African Braids Hairstyles for Women

There is something sophisticated and simplistic about African braids hairstyles for women and if you want to celebrate your African heritage on a daily basis or for a special occasion such as a wedding or graduation party, braided hairstyles are the way to go. Your stylist can help you choose the right braided style for your facial structure and personal preference.

Braided Hairstyles for Black Women

Microbraids

These are popular braided hairstyles for black women and they are easy to maintain. If you have naturally long hair, then you can part your hair in sections and put the hair in very tiny braids. However, if your hair is shorter, you can visit the stylist and he can put a weave in so that you will have long microbraids.

Partial Cornrows

Cornrows can be styled in a variety of ways and you don’t have to wear all of hair in cornrows because you can wear partial cornrows. Some women wear their cornrows with loose hair near the bottom while other women wear their cornrows with a large bun at the bottom. Accessorize the bottom of the cornrow with a hairpin.

Half Basket Weave

To create this beautiful hairstyle, you would first part your hair at the top then braid the remaining hair. After you do this you would weave these braids into each other and you have the half basket weave. This is a simple hairstyle that can be worn to work, church services, on campus and to social events.

Twists

This is a great choice for professional black women with medium-length or short hair. To style your twists, you want to wash your hair and then let it air dry for thirty minutes. After you do this, you need to put some styling gel in your hair and wrap sections of the hair around each other and twist them tightly. After a few weeks the twists will develop a shape.

Braided Bun

A braided bun is an ideal hairstyle for women who are going swimming and who do not want to deal with a hairstyle that will easily get messed up while in the pool. To create the braided bun, you would just braid your hair into the scalp across the top of your hair and at the top of the hair you can place a colorful cloth headband.

Double Strand Twists

With this hairstyle, you are parting your hair in two large sections and then you twist each section. You take the sections you twisted and combine them to create one large twist. This is a good hairstyle to wear if you are having a bad hair day and cannot get to the hairdresser for the next week or so.

Benefits of Wearing Braided Hairstyles

Aside from them being low maintenance, there are other reasons why black women benefit from braided styles. When they wear braids they use less heat on their hair and this is good news since too much heat on the hair could cause damage to it. Another benefit of wearing braided hairstyles is that you can style them in diverse ways.

Braids look classy and they can also look playful depending on how you style them. If the stylist gave you braids , ask her for suggestions on how you can keep them fresh until you visit the stylist again. It is also important that you wash your scalp every few weeks while wearing the braids and keep the scalp and braids moisturized. You want to get the braids restyled every few weeks so they can look neat.