Braid Guide for Beginners – 3 Braids with zero experience!
A complete 3-in-1 braid guide you can follow step by step to master braiding your own hair as a person with ZERO braiding experience!
If you’ve ever watched someone braid hair effortlessly and thought, “My hands just don’t work like that”, you’re not alone, but also remember that those people have had a lot of practice.
Braiding can feel very hard, overwhelming, and even a little stressing, especially if you’ve never done it before.
This is not a “quick tutorial” that skips steps or assumes you already know the basics. This braid guide is designed for absolute beginners, people who can’t braid at all, have zero experience, or feel like their fingers get tangled every time they try.
In this 3-in-1 braid guide, I show everything directly on myself so you can follow along in your own hair, at your own pace (You might need to slow down the video if its too fast, or watch it a few times before starting).
This is what you will learn
When you have followed this video, maybe a few times, you will have learn the following
- How to do a basic 3-strand braid
- How to do a French braid
- How to do a Dutch braid
- Hand-placements in all 3 braids – (you don’t have to follow what I show in the video, that is just the way I do it)
This is why the order of braid matters
I would recommend to stay with one braid until you got the technique down and then move onto the next one. These braids are connected technique wise and that why learning them in this order matters!
You need to start with the 3-strand braid as it’s the foundation for everything else. A French braid uses the same basic technique, just with a few extra steps, so once you feel comfortable with a 3-strand braid, learning a French braid becomes much easier. And when you understand the French braid technique, the Dutch braid will be very simple to learn too!
No experience needed!
You don’t need to know anything about braiding before you start learning these braids, this is braids with zero experience! This guide is made for complete beginners, even if you’ve never braided hair in your life.
If your hands feel clumsy, if you don’t know where to place your fingers, or if you’ve tried before and given up, you’re in the right place. Every step is shown slowly and clearly, so you can follow along in your own hair.
Ugly braid at first but the right technique!
Let’s be honest, your first braid might not look pretty and you might be really bad at it, and that is completely fine!
When you’re learning how to braid, especially for the first time, your focus should not be on how the braid looks, it should be on getting the technique down! A braid that looks messy but uses the right technique is a great braid!
In the beginning, your hands are learning a brand-new pattern. They’re figuring out where each strand goes, how much tension to use, and how to move without dropping sections. That learning phase almost always looks a little… ugly – and that’s normal + you are doing this on the back of your head, so give yourself a bit of grace!
Freshly Washed or 2-Day Hair?
One of the most common beginner questions is whether it’s better to braid freshly washed hair or hair that’s a day or two old. The short answer? Both work, but they feel different.
If you’re just starting out, 2-day hair is usually easier to braid. Hair that hasn’t just been washed has a bit more grip, which helps the strands stay in place while your hands are learning the movements. It’s less slippery and more forgiving if you lose tension or pause mid-braid.
Freshly washed hair can be braided too, but it tends to be softer and smoother. For beginners, this can make sections slide out of your fingers more easily, which can feel frustrating at first.
If you are working with fresh hair, then you can add a texturing spray or powder to give the hair a bit og grip! This is what I normally do as my second day hair is a greasy mess!
Try both ways and figure out which way you like the best.
When everything goes wrong
There will be moments when your hands forget what to do, your arms get tired, and the braid just… falls apart. Strands slip out, sections get mixed up, and suddenly nothing looks like it did 10 seconds ago.
Take a breath. This is normal. It happens to me all the time when I started out (tbh it still happens, I just cut that out of the videos), and sometimes I give up and ends up with a claw clip or a bun instead.
Learning how to braid is not a straight line. Some days it clicks, and other days it feels like you’ve never braided before in your life. That doesn’t mean you’re getting worse, it means your brain and hands are still learning how to work together.
This post was all about how to braid your own hair and learn 3 braids with zero experience!
