try it tuesday

I've been a little obsessed with French braids lately. It's probably, in part, because my hair is finally long enough to braid, and partially, in part, because you always want what you can't have. And I can't do a French braid, on myself or anyone else.

My lovely friend J is really good at French braiding her own hair and I always wished I could do it too.

So, with a little help from this Wiki tutorial, I decided to give it a try.

• Brush or comb the hair thoroughly, removing all knots or tangles.
• Separate a section of hair from the rest of the hair at the place where you want to begin the braid.
• Separate the section of hair into three strands. Be sure that the strands are completely separated all the way to the ends.
• Cross the rightmost strand over the middle strand.
• Hold the leftmost strand with your left pinkie while moving the rightmost strand from your right hand to your left. Shift the new rightmost strand (used to be the middle strand) from your right hand to your left.
• Add some hair from the right side of the head to the rightmost 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.
• Cross the leftmost strand over the middle strand. Grasp the rightmost strand with your right pinkie, then rotate your left hand so that you can grasp the leftmost strand in your right hand. Shift the new leftmost strand to your right hand.
• 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.
• Continue braiding. Cross the rightmost strand over the middle, add hair to new rightmost strand, cross the leftmost strand over the middle, add hair to new leftmost strand, and repeat until there is no more hair to add.
• Braid the rest of your hair normally as far down as you can reach. If you have longer hair, bring the braid forward over your shoulder and braid in the opposite direction (instead of folding the strands towards you, you will be folding them away from you).
• Tie off or clip the end of the braid.

Does that seem straight forward to you? I read the directions a couple of times and then threw caution to the wind. Here is the end result:

Not too bad for my first try, if I do say so myself. I really didn't think it would work out at all, so I'm pretty proud that I actually got all of my hair into a style that resembles a French braid, and on my first try!

You should try it too! Hey, French braid pros, got any tips?