Beginner’s Guide to DIY French & Dutch Braids

Hi everyone! Today I’m going back to the basics and am going to show the beginners out there more detailed tutorials on the french and dutch braids.

Once you master these two braids you’ll be able to do so many different hairstyles as these two braids are often the foundation for many hairstyles. (Just check out our gallery and you’ll see what I mean.)

Now onto the tutorials:

French Braid: A braid where the strands are taken over the middle strand while adding in hair from the outside strands.

1.) Begin with your hair down. Now to start a french braid pick up a small section of hair and divide into three equal pieces..

2.) For the first stitch of the braid we’re just going to cross the outside strands over the middle one like a regular plait before we start adding in hair.. (so the right strand over the middle strand and then this becomes the middle strand. Then the left strand over the new middle strand (and now the left strand is the middle strand.)

3.) Next, pick up some hair on the right side to add into your new right-hand strand.

4.) Then cross your right hand strand over your middle strand.. 5.) Repeat step 3-4 on the left side now:

6.) Repeat the steps 3-5 until you run out of hair to add in, then finish of the braid with a regular plait.

Here’s a video for more detail:

Dutch Braid: The opposite of a French Braid. A braid where the strands are taken under the middle strand.

1.) Begin with your hair down. Now pick up a section of hair and divide into three equal pieces.

2.) Now you’re basically going to repeat the same first steps as the french braid, only you will be taking the strands over instead of under.

So right strand under the middle strand-it now becomes the middle strand:

Then left under the new middle strand-it now becomes the new middle strand:

3.) Next, pick up some hair on the right side to add into your new right-hand strand.

4.) Then cross your right hand strand under your middle strand… And then repeat on the left side..

5.) Repeat steps 3-4 all the way down until you run out of hair, then continue with a regular braid the rest of the way down.

Here’s a video for more detail:

And that’s it! This post was requested by Charlotte, (hopefully this will help you master these braids 🙂 ) if there are any posts anyone would like to request in the future please let me know in the comments! (:

Don’t forget you can still take our survey. Also, in case anyone was wondering, I did actually film these videos a while ago so it was before I had my hair cut. 😉