Pinchbraid Tutorial

How To Pinchbraid

In case you got to this page from somewhere other than my website: Hi, I'm Rae Deslich of Hair Alchemy. There used to be another of these tutorials somewhere else on the web, but the photos are missing, so I figured I'd fill the absence left by it. If you've got any comments, questions, suggestions, etc, you can email me at Rae@HairAlchemy.com. You can post links to this site at will, but please don't use the text or photos without asking me first. And if you see anyone using them, please let me know.

Starting off: for this demo I used a green costume wig to simulate the client's natural hair, blonde silky as the added extension hair, and thick purple thread as, well, thread. If you were doing this "for real", you'd want to approximately match the thread color to the color of the extension hair. I was just doing the clashy-clashy color scheme so everything would be more visible, and I recommend you do the same the first time you try this. Also, this tutorial requires that you already know how to do synthetic braids. If you don't, check out Quinnster's Hair Pages to learn.

Step 1 As with everything in hair, section and clip neatly before beginning. For most loose extensions, the section should not be any bigger than a square of scalp a half-inch on each side, and can be smaller. Clip down the hair under your extension section; this keeps things far neater.

Step 2 Cut a piece of the thread 6-10 inches long. Place the midpoint of the thread next to the midpoint of the synthetic hair. For this step and the next one, treat the thread and hair as one inseparable strand.

Step 3 This is the part where you have to know how to braid. Place the synthetic hair behind the natural hair, then do a three-way braid with one strand being natural hair and two strands being the two ends of the synthetic hair. Braid for no more than an inch. Note how the purple thread runs all through the braid along with the extension hair. Also, if the braid starts to slip down the hair at any point, you can just grab the strand of natural hair below the braid and shove the braid up, closer to the scalp.

Step 4 Pick the ends of the thread out of the two pieces of extension hair, and leave them out to either side of the braid (one on each side). Let all three strands combine into one.

Step 5 Take each end of string and cross it over the front of the braid, so that they're going in opposite directions. And no, you don't have to do that wierd hand-position shown in the photo. Normally I just pin the braid between my thumb and forefinger, but that would have gotten in the way of the camera.

Step 6 Wrap each bit of thread around the bottom of the braid at least twice (and remember, they're going in opposite directions- one clockwise around the braid, one counter-clockwise).

Step 7 Tie the two ends together in a square knot, giving them a good tug (to tighten the braid) before tying the last knot. Trim off the ends of the thread. Congratulations, you're done! If you're braiding in streaks, do a couple more of these. If you're doing a full head of extensions, do at least a hundred more. And if you're doing Hairpolice-style dreads, take the extension hair you've just braided in (leave the bit of natural hair it was attached to off to one side), and backcomb, twist, and heat-seal it.

Now here's a variation on that. Personally, I haven't had much luck with the method above; sometimes the braids just slide off the natural hair (especially if it's thin, short, or slippery). So I do this instead. You'll want to get pretty good at the steps mentioned above before trying this.

Step 1 Sorry for the blurry photo! But basically, you'll be sectioning the natural hair the same as in the previous Step 1, only this time instead of one strand of natural hair you should have one smaller strand and one bigger strand.

Step 2 You're also holding the extension hair and thread in the same way. When you start the braid, put the extension hair behind the natural hair, only this time, combine that skinny strand of natural hair with one of the strands of extension hair. So you have threee strands, left to right: extension hair, natural hair, and mixed extension/natural hair.

Step 3 As before, braid about an inch down. The thread is still in with the extension hair, it's just camera-shy in this photo. You can also clearly see the mix of fibers in each of the strands in this photo.

Step 4 And again, pick the ends of the thread away from the extension hair. Steps 5, 6, and 7 are exactly the same as they are above. This method holds a lot better (for me, anyway) because it involves crossing two pieces of the client's hair over each other during the braiding. Go ahead and give your new pinchbraid a few tugs; if you braided well enough, you can yank on it and it won't budge.

Thanks for reading!

Step 1	As with everything in hair, section and clip neatly before beginning. For most loose extensions, the section should not be any bigger than a square of scalp a half-inch on each side, and can be smaller. Clip down the hair under your extension section; this keeps things far neater.
Step 2	Cut a piece of the thread 6-10 inches long. Place the midpoint of the thread next to the midpoint of the synthetic hair. For this step and the next one, treat the thread and hair as one inseparable strand.
Step 3	This is the part where you have to know how to braid. Place the synthetic hair behind the natural hair, then do a three-way braid with one strand being natural hair and two strands being the two ends of the synthetic hair. Braid for no more than an inch. Note how the purple thread runs all through the braid along with the extension hair. Also, if the braid starts to slip down the hair at any point, you can just grab the strand of natural hair below the braid and shove the braid up, closer to the scalp.
Step 4	Pick the ends of the thread out of the two pieces of extension hair, and leave them out to either side of the braid (one on each side). Let all three strands combine into one.
Step 5	Take each end of string and cross it over the front of the braid, so that they're going in opposite directions. And no, you don't have to do that wierd hand-position shown in the photo. Normally I just pin the braid between my thumb and forefinger, but that would have gotten in the way of the camera.
Step 6	Wrap each bit of thread around the bottom of the braid at least twice (and remember, they're going in opposite directions- one clockwise around the braid, one counter-clockwise).
Step 7	Tie the two ends together in a square knot, giving them a good tug (to tighten the braid) before tying the last knot. Trim off the ends of the thread. Congratulations, you're done! If you're braiding in streaks, do a couple more of these. If you're doing a full head of extensions, do at least a hundred more. And if you're doing Hairpolice-style dreads, take the extension hair you've just braided in (leave the bit of natural hair it was attached to off to one side), and backcomb, twist, and heat-seal it.

Step 1	Sorry for the blurry photo! But basically, you'll be sectioning the natural hair the same as in the previous Step 1, only this time instead of one strand of natural hair you should have one smaller strand and one bigger strand.
Step 2	You're also holding the extension hair and thread in the same way. When you start the braid, put the extension hair behind the natural hair, only this time, combine that skinny strand of natural hair with one of the strands of extension hair. So you have threee strands, left to right: extension hair, natural hair, and mixed extension/natural hair.
Step 3	As before, braid about an inch down. The thread is still in with the extension hair, it's just camera-shy in this photo. You can also clearly see the mix of fibers in each of the strands in this photo.
Step 4	And again, pick the ends of the thread away from the extension hair. Steps 5, 6, and 7 are exactly the same as they are above. This method holds a lot better (for me, anyway) because it involves crossing two pieces of the client's hair over each other during the braiding. Go ahead and give your new pinchbraid a few tugs; if you braided well enough, you can yank on it and it won't budge.