Learn to Braid 8 Different Styles
Hello everyone, welcome back for another Tutorial Tuesday!
I know we just did a blog post on a hairstyle yesterday but I felt that this would be a great tutorial blog to share with you all. There are so many people who love the look that braids give to your hair but don't know how to create them for their own hair. So I have many different videos set up here for you on how to teach you how to achieve each type of braid! They're all in separate videos for you, that just in case you are a braid master and only want to learn one type of these to add to your repertoire.
I'm going to start with the basic braid. This is the building block of most braids and the easiest. Most likely, you already know how this is done. But if you don't, here's a video for you:
The next braid I'm going to be showing is the French Braid. This braid is the most noted to me from others when they say "I wish I knew how to do the French Braid!" or "I can't do the French Braid." But yes, yes you can!
The Dutch Braid, though it looks miles different from the French Braid is just an inverted form of the French Braid. Instead of pulling your pieces over the middle strand, you will put them under the middle strand. It's that simple, ladies!
Fun Fact: When I was a kid I thought I was French Braiding my own hair and it would come out like a Dutch Braid, but I didn't know what a Dutch Braid was. I only knew that it wasn't turning out like the braid I wanted. Strangely enough, when I braided other people's hair in a French braid style it always came out like a French Braid. This made me even more frustrated because I didn't know what I was doing wrong. It does matter how you're holding your hands and which way you cross over those strands. :)
The Fishtail Braid is starting to get a bit more intricate looking but when you know the basics it isn't too difficult to achieve. The traditional Fishtail Braid is pretty tight, using small sections of hair and can take a long time to create, but if you use slightly larger sections and pull at the outside of the pieces, you can create this softer version, which is more heavily worn today.
The Rope Braid is a very pretty braid that is shown in this next video as a side twist going from the part line down the side of the hair. It's basic form is shown as pictured below, but if you want to achieve this look all the way down the hair, here's a nice way you can, especially if you have layers or bangs you want to blend into the style.
Here is a side bang braid, which you can manipulate in many different ways. You can decide to follow the front hairline with the braid or you could bring the braid back into the rest of the hairstyle and give it an added extra to your hair.
This next one is called the Waterfall Braid and it is very cool. I don't know how sturdy this braid is to keep in your hair if you're working hard that day because I haven't done a lot of practice on this one. It is one that I want to practice with more, though.
Ok, if they weren't getting complicated enough, here's another one! This is called the 4 Strand Braid. It is a basic weaving technique that is used for your hairstyle. This one I'm not practiced at either. I will be working on these last two techniques more in the future, though.
I hope you enjoyed these How-to Braid videos and I hope you were able to learn something new along the way. If you don't know how to do these braids or only know the basics of them, keep trying. That's the key to the whole thing. Practice makes perfect! That's what we've all been told since we were tiny and it's the absolute truth! Besides, once you master these braids you can create some braided wonders with your own hair that will have everyone wondering how they can do that too!
Once you have created these basics braids you don't have to stick to a long braid in the back of your hair or off to the side or pig tails. There are many ways you can add a braid to your hair using these techniques.
For all of you who are reading this blog and are wondering why all of the images and videos are of women with very long hair with long layers, this is for you. If you have short or medium length hair there are still plenty of creative ways you can use these same braided techniques for your hair! Now, not every hair length is 100% suited for doing braids. Obviously, some very short pixie styles aren't able to do braids. But you can create some pretty twists with the hair if you're looking to pin back your bangs.
Here are some ways you can add a braid to your hairstyle if your hair is short or medium length:
