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The key to the perfect braid. Deconstruction and the Art of effing things up.

decYou will have to excuse me for not putting this post together ages ago, before I embarked on my braided hairstyle adventures at HTHG. What I am going to show you today is literally the key to a good braid.

This trick is for all of you who surf Pinterest and get braid envy when you see those thick, fat, gorgeous braids, those perfectly messy textured braids, and those braids that somehow look like flowers.

Lets talk about deconstruction. Deconstruction is the art of making something nicely and purposefully effing it all up to achieve a desired effect. To me, the key to good hair is one part fashion, one part function, one part custom, and one part deconstruction.

The key to deconstructing a braid is to start with a nice, neat, not to tight but just tight enough braid. Start with 3 pieces of hair that are equal sizes. IF you are french braiding, make sure your added sections are consistently the same size. Secure your braids well. Now comes the fun part.

Deconstructing a Braid

deconstructing a braid

Once you have completed your nice and neat braid and secured the ends, Take a firm hold of the outside edges of the bottom of the braid, and pull apart. Pull as hard as you can without making the elastic pop off the end. Pretty hard. Now work your way up that braid pulling the edges apart. If you are deconstructing a french braid, do these steps once with the tail of the braid. If you are deconstructing a regular braid, go from the ends to the base of the braid.

Now, start back at the end of the braid again. Pull apart again, but this time, try and grab 2 edge segments of the braid at a time instead of one (wider pulling section).7U6A5126

Work your way up the braid again, pulling wider sections of your braid out.

Now, if you are deconstructing a frenchie, start pulling apart the attached part of the braid. Repeat twice, using wider pulling sections the second time.

To finish off the deconstruction, start at the end of the braid and pull small bits of hair along the very edge of the braid out a bit. Do this to random pieces all the way up the braid. This gives the perfect messy rough edge.

Use this million dollar trick on all your braids from now on and see how much more fun it is. That’s some next level shit!

XOXO HTHG

 

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