Make a Cascade Waterfall Braid
Braids are a gorgeous way to style your hair for any occasion, whether for a elegant night out, or to casually keep hair out of your face for a school day. Whatever the occasion may be, braiding your hair in a cascading waterfall braid is a simple and romantic style that anyone can do. While the waterfall braid may look complicated, it is an easy braiding technique that gives a unique look while allowing you to keep your hair down and flowing.
Contents
Steps
Prepping Your Hair
- Gather your materials. You won't have many materials for braiding your hair, perhaps only a brush, some small hair ties, and maybe a few bobby pins. However, it's helpful to have all of these things near you and ready to go as you braid, so you can secure your hair as soon as you're finished braiding.
- Often, someone will start a braid only to realize they don't have a tie or pin to secure it, and then they risk messing up their hair when they have to search for something to hold their braid.
- Consider keeping a hair tie on your wrist as you braid. That way, securing your braid when you're finished simply requires you to slip the tie off your wrist, rather than changing hands to pick up the hair tie and possibly letting go of the end of your braid.
- Brush your hair. Brush your hair with a bristle hairbrush if your hair is dry, or with a wide-tooth comb if your hair is wet. You want to remove any knots or tangles so your hair is easier to manage while braiding.
- Pay special attention to remove knots from the ends of your hair. When you're braiding and collecting sections of hair, separating the sections can be more difficult if the ends are knotted together.
- Consider creating a side part. A waterfall braid with a side part helps add to the cascading waterfall appearance of your braid. By parting your hair in a deep side part, and flipping the parted hair over to the other side of your head, your hair is essentially taking on the nature of a waterfall.
- You can still braid a cascading waterfall braid on hair that is parted down the middle, however a deep side part adds a nice touch to the braid and enhances the cascading waterfall look by having your own hair "cascade" on the other side of your head.
- Consider applying a smoothing serum. If you aren’t going for a stylish messy look, a smoothing serum can help keep your hair smooth and manageable while braiding.
- If your hair is fine, has small, flyaway hairs, or is more than one length, consider applying a styling cream or smoothing serum. A smoothing serum can help tame unruly hairs, and keep stray, flyaway hairs from coming loose within the braid.
Braiding Your Hair
- Separate your hair into your first section. Your first section of hair should be near your forehead, around the area of your bangs. Usually waterfall braids start out with a section that is about an inch in length, but this section can vary in size depending on how thick you want your braid to start out. The bigger the first section, the thicker the beginning of your braid will look.
- If you parted your hair with a deep side part, start your braid on the side of your head with the most hair.
- Separate your first section of hair into three equal parts. You can do this by running two fingers through the section of hair to make three same sized pieces of hair.
- Hand positioning is important when braiding hair. Usually the most successful way to hold hair as you braid, is to hold two portions of hair in one hand, and the third portion of hair in the other hand.
- Usually the fingers stay in a curled, tight position to hold the strands of hair as you move them to form the braid.
- Complete one braid sequence. Start by using the three stand braiding technique to braid this first section of hair. The three strand braiding technique is the method used to make any typical braid: Start by crossing the left portion of hair over the middle portion, and then cross the right portion of hair over the middle portion (which was the original left portion of hair).
- Once this sequence is complete, you will begin to add more hair into the braid outside of the three original portions of hair you started with.
- This process of adding hair to the braid outside of the original three portions of hair is a key component of creating a french braid. The waterfall braid starts out with a typical three strand braid, but then continues on as an altered french braid.
- Begin incorporating more hair into the braid. Once you have completed your first braiding sequence, add another portion of hair into the braid by collecting hair from the top of your head, next to the left portion of hair currently in your hand. Once the left portion of hair is combined with the new, additional left portion of hair, continue braiding:
- Cross the left portion of hair (now thicker with the new portion of hair added in) over the middle portion.
- Now, instead of crossing the right portion of hair over the middle portion like you would normally do to create a braid, let go of the right portion of hair so it hangs and drops down normally. This is where the waterfall effect comes into play. The dropped, right portion of hair is your first "waterfall" piece of hair.
- Continue braiding by incorporating new hair. From here on out, you will be using a french braid technique to add hair to the braid from both the top and bottom areas of the braid: Once you have dropped the right portion of hair, get your next “right” portion by taking a portion of hair from the roots right behind the dropped piece. Grab a piece of hair approximately the same size as the hair portions you are already using in the braid. Cross this new “right” portion of hair over the middle portion of hair, like you would in using the normal three strand braiding technique. Then, add more hair into the current “left” portion of hair. Do this by sectioning a piece of hair from the top your head, and combine that new portion of hair with your current left portion of hair.
- This is exactly the same process as when you first started adding new portions of hair to the braid. Cross this entire left portion of hair over the middle section of hair, and again, let the right portion of hair drop.
- Since this braid is executed horizontally on your head rather than vertically (like a French braid down the middle of the back of your head), the dropped right portion of hair horizontally across your head gives the illusion of a waterfall.
- Finish the braid. Once you have braided around your head to about your ear (or until you want your braid to end), finish your braiding by no longer adding and dropping hair, but braiding the three portions of hair like a normal crossover braid.
- You can either secure the bottom of the braid with a small elastic band, or with a bobby pin or clip.
- Consider spraying your braid with a small amount of hairspray to keep strands in place.
Tips
- Use bobby pins that match your hair color for a more natural look.
- Make sure you smooth out the strands as you go so that there are no bumps when you finish.
- Also consider working with damp hair, because braids tend to hold better with damp hair.
- Consider creating this braid with unwashed hair. Slightly dirty hair has less "slip" to it, making the braid less likely to have pieces of hair fall out.
- Adding a flower or a ribbon at the bottom of the braid can really make the braid stand out.
- Make sure your hair is barely wet, so you can at least hold it. But do not braid your hair when it is wet like after you take a shower, because if you do, it could damage your hair, making it dry and frizzy.
Things You'll Need
- Wide tooth comb or brush
- Hair tie or bobby pins
- Styling products (optional)
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