How to Braid Your Hair: French Braids

We already discussed how to braid your hair into the basic three-stranded English braid, so let’s continue our journey across Europe and go French! Braids are a popular hairstyles sported by celebs today (Sarah Michelle Gellar’s wearing two in the picture on the left!), so let’s go back to third grade and learn to French braid your hair.

French braids are unique because rather than starting at the nape of your neck like the basic English braid, they start at the crown of your head and gradually add hair in as they continue down your hair.

French braiding your hair by yourself can be a bit tricky, so I’ve created this diagram showing what your hair will look like at each stage of French braiding to help you out:

Here are some step-by-step instructions on how to French braid your hair:

1. Brush your hair straight back, removing any knots and tangles.
2. Separate a section of hair at the place where you’d like the braid to begin (traditionally, near the crown).
3. Hold the lock of hair in your left hand and use your right hand’s index and middle fingers to separate the hair into three strands.
4. Hold the section of hair on the far left with your left pinkie. Grab the rightmost section with your left fingers and cross it over the middle section.
5. Shift the new right section of hair (what was just the middle section) from your right hand to your left. Hold all three locks of hair in separate slots of your left hand’s fingers.
6. Use your right hand’s index finger to pick up a lock of hair from the right side of your head and add it to the new right section.
7. Cross the left section of hair over the middle section. Grasp the right section with your right pinkie, then rotate your left hand so that you can grasp the left lock in your right hand. Shift the new left section to your right hand.
8. Use your left index finger to pick up a lock of hair from the left side of your head and add it to the left section.
9. Cross the right section of hair over the middle section. Grasp the left section with your left pinkie, then rotate your right hand so that you can grasp the rightmost section in your left hand. Shift the new rightmost section to your left hand.
10. Repeat steps 6-9 until there’s no more hair to add.
11. Bring the braid forward over your shoulder and braid the rest of your hair normally in a basic English braid as far down as you can reach. Tie off or clip the end of the braid.

Photos via CupcakesTasteNice and Hair-Long