When it comes to hairstyles you can’t miss to mention Jennifer Lopez. While this site is about braiding, lets start off with a pic of a beautiful J Lopez braid:
Now here are some other nice pictures of Jennifer Lopez in various hairstyles:
A ponytail is a hairstyle in which most or all of the hair on the head is pulled away from the face, gathered and caught back with a hair tie, clip or similar device, and allowed to hang freely from that point. It gets its name from the resemblance to an undocked tail of a horse or pony. Ponytails are most commonly gathered at the middle of the back of the head, or the base of the neck. Depending on fashions, they may also be worn at the side of the head (over one ear), or on the very top of the head (allowing the hair to fall down the back or one side of the head).
If the hair is divided so that it hangs in two sections they are bunches or pig tails, and if it is plaited, it is called a braid or plait rather than a ponytail.
Ponytails are more common on women than men, due in no small part to the fact more women wear their hair long than men. Men with long hair, or mullets, frequently tie it back into a ponytail, but avoid the top- or side-of-the-head variants. In Georgian England (the second half of the 18th century), fashionable men wore their hair long and tied back into what we would now describe as a ponytail, although it was sometimes gathered into a silk bag rather than allowed to hang freely. At that time, it was commonly known by the French word for “tail”, queue. Women (as opposed to girls) of this period, and up until the 20th century, would never have been seen outside of the boudoir with their hair in such an informal style as a ponytail. Today, one of the most famous men with a ponytail is Roberto Baggio, retired Italian football (soccer) player.
Today, women in their twenties commonly wear their hair in ponytails in informal or office situations (they are likely to choose a more elaborate style for a formal occasion). It is a practical choice as it keeps hair out of the eyes. They are also popular with school-aged girls, partly because flowing hair is often associated with youth (older hair tends not to suit these styles so well) and also because of its simplicity. A young girl is likely to be able to retie her own hair after a sports class for example.
Ok on to some braiding basics.
To braid is to interweave or twine three or more separate strands of one or more materials in a diagonally overlapping pattern.
Here is a french braiding instruction:
And this is an general example of braiding hair:
Ok, so what about the english braid? Well it’s also called 3-strand and it’s probably the most common braid. Pretty easy to make.
It basically involves crossing alternating outside strands of hair to the inside. Here’s a easy tip to see the difference between an english braid and the french braid: if the braid is gradually worked into the hair, as shown on the picture below, that’s a French braid. Simple as that!
A dutch braid, also called underbraid or inverted braid, are indeed very similar to a french braid. In short its about creating an additional braided rope that sort of sits on top of the hair. Meaning you braid backwards.
So what about cornrows? In short oine could say that cornrows are sort of small Dutch braids.
A French braid gathers the hair in bit by bit rather than starting with it all gathered together.
One of the hardest types of braids is the French braid. When it comes to learning how to do the French braid, you should first try it out on a friend or someone that you know.
Here’s how to to do a French braid:
Find someone with medium-longish hair. Brush their hair back and get a ponytail holder (hair tie, rubber band, whatever you call it) handy.
Take a small portion of hair from the center, near the crown of the head. Split it into three parts. Cross the right strand over the one in the center, then the left over the one in the center. (n.b. that’s the one you’ve just moved from the right)
Keep the two strands on the left in your left hand. Drop the rightmost strand and with your right hand, add some hair to that strand and cross it over the center.
Now hold the right and center strands in your right hand and add more hair to the left strand with your left hand. Cross it over the center.
Keep doing that until you have all the hair from the head gathered in. Once you do, you just do a regular braid (right over center, left over center, right over center…) until you’re nearly out of hair; then you can tie it up with a hairbinder or ribbon.
N.B. A good way to keep it neat is, when you are picking up more hair to add to a strand, running your thumb underneath all the hair you want to add–if you do this carefully you can get those neat straight lines.