Waterfall braids can be seen everywhere and seem to be a big trend lately, but unfortunately most of the examples on Pinterest and YouTube appear to be completed on straight or wavy hair. Which is too bad, because for me braids and curls are a perfect match. Moreover, braiding curly hair is a lot easier than braiding straight hair because it tends to hold a braid more easily. The only thing you need to pay attention to is not to pull on your curls too much while braiding.
Keep in mind that braids in naturally curly hair don’t need to be perfectly neat and can be a bit messy. It’s more important to try not to separate your clumps as separating them will cause some frizz. So when you’re adding more curls to your braid, add whole clumps whenever possible.
What you’ll need:
2 bobby pins
That’s it! Have you ever seen a tutorial with so few supplies?
How to waterfall braid:
1. Take a small section from your preferred side of the part line (most people with a side-part like to take the section from the side with more hair”>. Neither your part line, nor the section you take need to be in a perfectly straight line (a privilege of having curly hair!”>.
2. Split the section into three equally smaller sections.
Article continues after video.
3. The beginning of a waterfall braid is just like the one of a normal braid: start braiding by crossing the back section across the middle one.
4. Continue by crossing the front section across the middle one.
5. Add a little bit of hair to the back section before you put it across the middle section. Grab the additional hair from right next to your part line.
6. Instead of crossing the front section across the middle one, let go of the front section. This is how the “waterfall-effect” is created.
7. As you still need three strands to braid, grab new hair from right below the front section you’ve just let go of. Make sure to take about the same amount of hair that was previously in the front section and then cross the new front section across the middle one.
8. Repeat steps 5. -7. as often as you like to. I usually stop when the braid reaches the back of my head (at this point it’s also getting difficult to braid, because you have to rearrange your hands while braiding”>. My last step before finishing the braid is step 7.: letting go of the front braid.
9. Hold on to the other two sections and fix them with two bobby pins. Depending on how thick your waterfall braid is, you might need more bobby pins. To later hide the bobby pins in your curls, pull all of your curls apart right where you need to fix the braid’s end.
10. To hide the bobby pins, put your curls back to where they naturally fall and you are done!
I usually braid only one side, but of course you can also do a second waterfall braid on the other side of your part line, which is what I did in my YouTube video.
Let’s play a game. What do you think of when you hear the word “mousse?” If you’re anything like me, it may bring up associations with crunchy curls, the 80s, and drying alcohols, but you should know that things have changed. Hairstyles, techniques, brands, and product formulas have all evolved since the days of teased, crispy curls. But because we still get flashbacks when we pick up a bottle of mousse, we spoke with a few curly hair experts about when to use mousse, who should be using mousse today – and who shouldn’t.
Why use a mousse?
Brooke Michie, curl stylist and owner of Lyric Salon in Austin, Texas, first made me reconsider mousse when she used it in Grace’s wavy hair transformation. She loves using mousse on her curly haired clients because it’s “easy to apply, economical per use, has buildable coverage and hold, and can be layered with so many other types of products.”
Maya Smith, International Master of Natural Curls and founder of The Doux®, a haircare line she created specifically for naturally curly hair, says mousse can be used for “any style that requires definition and light hold. It can be used not only to set wash & go’s, but for twist outs and rod sets as well.”
As I’ve been starting to experiment with mousse more, I’ve wondered if I can use it on my dry hair as a refresher on second-day hair. According to Maya, “Mousse is best applied to wet hair for Wash & Go styling, but it can also be used to set a dry twist-out and to redefine the curl pattern. I wouldn’t recommend using it to replenish moisture on next-day hair.”
What causes that crunch?
Maya says, “It’s common for mousse to be combined with gel or cream because most mousse on the market contain alcohol to make the hair dry faster. They are also polymer-rich, which creates a sticky coating on the hair, much like a hairspray. This can leave hair feeling dry and stiff. We formulated our Mousse Def as an all-in-one solution for this problem. It creates the shine and definition of a mousse, yet leaves hair soft and touchable with no flaking.”
Maya recommends watching out for ingredients such as sodium laurel sulfate (SLS, Isopropyl, and Prolyene, which “have been found to cause breakage and dry out your hair). The best way to achieve healthy hair is to have that balance between protein and moisture.”
Brooke says it depends on the mousse, “lightweight, airy mousse or foam is great for wavy hair. Denser mousse is great for 2s and 3s and as a thin layer of added hold for more definition over a moisture foundation for well-hydrated 4s even!” For Maya, it depends on the hairstyle: “I recommend mousse for hair up to Type 4B, depending on the desired results.”
But before you rule mousse out for your Type 4C coils, Gerilyn Hayes, NaturallyCurly Senior Copywriter, loves using mousse on her 4C wash and go (like Camille Rose Spiked Honey Mousse). “I use about 5-6 pumps of mousse in my hair after shampooing and conditioning. I do this because I want to make sure that I’m starting with a clean scalp and curls that are free from any other previous products. And because my curls are very coarse and need lots of hydration, I make sure that my curls are soaked with water (which is why the shower is great for applying mousse to my hair).
To avoid product and water getting into my eyes, I flip my head over and scrunch my curls’ ends to my scalp. Although I do not have a lot of length, I still use this ends-to-root scrunching method to get the optimal curl definition. Sometimes I rake the mousse through my curls and then wrap them in a scarf, giving them more shine. Although rake versus scrunching may look similar to any onlooker, the textural differences are apparent to me!”
Who shouldn’t use mousse?
“Curls with moisture as the number one priority,” says Brooke, “or those who don’t need a product with general hold, but seek more of a product/product combo to hydrate than seal.” So if your curls are thirsty and your top priority is moisture, then you may want to opt for something like the LOC Method, which layers a leave-in for moisture, an oil to seal in the moisture, and then a cream for hold.
When to use mousse
Brooke prefers “the lightest weight mousse (she loves Bread Beauty Supply Hair Foam) in wavy hair for primary, general hold,” and this is how she recommends applying it:
On freshly rinsed detangled hair in the shower, glaze a small amount over the surface area of the hair.
Then flip and glaze another small amount over the underneath surface area.
Then, apply the majority of it via scrunching and distribute it in your palms, making sure not to flatten the airiness of the foam.
Before scrunching the ends of the hair up toward the scalp with a flat palm into a clenched fist motion, rotating your head to reach curls on either side.
Once a leave-in or moisture foundation is either combed through or scrunched in sopping wet hair.
Then add a little denser mousse by finger combing detangled sections, or for longer curls, scrunching as above.
“This will create a cast of hold,” says Brooke, but before you worry about the crunch, remember you need to break that cast by scrunching out the crunch. “Release the cast once hair is fully dry by touching curls gently, or scrunching once more to release the wet-looking hold that was necessary during the drying process to maximize definition.”
OUR EDITORS INDEPENDENTLY SELECT ALL PRODUCTS FEATURED ON NATURALLYCURLY. HOWEVER, WE MAY EARN AN AFFILIATE COMMISSION WHEN YOU BUY SOMETHING THROUGH OUR RETAIL LINKS.
