The half braid (it takes half the time!)

I’ve been playing around with more ways to wear your hair out but off your face. I mean who wants to be brushing hair out of their eyes all day?

This hairstyle is sort of a cheat as it’s braided but only half way, so it takes half the time to do. Winner!

If you’re just learning to braid, you’ll also love this style. We all have a dominant side when we style our hair. I mean, one side always looks better than the other when I curl or braid my hair.

With this half braid, play to your strengths and braid on your good side. You don’t even need to worry about the other side. It’s really simple to do.

The Half Braid Hairstyle Tutorial

What you need:

• Brush
• Small hair elastic

Step-by-step:

1. Brush your hair to remove any knots and part your hair on the right.
2. Start your braid next to your part. Take a small section of hair and split it into three. We’re doing a Dutch braid which means you cross the left section under the middle, then the right under the left. Add some hair to the next section and cross that under the middle.
3. Continue the Dutch braid to your ear. Follow your hairline , adding in hair to both sides of your braid until just above your ear.
4. Finish in a normal braid. Curve your braid around and stopping adding in hair to finish in a normal braid (plait).
5. Link at the back. Take a piece of hair from the right side of your hairline (around your temple) and combine it at the back with your braid. Secure it with a small clear elastic.
6. As always, I like to stretch out the braid a little, but that’s it!

Styling Tips

• Left or right – My tutorial is for a braid to the left but you can easily swap this to the right if that is easier or suits you better.
• Angle your braid – The secret to getting the braid to set well at the back of your head is to braid in the direction that you want it to sit. If you braid down, it will sit funny when you pull it back.
• Cover your ear – I like to leave some hair loose over my ear so I started to curve the braid just before I reached my ear. Work out what suits you and customise your braid to suit your features.

I love these half-up half-down styles at the moment, and I’d wear this any day but I think this could make a gorgeous wedding or bridesmaid hairstyle too. What do you think?