Wedding hair challenge: the five-strand braid

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hair challenge 052912 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

I love braids. They can be dressed up or hippied-out, and either add a little intricacy to a wedding look or add the right amount of casualness. This tutorial is for a pretty advanced braid where you'll need either fairly thick hair or some added extensions. But once you've mastered it, the look is amazing. I present to you LuxyHair's tutorial on the three four FIVE-STRAND braid!

Here is the scoop:

  • Separate the hair into five segments. Tying the ends of each with an elastic helps.
  • Take the outer hair segment, pull it OVER the one next to it and UNDER the middle section.
  • Do the same thing on the opposite side.
  • Repeat until you lose your mind.
  • Win.

I found this video was helpful in visually explaining the steps. If you plan to incorporate this braid into your wedding day style, you can always lean on your stylist to do the heavy (hair) lifting.

Full disclosure: I tried this about a dozen times and failed hard. But the overall idea is sound. I am determined to successfully create this braid though, and I challenge you to do it too! Post your success (or major fails) in the comments.

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Comments on Wedding hair challenge: the five-strand braid

  1. This makes me wish I had long hair again just to try it. I’m about 90% sure I could do this on my own hair, but I think it would be a lot easier to achieve this braid by having another person do it.

  2. I’m not going to lie, I watched this and said, “Oh, please. I could do that in two seconds.” Forty-five minutes later, I finally gave up trying, and really wanted to punch somebody.

  3. I used to do this to my sister’s hair in high school. ( I could never manage more than a regular French braid on my own head. )

    One thing I remember is that is chews up a lot of hair, more than a regular braid. You need to have very long hair to get a decent length plait. I would guess that this lady’s hair reaches her waist easily. Maybe even her butt, given that she has it looped around her neck.

    If I were to do this today, I’d use hair extensions.

  4. This is not easy and it will take lots of practice to do it on your own hair. Better yet, ask somebody to learn it so they can do it on your hair.

  5. I got this braid after watching a different tutorial. I’m not sure if it’s unrelated, or if it just clicked while watching the second one, but maybe it might help someone else?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgAaNDMtpHQ

    Unfortunately I don’t really like the look of the braid, and like another commenter mentioned, it does eat up length. I have bust length hair and it ain’t flying.

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