How to do a French Braid

If you didn’t already know, braids are one of the hottest hairstyles this summer and for good reason too! They keep the hair out of your hair on those hot, humid days, they’re easy to maintain, and oh yeah they look super cute! There are tons of different ways to braid your hair and all of them are good, but I find that french braids are super classy and look amazing on anyone. Granted, they’re a little hard to pull off, but all you need is a little bit of patience and voila, you can have a beautiful french braid in no time. So here is your step-by-step guide to doing a french braid.

Step 1:
Start with clean hair and brush out any knots or tangles. Brush your hair back so that there is no part. Apply a frizz serum to your palms and run through hair to make sure there are no flyaways.
Step 2:
Take a part of your hair and separate it from the rest of your hair where you want to start your braid. It is best to make the part V-shaped, with the point of the V towards the back of your head. I find that this is easiest, but you can also start lower on the head or even on the side. If you’re a beginner though, just stick to these steps.
Step 3:
Now that you’ve gathered that section of hair, separate it into three parts just like you would a regular braid.
Step 4:
Now this is where it gets a little trickier, but if you know how to do a normal braid, it shouldn’t be too hard at all. Hold the left strand with your left pinkie while moving the right strand from your right hand to your left. Shift the new right strand (which was the middle strand) from your right hand to your left.
Step 5:
Add some hair from the right side of your head to the right strand. Use your right index finger to pick up a section of hair from the right side of the head and add it to the new rightmost strand.
Step 6:
Cross the left strand over the middle strand. Grab the rightmost strand with your right pinkie then rotate your left hand so that you can grab the leftmost strand in your right hand. Shift the new leftmost strand to your right hand.
Step 7:
Add hair from the left side of the head to the new leftmost strand. Use your left index finger to pick up a section of hair from the left side of the head and add it to the leftmost strand.
Step 8:
Cross the right strand over the middle strand. Grab the left strand with your left pinkie and rotate your right hand so that you can grab the rightmost strand in your left hand. Shift the new rightmost strand to your left hand.
Step 9:
Add some hair from the right side of your head to the rightmost strand. Use your right index finger to pick up a section of hair from the right side of the head. Add it to the rightmost strand which is currently held in your left hand.
Step 10:
Cross the left strand over to the middle strand. Grab the right strand with your right pinkie then rotate your left hand so that you can grab the leftmost part of your hair in your right hand. Shift the new leftmore strand from your left hand to your right hand.
Step 11:
Add some hair from the left side to the leftmost strand. Use your left index finger to pick up a section of hair from the left side of the head and add it to the leftmost strand in your right hand.
Step 12:
Continue braiding and cross the rightmost strand over the middle. Add hair to the new rightmost strand, cross the leftmost strand over the middle, add hair to the new leftmost strand, and repeat until there is no hair left to braid.
Step 13:
Braid the rest of your hair normally until there is no more hair left. Tie or clip the braid and ta-da! Easy as pie! Okay, so maybe it doesn’t sound very easy, but if you take the time and follow the steps along with a little bit of patience, I promise you you’ll be able to french braid your hair in no time