# Do you know how to braid? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 7, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260 "2013-09-07T17:43:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/1 "2013-09-07T17:43:58Z")
The other weekend I was busy in the kitchen and my long hair kept getting in the way. It was too much trouble to clean my hands in order to braid it, so I plopped down next to my husband and asked him to braid my hair for me. He had no idea how! After a little instruction he managed the worst braid I’ve ever seen, but it kept together enough for as long as I needed it. I thought it was weird that he didn’t know how, since I think of braiding as a useful life skill the same way I think of knowing how to tie a square knot. Braiding isn’t only for hair. However, that made me think. Maybe it isn’t as prevalent as I think? Maybe it’s just a skill women with long hair are most likely to have? So tell me! Do you know how to braid? Nothing fancy required, just the simple three-piece plait. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/2 "2013-09-07T18:09:33Z")
Yeah, men don’t know how to braid unless they are really into ropes. Or fancy bread, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/3 "2013-09-07T18:13:28Z")
I’m a guy, and I can braid rope or leather quite nicely. Hair is another thing entirely. It keeps escaping into the other strands. ---
**Author:** ![papergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/4 "2013-09-07T18:22:20Z")
I’m a woman who grew up with long hair, a beautician mother, and a lot of friends to practice on. I can do more braids than you can find on pinterest, even! ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/5 "2013-09-07T18:30:10Z")
I am a woman and I put down that I know how to braid, but the truth is that I can’t do it very well. Even when I had long hair and got regular practice, I sucked at it. So I’d either get someone else to do it for me or I would go without a braid all together. I haven’t braided anything in ages, so I’m certain I have forgotten how to do it. But I’d figure it out eventually. Braiding takes a lot of practice and something else. Visual spatial and fine motor skills, maybe? I don’t know. I also had a hard time learning how to tie my shoes as a kid, so no one should have been shocked when all my pigtails came out crooked. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/6 "2013-09-07T18:38:45Z")
I’m a woman with long hair and can’t braid it. I technically understand how it ought to work, and with a lot of effort can make a horrible braid in someone else’s hair, but no way in hell can I do my own. I’ve tried and tried and am resigned to using ponytails and such instead. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/7 "2013-09-07T19:05:29Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Yeah, men don’t know how to braid unless they are really into ropes. Or fancy bread, I guess. I learned it through building Tamiya educational kits, many of which were wired remote control models [like these](http://www.tamiyausa.com/items/geniuseries-educational-kits-50/educational-construction-38000/remote-controlled-bulldozer-70104). Except in my day, these kits didn’t come with multi-wire cable bundles. They came with loose wires and instructions on how to braid them. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/8 "2013-09-07T19:11:33Z")
I can do a basic braid and I do almost every day. I would love to figure out french-braiding but it’s like Chinese to me. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/9 "2013-09-07T19:30:35Z")
I’m assuming by “know how to braid” you mean braid someone else’s hair? Trying to braid _my own_ hair, if it were long enough, would be a whole 'nuther problem. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/10 "2013-09-07T19:51:18Z")
[There](http://imgur.com/r/funny/8htxfK6). Am I doing it right? ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/11 "2013-09-07T20:10:15Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > I’m assuming by “know how to braid” you mean braid someone else’s hair? Trying to braid _my own_ hair, if it were long enough, would be a whole 'nuther problem. I’m just talking about knowing how to braid…at all. That you’ve got three pieces, then the outer right one goes in the middle, then the outer left one goes in the middle, then repeat from beginning. If you can’t braid well, but understand what you should be doing without instruction, that counts. Like if someone gave you three pieces of string and asked you to braid them as opposed to having to deal with a multitude of hair strands. My husband had absolutely no idea at all. So far it looks like he was the weirdo! ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/12 "2013-09-07T20:32:08Z")
In Australia, what an American would call a braid is known as a “plait.” We use the term braid to refer to what Americans call a French braid, or would use in conjunction with other specific terms, e.g., fishtail braid. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/13 "2013-09-07T20:32:51Z")
I can braid a cord. Or a bread. Never tried with hair. My wife’s is short and curly. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/14 "2013-09-07T20:36:09Z")
My husband is a Navy veteran, so I figured he knew how to do anything involving cords or ropes, but I had to teach him to braid. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/15 "2013-09-07T20:57:19Z")
I’m a guy. I can braid cordage or whatever, and I’m fussy enough that I can do macrome well, but one time my wife asked me to braid her hair, I failed. It takes a while to learn a few tricks about how best to get started, holding the hair, dividing it into the right sized parts, and doing the first few braids. It’s a bit of a balancing act. Once started, it’s easy to finish (but even then, it’s harder than cordage, because hair sorta leaks out and you need to thread it back in, and hair isn’t all the same length. As simple as it may seem to someone who’s done it all her life, it’s really not that simple. Anyway, I voted that I know how to braid, even though I don’t know how well enough to do my wife’s hair. (Her hands were dirty, probably same situation as yours. It was easier to go inside and wash up than to sit through my false starts.) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/16 "2013-09-07T21:24:44Z")
Yes, I know how to braid. The only time I’ve braided hair, though, was to transform my partner’s pony tail into a braid. The results weren’t perfect, but passable. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/17 "2013-09-07T21:26:25Z")
When Princess Pepperwinkle was a little girl she had hair that flowed all the way down to her knees. Madame P. and I took turns braiding it. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/18 "2013-09-07T21:51:39Z")
No human male knows how to braid hair. Not even Big Gay Al-level gay ones. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/19 "2013-09-07T22:07:52Z")
There are males who know how to braid hair. Every widowed movie father with a daughter in grade school braids her hair. It’s not as good as Mommy does. At least the first time. I have met, in reality a few dads who can do a passable “keep your hair out of the paint” braid. They aren’t making wedding ready up-dos. And I know guys who’ve made bracelets like [this one](http://www.funexpressvillage.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/s/a/sailor_knot_tan.jpg). I don’t think braiding is something NO men can do. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260/20 "2013-09-07T22:15:17Z")
I’m a guy, and I know how to braid… But, ah, I’m not completely clear on how to finish it. Is there an “end knot” or do you just use a rubber band? (I learned braiding in third grade, with a cute girl who showed me how it worked. Nice and mathematical!) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-how-to-braid/668260.md?page=2)