French and Fishtail Plaits

These two plaits are simple to style once you have the hang of it, it just needs a lot of practice and patience. I thought i would blog about them as they differ from your normal plait and add a bit on interest to your hair due to their complex appearance. (not complex to style)


1. French Plait

French plaits are pretty much a normal plait except they are 'more attached to the head'. In my opinion this one is harder to style than the fishtail but you may disagree. You can use french plaits anywhere on the head, i.e- could have them coming from the side, straight down the back, or even just the fringe. (depending on length of hair) Short layered hair will obviously not go into a french plait, so you do need a bit of length, and having layers can cause more difficulty as shorter bits may stick out and cause the plait to look messy or uneven.

This plait is just done straight down the back, and to start, brush your hair so that its scraped back. If you have a fringe and want to leave it down, then do, and just scrape back the rest of your hair. Take a small section from the front and start plaiting that as you normally would do with a normal plait. Only cross over the strands ONCE each, and when you come to cross over the strands again, add a bit of hair from the next section and keep joining sections of hair whilst plaiting. On the side view photo you can see how the different sections are woven into the plait. French plaiting is just a normal plait but adding more sections of hair each time you cross over the strands. Once you get to the bottom, you can just normal plait until the ends of your hair and secure with a hairband. 

The exact same process applies for wherever you want the plait to be, just scrape your hair in the direction you want the plait in.

2. Fishtail

The difference with a fishtail is that it only really uses 2 strands of hair, rather than your usual 3. Again you can have a fishtail plait at the back of your head or to the side. To start, divide your hair into two sections. Then take a small piece of hair from the back of one of the sections, and cross it over to the other section. Hold in place. Then take a small piece from the opposite section (again at the back) and cross over to the other section. This plait gets easier the further down the hair you get as it can be fiddly to get it tight and neat at the top. Carry on crossing over your sections until you have no hair left to cross. If you take bigger sections whilst crossing over you end up with a different looking plait than you would with small. Either way works, it's just down to personal taste!

- As this is fairly difficult to explain over text, i may put up a youtube video demonstrating the processes. Information on how to find it will be in my next blog post if i choose to film.