new hair you grab each time doesn’t matter, but the less hair you grab, the more intricate the braid will look.
- For the best-looking French braid, pick up the hair near your face and neck. If you only pick up pieces from the center (near the main strand), they’ll get covered up later with strands from the outside.
6. Bring all of your hair into the braid. As you work down your head, you’ll start running out of free hair to bring into the braid. By the time you reach the nape of your neck, you should have incorporated all of your hair.
7. Finish the braid. When all of your hair is in the working braid, finish it off as a traditional braid. Keep going until you reach the end of your strands. Then, secure the braid with a ponytail holder.
- Avoid using rubber bands, as these rip and break hair when you remove them.